13:13

Testing, testing… Is this thing on?

Woah I have a blog.
So now that I can do this via my iPhone, I may just may blog more.
As in more than once a year.

We shall see.

Oh I’m taking the mcats in 6 weeks.
*cue expletives*
Back to studying….

The original dispatch was for an elderly male with abdominal pain and weakness, cold response. Maybe I’m jaded, but I automatically assume elderly male with laundry list of medical issues, possibly bed bound with a visiting nurse who called 911. I’m guessing bowel obstruction. It’s always a bowel obstruction. Ok, not always…

(more…)

It’s been awhile, but I’ll be back soon.

I promise.

Lord, have I got a lot to say.

-mt

It’s late and I wish I were (back) in bed, but I’m waiting for my laundry to be done. There was schmutz (read:bodily fluids) on my workshirt and I’m back in at 8am. So, brief post because it’s been a couple weeks.

In the middle of a six day, 64 hour stretch of work, two days left (Sunday, Monday), then class, clinicals, work, class, class, work, clinicals. Next full day off is the 20th, but I’ll probably be sleeping all day because I’m doing 3rd shift at the ED the night before. It’s not as bad as it sounds, I guess I’m getting used to my schedule.

Nothing remarkable at work that I can remember in the past few weeks, we’ve been kind of slow post-holidays. Had a flash CHF that went in ALS hot and was a medical alert, a crazy screaming schizo wound care transfer, a few hypoglycemics, and a couple overdoses. I feel like I’ve been driving hot more than usual, there was a day last week we went priority 1 to everything… very unusual. Maybe due to the fact I’ve been in EH more than I usually am, and they tend to err on the side of caution (if that’s what you’d call it) whereas M is the opposite.

Today was good, 5 calls in 12 hours, including a 3 hours children’s hospital team transfer. Took an intubated 3 month old from their ED to a PICU an hour away because of a subdural bleed. I don’t think the mother, who didn’t speak english, had an understanding of how sick her child was. Situations like these make me want to become more proficient at speaking spanish, we just sat in silence the whole way down while the team worked in back.

People ask me fairly regularly how I do this job, how I deal with the things I see (they assume constant blood and gore). Really, the sad stories like this one, which usually are just transfers, are the ones that affect me more. My usual answer is that I’ve gotten used to it, which is partially true, but honestly the truth is I don’t know. I was thinking to myself on the way down today, how am I not nervous driving? I could hit a bump too hard, the ET tube could dislodge and this child could die in minutes. Yet I’m sitting here completely relaxed, trying to think of what I want for lunch. Maybe it’s cold, maybe it’s necessity? Maybe I’m just right for this job. I really don’t know, but I guess I should be thankful.

It is always a funny feeling returning with the children’s hospital team with no patient. There’s usually a nurse, a respiratory therapist, and an MD in back with full ALS gear, and us two EMTs in the front. Pretty much the safest vehicle on the highway. If someone were to get in an accident in front of us, they would have advanced care within seconds. Amazing, haha.

Other than that, took a guy in who fell asleep in his recliner and woke up with a stiff neck, transferred a 4 day post-partum 16 year old for gall bladder surgery, a BLS panic attack, and went to a syncope at a bowling alley… which made me want to bowl, it’s been a couple years.

Looking forward to work in the morning. My partner is one of our newly highered Medics, so she doesn’t have med control yet and is doing BLS shifts. Not only that, she’s an ED nurse and ex-flight nurse, and really nice, so I can pick her brain all day.

DING laundry’s done.

-mt

Who hates New Years Eve?
This guy.

Always have for some reason, infinitely more this year for many reasons.

To be lame and stay in and most likely sleep through midnight or not be lame and go out…
that is the question.

-mt

And then with thunderous praise and lofty adoration,
a second passes by, yet nothing changes.

We’re taking a 23 year old girl into our hospital from a nearby town we don’t usually go to. Christmas Eve MVA. She is boarded and collared, but only complaining of ankle pain and minor chest pain where her seat belt was. The medic and I in back are smiling at her, joking a bit, and making the usual post-MVA conversation.
“Yeah I know, the board is uncomfortable but its just precautionary.”
“Did you drink anything tonight?”
“No but I wish I did now”
We all laugh a bit.

We’ve been calm and pleasant and she has gone from sobbing a bit to also calming down and even chuckling a few times at our stupid EMS one-liners.

But it’s an act. We’re blatantly lying.
We know the driver, her fiancé, is dead.
Traumatic arrest on scene.
She doesn’t know yet.
It is a very strange feeling to be interacting with somebody whose world is minutes away from changing completely, and knowing. It’s nauseating.
She asks if we know how he is. We say we don’t, we got to the scene after they took him, which is true. But we heard it all.
The lifestar request, two medic trucks dispatched, call for a third medic, mutual aid from the fire medics in the next town with a BLS crew (us) for transport. 23 year old male, CPR in progress. First medic on scene, cancels lifestar. They’ll transport the arrest to the nearest facility. Not a good sign.

We’re wheeling her into triage and we’re still chatting. The ED is silent, the nurses just stare at us. I explain to her what is going to happen, and ask a few more questions, she smiles at me and says thank you, really sincerely. Painfully sincere.

She asks a nearby nurse if her fiancé was brought here. He fumbles and says he doesn’t know, but to just worry about herself right now. Laying supine and strapped down she can’t see the people whispering around her.

I finish my runform while my partner remakes the stretcher.
“Pt was restrained passenger in high speed MVA with co-occupant fatality. +airbags, -LOC, -head/neck pain. Pt A+Ox4, breathing unlabored, skin w/d. No obvious injuries.”

As we’re leaving we hear sobbing from behind the closed curtain of her room. We walk into the cold night not saying a word as the door shuts behind us.

Part of me wished I was at my aunt’s house, surrounded by my family and gorging myself, blissfully unaware of things outside those walls for the night. The other part of me was and is thankful for experiences like this to put everything else in perspective.

On a lighter note, we started the morning with a kid who stuck skittles up his nose at the movie theater. Ended up being a refusal, apparently someone told him to shut his mouth and blow.

Merry Christmas everyone, spend it with the ones you love.

It’s been awhile, as usual.
Things are… things.
Our first semester is coming to a close, we have finals this week for A+P and PPP… the day after each other. I used an earned day on Wednesday so I could actually maybe study. We already had two review classes last week, tomorrow night is just “critical thinking”, they told us not to bring books and be prepared for anything. I think we’re just going to have some scenarios thrown at us with decisions to make while the instructors try to distract us. I’ve started to voice record classes, hopefully I’ll be able to edit them down and post a few of the more “interesting” snippets on here. Fun stuff like our instructor telling us he is going to hunt us down and murder us if we fail the endocrine quiz.

Had today off, originally. Had a whole lot I was going to get done too, none of which happened, but I’m not too bummed. I ended up volunteering at a toy drive for the children’s hospital at a Toys-R-Us in town. Three of us from the company and a few state troopers were there, and when I left one of our rigs was nearly full, even with the stretcher out. It was amazing to see. I was behind our table at the front of the store accepting the donated toys and tagging them. At one point I was watching a man, probably early 30s, checking out with an entire carriage of toys… stuffed animals, movies, video games, books, legos. It took him awhile too, and I was just thinking to myself… geez, that’s a ridiculous amount of toys. But he finished, started wheeling the carriage out and just stops and says “here you go” and pushes the cart over to our table. I really just stood there dumb founded for a second, before profusely thanking him. It was incredible. It was really up lifting to actually see so many people being compassionate and giving anything they could. Hopefully I can get on the crew that is going to deliver all the toys to the children’s hospital on the 22nd.

We had a day last week at work when we were slammed with transfers but managed to be 100% on time. Management is rewarding us with free breakfast for a week at Between Rounds. I really am glad I came here and not a bigger service.

Have been listening to the new Incubus album pretty consistently since it came out, it’s short but very, very solid. Can’t really compare it to any of their other work, but if anything it feels like a harder version of Morning View… same mature sound.

My dreams lately are getting on my nerves. They’re almost laughable.

I’ve got a wicked cavity and/or abscess in my lower right jaw, but no time to go to the dentist. Loading up on ibuprofen will have to do for now. How I love NSAIDs.

My earrings are back in - it makes me happy, I feel (somewhat) whole again. Thinking about going up to 4g. Probably will now that I have two weeks off of class.

Got my nav system in my car along with XM/navtraffic and my ipod adapter. Love it. Also bought replacement (ahem 118dB) horns to put in next when I clear and paint my headlights.

Working noon to midnight on Christmas Eve, first year in 23 years I wont be at our family gathering. Kind of Really depressed about that. Trying to find a switch but it is probably in vain. I can just sense that I’m going to be working New Years Eve as well.

Haven’t started my Christmas shopping. Sometime this week I suppose.

sigh… a lot’s going on in my head but nothing is making it down to my fingertips.
Apathetically yours,
MT

Placeholder for todays dual MVAs+Team xfer

-two kids huffing head on into truck then building, refusals

- MVA secondary to CVA - bifurcated breast/avulsed hand/good medic

- CCMC team xfer - status asthmaticus 3yo

Went to a code today, #3 since starting at this company. Second call of the day, got dispatched as seizures on a delta response. I don’t know the exact meaning of dispatch coding (we only have hot or cold), but delta is one step below echo, which is the most serious.

En route we hear someone over the town fire frequency say “we have a priority 1 here, dispatch another medic”. There was another call going on for an unresponsive in town, I figured that was the priority.

We arrive relatively quickly at an industrial complex and pull around back where the engine is. A man directs us towards a loading dock, I see a group of 3 firemen crouched on the ground but can’t see a patient. Workers are standing around looking at them. I look closer, one of the fire medics is on his knees, hands interlocked, moving up and down rhythmically.

I turn to my partner who is driving, “Oh look, they’re doing compressions.”

(more…)

placeholder for todays calls for when I feel like writing about them:

-2 altered mental status ladies in same house, no CO, pinpoint pupils/no evidence of opiate abuse, poor respiratory effort