The grass is greener here too
Posted on Saturday 20th June 2009
Both metaphorically and literally.
Over the past month or so, I have been in a bit of a slump at work. Many of the jobs we do are interesting both in terms of clinical and logistical aspects. It also has seen us travel to some diverse parts of the state. Unfortunately this has not been the case lately and, while my caseload has stayed high, I have been stuck with a lot of what we call “milk runs”. This refers to a job that is unchallenging clinically, sees us go somewhere uninteresting (like a metro hospital) and not have to do any interventions. While they get us out of the building, and are better than sitting around, they offer no satisfaction.
The last couple of the days have seen a change in fortune, one of the fickle aspects of retrieval medicine. I have had to handle a few difficult airway cases and today got to fly to the roadside again. These cases are always rather unfortunate as some poor sod has to be badly injured for us to get our “good” mission. Today’s was no exception with another motorcyclist dying in an accident at Yundi, and us having to transport his battered and bruised mate to the Flinders Medical Centre. It is a strange dichotomy, that in order for us to have interesting and challenging work, some unfortunate person has to be severely unwell or badly injured.
Just to cover the title and tagline. In amongst the tragedy of death and destruction, we noticed that the recent rains have greened the Fleurieu Peninsula to resemble the rolling Leicester countryside we left to come here. Always trying to see some good even in the worst of situations.
I am yet to see you at our Metropolitan hospital RIck. Hell even if it is less challenging it would be nice to catch up! Are you sure you work with the retrieval service. In 5 months I have only seen 1 person I know on mediflight!
As for the green, last weekend involved a trip to Morgan – I was lovely to see the hills and paddocks green again, however the pessimist in me wonders what this will mean for our workload in Bushfire season! Always a flipside – for now I will revell in the lushness that is SA countryside.
Study hard buddy!