BS Comes Out At Night

I've mentioned this before but I'm going to repeat it. I hate getting up at night for BS. I know, I know. It's part and parcel of the profession I chose so I shouldn't be whining. I don't care. I get to complain on my blog.

The other night we had to get up a couple of times, just spaced apart enough that it really destroyed a large chunk of the night. The first call came in around 0030 for a woman with back pain. I've always been very aggressive about pain management but even more so after my bout with gall stones. Pain sucks. Still, preliminaries on my BS meter were rather high. Turns out that our patient was actually having moderate back pain. It was a chronic condition for which she regularly took pain medication. Two weeks ago my patient ran out of her prescription pain meds and hadn't bothered to refill it. So she waits two weeks and then, at half past midnight, decides to call 911. Not because the pain had dramatically worsened. No, that would be a cause for concern. She just wanted to go get her prescription refilled.

Lady! You waited 2 weeks, you could at least wait another 7 hours. Of course I didn't say it....at least not to her. Maybe she'll read this blog someday.

So after getting back to the station and back to sleep, another wonderful person in need called for us. This time it was an 85 year old man that had recently undergone cataract surgery. He his eye felt "stupid" and "wierd." He said he had felt this way all afternoon and evening. Once the ambulance arrived he got up and walked downstairs to the rig.

I'm glad we could be there for him, at 0200, when he finally decided that the thing that had been bothering him all day was now an emergency.