A Work in Progress

Not a patient's hyperglycemia, silly, mine! Wheeee! It is Easter Sunday and following my annual Lenten venture of giving up sweets of all kinds, I've embarked on my traditional sugary goodness binge. There's nothing like starting the day with marshmallow peeps, rounding out the afternoon with no less than 1 million Cadbury mini eggs, and finishing up the day with a large chunk of angel food cake. Ah, heaven. This year I have a practical use for the sugar, to inspire me to finish up a paper and presentation due tomorrow. (A project due on the Monday after spring break?! I can’t believe it either. It should be against the law. I’m going to fine my teacher for messing with spring break. I think $300 should do it.) Break was pretty nice. At my home station I taught my first 2 CPR classes. It was pretty fun and those mannequins sure do come in handy. I sent one to a boring meeting dressed in my clothes, another one to the dentist, used one to get me into the HOV lane, and got to...

There are few things more satisfying than seeing the flash when starting an IV. Every time I see it, I want to jump up and do a dance, but I manage restrain myself. I don't like to show my craziness to patients...at least not while I have a needle in their arm. I had a city shift last weekend. It was my first day shift and I think I liked it better. I was lost slightly less than 100% of the time, which was nice. I can't stand not knowing where I am, and it was easier to keep track in the daylight. I started a record two IVs, and gave glucagon, my first real drug. This was a pretty harrowing experience. Glucagon has to be reconstituted and, of course, we were already rolling when I started, so I got to almost stick myself about 4 times. There is definitely an art to wielding a needle in the back of a moving ambulance. I also got my first call for a violent crime, a cutting. I was bandaging this while my patient was sitting on the marble steps of a formstone house in the heart of...

Last night was less craptacular (fewer drunks) but more downtime, which always has me on edge for some reason. I got two IV attempts (1 success), an EKG, and a neb. Maybe the funniest bit of the night was when my nalgene bottle which was sitting in the 'action area' was launched into the oxygen compartment when OGM hit the brakes. I felt like an idiot, but when I went to retrieve it, it fell out of the ambulance onto the parking lot, and came through its adventure unscathed. Now I'm a nalgene believer. On my second IV of the night the patient noted that she was a difficult stick. My preceptor said: "Oh, don't worry, Ellie here was the 2004 phlebotomist of the year." The patient replied: "Oh, good!" and I thought: "Oh crap!" because he was totally making that up. No matter, I got the IV, and can therefore retain my title. I will be passing on the crown and the needle shaped scepter soon though. I've been formulating my retirement speech ...

I’m whatever color cloud that reaps crappy calls all shift. My preceptor suggested I get a talisman of some sort and pray to it for better calls, either that, or never come back because I’m bad luck. If a Baltimore City police officer had to spell my night they would say: Bob, Uncle, Lincoln, Log, Charlie, Rash, Apple, Pencil. You can get this great romantic feeling riding in the back of a Baltimore city medic unit. The BELIEVE sticker in the window, siren wailing at traffic, the lights reflecting off of store fronts and residences as you fly by on your way to heal and help people. I’ve learned that romantic feeling dissolves quickly when you realize you could get a buzz from your patients’ vodka flavored breath. Last night was my first real experience with drunks (I’m a medium town girl). I hope that I never find them anything but amusing. Envision pulling up behind a police car in an alley. The officer is standing on the sidewalk looking down at a guy who is half under the car, just ...

I love my hospital ID badge (even though it says I'm an EMT student). It opens almost everything, and it's on one of those retractable ID holders with the string for extra fun. I can wave it at doors, staff elevators, children, refrigerators, supply closets, the elderly, and at the parking garage. It's great fun to walk down the hall unlocking all the doors with just a wave of the ID badge. And it's so easy, just wave and snap!....But I digress. Last night was my first ER clinical. It was pretty cool. I did about four 12 lead EKGs, all unremarkable, took a ton of vitals, and showed a strong 100% IV success rate (1/1 counts, right?) I also got to watch a spinal tap. Now, there's an unnatural procedure. I was glad I was wearing a mask, especially when I realized my mouth was hanging open. I looked from the patient to the cerebrospinal fluid and back again thinking: "That's your CSF! That's not supposed to be out here!" Later, after a couple of failed...

Today I went sledding with a couple of friends for the first time at UMBC. I can't remember the last time I (slid?) and I forgot how freaking fun it is! Not only did I go sledding, but I got to use a dining hall tray (obtained from sources unknown) which I think was pretty funny. It was the most use I ever got out of one of those. It's snowing pretty heavily here now, as it has been for most of the day. If they don't call school soon, I think the commuters in my class will self destruct! Since we Marylanders are quite frightened of the snow, it's likely school will be closed again tomorrow. (yay! more time to...uh...study, yeah, that's it.) So, my Mom said that my blog was "boring" so I decided to put in a couple amusing things from my first city shift. Call #1 was for a woman who had no real chief complaint but she was using her hair to store a big, red comb. (no, the call was not for a foreign object in the hair.) I guess you never know when you'll n...

I had my first Baltimore City clinical last night. I was full of anxiety all day before I got there, and I'm not even sure why. I hate being late, and I was afraid the ambo would leave without me, and I'd have to sit there like a goof waiting for them to come back (if they ever did). I was also worried that my preceptor would be, how can I put this? Unpleasant, that's a good word for it. But, as it turned out, my preceptor is awesome, and couldn't be nicer. In this blogs' future he will referred to as "my preceptor" (how original, I know. If you want, I'll come up with clever nicknames for your people too.) His partner is equally as awesome, and in this blogs' future she'll be referred to as "old gray mare" (which I didn't make up) and, as finger dexterity becomes limited after all those FISDAP forms, OGM for short. Even though I did no ALS skills and every call we had was, how can I put this? unnecessary, that's a good word f...

Today we officially learned surgical "crikes." Or cricothyrotomy, a fantastic procedure involving cutting a persons neck open, putting a tube in it and breathing for them...awesome! In fact, today I had my finger in someone's trachea! Slightly disturbing, but freakin' cool! Visiting the cadaver lab was an interesting adventure to say the least. Nothing promotes classmate bonding like being in a creepy basement with big jars of formaldehyde and two dead bodies. Regardless of the creepy factor I got to intubate my first real person, perform needle cricothyrotomy, and start some IOs. After this, Wes, Ewing, and I went and checked out my station for city clinicals. Lucky medic 13 is housed in probably the ugliest building on earth, but it seems like a pretty good end of town. Last week I participated in the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation conference. I had a good time and learned some cool stuff, but I could have done without the 5am wake ups. I won'...

I've made a blog. Check it out. Why have I made a blog? I don't know Every blog I've ever read has a healthy dose of hilarious, mostly because people write stuff in them that most people don't give a crap about. For that matter, people probably won't care to much to read mine, but whatever. If you're that interested in my "deep thoughts" you can rent my diary for $20 an hour, just let me know. I also love the extra stuff people put in blogs, but I assure you, this one won't be filled with quiz results like "You're Chlamydia!" (from the "Which STD are you?" quiz.) Really, I'd like to put my experiences as a Paramedic student at UMBC in this blog. Maybe my family can use it to keep up on my life. I'll probably end up putting completely superfluous and random thoughts in here for all to see. If you read it, great, hopefully I'll remember to update it every once in a while for you. Feel free to comment, although it...