On the other side of the fence...

Well, what a fun Saturday night I had!! I'd planned to go to the cinema with my friend while he was back from uni for the weekend, we were going to see Fred Claus to get ourselves in the Christmas spirit - even my very cute Christmas tree in the corner of my room fails to make me Christmassy, I have no idea why! Then I was going to get very drunk in Wetherspoons with my other friend, but my flatmate decided she was going to be ill, so being the very caring person that I am I cancelled my plans and looked after her.

We were driving back from town at about 3.30pm and she made me pull over so she could throw up. She did that again on the way back, and even went blue round the lips so I tucked her up in bed. When she threw up twice more and shivered uncontrollably I phoned NHS Direct. As soon as I mentioned the fact that she'd gone blue earlier the call-taker told me to phone 999. I was reluctant to do that, because I didn't think we'd be taken seriously, and also my friend refused to let me. Then she threw up again so I phoned anyway. Vomiting once or twice can be normal, but she'd been sick five times! A single responder came five minutes later (well within the ORCON time!) and he was concerned enough to persuade her to go in. I followed in the car, which I felt guilty about because it would have been just as easy to take her in the car myself. I offered, but the paramedic said it would be better for her to go with him so he could keep an eye on her. They were short on ambulances (not surprising on a Saturday night!) so she went in the paramedic's car.
We were taken straight to a cubicle when we got there, and she had an ECG tracing. The nurse hurried out of the room with it, which worried me, but apparently it was OK. After four and a half hours of trying not to go insane staring at the same four walls, the doctor finally came and discharged her. They put it down to hyperacidity, because she had an acidic taste in her mouth, but we weren't convinced.

She was no better by this morning, and had been sick several more times through the night, so I almost had to forcibly drag her down to the hospital to see the out of hours doctor. The GP gave her a prescription to stop the vomiting and (touch wood) she's been on the mend ever since.

So there you go - I spent the week learning how to answer 999 calls, and end up making one at the weekend! It was funny being given the PDIs (post-dispatch instructions) and being given the standard "I'm going to ask a few more questions, but they won't delay any assistance," line - I could have saved the poor EMD the bother!

I take my first live call on Thursday, I hope I get a nice easy call like that, rather than a CPR attempt!