Seriously?

So, my partner and I get called out today for a "sick" person. We find this elderly gentleman sitting in his recliner, in his pajamas and robe, talking on a cell phone. AFTER we walk in and start talking to him, he starts shaking. Not a seizure, not shivering, like actual I'm-shaking-in-my-boots shaking. He tells us that he woke up this morning and hasn't been feeling well, can't feel his legs (but is able to walk), and has a history of a-fib.

Okay, so we put him on the monitor and sure enough he's in a-fib with RVR at a rate of about 130. He says he's compliant with his meds (we frankly had a hard time figuring out EXACTLY what his meds were though since he had so many old bottles of his and his deceased wife's pills). He was continuing to tell me that his legs were numb and he couldn't feel them until I pulled out a needle when he denied being able to feel me touching them. I tell ya, it's amazing how quickly big ass needles can make feeling come back in people. He was able to stand up and walk on his own out of his really cluttered (and nasty smelling) living room and sit on the stretcher.

So we get him all loaded up. We're treating it as A-fib w/ RVR but haven't given cardizem because a little bit of O2 brought his rate down to 106 and he isn't symptomatic. After we're already enroute, then he said "Oh my heart feels like it normally does. My neighbor though told me to make sure to tell y'all that I had A-fib."

THEN he proceeds to list all his symptoms: low fever, headache, lower back and bilateral thigh pain, and "just hurt all over."

Seriously? I asked him if he had ever had the flu before. He said "Well, yeah. This actually feels like how it normally starts out. I got the flu shot this year though and I had the flu around Christmas time."

Hmmmm..... yeah...... so if you got the flu shot, got the flu, and this feels EXACTLY like when you get the flu, don't you think this might be, oh I don't know..... THE FLU?

If the guy had been nice the whole time, then it wouldn't have been so bad. He bitched the whole way to the hospital. "I'm cold" (this is now the part where DP, being the nice person I am, turns off the A/C in the back and sweats the rest of the way to the hospital). "The road's rough." "This stretcher isn't comfortable." and my most hated statement: "I need a pillow." We are NOT the Holiday Inn!!! Just be glad that the damn truck runs and that the A/C back here actually freaking works!

So we get there finally and he actually says "I'm glad I came by ambulance. Otherwise, I'd be like those poor schmucks out there (pointing to the VERY full waiting room) and have to wait for a bed."

ARG!

This shift is no where near done yet. This could be a very trying next few days.