A Work in Progress

It was about 4am when we had returned from a call and I had just snuggled back into my sleeping bag, happy to be last up. Another medic came in and woke up his partner. “We have to go,” he said. “Someone is smashing into peoples’ cars outside.” Suddenly, I was awake, but awake as I was I couldn’t remember where I had parked my car. I hastily put my boots back on and followed the rest of my curious colleagues outside. Most of the parking for work was on the street, and there were a few spots behind our building. By the time we were led outside I remembered that I was parked on the street and vulnerable to this mysterious car smashing. Luckily, we headed in the opposite direction of my car, to where two cars were parallel parked on the street. It appeared that someone (in their vehicle) had rear ended the car parked on the end. That car was pushed into the one in front of it. The first car was pretty much destroyed. The frame was bent, the front and rear bumpers...well, the rea...

We got a call for a fall. It came out as an ‘alpha’ response which means that the call was categorized as non-emergency and we go sans lights and sirens. The call was in a local apartment building. We got into the building easily as it was the middle of the day and there were lots of people milling around the lobby. We got upstairs and to the apartment and heard a tiny voice coming from the other side of the locked door. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get to the door!” Crap. We both tried the knob again in vain, just to make sure. I went back downstairs, certainly someone there could get us a key of some sort. “Um...do any of you know where I can find the leasing or maintenance office? I need a key.” “Sure. Are you a relative?” I look down at my uniform and radio just to be sure they were still there. “No, someone called 911 and we need to get into the apartment.” “Oh, well whose apartment is it? “Um...I don’t no.” I said slowly as I glanced at the ambulance outside. “Oh right, ...

My last weekend in New Hampshire was a rainy one. Not quite as much rain as last spring in southern NH, but enough rain to destroy roads, flood houses, and generally make a mess. I drove around on the second day of rain trying to get pictures of a nearby river, but all the roads around it were closed due to its flooding. The next day, I went to work and probably had the coolest call ever. Wait, time for a little more set up. There is a river in our town that is considered “running” at 6,000cfs (cubic feet per second) and “very high” at 11,000cfs. While I was at work that day, it was running about 25-30,000cfs. Needless to say, that’s ridiculously high and fast. We were still at the hospital after a call when our next one came in for a river rescue. Not only a river rescue, but one involving three kayakers. I must admit I was pretty excited. So excited, I drove to the staging area in about 3 minutes. The details were limited, but apparently some kind citizen had seen two ove...

Oh, what a neglectful blogger I have been. I somehow became one of those bloggers who update only once a month. And that update is merely full of apologies and excuses for not blogging. Apologies I have. (Sorry to you few faithful readers!) Excuses, I don't. I haven't died, fallen off the face of the earth or quit blogging. I have simply been lazy. Updates to follow! More and more updates! More updates than you'll know what to do with! So many updates you can bottle them up and save them for a rainy day, you could eat them for breakfast, wax your car with them. Enough updates to...to...well, at the very least there will be updates, more than one every three weeks. In the mean time, some google search terms: "new hampshire colloquial sayings" Um, I can't really think of any. Maybe my NH peeps can help me out. I can only think of paking the ka an tha' laan. But that's not really a colloquial saying. "free pictures of thoracotomies...

Ah, the move. I picked up Ewing after work and the next morning we went to Maine. We stopped at Old Orchard beach and then went to LL Bean. Amazingly, we didn’t buy anything unexpected. We also got some good clam chowdah in Freeport. We drove back home and went out to dinner with my roommates. The next morning we went to pick up the moving truck and when we went to leave, it wouldn’t start. The guy realized that he had left the lights on the night before and the battery was dead. He charged it for a few minutes and we were on our way. The truck wasn’t that bad; a/c that worked, and an am/fm radio. It was basically an ambulance, so I didn’t mind driving it at all. We packed it in a few hours with a lot of room to spare. We had Pisgah on the top of my truck and Kopapa in the moving truck. We left a little late in the day and headed into town so I could retrieve my pots from pottery class. We got to class and I found my teacher who told me that after last weeks class the kiln...

I was working 911 with my roommate and we were leaving a hospital when a call went out for a stabbing. It wasn’t our call and we almost squirreled it as it was close to our location, but we didn’t. Well, it turned out we didn’t have to. A second call went out to the same location also for a stabbing. So, off we went. We arrived pretty much seconds behind the first ambulance. We were all kinds of confused that they send two ambulances. The fire engine was already on scene and sounded a little harried when they called for the second bus. So, now the four of us trudged into the apartment building and upstairs. This kind of call is always on the top floor, and there is never an elevator. We let the first crew go in first as it was technically their call. A firefighter looking like a deer in the headlights pointed out one guy stabbed in the abdomen lying on the couch, very much alive. The first crew went to him. The firefighter then turned to me and my partner and said “You can c...

I finished my last set of weekend transfer shifts yesterday. On Saturday we had back to back long distance calls (transport over 70 miles) that was fun. The first call was for a guy who broke his neck and the second was a baby with meningitis. I was happy to have staff come with us for the baby, although she was no trouble. I doomed us to another trip when I said: “Ah, goodbye ___ hospital!” On Sunday we had a nice relaxing day doing a couple of local calls and then one long one that was really annoying. Also on Sunday, in the middle of April, it was snowing/slushing/raining and being generally gross outside. There were many accidents in the city due to this springy? mix. Right now it has been raining more or less for two days straight. Many roads were closed today due to flooding. I only know this because I went out with the camera trying to get shots of local rivers, but I was denied. Oh well. Even I had to turn around without being forced to by closed road signs. I lo...

We arrived to a diabetic call and the fire department had taken a blood sugar and read 80 (not horribly low). The patient though had an altered mental status, could barely speak, and certainly couldn't walk. I would have guessed that her sugar was more like 30 or 40 and I was growing a little concerned about her. She was with it enough to eat a candy bar and her well meaning boyfriend was giving her juice. He refilled it and I looked at the bottle. It was sugar free juice. We all had a good laugh about it, and the patient was feeling and looking much better. We took her sugar again and it was 71. Hmm. I was then certain that the glucometer was not working right the first time. Now that she was more coherent, the patient definitely refused transport and promised that she'd eat breakfast. We had an interesting back pain that was causing a seemingly tough guy to be literally doubled over in pan. I can only guess that he threw his back out or something like that. It was one of the ...

Last week I had a 72 hour work week. I haven't decided yet if this is good or bad. I'm sure that when my paycheck comes it will be a good thing. As for now, after working seven days straight I'm not so sure it's a good thing. In just under 12 hours I'll be finishing up my last pottery class and then flying home to test for a job. In the last week after 48 hours of 911 and 24 hours of interfacility and I've had what seems to be a ton of calls. We had a lady who had chest pain for four days before she decided to call 911. When we got there it was radiating to her left arm, and she had prolonged Q waves and inverted T waves in some leads. So she could have had a heart attack or was almost having one. Oddly, she was someone who should have called who didn't. I've had several people fall down and not hurt themselves. A lot of our nursing facilities here aren't allowed to pick their residents up when they fall, so we have to go do it. Also, abou...

Last, last weekend we got called to take a multi system trauma to a level 1 trauma center. Our patient had been jogging on the road, going against traffic has she should have, and a person came around a corner too widely, crossed the center line, hitting her in the back. Among scrapes and bruises, the patient had a ruptured bladder, a broken leg in two places, and widening of pubic symphysis (the ligaments that hold your pelvis together). She was pretty stable and wasn’t any trouble on the ride to the other hospital, but I was happy to give her as much morphine as she wanted. A few weeks ago we went for a psych problem. When we arrived we found a little lady who had apparently called the police and threatened suicide. We take that pretty seriously, and were happy to take her to the hospital for help. She was ranting and raging about something or other and then yelled even more when we came in about how Medicare wouldn’t pay for the ride to the hospital. We assured her that we could wri...

Just as I closed the lid on my box of gloves, hats, and boots and folded my winter coats into a duffle bag, the temperature dipped and the skies opened to illustrate that spring is not exactly here. I’m now looking out on a snowy winter scene right outside my window. I’m trying to convince myself that it’s April and Easter is in just a few days although it feels more like Christmas. It’s supposed to stay coldish for the rest of the week. On Thursday morning it took me half an hour to clean the 5 inches of snow off my car as I shook my fist at the sky. Earlier this week, I was called in for a 24 which I happily accepted as OT is always welcome. We started the evening for a call for a medication reaction. Real potential to be cool. We arrived to find a 30ish year old looking fine, and in no distress. me: “Hello, what’s going on?” patient: “I think I’m having a reaction to medicine I took.” me: “Okay, what did you take?” patient: “Benadryl.” me: “Benadryl?” patient: “Yeah...

Last weekish I went back home for a visit. It was nice, although I didn’t spend enough time with everyone who is important to me. Ewing and I did get to hang out a lot. We went to a Hudson Trails annual winter clearance sale and bought a second Pisgah! We were certainly not in the market for a new kayak, but we couldn’t resist saving about $600 off the retail price. So now we have twin kayaks, but we won’t get them mixed up as mine is blue and his is parking cone orange. We also visited Great Falls for the first time with his sister. I had never been there and underestimated the awesomeness of it! Here are some photos , although they aren't mine. The potomac was flooded from the recent snow and rain in the area, and the falls looked scary and were fascinating. I could look at a creek all day, let alone this huge expanse of whitewater. It was great, haha, great (falls)! I also picked up my dress which needs altering, of course. To start, I’m short and secondly, I think I ...

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 c...

Until I am back in Maryland! 7 days until my baby's birthday! (Then he can be a fossil like me) 43 days until I move back to Maryland! 141 days until I am married! 149 days until our honeymoon!

Yesterday my friend from work took me to a shooting range. I think it’s his personal goal to convert all the liberals he knows into gun carrying NRA members. I had never shot a gun, so I agreed to go. He showed me all the ins and outs of the guns he owned and that we would shoot. He has a 9mm and a .357 revolver. I was actually excited to learn something about guns. But once I had a loaded 9mm in my hands, I pretty much felt nothing but terror. Even after I got used to shooting the guns, I was still scared of them. Every time I shot I was surprised and wanted to scream like a...well, like a girl. I’m not sure why I didn’t find it a very satisfying activity. I was a little disappointed that I felt only slightly bad ass as I loaded the clip into the handle of the 9. Although, I was surprisingly not half bad, I managed to hit the target, and if it had been a real person, he would have bled out eventually, or at the very least would have been scared. I was good at liver or spleen shots. Th...

We were called to go priority to a nursing home that is fairly far away. It took us more than 30 minutes of emergency driving to get there. The call was for a patient who was vomiting blood and had high blood pressure. So we arrived finally and found our patient sleeping quietly. The nurse said that he had an episode of vomiting coffee ground substance about 45 min ago. No other issues at the time. We got him into the ambo and checked him out. Everything looked to be in order, he was answering us, albeit shortly, and his vitals were pretty good. When he nearly punched me as I put a nasal cannula on him, I checked out his paperwork. Oh, dementia and Alzheimer’s, that would explain it. That would also explain why he called us GD SOBs as well. He basically wouldn’t let us do anything without a fight, except put him on the monitor, so we decided to head to the hospital. About half way there, he all of a sudden started vomiting coffee ground blood all over. I was like, ahhh! I ...

Yesterday I spent about 12 hours watching robots hang innertubes off of poles. Yes, it is exciting as it sounds. There is a high school robot building contest in town, and I worked the detail to do EMS for the event. At first, I thought the robots were going to fight each other, then I sadly discovered that they were built to do tasks with each other instead. Tasks like picking up innertubes and hanging them up. It was interesting to watch for about 5 rounds of crazy robot action, but it went on for about 30 rounds! By the end of it I was dead bored. But at least I was there with good people and we tried to make the best of it. Mostly we passed time by making fun. You could have cut the nerdness in the room with a knife. If I had shouted "hey, nerd!" the entire room would have turned and looked at me. But, they did come up with some clever designs and they were all really into it. We had one real call for an asthma attack. We gave her a neb, she felt better, didn't want ...

Finally some new pictures. The new kayaking ones were taken toward the end of November. It was about 0730 and about 30 degrees. The fog rising off of the water was really cool to see. The icy pics were taken about a month ago when we had a nice ice storm that coated everything in a lovely layer of ice. It looked cool, but was a bit treacherous. Kayaking Ice!

I worked my regular Thursday night shift last week and went home and slept for 4 hours when my roommate called me and asked me to come in and finish his shift. Sort of forgetting he was on a 24, I stupidly agreed, woke up, took a shower and headed back to work. 33 hours later I stumbled out of work and went back home. I wish I could say lots of interesting things happened, but I can only say that lots of things happened. It more or less started when I arrived and didn’t sit down for more than 2 hours until then end of my Saturday shift. I think we had the busiest Saturday transfer shift ever. The 911 side on Friday night was also pretty busy. I shouldn’t have even bothered bringing my sleeping bag, as I didn’t get to see the inside of it very often. Friday day we did a twin NICU transfer. The babies were a good size and basically being transferred because the small hospital they were coming from couldn’t take on any more patients. So that took up about 3 hours. When we finis...

Last week when I got home I went to work. I did a 24, went home and did my weekend 12 hour shifts the next two days. Whew! The price of love. I did a transfer shift with my roommate which was pretty fun. We didn’t do anything too out of the ordinary but were pretty busy. We did get to take a trouble breathing out of a local nursing home. I love it when I see a lady sitting straight up in bed, clearly struggling for breath, pursed lip breathing, using accessory muscles, a pulse ox of 86% with 4 lpm on her nasal cannula and staff telling me that this has been going on for 3 days. I don’t know what people are thinking sometimes. The highlight of the day was when we found ourselves driving behind a UPS truck that unbeknownst to the driver, had its back door open. There was another car between us and the truck. We stopped at a light and as Andy and I discussed how cool it would be to see what was in all of those packages, our good citizen of the day (the car in front of us) made a ...