Blogging 101: updates

-
So, I’ve been meaning to update for about three weeks, and somehow I am only getting around to it now. A lot of things are going on at once but that is no excuse to neglect the old blog for so long.

I’ll start with a 24 I did a few weeks ago before I went home for a week. The day half I worked with my friend and roommate, it was good fun. Thanks to that day, whenever I’m feeling down, I just think of Andy helping a drunk, naked, middle aged fat guy to put on some pants and I feel much better. Ah, gets me every time! Wow was he drunk. Like, 30 pack of bud drunk.

Before that we took two patients at once after a guy decided to turn left from the right lane. Before that we had a lady who said she was "kickboxed" by someone. I’m not exactly sure what that means. We started with a guy who slipped on the ice and dislocated his shoulder. We tried to make him comfortable, but he refused pain meds. We ended the night with a call for foot pain. This call was probably the crap call that made me the most angry ever. The patient had twisted her ankle on Saturday and decided to call us at 2 am two days later!! I almost wanted to sternly inform her of her horrid misuse of the emergency system, but cooler heads prevailed and I just drove to the hospital. Very rarely do I want to actually refuse to take people. I feel if those people sue me, I should be able to sue them for, um, stupidity. Yes, a stupidity fine. I would say that this woman owes me about 500 dollars. That would be nice. So, in nearly 24 hours we took one person to the hospital that actually needed it. What a day.

More to follow soon I swear! Further wedding/moving details, the kayak twin, an unexpected trip home, and a cool interfacility call!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dueling Blogs

-
I have the immense privilege to be sitting right across from Maddog Medic in the flesh. We aren't speaking, though he is listening to me. Want to solve this riddle? He is transcribing an interview he did with me for his blog at this very moment. And I too am blogging at this very moment! How crazy?! I am stationed this week at the EMS today conference to stock up on professional wheelings and dealings and learn some stuff. This is a wonderful conference full of networking and new products and I learned already that one dose of glucagon costs $130. That's out of control! I cannot wait to catch up on disaster literature and EMS tricks of the trade and get as many free pens as I can at the expo tomorrow.  As for now, I'm headed to a class on smart stuff and pediatric breathing problems.  I am surrounded by EMS nerds and I love it! I spent the day learning about things above my pay grade such as how to read a chest x-ray and how to differentiate between subarachnoi...
Click for More

Clothing Removal

-
Image
Last week I had a patient who fell from her horse while jumping at a show. When I got there the BLS crew had immobilized her and, well, that was about it. She was complaining of neck pain and at that moment couldn't remember what had happened. I used my horsey knowledge to build up a healthy rapport with a scared patient. In general, not a lot was wrong with her. My biggest problem was that she was on the backboard and still had on all of her fancy English riding clothes. I made my best efforts to get off her button up shirt with high collar and black outer riding jacket, but it caused her pain, and then I made it worse. Worse than falling off your horse, worse than the public embarrasment of having an ambulance called for you, worse than defenitly losing your show class, was the stupid paramedic who cut off your expensive riding clothes. I, too, had never felt worse for cutting someones clothes off. She cried and shrieked and you would have thought I was punching her in the gut. I...
Click for More

The Race

-
Sometimes this job is like a race. Like you're carrying this person on your back, and it's a messy race. You're tripping and sweating and you almost drop them. It's bouncy and there's trash everywhere. And if you can just get them over that line. To the line and throw them over. Throw them over and into the ER, you're obligation is fulfilled. Your job is done. You've won the race. And for a long time, that was it. Mission accomplished and I wasn't responsible for anything else. I didn't care about anything else. Get them to the hospital.  Dust my hands off and pat myself on the back. But somehow, they crept in. What did happen?  Did they live?  For the first time I asked myself.  I began to bring them home. I put them on a shelf and they stared down at me. They said, did you run fast enough?  Did you fall?  Did you drop me?  You threw me onto this island- over your line, but was it salvation?  I left in a hel...
Click for More