Well, it's been a rough week. I'll work on getting another post up soon, though. Promise. :)

Books.

Over-worked and under-paid.

Tomorrow I do my first overnight. Which happens to be a double as well. It would have been a triple but thankfully I got someone to trade off one of my shifts. I haven't purposefully pulled an all-nighter since sophomore year of college. Ick!!

Today we had a sweet little old lady of 93 years with severe dementia and a shattered pelvis.

The lady's husband (of 67 years) decided that the only way to get his wife from point a to point b was to pick her up by her shirt collar and drag her. During the process he dropped her a few times. Needless to say, that didn't work out in her favor.

When the husband arrived at the hospital behind the ambulance, he proceeded to drive around the parking lot. When he finally made it inside and we asked what he was doing, he stated that he was "driving around trying to figure out where he parked his car." He later forgot why he was even at the hospital.

Oh, and then I had my first ETOH patient. That was fun. :-)

And finally... I am in need of a good book to read. Any suggestions? All are welcome.

Stay safe out there!

Well, that was interesting.

The address for the call came over the speaker at base. Being the new kid, I had no idea what was going on when everyone started laughing and telling me to have fun. Clueless, I drove to scene priority 1 hot. Fire is already there, so my partner and I join them in the tiny upstairs apartment. As I make my way to the back room I walk in to find a 300lb Hispanic female lying on the plush carpeted floor. With a large, and very bright orange mohawk. Okay.

I knelt down to my patient and asked her name. When she said "Matthew Henry Steven James" in a small squeaky voice, a smile nearly escaped me. Matthew's vitals were stable. He stated that he was walking without his braces and tripped on his big feet. He stumbled to the ground, and now had ten out of ten pain in his back, legs, neck and buttocks.

So, of course, we collared and back boarded Matthew - who had no trouble adjusting himself once we had him on the board. Meanwhile, Matthews partner watched from the doorway. Matthew's partner was a tall and skinny Caucasian male with a red beard and blond hair longer than my own. Matthew's partner told me that his name was Suzie. With a "z." And a cane. Because one leg was .25 inches longer than the other.

So, we've got a Hispanic female, 21 years old, who is in the process of becoming a man. With an orange mohawk. Who is on disability for "chronic finger pain, flat feet" (for which she has braces), among countless other things. And then we have Matthew's partner, Suzie. Who is in the beginning stages of her sex reassignment surgery as well. And who, or should I say what, is paying for these surgeries? Hmmm.....

As we're in the back of the rig on the way to the hospital Matthew informs me that he is having trouble staying awake and that his pain is getting severely worse. As he is telling me this he is trying to roll onto his side so he can get out his wallet. He even attempts to undo the straps on his head so he can see out the window. I go to patch into the ED and he somehow manages to pull a cell phone out of his bra and start texting.

There's a group of nurses and docs waiting for us as we roll him into the ED. As we walked by I could hear them laughing and talking about their past expereinces with my patient, who was too busy talking on his cell phone to notice. Meanwhile I'm fumbling as I give my report to the RN, trying to figure out whether I should call my patient a he, as that was what he preferred, or a she, which was what was written on her paperwork.


Uhm... Seriously?

What do you talk about?

We go to pick up our first patient of the day. Being discharged from the local hospital after a little fall earlier this morning. Ended up with a fractured wrist, but nothing that won't heal. We get all our paperwork, look it over, ask a bunch of questions, and off we go. The patient was very insistent that her husband and son were somewhere in the hospital and we couldn't leave without them. Then her focus turned to locating her purse that she swore she brought with her. Five minutes later the only thing she could think about was where she put her lipstick. As we're driving she keeps asking us to pull over and turn around because she wants to go to her sister's house because that's where she lives. It was an interesting drive. Well, we arrive at the nursing home, bring her to her floor, and get her settled in her bed. It was quite the ordeal. Then on our way out the LPN decides to say, "You do know that she is a droplet risk, right?" Uhm... no. No, we did not know that. The hospital did not divulge that information to us, as apparently it was too early in the morning for them and they didn't obtain all the paperwork they needed when she came in to begin with. TB... E. Coli in the sputum... Anyone?


The last patient I had today was great. We walk in to pick her up and she tells us that it was about time we showed up since she'd been waiting three hours. I look at my partner, who happens to be another newer kid, and I can see the brief look of panic on his face. Until he looks back at our patient to find her laughing. She kept coming up with witty remarks, and was just a hoot. As we're pulling into the driveway at our destination I ask her about her Christmas and New Years. She immediately started crying. It was like as soon as the words escaped my lips the tears started flowing.

I'm never quite sure what to talk about with patients. I know that families and holidays can be touchy subjects for people. But you never know how they'll react, so do you just avoid them altogether?

What do you talk about with your patients?

In Remembrance

A retired firefighter with 27 dedicated years of service passed away today at 60 years of age. He died peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones. He was a committed friend, loving father, and devoted husband. Surviving him are his two children, one grandchild, his wife, mother, and sister.

We all know that death is inevitable. But that doesn't make it any easier.



We'll miss you.

Off we go!

As of December 19th I was officially cleared for the road... Yay!!

Sometimes I surprise myself, and lately I've had a few of those sometimes. I made it through the orientation, and more importantly, the two weeks of training. It had its ups and downs, but I made it. And after being cleared and on the road for two weeks... I love my job.

I've been meaning to post more. Really. I keep trying to write about some of the things I've learned, some of the calls I've been on and the things I've seen. But each time I sit down and face the blank screen, words escape me.

This job is not always easy. But it sure doesn't get boring.

This year has been a whirlwind. If you had asked me in January what I thought I'd be doing in 12 months, I would never have thought I'd be where I am now. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I love what I'm doing and I can't wait to see what this new year will bring! :)

Progress

Saturday marked my official half-way point in training with this new job. A week of orientation dragged by, and then I had my first full week out on the road. It's been interesting so far, a lot of ups and downs. But I'm loving it. I don't know how you all keep up with work, blogging, reading other people's blogs, twittering, etc etc. I'm only doing 40 hours a week right now, but it feels like all I've been doing is driving, working, learning, studying maps, and more driving. The main thing I have to work on is moving patients laterally. I've got the strength, but somehow my technique is not quite right and I'm having a hard time. I have yet to have any actual 9-1-1 calls. :-\ So far I've had all transfers. I guess I never realized just how much of those ambulance companies do. Oh, and get this. I cannot, for the life of me, back up or parallel park my own tiny car. But give me a huge ambulance and I've got no problem. How does that work?

I will write more later, I'm off two days this week so I should have time to get some of my thoughts together. But I just wanted to write a short note to say that I am alive and things are moving along!

Stay safe out there.