Back in the saddle

I'm been back at work for a month now and everything is going well. Initially was on the box all the time, but I asked for that as I did not want to be a liability to my crew. We've had some good calls, but the meat and potatoes of the job is still there in full force. Doing the stretcher has been a little difficult but for the most part have figured out ways to get the job done when there is no extra help around. Threading an IV hasn't been a problem with my left hand and intubating has been fine. One of my first few shifts back I had a patient who needed some calcium. When was the last time you broke out the calcium? Yeah, me too. But I had a brain fart and when doing my calculation, I calculated twice in my head and thought I had OD'd the patient. I thought, oh great, just getting back at this and here I go. Turned out to be fine, I hadn't OD'd her, and her rhythm returned to normal.

Had a GSW the other day and he was a very lucky guy. Guy was shot at point blank range to the L-mid-axillary line at about the 3rd to 4th intercostal space and exit wound was mid-scapula, 4th to 5th intercostal space.... and it never hit his lung. I was pretty impressed.

Also ran a call on a woman short of breath. Asthma history, but stating at 99% and clear, and took her in. My partner who is getting her in the back turns to me and says, "She says her finger blew up". During the last 15 minutes of talking with the patient, she never mentioned her finger, but after looking over at it, I can't imagine how she couldn't have mentioned it. It was 3x its normal size, the skin splitting in several places and oozing pus all over the place. She mentioned that she had hit it on something earlier in the week and a few days ago the nail had fallen off. She was just putting neosporin on it. For as sick as it looked, I asked her, "Jeesh, did you slam it in a car door or what?".... no, she hadn't.... just hit it on a counter or something. It was a classic diabetic response injury. I looked under her haphazard bandaid and there was a definitive hole down through the middle of her finger. IV antibiotics were definitely on the menu in hopes to stave off an amputation.

All in a day's work.

Next step

I finally have it in ink! I've convinced my doctor to let me go back to work! I'm so excited I'm bouncing off the walls... its kinda like being put on parole. I still have a good 4 months of therapy and doc said surgery in the future is a possibility (I sure hope not, I'm SO done with surgeries)... but at this point, the fact that I can get out of this flippin house and get part of my life back is SO WONDERFUL!

I am a good 3-4 months ahead of schedule, and while I'd love to, wont be fighting fire anytime soon. Index finger is still broken, but I can still thump on a chest, push drugs, and granny tote.There will be a few things with a learning curve as I learn to adapt and figure out new ways to do things on the job, but it will be good occupational therapy to just get out there and do it!
So next Saturday is gonna be a good day! I know for all you guys who think I'm crazy just itching to get back to work... but then again, I just love my job and have the best crew you could ever ask for.

Tried riding this past weekend. 2 months to the day I got hurt, and while I have some mental blocks to get over, its the first baby step to get back out in the dirt!! Have a great holiday weekend. If you don't have plans and you live anywhere around north GA, Durhamtown is having an awesome Pro Freestyle Bike and Quad competition this weekend. I will be down there all weekend.... watching... ha ha ha, don't worry... this girl wont be trying any freestyling. Play hard... get dirty.

More rehab

I know some people do sustain injuries that incapacitate them life long... but working where I do, I have encountered my fair share of people milking the system. Now, after me being laid up for 2 months... I just don't know how they do it. I am going flippin NUTS sitting here at home! I want to go back to work... NOW! My therapist jokes that when I'm 50, I'm gonna wish I had taken half a year off. I severely doubt it. I don't care if I shovel shit at this point, I just need to do SOMETHING!

I feel clumsy at everything I do. This past weekend I went out to Durhamtown since my accident. Hung out with some friends and we planned on riding the quad, the bike and doing some fishing... mmmm... and maybe a little drinking. LOL. Lets just say that I had a good time fishing. I need to learn patience with myself. But I guess I had talked myself up in my head so much and being back out there... it was not fun.

I feel like the part of my spirit that was so "balls to the wall" wasn't there. Granted, the quad I was riding is 4x bigger than what I'm used to riding, but I felt like it was taking ME for a ride. The next day I rode the dirt bike and really didn't have a good time. Falling just simply was NOT an option that day. I felt out of control. I know a lot of that comes from my index finger still being broken and everything else on my hand being hyper-sensitive... but... BUT... I want to ride! I want my life back, dammit!

I've been thinking a lot over the last couple of days about being so skittish this past weekend. Ya know, before this accident, broken bones, sprains, abrasions.. whatever... yeah they hurt... but they HEAL. And since I wasn't doing anything spectacular when I crashed, I feel like.... crap, what happens when I fall again? Falls are just a part of the sport, they happen. Its just a mental block that I need to work through. And I just don't want to give up something that I love so much. I know... baby steps. That's like telling the Tasmanian Devil to slow down. I need to find something to be good at again! SOON! Frustration, awkwardness and clumsiness is running rampant right now. Hell it takes me 15 minutes just to put my hair in a ponytail!

If I can get back to work, even as the medic on the box, I'll be ecstatic. I can at least use my noggin and feel useful again. I am trying to talk my doctor into letting me go back to work... if I can go back soon, I'd be a good 3-4 months ahead of schedule. Therapy has been going well and almost every visit I have Dan shaking his head. LOL. Every week he creates new splints for me to improve mobility in my joints and tendons. So, we'll see.... stay tuned...

Rehab

I am well underway into therapy and I think I have encountered almost every emotion. Since my last posting, I've seen my hand unwrapped and lost it. I've stiffened my upper lip, taken account of what I've lost, what I still have, met people who've lost more than me and have learned about true friends and what they're willing to do.

Shortly after writing my last entry, and letting the wounds start to heal from the skin graft surgery, I had my appointment to see my hand as it would be. My legs were continuing to burn and feel as if someone were stabbing me, my skin graft was not healing well and I was an all-around wreck. We added vsits to a neurologist to figure out why you couldnt even blow on my skin on my legs without me having a meltdown. Pain meds were maxed out and eating a sweet-tart had the same effect. Time is passing slowly. I oscillate pretty frequently between being all gung-ho and being frustrated and bitter.

Injured

Bet you thought I'd never update this thing did you? Well neither did I for a while. Pretty much all of February I felt like everything I was running was so run of the mill. We had a few moments here and there that I wanted to jot down and right about but never did. But now its the beginning of April and so much has happened the last 3 weeks.

I was at my part time job where I work as a medic at a sportsman resort. You've read about Durhamtown and its where I have raced and ride as much as possible. Well Mark and I were out patrolling the trails and on the "B" trail there are these 2 hills/jumps that are blind doubles. They're meant for bikes, but if you're on an ATV and you hit it fast enough, you'll fly right over the 2nd one. Well, since we weren't riding hard, and when working we're on utility quads, I came over the first part and hit nose heavy in between the 1st and 2nd jumps. Instead of rolling right over the 2nd part, the quad bounced and me and the quad went rolling. After rolling about 40', and kind of taking inventory of everything, I realized my right hand was hurting.... a lot!!! I pulled my helmet off with my left and saw from the tears in my glove that my right hand was really messed up. I was able to pull my glove off (later you'll see how I don't understand how I could do this), and once my brain acknowledged that it was MY hand that I was looking at the wave of pain that washed over me was indescribable. I prayed to pass out but it never came. Mark finally realized I wasn't behind him, listened to me scream and ramble as he packaged me up, and I was off to the closest hospital which is about 50 minutes away. Unfortunately, the medic that I was with couldn't get a line so I had no pain relief while en route. The lidocaine block once in the ER was SO wonderful. They realized I need both a hand and vascular surgeon specialist, so I was shipped over to Atlanta. Thank goodness!!! I have been blessed with an amazing doctor!! So.... the outcome?


After the first surgery, which ended up being 8 hours instead of the expected 4, due to the damage and amount of dirt in the wounds, my doc grafted about 8" of veins from my forearm into my fingers in an effort to save them. After 2.5 days, and watching my middle and ring fingers turn black, they amputated them just past the last knuckle. The tip of my pinkie was lost in the incident. We're not sure what exactly crushed my fingers, but it sure was a doozy of an injury. You'll see in the xray pics that all four fingers had significant injury. But there is much to be thankful for. Even though I now only have nubs for 2 fingers, which gives me a permanent "rock on" hand sign, my thumb was not injured, my index finger was able to be saved, and the rest of me only received road rash.



My mom was able to come up for the last 2 weeks, and I've had some awesome and amazing friends by my side since minute one. My doc is stating 6-8 months for full recovery, I'm setting a personal goal of 5 months. Now that I'm not AS doped up on narcotics, its been good being at home to start setting a schedule for myself for physical therapy. My fourth surgery was yesterday, which they took skin grafts to cover my fingers and other wounds. Hopefully this will be the last one for a while. I have included pictures of the xrays, and links to the pics that are more descriptive in case those of you with weak stomachs don't want to see them. Sine I now have lots of time, I will try and keep this updated, albeit with PT stories instead of field stories for now.

Here are the links to some pictures that I took once I had the lidocaine block as well as some the medic took for on my way to Atlanta. *** WARNING *** they're graphic.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h183/gaffmedic/injury015.jpg , http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h183/gaffmedic/injury013.jpg , http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h183/gaffmedic/injury014.jpg , http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h183/gaffmedic/pre-surgery.jpg , http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h183/gaffmedic/pre-surgery2.jpg , http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h183/gaffmedic/pre-surgery3.jpg , http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h183/gaffmedic/injury3003.jpg

So.... while this is definitely a challenge for me for the next few months, I'm up for it. So, play hard, and get dirty.

***** Update*****

Here are some pictures from the "now".... still getting used to it. Have good days and bad. Now that the weather is getting colder... you know how your extremities hurt when they're cold and you hit them on something. Yeah... it hurts even more when I hit my nubs on something. Have 2 more surgeries next year that we know for sure. Life has been busy with a baby on the way, so my concentration on my hand has been diverted, which is a good thing.

Allergic to... what?

Well if my goal of moving south was to be with a busier dept, I have certainly succeeded. Yesterday was madness, and my department certainly got its money's worth from us. Save for 45 minutes that I slept in the passenger seat of my rig, we ran a full 24 hours.

We ran a call for a woman in seizures. Apparently she was at a friends house and they witnessed 3 of them before calling us. No one could give any information on her and one woman sitting next to her would ramble on and on, but when asked a direct question, would just grin at us without saying a word. The patient was postictal to say the least, just staring at us.. and when trying to assess her, she grabs my fingers in one hand and my thumb in the other and starts pulling... hard! I get myself free and use the crew from th engine company to help get her out and in my rescue. It takes a good 10 minutes to get all the bystanders to back the heck off and once we get this very disoriented woman on the stretcher, she announces that she, "has to make a boo-boo." I'm hoping she can hold it til we get to the ER. While checking her into triage, we were repositioning her O2 mask and her wig comes flying off... she is still postictal and while getting her set-up on a hospital bed.. she starts informing me on her allergies... the last one.. the most emphatic... being K-Y Jelly. I dont expect the hospital to be using any of that on you ma'am.

Had a frustrating asthma call... couldnt get a line to save my life... was really wishing we had RSI.. and to top it off.. several of my judgements were questioned by chiefs in the field hearing radio traffic. Everything ended up fine... just glad when the shift was over

We've got orange!

Am finally getting back to work and am feeling better. Been staying busy. We've caught one if not 2-3 fires every shift lately. And the 2 other shifts have been just as busy as we have.

My partner and I were coming back from the hospital, waiting at a stop light, and watching one of those old VW vans starting to smoke. Looked like he was just burning some oil... then he's trying to start his engine... we pull on through the light and pull over to see if he's ok. I'm in the middle of texting someone on my phone and my partner hollers... "we've got orange on the


ground." The guy gets his dog out of the van and we use what we can with the water can and extinguisher. Its still starting to roll. We've already called for an engine, but it was funny only being able to stand there and watch it with our gear on.

Its been bitter cold here the last couple of days, makes the good calls that much more expeditious and the BS calls that much more frustrating.


Here are some pics from a fire we had recently along with some pics from riding lately. Had two riders last weekend that won them trips to the ER with concussions. The first ride nailed a tree and couldn't tell us what day it was. He knew everything else but looked like he was still seeing lots of stars. Then his brother tells us its common for him to not know what day it is. Huh? Are you kidding? mmmm... ookkkkk. If you say so. 15 minutes later we get called to the big track for another rider who nose-dived after over jumping a tabletop. He definitely took a good hit. His brain was on a recorded loop. Helmets.. such wonderful things... it did its job. Told the guy I'd give him $20 towards a new jersey since I cut it off after only 3 hours of him buying it.

Yesterday seemed to be sweet old lady day. Had 3 patients in a row that were over the age of 95 and who all just seemed ready to pass. One had been taken in by her family, yet they let her lay in the same spot for over 4 days without moving her. The only time she uttered a sound was when we were moving her to the stretcher and the pain from her bedsores were to much for her to handle.

We ran a call for a woman down, called in by her 6-yr old son. Both us and the engine pulled up at the same time to also find Grandpa standing on the front porch with the boy and a 4-yr old girl. The little boy says he was playing in his room with with his sister while his mom was on the computer in the next room when they heard a pop. They go in to find mom laying on the floor. I was thinking a possible electrocution. We find her laying on the floor with a blood soaked chest. She is gone. We look but cant find a weapon. We then see a hole in the wall above the computer. We clear the house and call in PD to search the house for a possible assailant. We come to find out a neighbor was shooting a high-power rifle at branches... BRANCHES!!!... when a bullet hit her roof, richoceted through the walls and kills this woman doing nothing but sitting at a desk and working on a computer. It is tragic and heart-breaking. We find out later that not more than 5 minutes earlier the little girl had been sitting in her mothers lap. I cant stop thinking about these kids.

As for my incident that you guys know about, we are feeling better and getting healed up. As soon as I get pics from that fire, I'll post them.

Eeewwww...

Ran a call late into the night for a person sick. Such a vague dispatch.. and to an address of an apartment tower of the geriatric age group. Enroute we get information that a grandson has something stuck in his ear. Hhmmm.. just what could we have here. To give you an accurate picture, most of the apartments in this tower are occupied by folks who have less than acceptable cleanliness standards. We walk in to find a 20-something young man in a chair with his head in his hands. He tells me he has a roach stuck in his ear. A roach!... stuck in his ear!!!! My partner and I cant see anything and at first I think.. no... please tell me no... maybe this kid has a crazy case of wax or something. Then I look at the dining room table and see a good 10-20 roaches crawling all over the place.. and as my eyes adjust to the low light... I see them all over the walls and ceiling. I want to bathe... NOW! We take him outside for better light and try to do our thing with no resolve. He says he can still feel it moving around. We take him on in and we use a potent lidocaine concoction to kill it and it floats out. ok... now I'm really ready for a bath.

Everything else was meat and potatoes... an arrest that should have been called in the field but since we couldn't get a line and dropped everything down the tube we transported. A bunch of basic calls where onset was 3-6 days earlier and now they were just "tired of feeling like this".

The next couple of days are set aside for chilling, working out, and doodling around the house. Next 2 weeks will be busy... see ya when I get back. Stay safe. Play hard. Get dirty.

Weather

The day started out pretty good... after musical driver for about an hour (seems every shift, after the roster has been made, we go through musical chair for about an hour while other stations call in needing an extra body)... it was me and the EMT I was assigned to for the day. I have had previous shifts with her before, but my day went from great to "oh shit" when she got moved over. I try not to gripe, but anyone can tell you.. you can handle practically anything on your shift if you have a good partner. But having a crappy partner can make even the most mundane calls a headache.

Definition of a crappy partner: someone who doesn't check off the truck efficiently, knowing that after you do your thing with drug checks and setting up your equipment the way you like it, you might as well go back and check the whole truck yourself cause your partner will only visually check the things that are in plain view. A crappy partner does only bare minimum, does a half-ass job at cleaning the back of the truck after a call and then sits in the front and plays solitaire while you do your thing and STILL SITS there while you are in the back putting everything back in order.

And for those of you who are saying, tell your partner to get off their lazy butt and do their job!, well... easier said than done. That's all I can say about it for now.

So we ran 2 calls in the morning and then got to catch up on some much needed sleep for a few hours. I had worked at my other job the day before and was sore and beat to hell and back. I rode my quad for a good 8 hours straight. I am certainly not complaining as its the BEST pt job out there. Lets see... I get paid almost what I'm getting at my full time job to ride my quad around the woods and my gas is paid for to boot! The weather was beautiful, the ground was perfect, and my baby was running good. So I rode hard... and so my body was hollering at me all day at work.

Watched the NFL playoffs for a bit before we caught a good house fire. Home owner apparently was cooking a mean fried fish meal and got a grease fire on the stove. Hint: what DON'T you use to put out a grease fire? Yeah.. guy brings in a garden hose to put it out. Ends up lighting up the whole kitchen and by the time we get called and get there, the roof, the garage, both cars are all lit up. We did some serious remodeling during overhaul. All the while it was 33 degrees and raining. Good times. 3 hours and fresh, dry clothes later, bed time.

Got up around 1am for a 24 yo woman with tingling in her arm which started up again while she was exercising. No other complaints, original onset was 2 months ago, no KNOWN history as she hasn't seen a doctor in over 10 yrs, and at 300 pounds exercising at 1am... I thought.. so we're your doctor, huh? Do you want to go the hospital or not? "I don't know.. what do you think?" What do I think?, Well I wouldn't have called 911 cause my finger tips were tingly. "Ok... well I'll go and get checked out, can you bring the stretcher to my front doorstep?" Are your legs tingly too? I ask. "No"..... well then... lets keep up your exercise regimen and WALK to the ambulance.

Until next time... stay safe, play hard... and get dirty.

Cougar Bar

Another insanely long day on the box. Started about 45 minutes into our shift and we didn't get a breather at the station til about 4pm. And that only lasted about 15 minutes. Seems every time I have our rook on the box with me, we get slammed all day. Our rook is new to the fire service, but has been an EMT for about 4 yrs. But she is eager to learn and willing to work hard. We were cleaning up the box at the hospital and we were trading near miss stories. She's telling me how she almost lost a finger when someone threw a hydrant wrench at her while catching the plug and she starts talking about the cougar bar. I do a head tilt wondering what the heck a cougar bar is... I'm trying to figure out what she is talking about... and then she does an .. "oh.. I mean cheetah bar!".... and I start laughing so hard cause she's confident she really meant a cheetah bar... Its a CHEATER bar goofball! We get a good laugh and she's a good sport about it but begging me not to tell our senior guy. Are you kidding? Some of the best nicknames come about from doing silly rookie things. So now "Rook"... she is now "Cheetah".

We ran a woman in labor which I'm not sure what exactly it was... but lets just say that I was envious that my partner was stopped up and couldn't smell what I was smelling. She was in her early 50's giving birth to her 4th child. Ambitious woman.

Ran a call on an ALOC with significant ETOH history. When starting the line on him, went through 6 alcohol prep pads to get the area clean. His wife sitting up front was intent on trying to have a conversation with him while he was out of it in the back. While my partner drove we laughed the whole way since she was hard of hearing, but rambling on to him.. we're trying to get information from her on him.. and all he would do was just stare at me. Older couple who both seemed like they hadn't bathed in over a month. I wonder if this is because of old age our their situation. We weren't laughing at them... I really wish at times I had more power to help people in this environment... but that there were 2-3 conversations all going on at the same time and none of them meshed was candid camera-ish.

Had a call on the other side of the county from PD.. they found a guy laying in the woods on the opposite side of the guardrail, very... let me emphasize... very combative when approached. But would just lay there if left alone. By the time we got there, the engine company was on scene as well as the pt's mom. In the course of a few minutes, he tried to bite his mother, bite me, took a swing at one of the engine company guys... he was a workout. Restraints, Narcan, and Valium later... he was peacefully sleeping with an artificially induced SVT. The frustrating part was mom on scene. She refused... and not even by saying she refused.. she simply ignored any request for information or assistance regarding her son! "Name?... ma'am... what is his name?" Nothing. "Ma'am.. your son wants to be able to see you, can you stand over here?" Nothing. She would just look over my shoulder at him and start to walk away. Gggrrrrrr.... I wanted to shake a knot in her! It was a nice little bout of chaos.

We got back to the station between 4 and 5am. I just stayed in the passenger seat and slept. No point in going to bed. Oncoming crew woke me @ 0630, took my keys and radio and THEN I went to bed for a bit before heading home. Now I am home, got the laundry done and I'm taking the quad out to ride. It's cold but its at least not raining. Gonna get some good practice time in before working out there tomorrow. Its not as busy during the week and can play on the track easier. Stay safe... play hard... get dirty.

Good day

Yesterday made for a good day on the engine. Much unlike last shift, the whole company got to get chores done and relax for the first part of the day. It was a welcome relief. Nothing much to speak of.. a car fire, a full arrest, a couple of MVA's with all the rain and a few others.

It was crazy unseasonably warm but I am certainly not complaining. It was a beautiful day. But as usual that is coming to an abrupt end. The cold weather has moved in overnight and I am gonna try and get in a couple hours of riding practice before it gets really bad today. Heard that by next shift we're gonna have a day of sleet and cold crappy weather. Guess winter finally decided to arrive. Well, off to do some riding and hopefully stretch out my back from last time.

Status Quo

I haven't run a shift like yesterday in a while but having a good partner makes it bearable. We were at the station for an hour out of 24. Wished we just could have had a BLS truck tailing us since almost every call was a basic call and a few were just taxi rides.

On one call a basic wasn't available so we transported a repeat patient complaining of ab pain. While she states her pain is 10/10 she looks rather bored and only when she is not getting enough attention does she start with the moaning. I have picked her up before and she is known to have a hx that would warrant extra BSI, but she is random on whether she admits it. I advise my partner and drive on. We get to the ER and my partner cant remember the door code to get into the ER. I start to say it to her and THE PATIENT rattles it off to her! And when the charge nurse says she can go to the lobby triage, she pipes up, "Oh... and now I have chest pain." ...mmm-hhhmmmmm.

Everything else we ran was typical bread and butter stuff. AMS, dizzyness, fall off a bike, an ear infection in a toddler, and lots of difficulty breathings. We had a late call and the oncoming crew hadn't gotten to the station yet so it was 0715 by the time we got back. Have to leave the station by 0730 to get to my other job on time.So tired and running late make for a grumpy me. And I was having practice while out at the track. But it was a good day.

Another weekend of record numbers. Thankfully nothing major. A broken wrist after a guy ran his quad into a tree and a kid with some abrasions after laying down his bike off a big berm. While out patrolling came across 2 bikes that collided while merging on a trail and another rider comes up and his holding his neck. Apparently he was clothes-lined by a vine that had gotten pulled down. Pulled him right off his bike and left some nasty looking lines on his neck. Patched him up and he was off but I think it would have been a good time to call it a day.

Practice time was good... Improved my time on two of the trails by 1:12 and my time on the SuperMX track by 42 seconds. When I finally got home last night, after cracking a beer and soaking in the tub, I finally felt human again. Countdown to 6-hour HareScramble: 41 days.

I'm still here

I've gotten a bunch or emails lately wondering if I'm still around... I am... I just hadn't realized how long its been since I've sat down to type anything. Goodness.. 3 weeks.. a lot has happened in 3 weeks. Christmas.. New Years... Hope everyone had a great New Years.

2006.. wow.. what a year of changes, risks, some with rewards and some with... well... lessons learned. In 2006 I got divorced, I moved to another state, I finally got the job I had been working so hard for, and I loved someone more than I thought possible. I've met some life-long friends, and have lost some people very close to me. I've reaffirmed that I am a strong smart chic who can make it on her own. I've started loving a new sport that I've jumped into with both feet. I have been through fire academy. I have saved some lives and saved some houses. I've watched a family's dreams go up in smoke on Christmas Day, and was thankful that my family was at least safe. I have tried in vain to save a 17 yr old who was driving to fast without a seat belt, and then comfort his mother while still at the hospital. I took in Granny Frinkett at 2350 and we celebrated New Years together in the back of the ambulance... (while I needed a hospital more than she - will get to that later.)

It has been a good year... heck... I'm still here. LOL! And 2007 has plenty to offer. Lots of traveling... I'm hitting the Jersey shore this summer, FDIC in Indy in the spring, riding as much as possible, skiing in a few weeks.. and whatever else my little heart desires.

So.. while I have felt like I've been hit by a train the last couple of days, I am renewed and refreshed. I was on shift New Years Eve night and dinner did not sit well for most of us. So around 2300, it was not a pretty picture. Bathroom.. Bedroom... Bathroom.. Bedroom... oh no... a call... are you kidding... lets hope we make it. By the time I was dropping off Granny Frinkett I was calling a time out. A friend of mine started a line for me at home. 2 bags later and I still didn't have to pee. Started feeling better this afternoon after getting lots of sleep.

Some memorable calls since the last post... medic boy and I got a call for an uncon/fainting pt. Its really a young guy who is complaining of ab pain, feeling like he must have eaten something "bad". Vitals are all good, no fever. Looks in great health, no history, no meds, no nothing. I call for a basic to transport him. He then starts touching between his legs saying it hurts and he moved just enough to notice a massive growth between his legs... and no I don't mean that one. After questioning and doing what we're supposed to do, his scrotum was the size of a nerf football. By the time we got to the hospital (yeah, I cancelled the basic) it was the size of a full size NFL football. He said he had been like this for 4 days. 4 days! Are you serious? And you weren't planning on telling us any of this while we're standing there? I figured he had herniated himself. Ran into the ER doc later and turns out he had torn a blood vessel.

Ran a call for an MVA with rollover on the highway, which is very common for our section of the interstate. Car landed right side up. Dad is in the front complaining of multiple injuries, slumped over into the passenger seat. The young child in the back.... very content, still playing his video game that is attached to the back of the front seat! He couldn't understand why.. since he wasn't hurt and "but I had my seat belt on" ... that we still immobilized him. He was an awesome little kid.

So.. for now that's the updates. Hope you and your families had a safe and happy time over the holidays. Hope you have a great new year in 2007. Make sure you live every day without any regret. Stay safe. Play hard... & get dirty.