The oncoming crew was late getting back. I got stuck doing station duties for an hour and a half. After they got back we stayed in quarters for about a half an hour. Then the fun started.
The first call...I can't even remember. I did a call for abdominal pain from an acute care center to an ER. Uneventful. I think we did a few BLS returns too. I can't recall. I'm too tired.
We ran to another hospital to pick up a blood pressure cuff that was left on a patient earlier in the day. Then we sat for about an hour, holding a hospital parking lot. We got our first call going to the city. An infant with a fever for five days, going to the Children's hospital. Then we cleared up and went right to another call for a fever in a nursing home. The woman was more lethargic than usual according to the RN and had a fever of 100.3. We transported to a city hospital. We made it all the way back up north, and had just gotten into quarters. They needed us for another transport to Children's. This time for an eye laceration. The three year old needed surgery. He tripped and fell into a dresser-head first. The corner cut his eyelid, and into the muscle; which would no longer function. On the way to Children's, I had my first run-in with the cameras at red lights. There are two lights, spaced only about 30 feet apart on one of the main roads that I took. The first light turned yellow, but I wasn't going to slam on the brakes. I slowed down so I could stop without jolting my parter and patient at the second light. This made me slow down through the first intersection, causing me to prolong my time in the intersection. Needless to say, I was still in the intersection when the light turned red. It looked like a lightning storm or the paparazzi were after me. The whole intersection lit up with probably 30 different flashing white lights. I had been caught on camera in a red light. Uh oh. There was no way I could have avoided it. I had to write up an incident report on it in case they try to fine the company (or me), because I wasn't running hot...I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I headed back up north again. We got a call for a patient in the "standby ER" with abdominal pain. Easy enough transport. We did a dialysis call-direcly out of the ER. We got back to quarters, shut off the lights, and got our final call of the day at 0615. It was for a fall at a nursing home about 20 minutes away. The lady had a laceration above her left eyebrow and was complaining about shoulder pain...amongst every other pain possible (leg, neck, back, arm). We took her to a hospital about 15 minutes west of there. I cleared up at 0745. My dispatcher told me we had another call-just a bounce across town. Personally, I was sick of being held over. By the time I would even get to quarters without the call, it would be at least 0815-not including paperwork. We spoke with our oncoming crew and they agreed to take the call. We got back to quarters, I did my paperwork, and I was out the door by 0850.
I have been running my ass off all week. My apartment is finally starting to look better. I got one room completely painted. Finally.
Work was crazy too. I worked shift on Monday and we got our butts kicked. I think we only ran maybe seven calls in 16 hours, but I was in the city, out west, in Wisconsin...all over the place.
Thursday's shift wasn't too bad. We ran about 5 calls in 24 hours. Nothing too exciting.
My hands are still messed up-especially my right one (thank God I'm left handed!). The swelling has gone down, but my skin is peeling. Yucky. I got feeling back in my left hand by Monday morning. My right hand is really weak; it feels like I had a stroke. I can't hold anything without dropping it, and it hurts to squeeze anything. My palm and thumb are really swollen; the base of my thumb (by the palm of my hand) is bruised. I'm not too sure what that is from. I found multiple other bruises-most of which I can identify the cause. My knees are bruised and swollen, but that is definitely from crawling through debris. My left elbow is bruised-that is from bashing it into an electrical conduit while breaching a wall. Good times. I look like a victim of abuse. I guess I am, but it is self inflicted...just not on purpose.
I went up to northern Wisconsin on Friday morning. I had to move more of my Mom's stuff. I also visited with some family that I haven't seen for nearly a year. We got back tonight. I'm back on shift in the AM.
I feel like I aged 20 years overnight. I got to the firehouse at 0645 for training. We left around 0700 to the house we are using in the next town over. It is freezing cold outside; I have under armour and several layers on, including my turnouts, and I think my core temperature is still right around 90. Damn.
My first drill was on the roof. The house has a very steep roof...and I'm not too fond of heights if I am not tied off. There was about a 6-8 foot gap between the ladder I used to get up on the roof and the roof ladder. Yeah...not so good. I was praying that I would make it to the ladder with my tools in hand, rather than crashing to my death on the frozen ground. I could feel my boots slipping as I inched up the side of the roof. It seemed to take forever, but I finally got the pike pole hooked on the ladder and I was able to pull myself up a little better. Whew. And that was the easy part. I still had to make it to the very top. It wasn't too bad. I sat over the peak of the roof and started chopping away. I chopped with the axe from one side of the roof, over the beam, and to the other side. Then I switched places with my partner and I tore off shingles. Then it was time to power up the chain saw and cut ventilation holes. I have trouble started the chainsaw on the ground...let alone on the roof. It got started and I actually had a pretty good time. The only bad part about being on the roof for about an hour was the wind hitting my face. It was hovering right around 0 degrees and my skin felt like it was burning off. I guess two days in a row out in this weather probably wasn't such a good idea. Oh well.
I went through a station that we pulled ceiling, floors and walls-the same way we would be looking for fire extension and for investigation purposes. There was a mouse in the floor. It came out when I started to pound on the boards with the axe. Yuck.
The next station we broke windows and talked about ventilation. We also breached walls, and dragged a "downed firefighter" across the floor, and up and down the stairs.
I was completely exhausted by the end. My back was tense and I couldn't feel my fingers or toes. During one of the evolutions, when it came time to remove our masks, I couldn't do it. My fingers refused to tighten on the connection, and my officer had to undo it.
I was glad when the time came to pack up and go home. There was lots of cleaning to do at the station, but it only took about an hour or so. Both of my hands are swollen and they refuse to warm up. Hopefully they won't hurt too bad tomorrow.
Now it is time to relax. My mom came into town today and I have to get her settled in.
I got to the fire station at 0500. Way too early in the morning for me. We got on the bus at 0530. There were four of us from my station and three women from other stations in the county (that actually rode with us). I was excited that I was going to be riding in the short bus today, but I was disappointed when a short charter bus arrived. Oh well...window licking is overrated.
It took us about two hours to get to Frankfort, IL. We had a short introduction and then we broke out into our groups. My first group was on saws and torches. I got to use several saws and two different torches. I used a chain saw for the first time. Then I had forcible entry. The best thing I discovered was a device that you put on the middle or lower hinge in the door and it will hold it open. The best one was circular, and it barely let the door close at all; maybe two inches or so from the fully open position. We also discussed a lot of problems that they have with high rises in the city, and of course, customer service.
We had a break for lunch, which included a speaker. She was a Salt Lake City firefighter that won the world-wide combat challenge four years in a row, then retired. Shorly after, another competitor from Houston was killed in a fire-she was trapped when the roof collapsed in a McDonald's. At the funeral, our speaker was approached by the woman's sister who asker her if she would consider competing one more time for her fallen sister. Of course, she agreed, and went on to win once again with a time of 2:22. It was a touching speech, and we saw all the video clips from news programs covering the story.
My next class was SCBA entanglement. This was probably my most informative class. We went through a maze that was comparable to others I have been in-for the first 15 feet or so. There were tight spaces, studs that were only 12 inches apart (I even got through without dumping my pack!), a "victim" that we had to drag around corners and through obstacles, and wires. Yeah, the wires were the worst. I came across a wire. I thought to myself, not to bad. Of course it was dark, so I couldn't see ahead of me. There was a whole section of wires hanging just ahead and one was connected to the floor. I nearly made it through without dumping my pack, but I ended up getting way too stuck, so I dumped it and continued. There were a few more wires and a few corners before the end. I could see the light...and where it was coming from. It was a square opening-about 1' by 1', if that. I got through with no problem. I was glad when it was all over with. My air pack's bell started ringing toward's the end and I couldn't even hear my partner talking (hers was going off too).
My last class was flashover. We had a short classroom portion and then we headed out to the flashover simulator. It was probably one of the coolest things I have seen so far. We watched the fire from the beginning. We lit a small fire in a burn barrel in a corner and let it go. The smoke wasn't very dark at first, but you could see the layering, and the air flow. The air up above was flowing away from the fire, and you could see the smoke just above us getting sucked back towards the fire. Eventually, the room got dark with smoke-we could barely see the fire. Then we could see a slight glow,then the whole room got bright, and I could see flames rolling above us. Within seconds everything was on fire-it looked like a movie. It was awesome; I didn't want to knock it down-even when it got really hot. It was just too beautiful. We let it flash about 7 or 8 times before we finally vented the room. It was probably my favorite class. And I smelled like fire :)
I was back on the bus around 1700 and got home around 1845. I was beat and ready to rest...at least until 0600 tomorrow.
Yeah. Last night was a good one. I got rather drunk and "drunk dialed" a few more people than I thought I did. At least most of them thought it was funny. I got up at 0900 to start out the day. I didn't accomplish much-just cleaning and getting ready for my long weekend.
I left for work around 1915. The roads were pretty slick; it had been raining all day and now it was freezing. Great. Besides the fact that my car normally slides all over the road-I still have that stupid spare tire on it.
I was about 2 miles away from home, driving about 45 miles an hour. There was a pickup truck in front of me. The pickup truck hit a bump and, in slow motion, something rather large flew out of the back. It was a snow blower. I felt all my muscles tense up; I was preparing for the thing to fly through my windshield and hopefully not kill me. I thought about closing my eyes but it was in slow motion and full speed all at once. I was pissed because it would make me late to work. I slammed on the brakes and watched the metal scrape the pavement. Sparks were flying everywhere and pieces of the snow blower scattered all over the road. My brakes were squealing as I came to a stop-halfway in my lane and halfway in the oncoming lane. I missed it. Whew. Onward to work. The truck never even stopped; like they didn't notice that this huge machine just flew out of the bed. Besides my heart skipping a few beats, I was okay, and so was my car.
The fire house has been quiet. Hopefully we'll get something. I'm up for some good action.
My car is a piece of crap. Yeah. I was driving home and I heard a bad noise; it reminded me of the noise the wheels on the cot make when we reach or go over the weight limit. I knew the light I was at was long, so I my car in park and got out-yeah, my tire was flat. I had to drive like a block or so before I could park because there is no emergency lane on that road. Great. I found out today that they can't fix it. The guy at the tire place said that I could refill it and put it back on but it would probably blow off the car in a day or so. That would suck, so I guess I will just keep the spare on and hope it doesn't fly off when I hit 50 mph :)
Wow. This is the first year in a long time that I actually celebrated Valentine's Day. I won't say much more...it has been a good year. Let's just say that I will be going to a spa for a day...
Work was, well, work. We were really slow all day. We did a psych call from the regular psych ward to one run by the government. Then we did a call from our post to the ER for a guy that was sent over for occupational health, but the nurse decided to send him back by ambulance, instead of by car, because he would get seen quicker. Gotta love it. Our last call was from the ER to the psych ward. I had seen the lady earlier in the ER; she was loud, obnoxious and telling the staff to "call the cops." What a wonder drugs can do. She slept the whole way there and barely woke up long enough to slide into bed. Unfortunately, when her meds kicked in, she still had her food tray, and she fell asleep with her head in her plate. Yuck. She smelled like moldy food.
Of course, on the nights that we don't run, I can't sleep. Every time I almost fell alseep I thought I heard the Nextel go off; it never actually did. What a stupid night. I got off at 0730 so I could run some errands before I went to school.
School went well today. My dance classes were pretty fun-especially jazz. We were doing swing and the "Lindy." Good times. There is a thing at the Willowbrook ballroom on Sunday that I may go to. It sounds like fun. I found out in my psych class that I can't make up my test until the end of April. Yeah, that sucks. Oh well, it's one less thing I have to worry about this week. Ballet was good too-but I was pretty tired by the end of it. My body just didn't want to move anymore by 1300.
Good night ahead. I plan on getting drunk...and hopefully not getting any noise complaints from my neighbors.
I slept for the first couple hours of shift. We got our first call around 1200. It was a priority for a lethargic patient. I have had more calls for "lethargy" in the past two weeks than I have in the past year. Anyways, it took us about 15-20 minutes to get on scene. The nursing home that we were going to can only be accessed from the north-bound lanes. Unfortunately there is a concrete median, so you have to pass the nursing home, go to the next intersection, due a U-turn and head back north to the place. I feel pretty stupid every time.
We got on scene and found a 75 y/o female with a history of mental retardation that was usually aphasic, that was now "more lethargic." Okay, I'll give them that. They had her on four liters of oxygen on a simple mask, and they had tried to get a line twice and failed. Of course they used all the good veins and left me with nothing. The RN said that the lady hadn't eaten in a couple of days. She was diabetic. The lady's glucose was 71 at 1200. I took it again and I got 59; borderline, so I gave a unit of glucagon IM. We got her packaged and down to the rig. Her oxygen sats were in the low 90s, so I put her on a non-rebreather, and they went up to about 95%, which I can deal with. I took her glucose again-54. Okay, that's not supposed to happen. Her blood pressure was also only 80/42, and without a line all I could do was put her in Trendelenburg.
The hospital is south of the nursing home, and there is the same problem with the median. On the way to the hospital you have to go north about 1 1/2 miles and do a U-turn to go right past the nursing home again and head towards the hospital. We got about 1 mile from the hospital when things started to go downhill. I didn't even have time to call the hospital back with an update. Her sats started dropping into the 70s and she started breathing rather slow and shallow. I switched over to a BVM and she was back up in the 90s. Whew. I wanted to check her glucose again, but I didn't have enough hands, and we were pulling into the ER. The staff freaked out when we came in. From my report, they knew that her blood pressure was low, I didn't have a line, but other than that, her problems were taken care of for now. I had about three nurses and two doctors in the room with us. We moved her over to the ER bed, a nurse took over bagging the patient while I gave my report, and I got out of the room so that I could finish my report and get out of the way. They took her glucose again-32. Yikes. No wonder she didn't feel like breathing. They got a central line on her, and about 5-10 minutes later her glucose was about 100; they stopped bagging her and she was doing good. Talk about a good first call of the day.
We did a transfer to a nursing home out of the same hospital right away. We got back to quarters around 1600. I did one more call around 2100 for a return to a nursing home from a local ER. It was a boring call. I was just ready to transfer care over to the nursing home staff because he wet himself, probably several hours before we got him, and he reeked of urine. Oh well. Hopefully a quiet night ahead.
