Hey Shaf (and any others on the front line)

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Borderer
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Hey Shaf (and any others on the front line)

Post by Borderer »

How are things going for the front-liners amongst us? How are your hospitals/care homes etc coping? Do you all have all you need?
redefined_cycles
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Re: Hey Shaf (and any others on the front line)

Post by redefined_cycles »

Messaged ya...
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ballibeg
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Re: Hey Shaf (and any others on the front line)

Post by ballibeg »

All good in my neck of woods. Lockdown looks to have been very effective. Bit of concern as to where our usual work has gone though. Plenty of PPE on our ambulances and staff absences still being covered. Yes it's tough, every job is more complicated now but we're still smiling.

Dave
Paramedic
redefined_cycles
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Re: Hey Shaf (and any others on the front line)

Post by redefined_cycles »

ballibeg wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2020 2:11 pm All good in my neck of woods. Lockdown looks to have been very effective. Bit of concern as to where our usual work has gone though. Plenty of PPE on our ambulances and staff absences still being covered. Yes it's tough, every job is more complicated now but we're still smiling.

Dave
Paramedic
Well done Dave... Same with our lot. Finishing work about an hour later (maybe just me cos of my dyslexia... or maybe am just a bit thick). Patients are super sick though on the ICU and what you said about 'usual work'... I heard an Outreach nurse say a similar thing at one of the hospitals I was at once covering a shift... Well done Dave, everyone knows its you guys and A&E that are the proper heros :-bd
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ballibeg
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Re: Hey Shaf (and any others on the front line)

Post by ballibeg »

Thanks but remember I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants. Someone got out of bed for me to fuel up in early hours this morning. My microwave meal was on the shelf in the coop and the staff had the store open to sell it to me. Someone got the power back on in the station so I could cook it.

So many folk are pulling together right now it's wonderful. I hope the camaraderie continues and we don't return to the old ways.

😉👍🏻
redefined_cycles
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Re: Hey Shaf (and any others on the front line)

Post by redefined_cycles »

Again.. Amazingly said mate. To add to that list..

I started selling bits for my own respirator (well worth it) and paid above the odds (there's a supply demand issue so potentially I bought the only new one still available off an ebay trade seller) but in the menawhile the folk off of here also fundraised about £2k which has gone to the hospitals ICU for when the airPowered ones become available again. There's another chap (Alasdair) who decided to sell his pride/joy Ti Stooge bike for the same cause...

Whilst that went on Al (of Escape Goat fame) sent me a spare light bracket and Nige (of Johnny Storm fame) gifted me some shoes which have Danny Macs siganture on em so make me able to ride curbs on my days off... Whilst that all went on, another chap called Ben gifted me a military grade backpack to carry my kit in.

Bloomin marvellous along with all the other people reallly making things run smoothly as you stated above and many more. Well done everyone but wanted to really mention them names above cos they really took the pressure off a lot :-bd

[Edit] Soz if I missed anyone.. you all know who you are including Stu and MactheKnife and everyone else... :smile:
redefined_cycles
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Re: Hey Shaf (and any others on the front line)

Post by redefined_cycles »

Just a quick update as I'm pretty sure noone can threaten me with wanting to report me to the NMC :???:

So I'm an agency nurse part timer (about 20 hours permanent and a shift or 2 on agency).

Have noticed the work drying up but thats probably cos the Trusts are figuring out their long term strategy and managing to use the staff they've already got and been redeployed more efficiently. Not complaning as it means I dont need to feel guilty for not taking on shifts and being bombarded with phone calls (not that it happens with my agency mind you).

Thats my backstory so you can understand that there's no chance of any affiliation to a specific NHS Trust in the aforementioned... Been travelling alot - my usual range is about 100 to 200 miles but thats only cos I like driving and my agency covers fuel but during the crisis I've resteicted myself to 100 miles so am not a cause of any spread as such* - as I felt it's the right thing to do to ease pressure. Have not tried to do too much OT as we have 4 kids between us (1 estranged to us and 2 stepchildren... one hers and the other mine).

So the first few weeks it did look pretty crap and stressful. At my regular place of work as well as other units across the wider region. Was rather sad...

Anyway, to cut a long one short. In the last week I've seen 2 patients who looked like death only a week before. One that I'd seen before a few times (young lady in her 30s with Asthma and mild obesity) on my travels and another chap (high blood pressure and type 2 but insulin dependent diabetes) in his 50s. Both have/had been ventilated for almost 3 full weeks (thats a rather long time for continuing ventilation and had the influx veen alot faster and even greater I'm not sure such management could have continued... but I don't know... I'm not a doc, just a lowly cyclist ex bus driver and B&Q worker) so havr been literally to deaths door.

The lady (everyone couldn't help but say high whilst walking past her and she gave you the cutest smile and response back) went to the ward yesterday and had veen eating prior to that. Frim what I could see she'd also veen making her own decisions and communicating well.

The gent who I saw midweek was talking and making his own decisions, able to use his upper body strength as well as trying to use legs to shuffle up bed and oxygen was down to room air level (fluctuating between 21 and 23%). Still on the ventilator but only a matter of days I'd imagine before the dropped that down to a standard mode of breathing (non ventilator). He'd been on ICU so long and with such high O2 requirementa that he'd been proned at least 3 times over the 3 weeks and had a tracheostomy done (to breath straight via the neck to relieve the burden on his mouth) on the 16th IIRC. Able to communicate but not get his words out just yet (various factors) so was eother mouthing his words or writing em down.

So bloomin wonderful to see that. I also asked one or 2 of the consultants during my travels about how long they're giving on average before deciding the patient wasn't doing well at all and the answer was 3 weeks (I reckon I've actually seen slightly longer but can't be sure as not kept track as such).

Hopefully that might bring a smile to some as without the measures and self restraint I'm not sure places would have coped as they have been doing. For the record, I have seen 1 nurse managing 2 ICU patients and heard straight from the horses mouth how they'd actually managed 3 and 4 patients (with junior support) on ventilators at certain times.

As you might appreciate, I won't be taking questions if thats ok, in case I mistakenly go over the 'maintain privacy and confidentiality' line at any point. Plus it stops me from trying/pretending to be a pandemic expert... I'm not but I could guesstimate that the measures DO SEEM to be working and I've seen far more poeple survive now than have seen deaths :smile: Another thing I just recalled is that the chap mentioned actually had a cardiac arrest in the specific A&E he'd been brought to during admission. It was due to the extremely low levels of oxygen in his blood. Proper poorly man and a proper (IMO) success story... erm... well done Boris :o am I allowed to say that... I do hate that man btw the racist t********t

*I wipe down everything after a shift and even my shoes are ankle high abd laminated/waterproof so get a good wash prior to leaving shift. Uniform is scrubs (under) and PPE over. So everthing either gets binned before leaving the actual 'poorly people' section or sent for washing in special bags after getting changed/washed proper...
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