Service Car

Well today was my first day back on the streets I guess you could say. I've been off from work since the middle of April after being crushed by a 400+ pound patient (that should have been a medicar call). Yesterday was my official day back, but I shuffled papers and took an ambulance out of state that needed to be fixed at the dealership.

The day started out pretty well. I was rather interested in what I would be doing. My supervisor told me I was going to be an "escort." Of course with this dirty little mind I have, I harassed him about giving me such a job. In the end, I was quite basically a taxi driver.

I got my rig, nextel, keys, pager....all the good stuff. I had no idea what I was doing so I asked if I needed to do any paperwork and how I was supposed to go up in service and such. One of the supervisors told me I needed to do paperwork, so I brought some with. That was all good.

I go up in service and I felt ridiculous calling up as a medicar. My dispatcher gave me a ton of crap because our nextels have been acting up after the recent storms and I can't understand him half of the time, I kept saying "huh? Can you say that again?" He kept shooting stuff back at me about the fact that I'm in critical care and I can't even function as a "courtesy van."

I must say it was still quite interesting. I know one thing I'm not good at-trying to figure out the damn lift on the side for wheelchairs. I read the directions. I had the parking break on. I got it down and got my first patient into the rig, then I got the lift up....and I couldn't get it to fold into the rig. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why it wasn't working (besides that I have absolutely NO training with it), so I kept keying up my dispatcher and he's talking me through it, speaking slowly just to imply how ridiculous I sound. I was getting flustered because I still have this lady staring at me from the seat wondering what the hell is wrong with me. So, I kicked the lift with one foot and pushed it up with my right arm and "BAM!" I got it up. Good times.

I did quite a few psych returns. I think those were my favorite today because the ones I had bickered and cussed at each other the whole time. I was amused. I basically went in circles around the city, ending up way out on the west side of the city by the days end, and stuck in rush hour traffic. I was supposed to be off at 1600....I didn't make it to base until 1830.

I'm back on tomorrow at 0800. Let's see what the day brings....

MIA

I will start posting new entries soon!  I'm currently off with a wrist injury but I should be back to full duty within the month :)  I haven't posted in forever!

Dream

Sorry once again I haven't written much recently. I am really trying to get myself on the right track. Let's just say I'm having some life problems right now. Or something.

But I do almost have a story. Not about a call per-say....but a dream. I had a dream in my like 1/2 hour of sleep about a call. It was a full arrest. All out-CPR, rhythms, starting lines, pushing drugs, etc. It was like a mega-code in medic school. Haha. It didn't really bother me until I got to the firehouse this morning...I think bother is the wrong word. Maybe concern. I was talking with my partner and he was like, oh shit! I had a dream that I was doing CPR! So yeah. Hopefully it doesn't come true today. I would like a nice (insert "s" word) day :).

I Apologize

For my absence recently...well actually for a couple of months. I have just had a lot going on. I was actually sick myself for nearly this entire month. I was in the hospital for several days, and I have been going back and forth with specialists. Definitely my idea of fun. I hate hospitals. And quite honestly I don't care for doctors, nurses, or the lot. Haha. Well, they're all okay unless I'm the one that's sick. I just don't like being the patient at all. And I'm a horrible patient because of it. I usually wait until the very last second to go to the ER. For example: I had an asthma attack this summer, while I was working, and I sat at the station in my bed, for at least an hour before my partner forced me to go. At the hospital I stopped breathing several times. Ha. But I still lived, so I still plan on waiting until I can't any longer.

Work has been pretty much the same. Some good calls...many not so good calls. I delivered my first baby this month. That was probably the best call I have ever been on.

I just got off work this morning from the ambulance company. Yesterday's shift was a complete nightmare. I started at 0700 and I was ready to leave by 1000. It was just bad. It wasn't like we were extremely busy or anything. We only ran five calls in 24 hours. We were just all over the place, ending up out of the county and running calls that another station should have been running, etc. The normal b.s. And absolutely everyone was crabby. It was ridiculous. And my partner and I were crabby as well. I swear we were getting CO poisoning in our rig or something because we were both feeling sick and dizzy. Like if I moved my head too fast, I would still be seeing whatever I was looking at before...and not what I was actually looking at. It was very odd. They kept us up for practically the entire shift. As soon as we'd drift off, the nextel would go off with another call. Typical day. I think the dispatchers time us so that as soon as we should be sleeping, they wake us up...like they purposely hold calls for that hour so that they can have the pleasure of disturbing my sleep. Oh well.

Anyways, I hope to update this much more often from now on. I'm sorry it took me so long! But hopefully some interesting calls soon.

Christmas Music

A very slow day to begin with. We didn't do anything until the evening. I was hoping to keep it that way. Although quite boring, I would prefer to do nothing and get paid for it sometimes than cart around people that should be taking a taxi. Oh well.

All hell broke loose around 1800. We were called to a nursing home for chest pain. We got on scene, did our workup and determined that it was most likely a respiratory problem and not cardiac. Our patient had crackles in his lungs, just on the right side...probably pneumonia.

We had just made it back to quarters and got into bed (by this time it was around 2200 after getting dinner, etc) and we were called to a stand-by emergency room for a psych eval. Okay, no biggie. Just grab and go, drop 'em off and go back to bed. Well, it wasn't that easy. The nurse only gave us like maybe 1/16 of the story. She was actually an overdose. On cocaine, meth, trazadone, a bunch of psych meds, and pain killers. She was dizzy and nearly fell over getting onto the cot. Then she was hallucinating in the back of the ambulance. She said, "I really like what you've done with the place. Those curtains are beautiful!" Now mind you, we don't have any curtains, and our rig is definitely not beautiful. Then she asked why we were outside, and starting flipping out again trying to get the blanket over her head to suffocate herself. A little Narcan did the trick (kinda) but she was still hallucinating when we left the ER.

Made it back to quarters again. Laid down for 15 minutes. Called to transfer a psych to the state mental hospital. I was cursing and going on for several minutes because it is over 60 miles away. We got to the ER and I walk with the stretcher past the nurses station. The nurse grabbed my arm and was like, "you can't go in there without security!" I was like, "well, I wasn't planning on it, I'm just getting the cot out of the way." Whatever. So, we wait forever for paperwork, as usual, and finally we meet our patient. Before we even get a chance to open the door she opens it and yells at my partner, "you don't need to be knocking on my door, it is rude!" He never even touched the door. It took a lot of convincing, or rather several large security guards, to get her onto the cot. She loved the four point restraints. Ha. And even made my partner swear which takes quite a bit. The ride was actually quite funny. First I was listening to like pop/rock music, but I can't stand commercials, so then I changed it to country. Then that had commercials eventually too, so I changed it to Christmas music. Ooooh...that's when the fun started. She hated the music. So what did I do, you ask? I turned it up. And we both started singing, quite loudly I might add. For over 40 miles of the trip :). When we got there she said we stole her candy and that my partner's sister was a bitch, which she was referring to me. Then she got to fight with the guards at the mental hospital, so we headed home. Another life saved.

We did another transfer to a nursing facility out of the ER. This place is quite creepy. We always call the buildings bomb shelters. They are very funny looking and out of place, and there are maybe 50 of them. Very hard to find the one you need. And the lady was hacking and coughing all over my rig. Ugh. Disgusting.

We got back to quarters at 0654. At least I wasn't held over.

Your Patient

Busy day. We did a four hour ALS MRI. Those are my least favorite calls. In fact I hate doing them. It drives me crazy every time I get dipatched to one.

Lots of silly transfers....mostly rehab, psychs, and a few going back to nursing homes.

And I forgot my coat at home today so I froze to death until the evening. Then we got a call going to a nursing home near my house so we stopped afterwards and grabbed it.

Then we were dispatched for chest pain at a nursing home two towns away. The roads were kind of slick and it was really foggy out, so it took us a little while to get there. The lady was fine. All her vitals were good. She said it just hurt when she would breathe. She was just diagnosed with pneumonia/bronchitis last week.

When we were leaving the ER the FD was bringing a guy in that I had taken last week with chest pain. He was out of a nursing home. And one of the guys said, "yeah, we had to pick up your patient." Like the nursing isn't in their district. Dummies. That was the first time we had seen them at the ER all day, and we had been there at least 5 times already.

Took a crazy pysch patient that reminded me of a toddler because she asked "why" about everything. And she was being an ass, so we cranked the Christmas music and sang all the way to the psych hospital. The best song is actually a Hawaiian song called "Melekelikimaka" which means merry christmas, or happy Christmas. Yep. I went to the national fire academy and met some really cool guys from Hawaii. And I learned a lot. But anyways, it was an okay shift.

I was only peeved when we were woken at 0430 for a medicar call going to same day surgery...which doesn't even open until 0600. The nurse had a fit and flipped out on my partner and I, like we wanted to bring him early, like we didn't want to still be in bed. Hmph.

No...Just call 9-1-1

I started work as usual at 0700. We got a call at 0712. We were called for shortness of breath. The only bad part was that the nursing home we were sent to is about a 30 minute drive even with lights and sirens. So, we get down there, making decent time, and pull into the nursing home. We hit the "on scene" button on the computer in the rig, and just as I am taking off my seatbelt and opening the door, my dispatcher beeps us on the Nextel, "You guys can disregard...the facility is calling 9-1-1." I told dispatch, "But, we are already here...we're going in right now." She says, "Well, now they don't want us they want to wait for 9-1-1. You guys can stand down and return to quarters." I was like, whatever. We got back in the rig and left. I don't understand the nurse's logic. You call a private ambulance and accept a 30-40 minute ETA. The ambulance pulls into the parking lot as you are on the phone with dispatch asking for another ETA. They tell you that the crew just pulled up. So now you decide that the patient is too critical to wait and call 9-1-1, after 30 minutes? What the hell. I mean, if that floats your boat, by all means, but it just confused the hell out of me.

We left there and got back to quarters about 40 minutes later. I had just gotten my boots and socks off when dispatch, once again, sends us lights and sirens to a nursing home about 30 minutes away. We get dressed, get in the rig and head out. We are called for "Tachycardia...the pt is also complaining of SOB, fever and altered mental status." Okay.....

We get on scene after dealing with every single idiot in the world on the road we were on, and head inside. We get to the room and speak with the caregiver. She says that the patient was up, talking, eating and even brushed her teeth this morning. When she came back to check on her she was, well, not herself. Our patient was slumped over in her wheelchair, wasn't speaking, had a blood pressure of 70, a blood glucose of almost 400, and had a heart rate around 130 with an elevated T-wave. Yeah. Needless to say we didn't stay and play long. We were heading out to the rig and the caregiver hands me her cell phone, and said, "It's the family, they want to talk to you." I politely declined and said that I couldn't share any patient info over the phone. The caregiver asked me if we were going to go to her desired hospital (which was about 30 minutes away). I told her we would try, but there was a 99.9% chance we would be diverted. She got pissed and told us they didn't like the closest hospital. I aksed if she was a DNR, and the caregiver said yes...but of course she couldn't produce it. To make a long story short we went to the closest facility. We got her blood pressure up to 100 systolic, but she was big time messed up. I'm sure she's in ICU right about now.

We did a transfer for a hip fracture.....

Then a psych transfer. This woman was absolutely disgusting. She was psychotic. Very upset about everything. She had been smearing feces and menstrual blood all over the walls and her body. Her hair was all matted. And she had sores on her feet from never wearing shoes. Ugh. She was completely uncooperative, then laughing, the yelling, then asking about our credentials, and asking to see another doctor. Yeah. So, we ended up cranking the Christmas music up and singing aloud for the whole three mile transport. :) Yeah, we're evil...going to hell on the express bus.

All in all, a good shift.