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But all of this yard work is going to kill me!
It’s been warming up, finally. But with the warmer weather and all of the snow melt comes spring clean-up, raking, raking and more raking. Of course mud season presents those of us in Fire and EMS unique challenges. Every Spring it never fails- a rookie buries a piece of apparatus in the deep mud on the shoulder of a road. Pulling a twenty-five ton vehicle out of deep mud is no small task.
Recently I’ve been riding on the medic truck. Pro- most of the calls we respond to are serious, not like the most common call where people call 911 because they have a cold. Con- unless we get a third provider I’m downgraded to ambulance driver while the medic I’m working with techs in the back.
We’ve had a quite a few car accidents lately, a handful of MI’s (Myocardial Infarction’s, or heart attacks) and several attempted suicides, as well as two structure fires and a chimney fire. I’m up to my eyeballs in paperwork.
But I’m smiling because warmer weather is here! It’s only been in the 40’s the last couple of days but tomorrow it’s supposed to hit 65!
Most of us have a job where we do the same thing, day in and day out. It becomes “the daily grind”. I have the same job every day, but it’s everything but the same thing day in and day out. Yesterday was a simple lift assist for an elderly, disabled lady. Today was a three vehicle motor vehicle accident and tonight an elderly lady tripped, fell and cut her elbow open (she’s on Coumadin, a blood thinner) and waited six hours before calling for help. When my partner and I arrived on scene in looked like someone had been murdered. There was blood tracked all over the floors, throughout every room, the dog was covered in blood, it was all over the furniture and walls. It was grisly. The amazing part? This little, tiny ninety-four year old woman was still conscious and joking with us! God bless her!
Tomorrow could hold anything in store for us. Or the next ten minutes. If there’s anything I’ve learned from being on the job as a firefighter/EMT it’s that the entire world can change in one split second. Everything you knew, or thought you knew, can be gone in a heartbeat. We’re taught much, but rarely does anything go as expected. There’s no such thing as a routine call for chest pain, there’s no one, true and tried way of delivering oxygen to a patient. Every call is different. Each patient is different.
And I’m learning that you can never use the same stethoscope twice… because they get hijacked the moment you turn your back.
God, I LOVE MY JOB!
Lately every time the pager goes off it feels like this…
It’s a sad day for firefighters across the nation. Boston, Massachusetts was called to duty for a nine-alarm fire. My heart goes out to the two fallen firefighter’s families and loved ones. Lieutenant Edward J. Walsh, Jr. (Ladder 15) and Firefighter Michael Kennedy (Engine 33), Rest in Peace Brothers, we’ll take it from here.
“Rest now my fallen brother
Lay soft your suffering back
Rest well and forever
Your memory shall not lack
Rest your tired hands…
Wipe clean your weary brow
Rest with St. Florian
Your spirit now endowed
Rest here your breaking heart
We know you gave your all
Rest easy, you’ve done your part
You’ve answered your last call
Rest knowing that in God we sought
Oh Lord, watch over another who just fell
Rest assured your troubled thought
As we ring the final bell.”
~Poem by R Hoffman, SSgt. USAF/MOANG, Firefighter~
Sadly this is a frequent occurrence out here in the sticks where I tech. People do some stupid things! But, hey! It’s job security right?
The three things I love most:
The Red, White and Blue, EMS and the Fire Service.
The US of A seems to have seen better days than it has in the last two decades. The economy is in shambles, the Government has lost support and people are fighting all of the wrong wars. But believe it or not, this isn’t the first time that this country has been in an upheaval. We always bounce back, stronger then before. I try not to get too political and I’m going to try to continue not to. However I must share this song by Toby Keith because it’s one of my favorites:
I am fortunate enough that I’ve found a job that I love. I live for helping people. I’m happy to put myself and my life last in my priorities if it means that I can get someone else back to their own family. God bless all those who live by the code and their families, who all too often also sacrifice for the love of others.
March 2, 2014
23:22- I say to my roommate, “It’s eleven twenty-two and believe it or not I’m tired enough to go to bed.” I walk into my bedroom and begin getting ready for bed.
23:25- As I place my pager in it’s charger it goes off: Respond for a forty-seven year old male, C/B/A with difficulty breathing and a history of COPD.
23:28- I arrive on scene in my personal car. I find the patient in tripod position on the bathroom floor gasping for air. Upon evaluation I discover his oxygen stats are at 72%. That’s not good. While I awaited the ambulance’s arrival Igathered patient information: name, d.o.b., medications, allergies, medical history, etc.
23:35- The ambulance finally arrives on scene with a Paramedic on board. I assisted the medic with administering her drugs to the patient and we got the patient on a stretcher and into the ambulance.
23:39- We no sooner load our patient into the ambo and he starts taking a turn for the wors
e. At that point the medic pulled me into the ambo and told her partner to drive. Whether I wanted to or not I was going for a little field trip. While enroute to the hospital I assisted the medic and between the two of us we got his o2 stats up to 96% before we reached the hospital.
There were two other older EMTs on scene with us but the Medic chose me. I feel honored that she chose me. I’ve worked with her on scenes before but I’d never teched with her in the ambo. The fact that she chose me to assist her tonight showed that she trusts me and is comfortable sharing her ambulance with me. I know many Medics who refuse to share their ambulances with EMTs (mostly because they believe they’re paragods).
02:14- I finally got dropped back off at my car.
02:16- I signed off at the Fire Station.
02:20- After writing up my report and closing the call out, I punched out and went home.
I can honestly say that I love my job. I make a difference in people’s lives every day.The reality is that I can’t save the life of every patient. But I can say that I will do my best to help and comfort every one of my patients and I will treat each and every one of them with respect, regardless of who they are- friend, enemy, black, white, purple, gay, straight, drug addict… everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect.
The Professional Lesbian 