Good Friday

Well, for me anyway. Good to be busy, not so good for my patients. Start the day with a DIB that turns out to be a rapid AF, chest discomfort. FOUR people on the ambulance today - way too many - makes us look like the Keystone Cops all piling out at the scene. Still, sometimes with larger patients more hands makes light work.

Second call for a 'suspected' untimely. Cold, very dead and asystole in two leads. I hope she went peacefully, and sometimes I wish people would call earlier and not suffer through something expecting it'll go away.

Round out the day with a pair of patients who were getting by during the snow fuelled power outages with a gas generator. Guess what ? CO of 80ppm in your house from the exhaust getting in through your vent will not have a good outcome. Fortunate that one of them got outside and passed out, prompting the other to call for help. Could have had a VERY different outcome.

Looooong transfer

Somehow I got roped into doing a transfer to a hospital in NYC. Left the station at 8am, drove to the hospital to get our patient and then drove 263 miles south. Fortunately the traffic gods (not to mention the 250k mile engine gods) smiled upon us, and we made good time. It's definitely a different experience navigating both the streets and the hospitals in New York City. Not one that I think I'd like to experience on a daily basis - so I take my hat off to those that do.

After spending a half an hour and several incorrect direction assists later, we finally find out where we are supposed to go and thankfully deposit our patient in his room. As we leave he gives me a pleading look and says 'Please - take me back with you..'. I'd say if I were in his position, I wouldn't have wanted to stay there either.

Anyway, no sightseeing for this crew as we get the hell out of Gotham as fast as possible with only a small delay on the Bruckner Expressway. I always breathe easier when I'm outside city limits, and even easier still once I'm north of Massachusetts.

My back was absolutely killing me after 10 hours sitting in a crappy, cramped, broken ambulance seat. Remind me never to agree to this kind of thing again.

A busier day...

Started the day right off with a call for 33yom diabetic pt, unresponsive. When we arrive on scene, turns out that (a) it's a woman (b) she's AOx3 and (c) her husband called 911 back to report her BGL was now up to 66 and we could be cancelled. Shows how often things get lost in translation.

Later in the morning dispatched to a 30yom seizing. Arrive on scene to find a guy crumped on the floor by the door, reportedly seizing for around 30 mins. No obvious IV access, so 2mg of Versed IN. Backboarded and into the ambulance, eventually get a line and off to the ED. Love the MAD !

Went to bed early since I have to work tomorrow, and sure enough get woken up around midnight to a 60yom with chest pain. Turns out he's a frequent flyer with a long med list and history whose biggest problems appear to be anxiety. A sign off.

To round out the day, called for lift assist for an elderly man who'd fallen out of his chair. Back up he goes, in time to catch the Olympics on TV. Now back to bed...

Day 5

Weekend 24. Not a whole heck of a lot. While everyone else is digging out from 'snowpocalypse', we have barely a flake. Just one call for an 83yo lady with possible TIA.

Hope things pick up in the spring, because the tedious monotony will kill me.

Nada.

First 24 hour shift yesterday. I think I must be bringing my white cloud, because we didn't go anywhere. All day. All night. Nothing. There are only so many time you can wash a truck, check and stock. This makes 60 hours in a row between this and my other job without a SINGLE call. I hope and pray it changes before I go out of my mind...

Day 3

First time on as solo Medic today. Bit nerve wracking, but I'll get over it. Yesterday was a no call today - learning that it's OK to sit around and do nothing (unlike my FD job where there's always something to do)

49yo female MVC rollover on an icy back road. Managed to take out a mailbox and roll it into a snowbank without a ton of vehicle damage. Signoff.

14 month old difficulty breathing. Cute kid - some congenital heart problems. Bit of a pucker factor on the way to the call, but he ended up being easily manageable and quite compliant.

86yo male with unilateral weakness. FAST was negative, he has alzheimers so it's kind of hard to get a good history out of him since he has lower extremity weakness to begin with. Then again he has a history of TIA so better safe than sorry.

Fairly busy day in an 8 hour shift.

Day 1

Getting to know the rigs, what is where, which ambulances work better, where all the good drugs are and how to get at them. How all the monitors work (God how I hate Zoll monitors).

Intercept for a BLS crew who thought their patient was tanking. Turned out that nothing really emergent was going on, but hey - it got us out of the station.

Call to the boonies for a 25yo female patient with psych problems who got into an argument with Mom and was afraid she'd get out of control. A long ride to the hospital.

A short and relatively mellow day that thankfully flew by.