A-B-C's

In the middle of working a 72-hour tour. OK.. so its not a true straight 72 hours. I had a 10 hour break in between where I ran home, showered and jumped into bed only to get up and come back into work. Anyways.. it hasnt been bad. When we've needed to get up and get some energy we had runs that kept us busy.. but when we were finally done, we were quiet for long enough to get in some zzz's or catch a movie.

Did 2 calls back to back for cellulitis in the exact same spot on the patients. One of the patients was non-compliant on her depression meds and it showed. She insisted that we lock all the doors on the ambulance on the way to the hospital but half-way didnt like her level of care and was trying to bolt. I was driving and while I could hear the conversation between my partner and her, I ignored the flashing lights he was beeping to get my attention to drive faster. Had security meet us in case she was going to bolt from the cot that was 5 feet up in the air. Once we had her on the floor, she wasnt even in her room yet and was adament that the nursing staff was not providing her adequate care. She finally agreed to stay but only if I helped her get into bed. I'm looking around like, who am I? I helped her, and asked her nicely to please let the nurses do their jobs and help her. She grunted a bit and martyred herself to receiving treatment.

I've rotated through several partners since the beginning of this shift. I think I should stop by the post office and get a change of address form.

My narratives are all starting to look the same. I sit on the seat staring at my patients sometimes.. almost pleading with their bodies to need something.. anything from me. But for now.. I will take the monitorings and keep on the lookout for anything else that might arise.

I have another 23 hours to go and then am off for a few days. Need to catch up on laundry and re-introduce myself to my roommate. Will hit the gym for a few days to catch up on that too. Want to present a good showing for my physical agility test.

Rain

A nice leisurely 24 shift on a Sunday. I like Sundays. There's the weekly checklist of all the squads and we take our time in the mornings.. everyone manuvering gingerly with their checklist on a clipboard in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other. My partner and I criss-cross 3 counties to hit all the other stations to pick up the weekly time sheets and outstanding run reports. We dont get a run til 12:30pm. Considering I played my butt off last night at our hockey game, I'm not to disappointed that we dont get out first run til 12:30pm.

It's dreary and cold and I wish it would just snow already. No such luck. It rains. And rains. And rains some more. We have an evening transfer into hospice for a sweet old woman who has no complaints, nothing hurts, but yet her family says they cant care for her anymore. We wrap her up like Mother Theresa to keep her as dry and warm as possible. Down a set of steep stairs on a hill that is her front yard.. we lift and carry her like the Egyptians did royalty. Its the least we can do.

I got to watch my show Grey's Anatomy without interruption. Sweet. Hoping to pick up some more shifts throughout the week. I'm poor. But who isn't these days. Gotta make it to the gym tomorrow. Have a week before another game and have some pent up energy.

There she goes....

Friday night got toned out for a working structure fire in the city. My roommate who was off duty came with me anyways.. can never have to much manpower. 4 of us on the first engine in, I was engineering along with DT as officer and DA and SB in the back. JB and the rook took the 2nd engine right behind us. We were a good 1/3 of a mile away and could see it was already fully involved. Could see by the way it was cooking that mutual aid was in order. Quite nicely the house had a plug in its front yard... which was nice until we had a couple of lines laid and the other companies pulling off the plugs upline. Wind was blowing against us about 20mph, zero visability of the structure... which after hollering at the rook to keep on air he looked at me and said what about you? LOL.. well.. I guess. Roof collapsed with 7-10 min of being on scene. Heard a few reports of some Nitros Ox tanks being the garage. Homeowner did confirm there were dragster funny cars in the garage but no NOX tanks. About 4-5 min into the operation, my supply line looked like a piece of spaghetti. Had a whopping 10psi of residual on the intake. Good times trying to keep from cavitating the pump. Not a hard job, just cant get a lot of other things done when you're trying to listen to the pump while running around to hear if its winding up.

Mind you.. I'm not complaining... who doesnt like to have a job? Temp was about mid-40's when we got on scene.. dropped to the low 30's after being there for 4 hours and snowing. But we had it good compared to CSVFD. Those guys laid 2k feet of supply and relay pumping to the scene. Walking out 2k feet of supply would have sucked. Thanx guys for the help. There was no loss of human life, but the family did loose the family dog. And everything they owned. We really did feel so badly for them. Cause was still undetermined last I heard.

Broomstick

It was a very light day today... its still considered a holiday by a lot of the Doctors' offices and labs, etc so.. while we didnt do a whole heck of a lot.. it makes the day drag. Got called out for a pnemonia patient to go back to the nursing home. Now I have some very solid opinions about nursing homes, I wish I had a bigger soap box but its one of those institutions in our society that lacks so much consideration and administration because no one cares enough for our parents but they sure do care enough about the almighty dollar. Now, I have seen some nice nursing homes. They are VERY few and far between, but when you do see them... you see a markedly different patient profile. The all to often under-certified, under-paid, under-staffed nursing home with patients who are given the bare minimum care is the norm. I have to say it is the saddest part of what I see.
I love old folks. I love the cranky ones, I love the sweet ones, I love the perverted ones who still have that spark of life in their eye. Reminds me of my great-gram. That woman walked at least a mile every day up until she was 97. She danced twice a week til she was 98, and drove her own car around (and did it well) until she was 95. When my ex-husband and I moved to FL to take care of her... as we were tucking her in for the night and getting her settled, she used to grab his arm and tell him to go make love to his wife. Ha! She was a hoot! Its usually the cranky ones who are just so bored with life and so frustrated with all the good-intentioned people of their world that have taken away their indepenedence. That is one of my "personal" rules... I try to give my patients every ounce of independence they want. All to often we hurry our senior citizens to either move to the cot, or sign paperwork, or whatever. These are smart, talented people who were living life just like we are now... but age or diease or bad luck has dealt them a hand that no longer permits them to live unaided. And to top it all off... they often get stuck in a foul-smelling room with no visitors and here we come... I will leave this blank for you to fill in how the medical community in general treats these patients. I am not saying all or even most EMT's and medics are calloused... but it does happen and it just plain shouldn't.
So what to do about this issue that infuriates me and saddens me.... I do what I can to affect the people around me in hopes that it will have a ripple effect.

Back to the patients I had today and how this tirade got started. Our first patient of the day was in the hospital for pneumonia and was in the hospital for 2 weeks (over Christmas and New Years) and we were transporting back to the nursing home. She cried most of the way to the nursing home... because she missed it. It was her home, and they were good to her. It truly made my day.. knowing that when we left her there, she was happy. She was home.

The other calls were for a routine transport back from the hospital to a nursing home and a inter-facility transport to behavioral health.

Storms have been a brewing all afternoon and we had some awesomely wicked weather move through the area. Wished I had been at the firehouse today.. I was listening on the radio while I was at work.. we had a car fire in the middle of a torrential downpour with a tornado warning. In my demented way.... sweet!