Back to it.

Well I had a little time off away from the blue and red flashing lights and it was good - I have decided holidays are very nice and there should be more of them. Its amazing how you think you are doing just fine at work until your holidays are due and then suddenly the week before annual leave, it dawns on you just how tired you really are.

I was tired - that cumulative tired that can't be fixed by one good nights sleep. I wasn't waking in the middle of the night with dreams of people chasing me down the street, waving their pension cards or anything, (although that was a reoccurring dream last year) I was just getting grumpy on nightshift and running a little low on empathy, sympathy, patience and all the good stuff.

The batteries are now recharged and I leapt* back into work feeling like new. By that I mean I felt good but I also felt like I was a new student again. I couldn't remember all my routine questions and found I was stumbling around for the first few days. It's all coming back to me slowly.

Mostly normal stuff since I got back. A few jobs stood out:

The pissed young moron on his way home from the pub who had been kicking the glass walls of each bus stop as he passed until it broke - eventually his vandalism spree was halted when he got his foot stuck in a trellis fence that he tried to Kung Fu kick as he went past. Lots of pain, a little blood and a very tired left leg from trying to hold himself upright until we got there and freed his other leg. Very very funny.

An old fella standing on the street with a beer in his hand who calmly said his heart was playing up. He was placed on our cardiac monitor only to find his heart was romping along at about 160 bpm. Add to that the fact that he had aching central chest pain and he was sweaty and pale and it was; Off to hospital for you sir. His response: "Can I Finish me beer?".

The old woman who said she hadn't left the house in 3 years - who took so long to get organised to go to hospital that I thought we were going to be there for 3 years as well.
Get me this, lock that up, no - not that one!, what are you stupid?, put the dog out, turn that light off, I want the other nightie, I'm not leaving yet, call my daughter etc etc... Oh and for those of you that think you should be able to exercise a little scene control and say don't worry about all that, let's just go to hospital - just try it with a stubborn old irish lady with a short fuse. She was leaving on her terms or not at all.

* That's for you KimtheVet :)