I’m going to owe chicken tax so badly in arrears, and it might be a bit in coming... I have thrown my back right out today and can barely walk (even after taking some of my heavy duty pain meds). That, and this
reminds me of 2014, SARS, the first time I threw it out badly, and then the October incident. Due to DH’s heart condition, we were frequent riders with the local ambulance service (Thank God we live in Canada... with heath care and we had extended insurance coverage that reimbursed for several ambulances each year!). Also thanks the the changes to his heart (modifies Fontan surgery) his ECG readouts are sort of backwards/upside down, and it has a very odd wheezing thumping sound. After several call outs, we started getting paramedics with trainees on board, regularly. There is a drug that can be injected intravenously with a large quantity of saline that can have a similar result as electrocardioversion (zapping his heart back into line when it acts up) and one Night in October they decided to maybe try that again. It has never worked for him before, but hey, no harm in letting them try? The trainee missed his vein, and poor Andrew ended up with an arm full of saline! Think Popeye forearm... the trainee was mortified. They tried again on the other arm and it actually worked. He still had to go to hospital to make sure he hadn’t damaged his heart further, but I got to go back to bed.
My trainee experience was less dramatic, but equally painful. If I didn’t mind, could she practice and put an iv in me? They might even use it for meds or liquids or such. I was already on a gas tank for the pain and a little loopy, why not? Well a good reason not to was being used repeatedly as a pincushion! I think she finally got it in after five or six attempts... my arms (both) were bruised for days afterward.
