Wednesday...19 January 2011

Even earlier start to today then yesterday, in fact I did not even get to go to bed.
Son-in-law picked last night to get a kidney stone stuck in the wrong place in the wee (pardon the pun!) small hours. He of course in bulk  pain and not very happy with the world. Daughter called ambulance.
Two problems: Water everywhere, we are cut off from town, and the 000 ambulance service for this area is located hundreds of miles away in Geelong.
We have dealt with the 000 ambulance service previously in NSW and let me tell you people if you are in a rural location, your chance of an ambulance arriving is minimal. In NSW the operator kept asking us which suburb of Sydney did we live in. Seems they fail to recognise rural locations on their computer systems. Took half an hour on the phone to get them to eventually send an ambulance. That time the patient was having a heart attack! She survived, but did need a lot of help to do so.
This time they sent the ambulance to another area of the district with a similar sounding name, which was inaccessable due to flooding so the ambulance simply went back to the hospital and waited. Three phone calls and a "chat" between the 000 operator and the patient who had to give directions between bouts of pain and vomitting, eventually got them to realise that there was a way to reach this patient.
In the finish, both patient and father-in-law got into our high 4x4 and headed into town, eventually meeting up with the ambulance on the other side of the water about half way to town.
Painfully long night had by all. Son-in-law was admitted for pain relief and tests.
Today was spent waiting for test results and working at keeping the water out of the yard here at home. Keith had to build a couple of small levee bits and to break others in selected areas to assist with the flow of flood waters away from our place. Gumboots and shovels........
Good news:  the patient has been discharged from the hospital and is resting comfortably at home. Lets hope for his sake its a nice quiet night tonight. I for one am looking forward to a full nights sleep and I am sure most of the rest of our group are of a similar mind.