Dropping Like Flies

I worked at the ambulance company today. Did a return to a nursing home; status post something...I can't quite remember what. I think I have early onset dementia.

We did an emergency call to a nursing home in Deerfield for a "lethargic patient." The patient was alert to painful stimuli (sternal rub) only. We did our normal ALS workup-nothing really we could do. The RN said our patient was in the hospital three days ago for the same thing; the doctor said it was a UTI.

I ran into our other shift rig in the ER. They had just taken a patient out of the same nursing home. Their patient was doing really poorly-they needed to intubate her but they were unsuccessful. I wish I would have gotten that call.

We took another lady out of the same nursing home as soon as we cleared up for "abnormal labs." We took her to a hospital 15 miles away. She didn't want to go, but was eventually convinced. She wouldn't let me touch her-I couldn't get any vital signs but respirations. Good thing the "abnormality" was only increased PTINR and not something more serious that truly needed ALS treatment.

People were dropping like flies at that nursing home. We joked that it must be because an RN decided to actually check on the patients for once. The sad thing is that's probably true.

We also did a call for a femur fracture. The guy was 91 years old and had fallen a week ago. They just took X-rays today and it is fractured. The guy was trying to get ahold of his son-calling multiple times. I asked him if he had managed to finally get ahold of him; he said, "no, the damn thing keeps going to something called automated voicemail...whatever the hell that is...his phone must be broken." Needless to say, the guy was a riot all the way to the hospital, and his son got to the hospital about five minutes after we did.

We also did a tranfer to a psych facility from an ICU for an 18 year old who overdosed on Tylenol-he took 80.

Another long shift...school tomorrow

(back dated)

Tutus and tights

Another long day. I was up at 0745 to get ready for school. My dance classes were pretty good. They seemed to last forever because my ass and leg are still killing me from Saturday. My psychology class was okay too. We talked about childhood disorders-easy enough.

I got out of class at 1415 and headed towards the fire department. I had to drop some paperwork off. If only I had been a couple minutes slower (or faster, depending on how you look at it) I would have caught a call. I was about a mile away from the station when the tones dropped for a 10-50 PI. I did a u-turn and headed towards the intersection. I got caught in traffic, and by the time I got close to the scene I heard a neighboring town go on scene, "...on scene, 2 cars minor damage...we'll use our ambulance for transport, continue in with the engine." I turned around and headed back to the station to act as standby. The engine was returned about 2 minutes later-they never made it to the scene. Our ambulance actually did transport one, so I staying at the station until they returned from the hospital.

This is the funny part. As I said above, I was coming back from school. My last class is ballet. So, of course, I was still in my dance clothes: tights, leotard, jazz pants, leg warmers...and clogs. Yeah. Of course I couldn't wear a normal pair of leg warmers; I had to pick the ones that have bright pink and black stripes. I looked like I belonged in the Wizard of Oz. I walked into the station just after the engine returned. I got some pretty funny looks to say the least. All the guys would stare and then ask me to show them a dance. Yeah, great. This is going to be one LONG semester. And people thought they were confused before...today I almost fulfilled some people's wishes-wearing dance clothes and bunker gear, all at once. Maybe on Wednesday :).

Skin Tear

I thought I was going to get off easy last night. So close...yet so far. We got a call around maybe 0200 for a "laceration." At the bottom of the page it said "skin tear." If that wasn't bad enough, it was paged out as ALS. Right... We got there and the guy was completely fine. A minor skin tear that many elderly patients get all the time from being moved in bed, etc. The thing that the nurses must not realize in the nursing home is that the hospital can't do much more than they can. The nurse had already dressed our patient's arm. We were taking him out of the alzheimers ward. All he had to complain about was that it was wet outside and, "where the hell are you taking me?"

Of course, the RN told us to go to a different hospital than the closest. So, I drove the 14.5 miles to this hospital. It was raining and since that was melting the snow, there was a ridiculous amount of fog. Anyways, the guy was still asking where the hell he was going when we got there. We moved him over to the ER bed and the nurse asked if we could take him back. So, we waited. We had also noticed that he had a nasty eye infection when we picked him up, so the ER nurse gave him a tetanus shot, put a tegaderm on his arm, and gave him a prescription for antibiotics for his eyes. And we were enroute back to the nursing home. We got him back in bed and made it back to quarters around 0515.

We were asked to report to our station for crew change at 0745. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts to get bagels and donuts for the station meeting at 0900. I woke up extremely sore and stiff from yesterday. I can't believe it that I actually made it out of bed. My left leg is the worst; my knees are still really swollen, but I think I pulled every muscle that attaches my ass to my leg. I walk like a gimp...and I have dance again tomorrow. Yeah!

I cleaned and did laundry for a good portion of the morning. I have also been studying for most of the day. I did my assignments for both of my dance classes. Then I turned my attention to psychology. I have been freaking out for the past hm...yeah, like 7 hours that I have an exam on Wednesday. I just looked in my notebook to be sure, and realized that it is actually next Wednesday. Whew. Now I can finally take a breather now that it is 2300. Too bad I realized this so late because I really need to start working on my online classes. Oh well.

Auditions

The day has finally come...and I didn't make that big of a fool out of myself! Wow. It was hard, but I had a really good time. All I could think about was how much fun it would be to be in the recital in April. There were a few dances that I wouldn't want to do. One was a tribal dance and one was just too tough. It was for "advanced" dancers with two or more years of experience; definitely not me. If you have ever seen "Center Stage" you would recognize the dance. The music is really good for it but I would make a fool out of myself. There were way too many turns and I am way too dyslexic. Every other move was a turn and I was getting so dizzy I felt like I had been in a spinning teacup at the fair for hours.

There were about 15 dances all together that we had to learn as a group. Then they split us up into groups of about 10 (we had to wear number) to perform. It was kind of scary because since your group is only made up of about 10 people, and you are dancing in front of a wall sized mirror, there was a constant reminder that the other 60 people were watching your every move.

It was definitley an experience. There were several dances that I really liked; hopefully I will get into them for the show. The results of the audition will be posted on Wednesday. I still love to dance...but I don't think my knees agree with me. I used to think my knees looked bad after I would return home from fire training. That was nothing. Both of my knees are swollen and bruised and have pieces of skin that were rubbed off from doing floor moves. Right below my knee and part of my shin is also torn up-it is sticking out about an inch or so from my leg. It looks terrible. I also feel like I broke my butt.

I got to work around 1400. Not feeling too bad...yet. I will be paying for this tomorrow. We did one call- a return to a nursing home. Hopefully we are in for a quiet night.

Nervous

Today has been relatively uneventful. I ran some errands and paid some bills. That is about it. I had to drive to Libertyville to get leg warmers. Yep...I said leg warmers. I feel like I've been sent back to the 80s but oh well.

I can't believe my audition is tomorrow. I think I am going to make a complete and utter fool of myself. I guess it's not that big of a deal. There will probably be tons of people there-none that I know, and if I look stupid it won't really matter. The only problem is that I really do want to succeed. Part of it is just to prove everyone wrong that thought I wouldn't go through with the whole "dance" thing. (I feel like I'm on an episode of "Made" on MTV). But, the rest of me wants to do this just for me. I have a good time dancing and it is kind of an outlet for me. Oh well, we shall see what I think about it after tomorrow.

Blah

I have done absolutely nothing all day. Let's see...um...I think I did some laundry, took a nap, and took another nap. That is basically it. I came into work at 2000. All I have done is check out the ambulance. Hopefully we get a call soon. For some reason if we get a call it is either between 2200 and 2300 or 0245 and 0330. I haven't had too many in between those time frames. It is really weird. Oh well. I made a half ass attempt at making a lasagna thing in the microwave, but I guess I must really suck at cooking because I nearly ruined it. The cheese didn't seem to be melting...oh well. It tasted okay. Now I sit and wait, as usual. Maybe I will finally get a call. I can't remember my last shift there when we actually got one. :(

Invisible Voice

Another long day. I had school until 1415. All of my classes went well. My dance classes have been fun so far...except the tights, leotard...yeah. I went to work at 1500. We were busy all day and night. We ran almost all emergency calls.

One was for "altered mental status." When we got there the call wasn't actually for an altered mental status. The guy had a 102.5 fever, was sweating profusely and had an oxygen sat of about 79%. We got him all settled on the cot, put him on the monitor, tried to start a line and failed and put him on a NRB. His sats went up to about 94%. I noticed that his right leg was extremely swollen and red. The nurse said they never noticed it. Right. He was probably septic.

After that we got a call for SOB. The lady was sitting at a 90 degree angle, was extremely pale and was puffing away. Her lungs were so wet you could hear it without a stethoscope and her legs had pitting edema. Her oxygen sats were pretty low. The RN at the nursing home had already given her 40 mg Lasix IM and a neb treatment. We got her out to the rig, started a line and started pushing drugs. I gave her a nitro and called in my tele report and asked for orders. I got orders for 40 mg Lasix IV and another neb treatment. I was excited that I got to push three drugs on one call. The lady had pinked up quite a bit and was feeling somewhat better. The call went well and it made my night-I actually functioned as a medic for once :).

We took a 15 month old to Children's in Milwaukee. The baby had down's syndrome and had pulled out his G-tube. The transport was uneventful. We didn't get back until after 0400.

We also did another SOB call. The nursing home was practically .2 miles from the hospital. We drove over 12 miles with lights and sirens to get there. According to the nurse the guy had SOB with wheezing. The patient had alzheimers and didn't remember being short of breath. He was in no distress and wasn't wheezing anymore. We transported, minimal ALS (just the monitor) and turned over care to the ER. We didn't get done until 0750. We got back to the station for shift change around 0830. Another day of being held over, but it was a good shift, so I can't complain...well at least not too much.

There was only one thing wrong with my shift-the dispatchers. I swear to God that when I talk to them on the Nextel, my lips move but obviously no sound comes out because they never hear me.

Me: "Ambulance 15...we got the page..."

30 seconds later, Dispatch: "Ambulance 15 did you get the page?"

Me: "Ambulance 15...en route..."

Dispatch: "Ambulance 15 are you going with the page?"

Me: "Ambulance 15 we are on scene..."

About 5 minutes later, Dispatch: "Ambulance 15, what's your ETA?"

I just don't understand. Then my parter will talk to them, "Ambulance 15 we are leaving scene..."

Dispatch: "Ambulance 15 I've got you leaving scene."

What the hell gives? I must have an "invisible voice" because they never hear me. I thought for a millisecond that maybe they couldn't understand me because of my new found lisp from my tongue piercing. But then I remembered that they have been doing this to me for months.

My partner just laughs at me. As soon as the Nextel beeps I start cursing and then have a nice pleasant voice when I talk to dispatch. Then I release the D/C button and start cursing again. Then they ask me more stupid questions, which makes me continue to swear, sometimes louder, and throw the Nextel across the room. Sometimes I can't even bring myself to talk to them because I know it doesn't matter if I tell them I received the page, or that I am on scene, because they will still continue to ask if I got the page, and what my ETA is. I just can't win. At least if I don't answer the first time, I get some peace of mind because when they ask me what my ETA is, I just tell them, "-5 minutes, we're already on scene." Someday, maybe, they will answer my call...until then, say some prayers for the Nextel; I hope it lasts through the abuse.

(back dated)