Sunday

I can't believe how late it is already. When my shift falls on a Sunday it is always up in the air as to whether we will be busy or slow. It is never in between. Today I am going with the latter. We did one call- a return to a nursing home for a 58 year old man s/p left BKA. It was a quick call and we were back in quarters...and we still are.

My tongue is killing me. I look like I am having an allergic reaction to something. It is so swollen :( I'm really not too sure what possessed me to do it. Oh well. (Just don't tell my mom...). I tried to eat some ice cream and soup, but two bites in I couldn't eat anymore.

I have slept for a considerable portion of the day. I didn't bring my school books, which was a stupid idea because I had plenty of time to study. I think I got myself in pretty deep this semester- 19 credits is going to kill me. Oh well. If the online class doesn't work out I guess it won't be too bad-I'll just have to eat the cost for the books. We shall see. I would like to finish all the classes if I plan on getting my degrees any time soon.

We did a couple other calls. All of which interrupted the night perfectly so I didn't get to sleep. We did a psych transport. The guy was in 4-point restraints when we got to the ER. The staff said he had "cooled down" so they removed the restraints. He was acting slightly odd, but he was okay for the ride. When we took him upstairs we told him to have a seat in the conference room and someone would be right with him-he slammed the door in my face. Nice. I talked to the security guard later at night after we returned from another call. I guess he was wandering into other patient's rooms and acting psychotic again so they had to medicate him and put him in the quiet room. Oh well. I ended up in Skokie once. Then another call about 1 1/2 hours later. Damn. Oh well. Another busy day of school ahead.

I have pictures of the fire coming soon; as soon as I get a chance to use my own computer.

Blizzard

I got to class on time at 1100. It was somewhat interesting. I realized just how much different I am from my classmates. They were all awake and talkative-having just slept through another night. I had sped my way to the college for fear of being late, still in my uniform, I didn't get to shower, and I was on my second can of mountain dew AMP. Halfway through the lecture I cracked open my third. I was exhausted, but jittery from all the caffeine. I barely made it through the lecture without falling asleep. 

I also noticed how much I know (or how little others know) about medical problems. We were talking about different psychological theories and one of the guys brough up diabetes. He was trying to associate it with what we were studying. It seemed to make perfect sense to him, my professor, and the rest of the class. Only, they don't know the disease process and how the body truly works. I almost spoke up and tried to explain why that was wrong, but decided against it because I'm sure nobody would understand what I was saying. So, I just kept to myself and enjoyed the rest of the class as people piped in about other assorted diseases that they didn't understand.

I had to drive 15 miles to get shoes for dance class. Wow are they expensive. Oh well. I ran a lot of errands and cleaned up the house. I hung out with a good friend of mine for most of the day.

We got a terrible snow storm. I knew it was coming but the TV said 3-5 inches. What they didn't say was that we should really expect about a foot and it is extremely heavy snow. Thank God my friend had 4-wheel drive on his jeep. We decided around 2100 to go to Wal Mart. We saw many people in the ditches, but no good accidents. We bought some saucers to go sledding with. We drove to both my fire department and his to say hi. His department had already ran 10 calls since the snow started falling around 1800. They were crazy busy. Most were for downed wires or transformers that had exploded, I think there might have been one or two rescue calls mixed in.

We are back at my apartment now listening to the pager. Hopefully we'll get something good-even if it's only to watch. By the time we would make it to the station in this weather we wouldn't make the first out engine/ambulance anyways.

Wow. I don't think the day could have dragged out any longer. We did a lift assist at 0900. After that we did absolutely nothing until almost midnight.

Tonight was the first night of the EMT-B class that I teach for. I am stationed in the same building that it is taught at. I went downstairs to see what the cat dragged in this semester. There are about 75 students. I helped out ushering the students in and getting them settled in. Then I just hung out with the other instructors until almost 2200. Still no calls. I went back up to our "quarters" on the second floor. I tried to go to sleep, but sure enough we got a call. Our dispatcher told us that we had a call downstairs- a student from the paramedic class that was going on up on the seventh floor was having chest pain. Her boyfriend brought her down in a wheelchair to the ambulance. She had a cardiac history and was scheduled for surgery at the end of the month. We really couldn't do much for her-she had no veins and refused to let us use either of her ACs. So, with nothing for veins in her hand, and stable vitals, we just drove her to the hospital-practically BLS (besides the monitor).

We ran several other calls after that and had about an hour break. It was 0750 when I was awoken by the Nextel. We had a call...our off time was in ten minutes. They sent us on priority to a nursing home for "hypoxia." The woman had a history of internal bleeding among many other things, was extremely pale and had passed out twice prior to our arrival. The RN said that her oxygen sats dropped to 88% on two liters, so they put her on a NRB. She was at 100% when we got there. No problem. The RN had also noted a large lump under the woman's armpit and bruising on her breast and down the side of her ribs. It started two days ago. Hopefully it's not advanced cancer that they just didn't have the time to notice. I have taken her before. Last time she needed a blood transfusion. She was doing pretty well when we left.

I got out at 0945; just in time to leave for class.

Sleep is Definitely Overrated

Another day with no sleep. I got back from work around 0900. My mom and brother came down today because my mom had an interview at a local hospital. My mom slept for a good portion of the morning because she drove all night to get here (over 320 miles). I took my brother on the grand tour of the town. He got to see the fire station I work at, the station for my ambulance company and all the wonderful parts of town. He hasn't been down here for years; since before I moved down here for college in the beginning of 2003.

I took my mom to her interview at 1600. I guess it went really well. If all goes well she will be moving down here within the month. She can't stand the weather and the "tiny town" atmosphere of northern Wisconsin. They had to leave right afterwards because she had to work overnight.

I had just enough time to shower and get my bag packed for work. I'm at the fire house tonight. I am hoping for calls, but no such luck yet. They toned out for a call that should have been ours, but for some reason they gave it to the next town over-the usual confusion on the borders. Oh well. Maybe more to come tonight. I just have to finish checking out the rig and work out my February schedule. Then maybe I will get some sleep. I start school tomorrow at 0930.

Stinky Feet

Today was very busy. I am posting this late-as usual on a busy day. It started out rather slow with a transfer to cath lab from a local hospital to one about 13 miles away. Then we did an ALS MRI. This is when things started to turn for the worse. We picked up this girl that was only 20 years old and was going to rule out CVA. She was barely with it, just moaning every once in a while. We got her at 1315. Her MRI wasn't scheduled until 1500. So, we sat and waited (mind you she is on the cardiac monitor this whole time) until 1500 rolled around, and passed. The guy that was in the scanner was so obese that they had to add an extra 10 minutes to his scan to get enough views. The girl had been given valium before we left the hospital so that she would lie still during the test. Her left side was flaccid, but she was constantly moving her right. Needless to say, she didn't last through the scan. Her meds wore off and she wouldn't stop moving. Four hours wasted.

We had a slight lull in the afternoon before we got our asses handed to us. We did countless psych transfers. The first one was a guy that beat up his girlfriend; easy enough. One guy seemed pretty cool...until I got the full story. He had multiple problems including drug abuse and bipolar disorder. Then he decided to tell us that he thinks he has scabies and wondered if they tested him for it at the hospital. We just said, "probably not if you didn't tell them, but they will test you at the new hospital." I felt my skin crawling instantly. Another bad start to the night. 

There was another guy in the ER when we left that was a psych. He had been there for quite a while-he was yelling many things, most of which I couldn't understand. His door was shut, and the nurse kindly told us that he was the next one to go. He was in four point restraints and wasn't a little guy, so we told her to request 2 guys-we didn't want any trouble. Yeah, she didn't do that. She also told us that he smelled really bad. I figured she was pulling my string, until she walked into the room with a mask on. Great. Sure enough as soon as we cleared from the previous transport we were sent for him. We heard the nurse receiving report on the psych floor. She told the ER to sedate him. We got there are he did seem a bit quieter. He would have short little outbursts punctuated by long pauses in which all his facial muscles would relax and he would just sit there with his jaw practically resting on his chest. Then he would repeat the cycle. The nurse gave him a "bath," although it didn't seem to help much. I still made my partner drive with the windows down. During the ride he would babble and I could only understand a word for about every 200 he said, such as "cigarettes," "mom," "basketball," and "Sopranos." He was talking a mile a minute. Although I know we shouldn't mess with a patient's mind, it seemed quite harmless. Our dispatcher made some comments to us about the call beforehand when we told her to call another crew because of his aggressiveness and just being a complete whack job. She didn't believe us and laughed it up. So, we dialed dispatch, got her on the line and told the patient that someone wanted to talk to him. He was like, okay then. So I handed him the phone and he was like, "Hey man, what's up?" And a whole lot of words I didn't understand, then "Ohhh...they hung up." The whole time she was still on the line. The best way to describe this guy is to refer to any movie that includes Jim Carey in it, such as "Liar, Liar," "the Truman show," or "Bruce Almighty," when he wigs out and he makes all those funny noises and faces while he is trying with all his might to either form words (Liar, Liar) or messing with others (Bruce Almighty). It took a lot to get through this call, but once it was over with and I didn't have to smell him anymore, I was good to go.

We then continued out the night with several other calls, which I don't remember most of. I do remember running an emergency call in the middle of the night for severe abdominal pain. Instead, when we got on scene the guy's catheter wasn't emptying properly and he was bleeding into the bag. Okay, not so bad. But, since we knew we would be out forever we decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and run it as an emergency call, after all it could be considered "internal bleeding." It was nothing major. We took him back to the nursing home 3 hours later.

We only did a total of eight calls; five after 2200. It was busy and I didn't get any sleep at all. Damn. Another busy day ahead of me. I feel like I haven't slept in days.

(back dated)

Moving Up

Wow. Another wasted day off-as usual. I almost hate having days off. I always feel so un-productive (I don't even think that is a word). I actually accomplished a lot today, but it is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment I feel after a nice long day of work. Damn. Is that weird? Is there something wrong with me that I can't enjoy a day off? Oh well.

My roommate's old room is stilled all messed up. The maintenance guys and the painters are coming to see it tomorrow to see what they can do to fix it. I cleared out my closet early this morning (in my bedroom) and emptied out the rest of the room by 1300. Then I taped down the drop cloth and only got one wall primed before it was too dark to continue. 

All my bedroom stuff had to be moved into the living room. It looks pretty odd. It reminds me of a lot of patients I take. You know, the ones that live in a two story house, or even a one story with tight hallways; they move the bed and other essentials into the living room or dining room because it is 1. on the first floor, and 2. it makes for easier access for the fire department or paramedics to get to the patient without having to take out a wall or use a stair chair. It makes me feel really stupid. Whatever. Soon enough this will all be over and my bedroom will actually be in the bedroom. Ugh.

I had another CO incident very late last night (early this morning). I was hoping the incident would blow over before I had to call in the fire department, but no such luck. My alarm starting going off in the living room, and both me and my friend that was over felt nauseous and had headaches (which we had been feeling for almost 12 hours at this point). We had just opened all the windows in the apartment and vented it out until it was too cold to continue. We did too good of a job I guess because by the time the fire department showed up they couldn't detect any CO and the detector stopped going off. Of course, they sent the ambulance too because we were having symptoms, so we both ended up signing AMA. Another wonderful day off.

Time to get my laundry and everything else done before I go to sleep. Another big day at the amublance company tomorrow.

Friday the 13th

I'm back to work today. Yeah! It started out with a psych transfer at 0830. It was for a "homicidal" patient. Just what I need on my first day back-someone that wants to kill me. Oh well. While we were waiting for paperwork there was a lady down the hall that was calling out, "hello? Hello? Hello?" Over and over again. I predict she will be our next transfer. Maybe she was just holding her phone upside down, what do I know. It's good to see not much has changed. The patients are the same, the crews that I run into are the same, and the paperwork is never ready when we get there. Ahhh...life is good.

We are back in quarters. Welcome home. I forgot how uncomfortable my bed is. This is going to be a long shift-I feel like I just came out of retirement or something. It's good to be back.

We were actually busy for almost the entire shift. I had predicted a while back that my first day back would be filled with BLS, psych patients and fat people. I was completely right. We only got one ALS page for a patient that was confusted s/p falling. Yeah...it wasn't ALS at all, the guy had just been admitted and the nursing staff didn't know him. They just didn't want to deal with his problems. They said, "well, he was lethargic when he got here...he just seems more confused...he ripped open his old g-tube site but I steri-stripped it...we don't really know, he was just admitted this morning at 1130..." Yeah, so nobody knew anything, the guy was uncooperative, and after contacting the hospital (the one he just happened to have been discharged from), they said just to bring him in-no interventions needed. The guy flailed around on the cot so much that we had to wrap him up in a blanket like a burrito and secure the straps. He kept yelling at me (while I was giving report on telemetry); "You cut my legs off!" Good times.

We had a psych patient that was really crazy. She said that all cops and doctors are going to die...that we were cops there to take her away, and that all she needed was a shot of penicillin for her pneumonia and she would be fine. She also needed a gown so she could go to L.A. She said both my partner and I would be killed (because we were "cops").

We also did a few other basic transports. I don't remember them all. Mostly psych patients. When we took our last patient out of the local hospital, they still had 8 psych patients that needed trasfers. Surprisingly we didn't get any of them. The psych ward in town only had one more bed after the last patient we took there. It looks like the rest are headed for the city.

I think we only did eight calls altogether, but only two of them were before 2000; six were between 2000 and 0800. Yuck-a very long night.

Today I did absolutely nothing. I slept until 1400. I am now getting my apartment ready to paint and fix it up-seeing as my roommate's old room is in ruins and I need to repaint it. Now I am hanging out with a friend. I hope my CO detectors are working because we both have bad headaches and are nauseous. They aren't going off and I don't smell any natural gas or anything. I'd feel like an idiot if I called the fire department and they didn't find anything. I figure if one of us passes out I will call. Until then, I will suffer. I just don't want to look stupid. I already had one CO incident this year, and with my luck it would be the same crew that would show up this time.