Shortness of Breath

Two calls for shortness of breath today.

The first one we were dispatched to came across as "20 y/o female not breathing." Of course we hauled butt, meeting up with another medic and a police officer on scene. They ran in with the AED while I got the clipboard and my partner got the jumpbag. I was the first one in the door; there was a young woman sitting in a kitchen chair in very mild distress. She said she just felt like it was hard to breathe. She didn't want to go by ambulance, but she finally gave in. She had a history of anxiety and had been sick with the flu all week. Nothing out of the ordinary-just another SOB call.

Second call was also for shortness of breath. It was an elderly woman sitting on the edge of her bed, with her oxygen already on, complaining that it was hard to breathe. She wasn't too sure about her history, but I got what I needed off of her prescription bottles. She had pitting edema in all extremities. Thank goodness she had one of those motorized chairs to get to the first floor, because we would have had a hell of a time getting her outside. Once in the rig we worked our magic, called the hospital and were on our way.

I forgot how much I absolutely love this time of year. It was a beautiful day and I made sure I took my time cleaning so that I could leave the bay doors open. Ahhh...I did some cleaning and training in the afternoon. Nothing out of the ordinary. I took some online terrorism awareness courses which were actually somewhat challenging. Something good to do with my free time I guess.