Quiet Day and Ice Cream

Today was a relatively quiet day. It was David, Emily and I at the Akko station. This was the first time I had worked with David and he certainly brings the party with him and kept us awake this morning. Emily also brought her laptop and she played some tunes while we waited for our first calls which also helped the conscience level of us all. I was going to be on the Ragil with Anas and Shoki (I'm not sure how well I've translated these names but I try).

Our first call was relatively late in the shift. We were off to transport a patient from her house to the hospital because she had been getting sick. I was able to take blood pressure and pulse on the ambulance. It is hard to hear for the blood pressure on an ambulance. Well actually it is hard in general to hear sometimes. But I've worked on trying it again and then using what's called palpation, where you use the radial pulse to find the systolic pressure. You find the radial pulse and inflate the blood pressure cuff past where you can't feel the pulse and then let out the pressure until the pulse comes back and that is the systolic pressure. Much easier to find on a moving ambulance when you are starting out.

The next call was a new one, we were to drop off the deposit of all the money people had paid for their ambulance service. We were still on call if there was an emergency but we made a stop at the bank, then the post office and finally for ice cream at this ice cream store that had a huge selection. I asked for the ice cream stop and said ani koneh (I buy) but Shoki insisted on buying anyways.

Our last call for the day was a patient with a CVA, I've forgotten what that stands for now but Anas explained it as the patient was in danger of having a rupture in the blood vessels in his brain. We quickly evacuated him to the hospital and made it back to the station just in time to be done with our shift.

Now for the last night of the Karmi'el dance festival.