Watch that tree

Another day on the box with PK and its been a good shift. We ran our butts off during the day and good Lord blessed us with a night of sleep. First call of the day was for a possible arrest/DOA and ended up being a guy just asleep on the bus. Very next call as we go available is for a difficulty breathing and ends up being a DOA. Kinda set the tone for the whole day.

Ran a call for a possible stroke for an elderly woman who was only barely being cared for by her family. The one daughter who was there didn't live there and had absolutely no information on her mother. They eventually tell us after being there for quite a while that she has Alzheimer's. Now.. don't get me wrong.. I love older folks. But you know that little grin that elderly folks get when they really are there but are enjoying the attention of "not being there"? Well, that was her. Everything I asked her was met with a coy little "I don't know" answer. So we wrapped her up snug as bug on the cot and helped the basic unit get her loaded for a trip down to the hospital. I imagine that the attention was the most she had seen in a while and I didn't necessarily blame her for wanting to get out of the house for some fresh air.

Ran a call to the jail which is pretty far out of our territory but the county was running thin on coverage. I had only been to the jail during the academy and glad we took a trip up there so I had somewhat of a clue as to procedure. Called for a status epilepticus. Get up to the infirmary and the guy is still seizing after 4mg of ativan. Roll him downstairs and who'la!!! He is alert and amazingly with no postictal period! He gives me a "don't let me die", and just wants to know if I have any more of that "seizure medicine"? Says he is an insulin dependent diabetic but hasn't been given any of his meds. By this time, since his vitals are well within stable, we go for what the jail called us for. A transport to the hospital for an inmate. A friend of mine runs a lot of calls to a state prison in the area he runs and I cant imagine running many of these calls.

Speaking of which... this friend of mine told me about two calls he's had lately that are well worth sharing. They both highlight job security and continuing education. The first was for an assault, which enroute they were advised that the assaulter was now barricaded in his apartment. They get to the location and the guy inside says he's ok, doesn't need anyone. Well they break down the door to find a guy covered in blood, a gash in his head, and quite a bit drunk. My friend notices pine needles and Christmas ornament glass in this guy's head. Turns out as he was trying to get home, he was attacked by a Christmas tree out front!!! Gotta hate it when a Christmas tree kicks your butt!

Then a few days later he gets called to the far side of the county for a known diabetic. Normally a first responder doesn't go to the scene but due to response time they did. My friend walks in to find the patient, who is unconscious, face down on the floor... his britches down around his knees.. with the first responder holding a tube of oral glucose.. looking up at my friend asking, " this does work anally too, right"? How do you explain to the patient when they come around as to why their cheeks feel sticky? So, the next time a continuing ed class comes around, it might be a good idea to brush up on your skills.

Worked out at DP this weekend.. fortunately nothing major. A few skinned knees and such. One rider got up close and personal with a tree and other than maybe a cracked rib, she was fine. It was just insanely cold out there in the woods. But I love watching these riders who fly on the MX track like its nothing.

Kids

Kids.. peds.. they are not necessarily little adults when it comes to EMS and they can make even the most experienced medic cringe sometimes. Its been a rough week and I'm really ready for my Kelly day that is coming. I think we all have been bit by the "I want to save the world" complex at some point and its so deflating when we admit to ourselves that we can not. When we get called to child abuse cases and calls where a child has been the victim of violence (at the hands of their parents, no less) it can take a toll. I've had a couple of days of back to back calls such as these and all I can do is apologize to my partner before the day even starts.

We had a call that was dispatched as a child hit by a car. When we finally found the child, it turned out that his father got into a shootout while in his vehicle , all the while the child sat in the passenger seat. The child was shot in the head and the father decided to drive a few miles home before realizing that his son, sitting right next to him, was injured and to call the police.

Then had a call for a child bleeding through their diaper. Grandmother is caring for an infant and a young boy who is more mature than his 13 years should have to be... while the infant does not have any true injuries.. she was not bleeding, but rather had a terrible case of untreated diaper rash. The filth and neglect of these 2 kids at the hands of their parent was deplorable. The 13 year old was practically begging to be put into foster care just so that he could go to school. The other details of the call only further support the negligence and abuse claims and we notified PD and child services. I'm trying to keep my anger at bay and keep my perspective... its a good thing I have a few days off.

Just to bad I cant ride. Riding the ATV wouldn't be to compliant with Doc's orders after I broke my wrist. Dang it!!!

Ran a call in the middle of the night for a guy unconscious. ALOC, not a diabetic, no significant history, awake but unresponsive. Found him sitting in the bathroom, extremely diaphoretic, and weak. The wife described waking up to him thrashing in the bed, the bed was soaked with sweat and her husband disoriented and not responding to her. I was thinking either an ACS or a seizure. He was kinda cooperative til we got halfway down the stairs outside and all of the sudden he became so combative. Glad we had a full engine crew as it took 6 of us to keep him from flying off the cot and down the super-steep driveway. Restraints were the order of the day once in the back, and he instantly calmed down. Sugar was fine, EKG was NSR, ... he was a mystery to me. By the time we were at the ER, he could rattle off his SSN and basic info, but had no idea how he had gotten to the hospital. A friend told me about possible night frights... any comments on possible causes other than night frights or more information on them?

So now I'm camping out at home to chill and enjoy the fall weather. Till next time....

Change is in the air

Its late November and I cant get over how warm the weather is. Maybe it just hasnt set in that I'm living back in the South and it just doesnt get as winter-y looking as it does up north. Not to much to write... just been out riding as much as I can... playing.. etc. I think I've either sprained or fractured my wrist while I was out playing a few days ago.

Have caught a few good house fires lately... the busy season is approaching with make-shift warmers being created by folks just trying not to freeze. Atlanta had a bad fire on Thanksgiving and one of their own was caught in a flashover. FF Steve Solomon got caught in the flashover and is in critical condition. Please add him and his family to your prayers.

Turkey Eve

I am sore and have a heck of a cold starting to get settled into my chest. All I want to do is curl up into bed and sleep. Am hoping that with the holiday and everyone's family being in town, people don't get all rowdy and start shooting each other.

First call of the morning was for a medical alarm. No other information.. enroute advised also the burglar alarm is activated. PK and I go trotting up to the front door... we dont hear anything.. looks like a few lights are on inside. No one is answering the front door. I'm starting to get that "ohhh boy" feeling. I go around the side and a sweet elderly man is looking out the side door very surprised to see us. He starts to say something when the elderly woman in the back room hits a button on the alarm panel which sends the home fire alarm into a tizzy. They are blivious to the wailing alarm as we try and get her to come away from the box and tell us the code. After "What dear?"-ing us 6 times she finally tells us that this is her daughters house and she doesnt
know the code to disarm the alarm. PK and I are laughing so hard we can barely keep from rolling on the floor. The old man has retired to the living room for us to figure this thing out on our own. We finally get the daughter on the phone and get it disarmed with the right code. PK and I are now as deaf as the elderly couple as we leave them to their own devices.. unattended for the day in a stange house on Thanksgiving Eve.

Get called for a 23yo M who was last seen A/O last night. Unresponsive to everything, pinpoint pupils, tachy into the 190's. Family says he is only on Seroquel but is known to use Ectasy. One hit of narcan with no response. Monitor shows a nice SVT. First two rounds of Adenosine do nothing. Third round dropped him to 113 but by the time we got him into the ER he was back up to 160. Baby Doc inside decides to look at 3 seconds of a strip about 3' long and announces "well no wonder he didnt convert, he is in Sinus Tach... this is not SVT..." and proceeds to go off on me. We had a little pow-wow right then and there.. and while I certainly am no para-god, I know SVT when I see it. I love it when 2nd and 3rd year residents try to puff out their chest and beat on it to impress the 1st year baby docs by trying to embarass someone else... and then stick their foot in their mouth and look like an ass.

Text book stroke patient which was one of those calls where everything just went beautifully. Dispatched for numbness and tingling. Found a 59yo woman slumped in a chair.. family said just 10 minutes ago she was standing, talking, no deficeits. Now she is slurring her words, cant stand, and incontinent. Complaining of severe headache on her right side with Pronator Drift and all other deficeits on her left. BGL of 180. BP 230/160. Dispatch to delivery to the Stroke Team at the ER in 21 minutes. Sweet. Hung out for a bit with the Neuro doc to confirm her brain bleed. Watched the charge nurse and one her baby docs go toe to toe over him wanting to intubate our pt on the way to CT. You can tell the who wears the pants in this ER... and its not the resident.

The night wears on with me getting sicker and more cranky. Poor PK puts up with me crawling into the cab for a call, sleeping til we get on scene, making my way through the call and then crashing til we get back to the station. I am praying for just 5 minutes of relief. Maybe my 2 days off for Thanksgiving will be easy. I will certainly be thankful for a job, a roof over my head, friends to get full with and a family who loves me even though they are far far away.

Trauma, Life in the woods.

Its been a great few days. After work last week, headed back over to GA to visit friends and go riding. Went to the FD vs SO football game up in Banks County, it so reminded me of home.. Good game... SO kicked the fire guys all over the field. Retribution for the past 2 years.

Worked at the plantation on Sat, had a kid who was riding his atv in the woods and got his leg caught between the back tire and a tree and then hit the gas. At first we thought it was a compound fracture but after looking at it and the flesh left on the tree, he split the back of his leg open. He hollered more over getting a line started than his injury. Bad part was he was from a city 200 miles away, was there with a friend and his dad, and the friends dad had no information on him. No easy access to his parents phone number, no history on him... nothing. It also didnt help that the kid was wearing sneakers instead of riding boots. If he had any ALOC we would have flown him, but we was taken straight into surgery once at the ER. Ran a couple of other calls, a broken clavicle and a sprained LCL/MCL injury. Considering we had a hare scramble race and an all day race we did good with no significant injuries.

Then went riding and had a blast. The weather wasn't bad so I went through some serious mud. Met up with some new folks and took them back on the trails. Until next time...

Work was pretty steady yesterday. Ran a call on a pt with nausea/vomiting / heart problem. Walk into the nursing home to find a 59yo woman, alert and oriented,.. but pasty white and a pulse of 23! Hx of CHF, hyperkalemia, acute renal failure and DB. Couldn't get a line for nothing. She was compensating very well considering, but both EJ's, and 3 tries on the arms gave us nothing. Tried pacing and but couldnt get capture. We're trying to get a standing order to give Epi sub-q for cases like this...

Ran a call for chest pain.. the guy was NSR and his 12-lead was normal.. but he LOOKED sick. he looked like he was having an MI in front of us but he flat out refused everything. After trying to convince him to go, and him still refusing, his wife announced she would take him against his will to the ER. He had another MI as they were walking in... and while in the ER was still refusing care. Guess stupid is as stupid does.

Everyone should have a Kelly.

Life is good. Last shift was fine... again another case of Murphy's Law coming to bite us in the butt. Our rescue is one of the top 3 busiest rescues in the county. And my partner is in medic school so he is itchin to learn and put to use the stuff he is learning. He's a great guy and we have a blast. We're both good coffee addicts so we spend our time out and about hitting the java shops in Little Five Points. Well... our rescue didnt turn a wheel until 3:30pm. Now I'm certainly not complaining, but its just one of those... you just know.. for every minute of peace you get during the day, you gonna pay double for running your butt off at night.

We ran a call on a deaf/mute who seized and did a face plant in the grocery store. We tried.. but I'm sure it was comical watching us trying to do pseudo-sign language. I need to refresh my sign skills. Ran another call for a woman stabbed. She took a steak knife to the lateral scapula area. We were dispatched that she was stabbed by a family member, but she tells us that she was cooking, toko some sleeping pills and rolled onto the knife. Yeah lady, right. Sure. She didnt need a decompression, but baby doc in the ER put in a chest tube. We proceeded to run the rest of the night with taxi rides into the ER.

Spent the weekend out at the plantation and had a blast. Took the atv's out on the trails to go muddin and watched these awesome little kids doing 360's with their motorcross bikes on the jumps.

These kids rock! A buddy of mine works part-time out there and hung out with some of the other medics who also used to work at my dept. We had talked about it earlier but we finally got everything in the works to work out there PT. I'm gonna be driving the wheels off my truck with mileage. Durhamtown has miles and miles of trails... hit a few jumps accompanied by the pucker factor as my front end was coming down before it should have... but I didnt break anything. The close course is a trail that is about handle bar wide, so there were a few times of, "shit, shit.. there's a tree.. turn, turn, .... whew! That was close" LOL ! ! ! So, I've found my new toy. If you're ever looking for a fun place to play, check out Durhamtown Plantation. Had great weather while we were riding but once we're on the pad to hose off the machines, a torrential downpour came through. Its been a great weekend. I'm sore, but it's all good. ATV's and paintball will do that to ya. Kelly days are such a wonderful thing. Life is good.

Truckie for a day

Havent posted in a while but there really hasnt been much worth while to post. Have been pretty busy the past few weeks but more with life stuff than work. So if I repeat anything that I've already posted, just read it again and enjoy the moment!

Last weekend was the much awaited FOOLS Convention 2006 in Chicago. Had a blast! Hung out with old friends and met some new brothers, learned some great lessons from the wise seasoned leaders up in Chicago (EE and Mac) and partaked in the fun and foolishness of the nightlife up there. Having our band of pipe players follow us to each bar on the pub crawl and play was awesome. Nothing like having an entire club that we invaded raise their glasses while our boys played. We honored our fallen brother Bill Craddock during the seminar portion of the convention and everytime the guys played you just knew he was there, sitting on the edge of the stage with a beer in his hand, big grin on his face, raising a glass with us.

Shanti, Tristen and Chris and I were there from GA. The FOOLS from FL, NJ, NY, CA, KS, MI, IL, and IN were all there. There is just no better group of people who define, reaffirm and practice brotherhood! Cant wait for next year!!!

Now... came back.. dehydrated and pumped up. We're on the engine yesterday on the way to an MVC in the middle of a downpour and the damn thing just dies right on the highway. Right on the entrance ramp on I-20. Well, what are ya gonna do but just call the chief and wait for a tow from motor maintenance? 7 hours.. yep, 7 hours later we were finally swapping out into a squirt. Chief had taken off, motor maintenance was closed, we're starving for dinner (its about 1930), we've finally found a place for everything on a rig that has about 30% less space and... it wont start!! After another 25 minutes of trying to swipe a jump box we finally headed back to the house. And as usual karma is a bitch as we ran our butts off all night for BS.

Ran a call for a 19yo unconscious, recently assaulted. What's recent? 2 days ago? Yesterday? Just now? We wait for PD and finally get cleared to enter an apartment with characters that Jerry Springer would drool over. This girl has gotten bopped upside the head by her SISTER by a little plastic snow globe. The drama was nauseating and didnt sit well with my lack of patience for such nonsense. Pt is groggy and does in fact have a lump on the side of her head but with a little whiff of amonia, Who'la! is right there with us. Left her with the ambulance crew who would then wait for a BLS truck. Ran another call for a drama ladden woman who said she didnt hurt now and felt fine, but woke with vomiting and tingling in her hands. She says she has poor circulation in her hands (really?! shocking!) but wants a ride in to "get a full examination of my possible ailments" to the farthest hospital that we transport to. Nevermind that there are 6 other adults in the house and 4 cars in the driveway. I feel for the ambulance crew as we head back to the house.

So.. thats my update for now. Life is awesome as just 3 weeks ago I was in FL... last weekend in Chicago and this next week is my liberty day again. Hhhmmm... what sounds good?

Not to much...

I havent posted anything in the last couple of weeks. I've been fortunate enough to be on the engine for most of the past few shifts. Havent had any good fire calls... just the usual bells and smells. We've done our share of inspections and hydrants lately though.

And the oscar goes to....

Was running late into work this morning. Barely made it, walking in @ 6:57am. Of course I called my captain early so I was ok if I was late, but you would just not believe the traffic! Normally I am leaving my house at 3am.. yeah 3am.. to come into work. Not many people can say that they have to account for a time change when commuting into work. But it's also Atlanta traffic, so what rush hour looks like in most cities at 8am, we see at 6am. Anyway... I don't like starting the day off feeling like I'm already behind the 8 ball. My saving grace was I made the engine. PK finally made the engine too! Yea!!!! The poor kid has been stuck on Echo 4 for so long that it has become the standing joke. He has also taken on medic class on top of being a single dad. So we spend a lot of our down time reviewing strips and me quizzing him.

We ran a call with the box for a woman with heart problems. Oh my... now I told her I was gonna write about her so I can be a little more free on this one. We walk in to find a rather large woman sitting in a chair, big-eyed and not speaking with a scowl and glare on her face that could rival my mother's on her worst day. She's non-verbal (big dramatics)... and I'm trying to get a hx and she just keeps glaring at me like she's getting ready to knock my head off my shoulders! I ask her if she's gonna hit me as I'm putting the leads on her and she growls, literally growls, "No! You're trying to help me" Vitals are stable, we get her to walk down the steep stairs and get her loaded. Now is when the real Oscar performance starts.
My EMT is trying to start a line... he is using a 22G in the hand... and the woman is carrying on like he is sticking a 14G under the fingernail. (Makes you grimmace huh?) Once in the back, she started talking a million miles a minute, telling me every 18 seconds the date of her OJI and how 10 mannequins fell on her head. I tried to start a line in the other hand after she calmed down a bit and after a few minutes of dramatics I gave up. She was funny (she STILL had that "I'm gonna knock your head off " glare), but I was getting tired of the game. So we're in the triage line @ the ER and the patient ahead of us was getting blood drawn and the tech was having issues to say the least. Pt was moaning and crying.... so I'm writing up my report and I look over at my drama student and say, "See.. you should have let me start that line... look what you're in for". Her face went stone straight and said... " you wanna try now real quick?" What a goofy lady.

Ran a few smells and bells.. but nothing note-worthy. Ran a few more medical calls.. had another drama queen with a teenage girl faking all kinds of distress. Constantly covering her face (a sure sign of faking... heaven forbid she display what is really going on), rolling around on the floor. Mom is buying this act, but its amazing how she apparently cant talk, cant walk.. but when given a pair of flip-flops thrown at her feet, she has the instant dexterity to wiggle her feet into them. Gggrrrrrr.... You drag me out of bed for a temper-tantrum?! Are you serious?

Pretty quiet through out the night, which was nice ... headin to Florida next week for a little vacation. One more romp on the beach before it gets cold. It snowed 2 feet back home in Buffalo yesterday. Maybe I should head north and get some skiing in while I can... decisions, decisions...

Captain & Tennille

First call of the morning was for a cardiac arrest to a well known address. Its an apt tower of older folks. Enroute advised no CPR in progress. Doesn't bode to well for the patient. Called him onscene.
Was assigned to the box with my station captain due to some policy in effect right now. It was a good shift, I have a great captain.

Called out later for a 24 yo female with chest pain. We get there and we have a pretty large girl curled up on the couch complaining of a severe toothache, her head hurts, her chest hurts, everything on her hurts. After checking her out and getting some history (there was none) I called for a basic unit. She is intent on repeatedly showing me this nasty cavity in her tooth that has obviously been there for a while and why cant I give her anything for it. She says she feels feverish... there is none, but of course it is 90 outside and she has on a sweater that would be perfect for skiing the Alps.
I ask her if she can walk outside to the other ambulance that is on its way and she gives a good show on the dramatics. I truly dont think I am being overly callous here, you just should have seen the performance. Anyways, we get outside and she asks can she sit in our box, she feels nauseous. Sure. Then she announces that she may be pregnant. She has felt movement in her belly for the past few months but had a period about a week or two ago. I asked about a pregnancy test. She says she took one, and it turned out negative but, "it was one of the cheap ones" . By this time I cant decide what to put down for the chief complaint!
I cancel the basic and take her in myself. Hmmmm... toothache, chest pain, movement in belly (the rest of us call that gas), ... I give report to the RN and say emphatically, thank YOU (apologizing with my eyes)... , "No... thank YOU" she says.

Ran another cardiac arrest at 3am, to which we arrive to a guy bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in bed. He might have had a seizure, he had a good lac to his tongue, although wasnt postictal. Denied any drug use, but he was very diaphoretic in the cool air and his pressure was 220/118. Convinced him to let us take him in. Hands were shaking like he had Parkinsons, but still denied any medical hx, no meds, no allergies, or recreational supplements. Still better than working an arrest.

Glad you stopped by...

Made the engine again... I surely am not complaining, just fortunate in the luck of the draw. Had yet another gas main rupture. This one was about 4-5" and had to evacuate a few elderly folks in the surrounding area. Pulled about 500' of line to hang out with the repair crew trying to quiet the jet engine sound coming from the main.

Later got dispatched for an audible fire alarm in a residence. We roll up onto the house with 2 older gentlemen sitting in the open-air garage playing checkers. They look pretty surprised to see us and have no idea why we're there. Cap and I are walking up to the garage and the owner confirms that yes he has a fire alarm. I am starting to hear the smoke detector going off inside. We open the inside door and smoke just starts rolling out. Apparently he left some food on the stove and forgot about. His whole house was filled with smoke and he had no idea. They just never heard the detectors going off. They were sweet guys... we reset the alarm and vented the place for them. He was happy we stopped by... he originally thought we were just strolling through the neighborhood. But with lights and sirens going?

Had a few more calls during the day and knocked out a few inspections... but oh good grief, once 2230 hit we ran non-stop. Got a call for a diff. breathing, then the minute we cleared got dispatched for a guy in seizures. Enroute advised now cardiac arrest. Walk in to find a guy about 30 yrs old lying there with friends just standing over him staring at him. His eyes are open and just fixed to the ceiling, not moving. I ask what his name is and as I repeat his name his eyes instantly move to meet mine. Whoa! Buddy.. you're here! Turns out he was just postictal and hadn't taken his meds in a day or so.

Ran an upper AND a lower GI bleed who had a hx of CHF but due to the current condition was told not to take her lasix. 85 yrs old who under normal conditions might might 95# soaking wet but due to the discontinuation of lasix looked like she weighed 150. And being in the area we're in, the night wouldnt be complete with the obligatory "I've smoked to much pot and now my chest hurts, I wanna go to the hospital because I have no where to sleep tonight" ggrrrrrrr... its those 3 words "my chest hurts" that adds so much liability to the call that you have to take them in. Yes, granted, it actually could be something... and yes, I know I'm not out here to pass judgment.... it just make sit that much more bearable when I'm on the engine.

Sent off

Yesterday I got sent off to another station for the day since they needed another medic. Had my choice of staying at my house and running the Squad again or going off. I knew my chances of being on the engine if I went to the other station were pretty good, so thats where I went. Plus a buddy of mine from the academy is now stationed there so it was all good. The house I got assigned to is much slower than mine.. they average maybe 3-5 calls, although we stayed kinda steady.

Had a call for a guy hit by a train. The train hit some scaffolding that the guy ws working on hanging from a bridge. Another call for a gas leak.. we seem to be getting lots of them lately. Stand by and wait for the gas company to come WITH the repair crew... pull a line (just in case).. and then pack up and head home.
Had another call for a strange odor coming from an apartment. Turns out someone mixed bleach with sulphuric acid... thats pretty much all I can say about it at this moment.

But I am home and chilling and getting the new house more situated. Painting some picture frames and building some furniture is keeping me busy. Busy is good.

Ramblings

Well its almost midnight and I just cant sleep... I am to be up and getting ready for work in 2.5 hours. I should wear a badge tomorrow to warn others to stay away and offer apologies in advance to patients. Heaven help the bull-shitters and fakers tomorrow for they will probably bear the brunt of my wrath.

I know its been a while since I posted.. but quite frankly there hasnt been anything worth-while. I guess there have been a few calls that I might touch on, but for the most part life has been busy with web design, moving, and heart-ache. Yeah, yeah, yeah... everyone has troubles... but dammit this is my page so I get to be an emotional wreck if I want to. I am laughing to myself at the irony of being 2 hours shy of exactly 5 months that "the one" and I started our thing. While the past 5 months have flown by and save for the last few weeks have been simply put, wonderful. He is my best friend and has been for years, which makes the pain that much more. I would give back this time just to know I have my friend. We both leaned on each other, knew that we were always there for each other to vent to, get advice from, and make each other laugh when the rest of the world was against us. I miss that. Heart-breaks simply suck ass. I prayed for unconsciousness... it wouldnt come.. so now I'm typing. Therapeutic maybe... but again... I pity my patients tomorrow.

As far as crazy calls lately.... we had a psych call that makes me laugh just thinking about it. Dispatched as difficulty breathing we meet the engine crew on scene with a woman who is walking, talking, .... breathing... just fine. She informs us that a "negative energy is pulling her throat out"... we hang out with her until the basic unit arrives. We're getting some history on her and she continues with, "my heart has been ripped out too... I dont have a heart" (she was meaning literally)... and that the last time she saw her doctor they advised her that, "her vagina didnt have any cells in it"... hhhhmmmmmm... the follow up with that she gets monthly haldol shots makes sense.

Had some other calls for the standard chest pain, a kid with seizures at a chinese temple whose parents were nowhere around and NO ONE spoke english, a double GSW to the chest (my partner and I had a fabulous on scene time of 1 min 15 seconds), and a host of others I cant recall.

For those that dont know from other means, I now live in Alabama. Yep, Alabama. Roll, Tide, Roll. Never saw that coming, but.... BUT.. it is so beautiful over here. I guess I never thought about it, but I am amazed when I am driving around at all the mountains. Its like being in north GA. And I have some great friends over here, so since I was spending all my off time over here, figure why not just move over here. There is a car pool with a bunch of us on "A" shift, so the drive isnt that bad. Am getting all settled into the new place and while I love it, at the same time am adjusting my mind-set to being on my own again and not having him and the boys on their way down here. While I understand his basis for letting me go and focusing on the kids, doesnt make the wound any less hurtful. While true.. I havent had children of my own to have to care for, to taxi to and from events, and work my arse off to provide for them... but I was trying to be understanding. So many things I dont understand.. which just makes me frustrated and angry... which makes me emotional and probably irrational.

I cant think of anything else to write that makes sense or is not to personal.. so I'm gonna lay here, hope for sleep... and get highly inebriated this weekend after work. Thank God for awesome friends who will make sure I make it to a bed safely Saturday night.

Firsts....

Assigned to the engine last shift. First call out with us and the rescue was for a 2 yr old who wasn't acting right. Didn't have a history of seizures but was presenting postictal. Dad was holding her in the driveway when we got on scene and got in the rescue while I stood outside with mom to get info, history, etc. Mom was frantic, getting very vocal as to why we weren't taking off to the hospital. I told her we were assessing her, making sure she was stable, etc.... she didn't understand the delay and why we weren't taking her NOW.. "So the professionals could do their job". I looked at her and advised her "we're professionals too ma'am". I understood her being upset, but she back down and let us do our job.

Next call was for a 16yo old who fainted. The rescue had been on scene for a few minutes when they called for us. Fortunately we were literally right around the corner. Only hx of asthma. Responsive only to pain. Has periods of lucidity but they are agitated at best. Breathing at 30/min. Wheezing in all lobes. Taching at 160. Cant get a pressure. We get enroute... A basic rescue was dispatched so I am riding in with them while the engine follows us to the hospital. I am wanting to get some narcan on board to cover my bases. We are on the ramp at the hospital and he codes. Asystole. We work as hard as we can for an hour before the docs call him. Its a first for me to have a kid who was talking to me at one point and gone the next. I am guessing a PE.

While enroute to the ER with the kid above I am calling in report and the nurse from hell answers. She is advising me that they are on neuro diversion and she keeps cutting me off... I have other things to be doing with this kid than argue with this idiot. I give her what I have.. basic hx, pulse, respr., treatment til now and adv that we cant get a pressure. And she asks again, what is his pressure and I really should know that they really shouldn't be taking him b/c they are on neuro diversion. By this time I am ready to hurl the phone through the window... my EMT in the back is laughing cause I'm losing it. I hang up on her after adv her that this is NOT neuro, that we cant get a pressure and that we ARE coming. This is also the same moron who while we are working this kid in the ER is running around worried about him bleeding a little from an attempted IV stick. Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?!?! She is well known to field people as the idiot at that ER.


Had several fire calls throughout the day. A guy who wanted to fry fish in his turkey fryer on his deck lit it off. A few more bells and smells. Fixed my brothers mexican casserole for dinner. It's super easy and usually goes over well.

Ran a few other calls late in the night that were nothing notable. Usually disregarded by the rescue once onscene. Ended the shift with a call about 5am for an unconc/unknown laying in the street. Enroute PD advised a possible heart attack. Once there the guy was pretty distressed saying he had been laying there for an hour like this. Got him in the rescue (again the basic.. cant figure out why the basic rescue is getting dispatched to these calls) and ride in. He is in textbook SVT. Has a hx of SVT (imagine that), has been doing street candy and gin for the last day or so. All 3 rounds of Adenosine dont touch him. Have the pads on him in case he decides to crash, but we are now 3 blocks from the ER and I'd rather cardiovert in the ER than in my box. And by the time I could draw up the Versed we'd be opening up the back doors. He gets another round of Adenosine and still nothing. They pull out their pads and who'la... he converts.

Was supposed to flying off to MI for the week but plans got a little fubar'd. Dont want to stick around town so I'm heading to NKY to visit friends for the holiday weekend. Camping next weekend. Life is good. I am fortunate, thats not a first.

Lessons Learned

So much to write, so little time. last shift was one that will be memorable but not for any good reasons. I know I was having a bad day for personal reasons, but my partner and I were knocking heads at every turn. While we may be fine with each other when we're not riding a truck, I am to the point where if we have to work together I am going to have to start taking meds.

It isnt so much a "their style of patient care isnt mine"... its a "what the *bleep* are you doing and why are being such a complete and utter jerk to the patient. I would have to say that it borders on neglegt. This isnt the forum for details on the shift, but just a marker for myself on what a shitty day it was and lessons learned on being more aggressive with a partner who isnt doing their job.

Last day....

Well, its my last day before being cut loose on a box with an EMT. All the EMT's on my shift are good so I've got no worries and we can finally get into a good rotation between the engine, the box and being sent off. Ran 2 full arrests, a DOA, and a stroke. Responded to a guy who was hit in the head with a hammer. He ended up refusing with a nice lac to the head. I cleaned him up and gave him some 4x4's... he asked if we had any gauze wrap. My partner accommodated him with a full on head wrap topped off with a gigantic gauze bow on the top of his head. The cop on scene was doing his best not to bust up laughing. Good thing the guy didnt ask for a mirror.

A nasty line of storms rolled in in the evening which had us running for a while. We bounced from dwelling fire to dwelling to MVC's on the highway. Gee... if its pouring down rain, flooding, and storming super bad, wouldn't it maybe be a good idea to SLOW DOWN on the highway? Maybe its just me. When we were responding to the house fires from all the lightning, I lost the engine several times as it was flooding so bad the water would wash over the box and I couldnt see a dang thing. One of those storms where you're waiting for the lightning to light up the road so you can see where the road is at. We got back for a little bit and I just stayed in the drivers seat.. I knew it wouldnt be long before we got called out again.

20 min later we get called for an OB call. On scene we have a 40yr old F, 4th pregnancy, has been in labor for 2 days, no prenantal care at all and recreational drug user. I should have driven a bit slower... she was crowning as we were in the hallway heading to L&D.

Finally got back and fell into bed about 3am. Woke up @ 0530 for a structure fire at an elementary school in another territory. We were 2nd in and dressed out so Boz and I head up to the roof. We just had a small 9'x9' area that was burning from a vent. Overhauling a freshly tarred roof is dirty to say the least. But it was all good. Did our thing and cleared so we could hand the box off to the oncoming crew and get a shower. It was a good shower indeed.

Butt-aches

The last two shifts have been a progression of BLS and social work calls. Nothing very note-worthy of the first shift so this is just a compilation of both.

A chest pain call that turned out to be an elderly woman who was very obese who is extremely depressed and lonely. She claims when we first get there that she is in pain all over and just wants to sleep. Seems to be a huge problem lately with people not being able to sleep. She says her belly and chest hurts and cant stand. She is crying and keeps asking us if we'll take her by the cemetery to see her daughter. We finally get her to stand, pivot her on the stretcher and she instantly finds health and said she isn't going anywhere. It doesn't take long to figure out that she is very lonely, and just needs some attention. My partner is annoyed that we're not just taking the refusal and leaving. I offer to walk her downstairs to the cafeteria to get one breakfast. It was a long 90 minutes that we spent with her.. getting her pants on, shoes on, purse, keys, etc.... she was doing everything in her power to stall us actually saying good-bye. While its not actually written anywhere that our job entails social work... It's there. And I have a soft spot for old folks. Most of the time their brains are there, but their bodies are failing them and they've lost their independence. I just cant write them off that easily to say, "you have a roof over your head.. be happy with that"

Ran a call for an allergic reaction to a bee, a malnourished man who wasn't acting right to his family (gee, I wonder why), an ab pain/seizure pt, an asthma attack, and a few other calls that were TNT's

A previous "possible stroke" who was now having a diabetic issue. I knew where we were going cause I had just had this lady last shift. Walking in she looks fine, is talking to us fine.. and say she just took her sugar and its only 45. My partner tells he there is no way its only 45 and he promises when he takes it it'll be higher. Ha ha ha... he takes it and yep.. its only 45. Makes you wonder how long she has been compensating like that and what really is "low" for her. Give her some glucose and an amp of D50 and she bounces up to 230. She says she is taking her meds like normal but isnt eating as much as she used to. Her next Dr's appointment isnt for a month. I tell her she needs to get in now.. get her meds re-evaluated.

21 calls

A pretty busy shift to say the least. Our other box got called into the city for a shooting which downgraded into a full code. We get called into the same neighborhood 20 minutes later for a 6yo boy who fell off his bike and was bleeding from his rectum. The street was filled with people all antsy about the shooting and relatives of the victim were around our scene so it was chaotic. Little kid laying on the couch who says nothing hurts and after looking him over he isnt bleeding anymore. Mom is good with not taking him in and while talking to her and trying to keep track of the 7 kids in the house.. she tells her 3 boys to tell us their names. All 3 of them, all hers, tell us their names are Michael. Michael 1, Michael 2, Michael 3. No kidding. Guess it makes it easier to call them in for dinner.

Ran a full asthma protocol while the engine company we were with sat there and watched. We were wanting to get her going and asked one of them to drive.. no.. they just sat there at the back doors and watched and kept asking us if we were serious. Umm... YEAH I'm serious! another 3 minutes of getting my partner set up and we headed out on our own. A Duo-Ned treatment, Epi, Solu-Medrol and Mag on board and she was ready to go home by the time we pulled into the ER.

Got a call for chest pain and ended up being a woman who was just diagnosed with lupus last week. She was put on prednisone and Coumadin. She was having a massive meltdown. Apparently hadnt slept in days, was getting very paranoid, shaky,... was on her way to getting some haldol. I've had moments kinda like these, especially when I've been sick for a few days where you just get SO tired that you just crack, emotionally. You are begging for any sort of relief.. to just rest. I felt for her... She said she didnt have any history of psychiatric diagnosis. She passed out for a bit on the trip in but once in the ER and everyone asking questions again it set her off. Checked in on her later in the night and she was getting a CT.

Ran a head-on MVC with an open tib/fib. A syncopal pt who refuses transport even though she is brady, hypotensive and has a sugar of 78. A couple of vomiting/flu-like patients. A possible stroke. Ran a call for a chest pain who was an alcoholic.. who advised that he was allergic to alcohol when asked about allergies and then proceeded to say that he's been drinking for the past 3 days and could we give him something for DT's. mmmm... I dont think so darlin.

Ran another MVC who had a deformed lower arm who still adv that she would get her own way to the hospital. Ironic that here is a woman who was t-boned on her side at a moderate rate with a hit-and-run, what looked like a closed fracture and she'll wait for her family to take her in.. and 20 minutes later we'll get called to take someone into the hospital for a splinter.

On our way back to the station at 0300am, we pass a convienent store down the block from the station with a woman laying on her belly in the parking lot.. just hanging out... laying like you'd lay on the beach with your head resting on your arms... just watching the people and cars go by. My partner and I take bets on who and when we'll get called for her. We're on our way back from a late call so we can complete shift change and we hear the box from the next territory over get called to the convienence store for the woman... what a world....

And life says... surprise!

I cant even begin to explain or describe how freakin happy I am. Finally getting a few minutes to update this thing. So much has happened the past week so sit back, this may be a long one.

John flew in this past Saturday to stay for a week. It was the fastest 6 days of my life and I didnt want him to leave. Of course spent the couple of days before cleaning up the house. We spent the week driving around all over GA. Went over to Stone Mountain one day and climbed it. Was gonna take the gondola up but it was broke down so we just walked it. It was a nice climb. Just sucked that when we got to the top, these was a drinking water ban/advisory so we couldnt get any water. But the view was beautiful and we had a great time just being together. Stayed later on into the evening for the laser light/fireworks show and it was wonderful being out there with him.

One of the days we decided to drive down to Fort Benning so he could show me the base and were hoping to watch a few training jumps into Fryer Field. Fort Benning is about an hour and half drive or so south of us... we get all the way down there and since noodle-head here has expired tags on her truck they wouldnt let us on base. We did get to see 5 jumps though from the road that runs along side the base. Took him over to Kennesaw Mountain on our way back and we climbed that too. Almost the same distance as the climb on Stone Mtn but a little steeper... and in the middle of a lightning storm. But we both love storms and I'm sure standing on the top during a lightning storm surrounded by a metal fence wasnt the smartest.. but oh well.

We talked a lot about him and the boys moving down here and all that that would entail. We've started looking at possibilities and I cant even begin to describe how ecstatic I am about it!!! We will just leave it at that for now. John rode with me on one of the days that he was here and wouldnt you know it... we didnt do a darn thing. Ended up being on the box which was fine, but didnt transport a single patient til 8pm and after that we didnt even have a call. I dont know how much he believed that we do normally run a lot of calls. LOL

Now.... last shift... THATS a whole other story. Thursday after I took John to the airport I got into the station about 12N. We grabbed some lunch and then caught a structure fire in our immediate. I was a happy girl since I was on the engine for the day. First in on a fire in a kitchen of an unoccupied rental property. Was out and overhauled with about 200 gallons.

One our way back we get dispatched for an infant in full arrest with CPR instruction being given over the phone. Still all dirty from the fire we go heading in and the baby is breathing and alert. 3 month premie on O2. Not much for us to do so we leave the rescue crew and head home. About an hour later catch another structure fire with flames showing. 2nd in on that one to E-7. Cap and I were doing primary search... I so thought of Darin... but the house had small bedrooms and we were bumping into the crew already inside... once done we just waited for E-3 to finish overhauling and clearing the attic We were there a lot longer, but got everything cleaned up and put away. Was looking forward to that shower.

Did a couple of butt-ache calls in the middle of the night but other than that it was a good shift. I miss John already and cant wait for him to come back. Hopefully in a few weeks I will get to see the boys. I'm sure it will be another fast but wonderful week. I am the happiest girl right now... I am truly amazed how God has blessed me.. and so very very thankful. I am at the threshold of having an awesome job that I've worked my butt off for, an awesome man who loves me and him alone is worthy of a blog entry, 2 great kids and life that I have only dreamed about. I only wish everyone could be this happy. If I could bottle this stuff, I'd give it away.

GA summer

We're getting a nice break from the stifling heat and humidity, but the calls for difficulty breathing are still up. Was able to get some cleaning and stuff done around the house before getting going for the day. Started with a diff. breathing. An elderly woman who was alert, but not oriented and non-verbal. According to her caregiver, who was excellent at keeping track of her stats every morning, she hadnt eaten anything all day and had not taken any of her meds yet. Her O2 was 84.. that'll explain a lot. Just a brief 2 min on some O2 and Bam! she was talking, wondering what all these people were doing in her bedroom. Glucose was also only at a whopping 50. An amp of sugar and she was all about, "whats for lunch and how did I miss The Price is Right?" Took her off the O2 to reassess room air and she dropped back down to 84 within 30 seconds. Gave her a breathing treatment enroute which by the time we got her to the ER she was quite chipper.

The next diff. breathing we had was a complete opposite. Frequent flier who utilizes the 911 EMS system as her personal taxi. She was fine in the house... enroute she became a tazmanian devil who didnt want us to touch her, talk to her, ... anything. Once in the ER.. again... as nice and calm as a nun. Weird. If I had told the ER the profanities and irate behavior of this women, they would have looked at me like I had 3 heads. Ugh... oh well.

Ran a call for a postpartum fever, an infant with an insect bite on her face, an intoxicated cry for attention, a "I'm at work and I've developed chest pain, see.. right here.. touch my chest... Ouch!, it hurts when you touch it!... I must be having a cardiac problem", and a couple of fire alarms and smoke showing.

Next shift my kelly day. Just bought a new laptop to work on the website projects I have, so between playing with my new toy and John coming into town, I will be busy enough having the next 6 days off.

Jelly & GI's

Saturdays are always house day. Today we stripped and waxed the floors in the house. Although I know I'm always saying how I love being busy, it was nice to have a pretty quiet day. Got in a nap or two before dinner. Started off the morning with a guy who laid down his motorcycle on an exit ramp. No major trauma.

Ran a call for a woman with an unknown problem. She was slapping on her phentnyl patches like a 7-yr old girl does with gold star stickers. Mom found her and was unable to wake her. BP was 56/palp. Talk about taking her to the hospital brought her around to tears and she tried to give us the info we wanted that would maybe qualify for a refusal.. but no.. she bought herself a ride. She complained of dry lips on the way out and I told her I'd give her some petroleum jelly when we got in the ambulance. Narcan brought her around a little and while my partner did his thing, I opened up a small packet of lubricating jelly. Squeezeed a little out and gave it to her and told her to apply some to her lips. Before I could get the last word out she put the whole thing in her mouth, she sucked out the jelly and swallowed it! I couldnt even get out "No, wait..." and it was already down the hatch. She looked up at me like, "What, .... what else should I have done with it?" Its a good thing I was standing behind her, I couldn't stop laughing.

Now anyone who is in this field knows that GI bleeds are one of the more nauseous calls that we get. Got called out for a pt vomiting. Walking in.. the filth and the roaches that were all around the pt was enough to make it an accomplishment to not hurl myself. Very thin man with supposedly only a diabetic hx who obviously doesnt care for any of his wounds. I didnt dare set my bag down while trying to assess him. We get ready to roll him onto a sheet to carry him down the stairs and he hurls all over the floor at my feet. It is all I can do to not be a sympathy puker. Nothing like upper GI bleen vomit. We coccoon him into the sheet and start carrying him out side and down the stairs and 2 very large palmetto bugs (flying roaches) come scurrying out of his shirt. "Dont drop him.. Dont drop him.." We get him loaded and on the way. I was very glad I was driving this call.

Seizures

Busy doesnt even begin to describe yesterday. Started off the morning with a call into ATL's immediate for a person down. It was at their firehouse. A woman on her way to church with a history of CHF was having chest pain and DIB. Hadnt taken her lasix in a couple of days cause she didnt want to be going to the bathroom during her busy social weekend. Gave her some lasix and her 12-lead looked unremarkable. She was getting more anxious than anything by the time we got to the ER.
Considering how freakin hot and humid it was all day I'm surprised we didnt have any heat related calls. Had a few calls for seizure pts.

One kid we got called on had had a witnessed seizure a couple of hours before and was having another and not coming around. 19yr M who is on Dilantin, as far as everyone knew on scene he had taken his meds. Someone gave us a cell phone with his parents in the phone. Dad didnt want us to transport and said he would come and get him and take him in on his own... that he always has these. We loaded him anyway.. I wansnt letting him go like that. We're pulling out of the apt complex and dad pulls in front of the ambulance to block our path. Asked the cop behind us to take care of it so we could get going. He was in between unresponsive to postictal, and very combative. Gave him some narcan to cover the bases. He was still in pretty much the same state as when we picked him up but a few minutes in the ED and he was finally able to tell us some info.

Got a call for someone with back pain after an accident. The call that we had last shift with the four people from Africa? It was them. All four. All four wanted to go back to the hospital becaue they hurt. They were lucky they werent killed, of course they're gonna hurt. But... they had the same complaints as the other night so we collared and boarded them and sent them off with a basic unit. The paperwork alone sucked. Wait, what am I talking about... we dont use paper, we use those silly tablet notebooks. Ugh! Tap, tap, tap... an 80% accurate handwriting recognition... I would kill for paper on runs like these.

Got back to the station and started dinner... fixed a fairly good dinner for the crew and got toned out 10 min before it was ready. We didnt get back til 0230. Running all over the county and covering other territories... I was a tired puppy. Back up at 0500 for a a couple of calls. Nothing worth writing about. Tomorrow is another day.

Catching up

I havent posted in almost 2 weeks... just a crazy busy schedule but I've run some pretty good calls. 2 shifts on the engine and back to the box. Picked up a car fire with some extension to a structure, by no means a real fire but it was nice to be pulling a little bit of hose again.

Last shift my friend Mike rode with us since he was down to test for a neighboring dept. I think he had a good time. The engine ended the shift with 18 calls. A semi vs a car on the highway with some entrapment and a few others but mostly EMS responses.

Was running so late yesterday morning... was literally flying down the highway. Not to much of an issue til I found out my cell phone was dead while I'm trying to call the station to advise. I hate Nextel sometimes. Service was cut off for no reason and I couldnt even call THEM to find out why. So I'm literally running into the station at 0659 and hearing us getting toned out for a structure fire. Got cancelled. 3 min after being back @ the station we get a full arrest. Getting the day started already behind the 8-ball puts me into a foul mood.

After cleaning up and got my coffee I was a bit better. Ran a call which we handed over to a BLS unit and then was sent over to another station for the afternoon to cover. Got back in time to make dinner...

Ran a call for an MVA right after clearing another MVA only 200 yrds up the street. The first one was a refusal, the 2nd... not so much. 5 unrestrained pax rear-ended by a tow truck at a respectable speed. No one spoke English except for the small words of a 2-yr old in the back. He was the easiest and considering the loud noises and tons of people working around the car to get everyone extricated, he just watched everyone with a look of amazement and conentment at the situation. Speed of response from the other companies was great. My partner and I started on the 2 adults in the back seat and he called for an entrapment response and within literally a minute we had 2 engines, a heavy, 3 rescues, a squad and a battalion there. Everyone for the most part was fairly stable, but with only having a pt's first name and literally nothing else because they cant speak a lick of English and I cant speak a lick of French, well... you do what you can do.

Last call was for a GSW to the leg. Apparently some partying went bad and a woman fired a gun at him. He was fleeing over the balcony off the 2nd floor. We werent sure if the open break was due to a bullet of jumping off the balcony. Ended up being the bullet. I really like our medical director. He is very personable and enjoys talking with medics when they bring patients in. Unlike my past MD who treated the medics like they were ambulance drivers.

I know there was more to the last few shifts but I'm exhausted and I have company coming in for the next couple of days. Sleep and cleaning of my house I must do....

Brotherhood no matter where ya go

My kelly day is this weekend and rather than bum around the house decided to head to Fl to visit my parents and help them with the closing on the house. They are retiring to north GA and bringing along my grandparents. The house was bought back in 1960 when my maternal grandparents moved the family from Buffalo. While I really dont like Tampa, its sad to see the house finally being sold. I was born and raised in this house. So many changes... what used to be the carport is now a den/computer room. My old bedroom which turned into Grandpa's office when WE moved back to NY is now the living room in the mother-in-law suite. And on it goes.

So anyways... I saw that the Suncoast FOOLS was hosting Chief Lasky who I've always heard a lot about but hadnt met yet. Since I had a free day I headed down. Had a blast meeting some cool guys and Chief Lasky was awesome. Wish more people could hear how he puts things in perspective, and gives you ideas and motivation to keep the traditions, pride, honor & integrity in the fire service.
Had a good time as we always do when you put family together for a few drinks. KO... you still owe me that beer man.

The rest of the weekend was great! Met up with my brother.. my long lost brother and had the moment that I've been playing in my head for the past 20 years. It was awesome. Lots of questions answered and feelings laid out on the table. I am so excited! ... words on a screen just dont do them justice, as to the relationship that I've been hoping for and dreaming of for the past 20 years. He is such a great kid with SO much potential and talent. I truly cant wait to watch him fulfill his dreams and be his loudest cheerleader when he succeeds.

The concept of triage

Didnt even get through drug checks before getting a call for a difficulty breathing. Enroute was upgraded to airway obstruction, then to CPR in progress. Arrive to find a naked guy blue, and I mean dark blue, nipple line up. There was no CPR in progress and the people staying in the house couldn't even give us his name. Started working him on a filthy floor with no room to work. But that's not unusual. Worked the code.. cops found drugs in the living room... was preparing to call him and Bam! What do ya know... V-Fib. Had a rhythm for about 2 minutes. Lost it, got v-fib again and got a good perfusing rhythm back. Neurologically its a good bet to say that he wont be joining us for dinner anytime soon... but .. you just never know. I've seen worse patients make liars out of all of us. He maintained a good pressure all the way in.

Partner and I swapped throughout the tour. We ran a 9yr old with a deformed arm after crashing at the roller rink. He took the needle like a champ and the morphine knocked him out.

Did a call for a chest pain but turned into bladder pain when we got there. No basic squads were available so we took him in. He wanted to go to one of the furthest hospitals away, but, its his choice. He says his belly hurts, has been able to urinate fine and is just an all around cranky elderly man. "Just take me in or leave me alone, stop asking me all these questions!" Its my turn to drive and I'm laughing listening to this guy giving my partner all kinds of grief. We get to the ER and they send him to triage. He will have none of this. Demands that we take him somewhere else or take him home, neither of which we're doing. So my partner doesn't stroke out, I play buffer and lay it out for the guy. Choice 1: you can sit here in triage like everyone else who also has an emergency that is not life threatening or Choice 2: you can walk out of this hospital and walk to a pay phone and call 911 again. He was furious over the audacity of an ER to implement triage when he called 911 and since when did they start this triage stuff! We let him be and he eventually walked out on his own into the night. It the abuse of the EMS system and mentalities like that that burnout so many great medics.

Speaking of burnout... we had finally gotten back to the station around 3a and got called out @ 0400 for ab pain. When we get there.. the guy is rambling about losing $20 in the couch, would we help him find it and no... his belly didn't really hurt.

Normally it wouldn't have annoyed me as much, it just that at 0700 when I was getting off, I was hitting the road to drive to FL for 7 hours. Yeah I know, my choice, but still.... ugh. Handed over the drugs and radios to the crew, showered and hit the road. Florida for a week to visit my parents and relax. I am a happy camper.

Rollover

Started off the morning with a 6-month pregnant homeless woman who hadn't had anything to eat in 24 hours. She called 911 from a payphone in a Pizza Hut parking lot. She says that she sleeps in a vacant house across the street. Complaining of ab pain but not having contractions. She looked just so exhausted. I don't know if she was truly having ab pain for not, but it appeared that just being able to lay down in a clean environment and close her eyes was a great relief. I spoke with the nurse in L&D about trying to discharge her to a women's shelter. The nurse who took report was pissed that we brought her in. They would have been pissed had we brought ANYONE in... we interrupted their Sunday morning coffee and sitting on their butts. After I got her signature, I apologized for ruining her day and told her to perk up... she could be homeless and jobless too. If anything has been a shock to get used to its the attitudes of the ER to EMS.

Thunderstorms moved into the area and the next 5 hours were rollover after rollover after rollover. We had 8 or 9 but I could hear all the other stations too having them all day. None of ours were terribly serious. All self-extricated. First one, both folks restrained with no airbag deployment. Pax had no complaints, just shook up. Assessed her and BP was 168/100. She was refusing transport, and after she signed off and was heading out the back of the squad said her chest wasn't feeling right. Put her on the monitor and at first looked ok.. a little tachy with crazy tall R waves. Nothing terribly alarming. No past hx of cardiac. Another minute or so and she starts throwing trigeminal PVC's. She says her chest hurt and it was going straight into her back. She was pointing more to the Angle of Louis... I was thinking possible aortic bruise or tear.
So the refusal was out the window and we took her in. Kept watching the monitor as it would oscillate between trigeminal and bigeminal PVC's. 12-lead looked perfect. Am glad she didn't leave on the refusal.

Didnt see much of the station throughout the day. Got a little sleep and was called for a chest pain around 2:30am. It was really a post-delivery epidural wear off. She looked miserable... but the baby was adorable.
But it was that call that I almost blew the house up. We're pulling back into the station around 3am and there is a very strong smell of natural gas in the bays. I hop out of the drivers seat and notice part of the plug from the shore line is still in the ambulance port. My old dept had auto-ejectors for the shore lines. We do not. I say a little oops and we start opening the bay doors and investigating where its coming from. Walking around the bays I walk over to the shoreline cord and am looking it over.. three exposed wires.. wow.. I did a doozy on that one... I drop it and sparks fly everywhere! I'm realizing that I sure am glad there isnt a huge concentration of gas in the bays or that I started playing with the wires! I follow the cord up the wall to the ceiling, along the ceiling, along the top of the bay doors and back down to the wall plug and unplug it. It's about now that I'm looking again and the shoreline cord had been wrapped around the gas line on the ceiling that goes to the bay heaters. Yep, I broke the gas line when I pulled out on the earlier call.
"in the news today.. a firehouse was blown to smithereens in the middle of the night..."
We woke Cap up and he had to call the Bat.Chief to make a report. Good one rook... good one.
In the grand scheme of things not a big deal.. everyone forgets to pull the shorelines. I've seen engines flying down the road with 25' of cable following them. Bad part is.. "B" shift now cant cook or have hot water til the line is fixed. Oops.

Went back to bed after we aired out the place and woke up to the bell.... thank goodness for crews that come in a little early and take that call. God luv ya. I'm going back to bed.

Meds.... what meds....

With the horrendous heat here for the last few days, lots of heat-related calls, seizures and respiratory calls. Did a call for a 400+lb guy with difficulty breathing. My partner had him a few shifts ago for the same thing. 30yrs old, on O2 at home... and hasnt gotten any of his prescriptions filled from the last hospital visit. SpO2 said his pulse was 78 but thats not what I felt. Put him on the monitor and he was taching away at 162 with occasional PAC's and PJC's. 12-lead showed some ischemia and a possible infarct. He denied any pain... just couldnt catch his breath. His lungs were so full of junk. BP wasnt to high. Gave him a couple of breathing treatments and some solu-medrol while we waited for the bariatric squad. Signed him over and left thinking that he ever arrests, that'll be a MASH call.

The majority of our calls today were BLS which we sign over to AMR if they have a unit available. Several folks with just flu like symptoms who were perfectly able to walk out to their squad... right past their vehicle sitting in the driveway. It doesnt make me mad... just baffles me. Now I'm not really from po-dunkville, I've lived in several decent sized cities, but compared to where I have lived and worked... I feel like a small town girl from Iowa coming to the big city for the first time. Nationwide I know there is a horrible abuse of the EMS system on many different levels... we had our frequent fliers from where I came from. But I'm multiplying that by thousands here.

Did a call for a 90yr old woman in the middle of the night who woke up with respiratory distress. Again.. had been at the hospital about 2 months ago.. was prescribed Albuterol, Atrovent, and a bunch of others but has never gotten them filled. Hx of asthma and emphysema. Engine crew on scene had a pressure of 142/92. Partner got a pressure of 160/110. Gave her a couple of breathing treatments enroute and started to feel better. Temporary fix for a sweet woman living with minimal care... I know there is no easy fix, but the need for social services for the elderly living alone is overwhelming.

On my way out, the guy from above was in the room next to her getting ready to be discharged. Sounded like a brand new man who could actually complete a sentence.

Did a call for a seizure in the Wal-Mart parking lot... postictal all the way in. A chest pain with a known 90% blockage. A diabetic/syncopal episode.

We use the computer tablets here and thats usually what takes most new folks the most time to get used to. It would be so much faster if I could just write out the reports... the constant poking around with the pointer.. ugh! I do admit it makes you be as thorough as can be. It wont let you finish until you have everything accounted for. It has its pro's/con's. It can help you work the call while you sort out the complaints vs the pertinent negatives.. but its so time consuming it can be distracting. Another day... another dollar. I'm going to deposit my paycheck.

"Are you lost?"

Arrived at my new house with a "Are you lost?" LOL... Have heard all sorts of stories about just how busy the station is and figured we'd be hitting the ground going. Nope. My wheel chock cloud followed me through most of the morning. Everyone is great and I'm sure I'll create some nicknames suitable for the characters on my shift. It's gonna be fun.
Started off the day just before lunch with a chest pain at a dialysis center. He had enough Heparin in him to bypass the ASA, but a couple shots of NTG and into triage and he was a happy camper.
Ran an MVA, a structure fire, and a few others before dinner.
The night time.. well now that is another story. We ran and ran.. I think I got maybe 45 min of sleep. A shooting, in the leg, through and through... an infant with a high fever with unexplainable seizures. Apparently he has had them everyday since he was born, diagnosed not as epilepsy, but something else. He seized while we transported and it only lasted maybe 20 seconds with zero postictal time. Less than a year old, but mom says that he can be playing and just pass out. I am intrigued. He is as cute as a button and regardless of being sick, feverish and 0130 he is surprisingly alert and happy.
Ended the shift with a guy @ 0430 feeling weak and disoriented and some chest pain. Hx of HTN but his pressure on scene never got higher than 96/58 with a pulse never higher than 58. I felt bad asking to guy to crawl to the door since he said he couldnt walk, but he was a pretty big fellow and any help he could give us would surely help. Main hospital of choice was on full diversion enroute so we switched over to another one. Poor guy's wife never knew we switched and when I called the 1st hospital to adv that she was coming and to redirect her to the new one... they acted like they were being asked to raise the titanic.
Anyways... got back to the house and had a half hour before shift change. I still crashed for a while. I needed a little sleep for the hour and half drive home.

So... day one is down. Even though it is not the house I had really hoped for, I am really happy where I am at. The cross-section of people stretches across all socio-economic ranges and the territory covers a good range of different kinds of buildings. I am estatic to finally see the last two years come full circle. I drive down the highway with this big cheesy grin on my face.

No sir........ I am not lost.

Bill Craddock

Bill Craddock died from doing what he loved most: fighting a fire.

Mr. Craddock, a rescue specialist with the DeKalb County Fire and Rescue Department, had a heart attack May 4 while fighting a house fire in south DeKalb County. Two strokes followed, and he died Tuesday at Emory University Hospital.

Bill Craddock loved fighting fires and teaching other firefighters how to stay safe.

"Bill was what every fireman aspires to be what we call a jake, a fireman's fireman," said Christopher W. Holcombe of Buford, a firefighter who worked with him at DeKalb County Fire Station 24.

"Every time the fire department asked for volunteers, Bill was out in front. He not only was a dedicated fireman but an instructor on the local, state and national level known throughout the country for his teaching of technical rescue and firefighter survival. When they teach us to be firemen, they teach us to put fires out. But things can go bad in a fire. Bill taught the best way to save ourselves in emergencies and get other firefighters out."

As a rescue specialist, Mr. Craddock could do it all, said Mr. Holcombe. He was adept at high angle rope rescue from tall buildings, confined space rescue from places like sewer pipes, trench rescue from construction sites, scuba diving rescue, swift water rescue and extrication from vehicles. "Firefighting was Bill's passion," said his wife, Shainti Craddock of Jasper. "He called it his first love."

The funeral for William Leroy Craddock II, 37, of Jasper, is 2 p.m. Saturday at First Redeemer Church in Cumming. McDonald & Son Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

The Florida native served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps as a helicopter mechanic, Mr. Holcombe said. After moving to metro Atlanta in 1996, he worked as a car mechanic and began volunteering with the Hickory Flat Volunteer Fire Department in Cherokee County.

In 1997 Mr. Craddock joined the DeKalb fire department and soon was going through the arduous training to become a rescue specialist. Besides his extensive teaching, Mr. Craddock worked part-time for the Forsyth County Fire Department and was an assistant chief with the Bethany-Salem Volunteer Fire Department Station 8 in Jasper.

To help unite Georgia firefighters, Mr. Craddock joined with several other firefighters in 2001 to establish the fraternity Georgia FOOLS, a branch of FOOLS International. FOOLS stands for Fraternal Order of Leatherheads Society.

"It is an organization that promotes brotherhood and the traditions and lifestyle of firefighters," Mr. Holcombe said. A major part of the Georgia FOOLS agenda is teaching firemen across the state how to save people and get out safely, Mr. Holcombe added. The program has grown to numerous chapters, said co-founder Brian Gary of Forsyth County, a lieutenant with the Forsyth County Fire Department.

For fun, Mr. Craddock rode bulls in rodeos, went horseback riding with his wife and played hide-and-seek with his 4-year-old son Colby Craddock, who loved to come to his father's fire stations.

A fund for Mr. Craddock's widow and son has been set up by the DeKalb County Fire and Rescue Department. Donations to the William L. Craddock Fund can be made at any Bank of America branch. Other survivors include his mother, Gail Schueren and his stepfather, Bob Schueren, both of Epworth.

-Courtesy of AJC.com

It is finished

In more ways than one....
First off.. I said goodbye to a good friend yesterday. A brother in the fire service, Bill Craddock, an incredibly smart and funny man went home to be with all the other firefighters that have gone before him. 40 days ago, May 4th, 2006, Bill was fighting a house fire and went down from a massive heart attack. Since that day he has fought the battle in ICU. It was a roller-coaster of good news/bad news.
Compared to 99% of everyone else who knew him, I only knew him for a short time. But in the short time he taught me lessons that I will take with me for the rest of my career. Craddock was a gruff, no holds barred kind of guy who through tough words but a gentle spirit only wanted everyone to be able to go home the same way they got on the truck on the way to the call. He was... he is.. the poster child of firefighter training and safety. Full of mischief and piss & vinegar he stood out as a guy who loved this job so passionately and only wanted to share the knowledge he had with all his brothers and sisters.
Craddock is known throughout the nation as a hardcore firefighter who loved to train. Both himself and others to, quite simply, always be the best. There was no excuse for not giving 110%.
And just as much as he amazed me, his wife has amazed me. Throughout this whole ordeal she has been so kind, so thoughtful... in a time of utter heartache, she has so often thought of others before herself. I hope she always remembers that we will always be here for her and her family. We are all a family.

It so sucks that it is times like these that it is when we get to see long lost friends. But it will be a time to celebrate Craddock's life. To celebrate and acknowledge all his accomplishments and the advancements he has made. I came to this dept after riding with Craddock at his station. I was so looking forward to working jobs with him. To training with him. I can only work towards being the best.. to hopefully making him proud. Everybody wanted to live up to his expectations. I will miss him so much.

And... on a lighter note. Today was the last official day at the fire academy. I did it. Cav and I have to go back and complete a class tomorrow since we were at the hospital all day yesterday, but that is fine. The thee of us have our station assignments and all our stuff to hit the field. Finally! My excitement is anti-climatic... I still cant believe that I am here. .doing this... and they're paying me. The last two years have finally paid off!

I have been assigned to one of the busiest boxes in the county. It's a single company house so the amount of time I am going to get on the engine will remain to be seen. I will put my time in on the box, but I will definitely be looking to get as many fire rotations as I can. The call volume for my station is huge. In the first 5 months of this year one engine and one box have about 3700 responses. LOL... woo-hoo.. am I in for a treat. I think I might have said that I came to this dept was because I wanted to busy... maybe a little too much.
So.. needless to say.. this blog will have lots of interesting stories. Stay tuned....

2 down...

Today was a good day... PT aside, it was a good hard physical day. Hooked up with another class doing interior search and rescue and today was like being back home doing drills with Darin.
Our instructor switched it up this morning.. so the fact that I had my brain straight for what to expect flew out the window. But I had a brief moment of personal pride. As with most women in the fire service, we tend to lack on the upper body strength. I've never made excuses for that, and dont tolerate other women who do. If you want the job, then get into the gym and pump iron til you can. For all the CPAT's I've taken.. it is usually the hose hoist that eats my time. When I took the test for Dekalb it was like the others in that it really ate into my time.
In the middle of running the tower with the hose roll, Instructor S. had us stop off at the 5th floor and pull the hose. I pulled it without pausing and without that much difficulty. It was just a brief moment of "yea!" for me.
Did 3 evolutions with the group... the maze, disoriented ff, and a team search. I truly miss being all hot and sweaty in my gear, pushing myself...
I had a brain fart during one of the evolutions... LOL.. my old LT would have bopped my on the head. In the middle of the maze I was being hollered at to disconnect my regulator. I pulled off my one glove since my hood was over the regulator. Yeah.. I know. Just a brain fart. Had to re-do the maze.
Took a couple layers of skin off my knees but it's all good. I'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow... something in the burn building.
I am so looking forward to being back out in the field. 10 more days.

back into the groove....

Well if anyone actually reads this... I'm back. The past few months have been spent packing up, and realizing one of my life's goals. I have taken a job with Dekalb County Fire Rescue in Atlanta. After a year of traveling around testing for departments, I've picked them. My uncle lives in north Atlanta and he is so incredibly generous to let me shack up for a while. The things I wanted in my career dept was big, busy and progressive. Dekalb fits all of those. 268 square miles, 700K people, and about 105,000 calls a year. So anyway, I've been down here for about 7 weeks. The past 6 weeks have been all county and medic orientation. A long.. 6 weeks. We are the anomily at the academy.
Normally classes range 25-35 people. We have 3. Yep... 3 people. A guy from Dallas, TX a reinstate who used to work for the dept a couple of years ago and me. Its been a good time but we're all itching to get back out into the field. Even if they put me on the box for a long time.. I dont care... I'm tired of being in a classroom.
So.... we finished all that up last Friday. Today started accelerated fire training. All of us (all whopping 3 of us) are already FF II certified in some aspect, just not GA. So basically they're running us through all the skills and getting us ready physically for the academy's exit combat challenge.
Yeah... today was hard. But it was a good hard. Morning callestetics followed by running of the tower a couple of times with a roll of 3", followed by an uphill march (with the hose) for a couple of miles.
I'm hitting the sack early. We were advised before we left that it gets much worse.... right after we got done reloading 1500 ft of 5" supply line. But like I said.. I'm not complaining... it was a good hard physical day. But a 60 min body massage also sounds utterly divine.

Ok... enough writing for now... the light from the screen is killing my head.. I know... gripe, gripe, gripe... hell, its my blog I can do whatever I want.

Nite....

Gillien Barre

Did a call for a guy who had developed Gullien Barre Syndrome. 31 yrs old, he went from a healthy strapping guy to losing almost all his strength in his legs, starting to lose strength in his arms. Looked it up after getting back to the station. Most people eventually recover but still have residual effects. A lots of victims are put onto vents because of the rapid degredation of the the nervous system. I havent added anything in such a long time I canty remember anything else that happened. Oh well. They say the mind goes first.

Moving

Well.. it's official. I got the call I've been waiting for so I'm heading to Atlanta. Everything is falling into place quite nicely. Already have a place to stay, have met some cool folks down here, and my family will soon also be living a short distance away. The department that I got on with is very busy, and my time between the engine/ladder will be balanced well between the rescue.
I'm in the process of changing everything over to GaFFmedic so some links on other pages may take a little while to get all updated.
I start the department's academy on a fast-track in 3 weeks. Will be down here permanently in 2 weeks. I'm excited for all the challenges that I'm gonna have down here. Well, I'm heading back to Cincinnati... gotta get on the road before it gets to late. I hate rain.

Standard

Had a few days off due to my hockey schedule, picked up some overtime on the BLS transport... did a call for a 9 yr old heading home from Children's. The transport was across state lines so they needed to make sure that the whole crew was Ohio certified. Child was non-verbal with mental retardation due to trauma received at 5 weeks old. Apparently she was picked up by her legs and thrown several times. She now has daily multiple seizures and has had numerous hip surgeries.... now the enlightening part of all this was her caregiver who rode home with us up front with my partner. The main road off her street was under construction and she had no idea how to tell us to get to her house. What should have taken an hour took us 2 hours. I can hear my partner up front asking this woman, "Are you SURE this is the right road?"... "yes... yep, this looks familiar".... 10 minutes later I hear my partner, "Nope, this isnt the right road... its a dead end!" I think we might have passes the Clampets house somewhere along the way. I get paid by the hour, not the run... I didnt care.

Did a call for a drunky-poo who fell down and go boom. Call came in as a man being drug down the highway. We happened to be calling county for something else and they were asking us if we had seen anything since the area we were at was where this call was coming from. We hadnt. But 2 mins later we were dispatched to head back to the area, the PD had someone. Guy has only been in the country for a week.. no visible signs of trauma, and the only english he can mutter is "Drink Tequila". Apparently him being "drug"... was his buddy who also spoke very little English was the one dragging him OFF the highway. LOL

Did a call for chest pain. Guy self-administered 2 Bayer so he was a step ahead of me.

Tubing

Did a call for a 3yr old on a vent to go to his weekly chemo treatment. Also took him and mom back home a couple of calls later. I would venture to say that most EMS folks would agree that peds patients make us the most apphensive. And its just a matter of exposure. We dont get peds patients a lot so when we do get them, its a really new scenario each time it seems.
Did a call for a stat transfer from one hospital to another due to location of his cardiologist. He was on Heparin and Nitro drips, stable with chest pain still at a 3/10 after multi-doses of morpheine. My partner and I got him loaded and the trip was fine. We talked, yada yada yada... We're pulling into the place, and I'm disconnecting him from my monitor and I notice that his tubing is filled with blood. Not a completely unusal site except for the fact that both of his drips were on pumps. I happen to look down and sure as shit notice about 30cc all over the floor. My partner opens the back doors with this priceless "What'd you DO?" expression on his face. Apparently the tubing had gotten crimped in between the pump and the frame of the cot and had gotten sheared in half. What a mess. There was no way to avoid the wheels of the cot going through the mess.
Later on, my partner was in the back and almost the same thing happened. It was just a saline drip but this time the tubing got all wound up in the wheels and was spliced in half. Jeesh.
Helped another crew with a lift assist. Guy post-mva a week earlier still complaining of neck pain going from TCU to MRI. We see a c-collar just sitting on his bed. No one can tell us if his neck has or has not been cleared. The guy took it off himself because it was uncomfortable. We put it back on him. He wasnt a happy camper to begin with and my partners' "its my way or you're not going with me" presentation was enough to make him sulk. Funny.

Hockey practice went well. I only did drills, didnt stay for the scrimmage. Ankle was killing me and its been tight all day today. We have 3 games this weekend. One Friday and 2 back-to-back on Saturday. Hope we have a good end to the season and stay alive through the play-offs.

Everything's... possible

Got dispatched for a possible full arrest.. enroute are advised CPR is in progress. BLS squad is on scene and disregards us and calls the coroner in. Found out later that the patient had been gone for a good hour or so... I'm guessing chest compresisons might not have been to compliant.
Later we got called out for a CO overdose / possible suicide. We met the squad enroute to the hospital. The only working hyperbaric chamber is across the river so off we go. I seem to be having a run of brain-farts today. Jaws clenched - nope, not doing an ET. Started the Neo and dilating the nares for a NT and WHOA... patient is awake. No oriented.. but not uncon anymore. The word combative just doesn't do her justice. Her first sugar was 38. We had the EMT stick her again.. the other medic I was with had heard something about hypoglycemia coinciding with a CO OD. I had already drawn up the Glucagon and the Narcan was already on board. Her 2nd sugar, not more than 45 seconds later was 199. I need to do some of my own looking into this.
Still have another 15 hours or so before I am off. Have hockey practice tomorrow and while I shouldnt be playing, I miss it way to much to not go... It'll be good to test the ankle out.
In the middle of our ritual poker game on this shift we get called out for an MVA with multiple injuries on the highway. Remember passing by an SUV that looked like it had lost the war but everyone had self-extricated themselves. One refusal, one minor and one kinda of an iffy. Other squad took the minor, I took the other guy. Couldnt remember if he was restrained or not and found out enroute that it was a multi-rollover. He got the full work-up. He had a nice doozy of an abrasion on his shoulder which after putting everything together his shoulder was a contact point with the asphalt mid-rollover. Lucky his head didnt follow.
After tagging him with 2 large bore IV's.. I told him the real medics would be on board soon... we just stayed at a Holiday Inn the night before. He would probably be out of the trauma center within a few hours but with his mechanism, but who knows what's possible these days.

stand-still

Well once again I have managaed to bring one of the busiest medic units on the street to a screeching halt. Had one call all day and it wasnt even until 2am that we got the call. Ran a bunch of errands and got a decent poker game going with some of the other crews. Got called out for a possible allergic reaction but ended up being the flu. Woman was tach-ing away at 160, vomiting like no tomorrow... she had woken up with chills and uncontrollable shaking.. husband put her in a hot bath... I dont like treating wet patients who you cant tell if they're warm because they're feverish or because they just got out of a hot bath. After we got her into the ER, she was the 20th patient that night who came on with sudden flu-like symptoms.
Am working at the firehouse today and we've been pretty quiet here too... just a few of the standard.. WalMart sheered off a couple of sprinkler heads this afternoon.. a couple of MVA's... nothing noteworthy.
Doing another 24 tomorrow...

Such is life....

Its been a little while since I've posted. And a lot has happened. Had to take care of some issues in Florida so I was gone for a week. Stopped off in Atlanta on my way back since just getting through downtown took and hour and half. aahhh... ATL traffic. Uncle Don was as sweet and generous as ever letting me crash at hisplace with short notice. Meet up with some friends for a couple of drinks and had a good time. The next morning rushed home to try and make my hockey game... seems I'm always racing home from Atlant to make a hockey game. LOL. Peels Palace burned to the ground Friday night and had a several good alarms going on in the area all at once.

Worked a 36 starting on Sunday and finished off with breaking my ankle last night right before getting off shift. Such is life. I am hoping the ortho looks at the xrays and sees something else as I really cant afford to be off work for 2 weeks. Not to mention just sitting around doing nothing will drive me insane. I'm saying my prayers that the ortho will see it my way. I can hobble for a bit... According to the ER doc I fractured my calcaneous.. right in the core of the ankle where the tib-fib meets your heel. Its only unbearable when I'm sleeping for some reason. Am hoping I can go back to work SOON.

On Sunday all of runs were noting extraordinary. All of them were out in boo-foo, so transport times were up there, but just basic ALS assessment type of runs. Did a woman with general weakness who had a diabetic hx, a fall that turned into a witnessed seizure, another fall with diff breathing... OT shift on the last part of my 36 was steady but again nothing challenging.

So now begins my time off until otherwise notified. At least tomorrow we have a mandatory protocol review class and Thursday is a UC Air Care Conference.