The last night shift. Fortunatly things had calmed down a bit and we were just busy rather than stupid, smoking tyres, dehydrated and hungry busy.

Theres been a slightly disturbing run of jobs involving things, erm- below the belt line. If you get my drift. I won't go into details but will just say that there are some things man is not meant to see.

Anyway. Last night, or rather early this morning, we were hot footing it into the dark and rainy country side to a woman who had alzheimers and had pressed her emergency button saying she was in pain. Living on her own she was obviously in discomfort but other than that we had no idea.

The information we got was that she had dementia, was deaf, poor mobility and was catheterised. No clue but it would be a challenge.

We got there, let our selves in making lots of noise and turning on lights. I've found its the best way. The last thing that an old dear who isn't feeling very good needs is to see me suddenly loom over her out of the dark. After all we are supposed to make people feel better.

She was in the front room, in bed. We asked what was wrong and she explained that she was very uncomfortable round the catheter.

Catheters are a bit out of my normal remit but nothing ventured.
 
Hers was a two stage setup. She had a bag that was strapped to her leg which stayed with her day and night. At night this was attached to another (bigger) bag into which it was supposed to drain.

We checked the leg bag which was full. Not just full but FULL. The night bag was empty. Resisting the urge to dive for cover in case of explosion we turned the valve between the bags

The leg bag emptied. The night bag filled (alarmingly quickly). The old lady had a bit of a Strongbow moment.

She felt a lot better, not suprisingly. It looked like one of her carers had forgotten to turn the valve and she had been filling up since about 5pm the previous evening.

We left her at home as I was pretty sure we had sorted her out but I thought a check up by a GP might be a good idea. The GP disagreed.

Never mind