Response to Stupid Medic Tricks

So like most bloggers, I use my little space as a sort of public online journal. Its a place to ramble on about my life as a medic and a place to show off some of my photographs. I write about the ups and downs of my job, my life. I also encourage people to post comments. Now Today while I was flipping through some old posts that had new comments and I was shocked at one of the comments I received. Now I made a comment to this one in the comments list however I felt I needed to say some more. I normally would ignore such ignorance, but I wanted to show this in all it's arrogant glory. This is a comment from either one of those medics who scare us all, the ones who think they know everything, one who will eventually kill a patient because they refuse to learn from what they do wrong or someone who is not a medic at all and does not truly know what goes on in the back of an ambulance.

Anonymous said...
I think you fucked up big time and your a shit bag medic. Awesome assessment skills! Not! Ya know, some day that PT will be your mother, and I hope she gets someone with ALOT more skill and a little more compassion.

5:42 PM

I posted several weeks ago about a call in which I screwed up. It was a bad call with a sick CHFer. I forgot we had CPAP on the truck and I got flustered. It was a very short transport so I put her on albuterol for her wheezing and encoded the hospital a second too soon before I had all the vital information. So when the hospital kept yelling at me for BPs and asking me if I had any IV assess I got overwhelmed. I should have put the radio down and thought more thoroughly about what I was dealing with. I basically pulled a rookie medic mistake. It was not really a mistake per say, I didn't give say Lidocaine to a heart block or Mag Sulfate to a trauma victim. I just didn't treat my patient completely. Had I had a eight minute transport intead of a two minute transport I would have worked everything out in my head. My hands would have caught up with my brain. Now most medics know what I am talking about, especially the new ones. You're screaming down bumpy roads with your driver throwing you about the back of the box. You're trying to hold on and treat your patient at the same time. A good medic takes that whoops and turns it into a learning experience. Every call when go on is practice for the next patient we encounter. My next CHFer I get I will now reach for the CPAP and Nitro before I reach for the radio.
I never claim to know everything. Nor will I know everything. I will be the first person to admit my mistakes. I will speak to the MD after a bad call and ask what else could I have done to make the call run better. I am forever learning. I speak with my coworkers. I post on my blog to learn from the other medics who read and comment on my blog.

sorry so long

Mailboxes on the island

Well I know it's been a while since my last post. And too be quite honest I really have nothing to post. Except for some photographs. I have been playing with my new camera every day I'm off. I have filled up three memory cards with images. Work has been very busy. But busy with stupid bullshit. No life saving. No putting into practice the new AHA's CPR guidelines. I haven't even started a line in the new year. I have however put more insurance seeking people on backboards from lame MVAs. I did make the call to cut up a beautiful brand new Mustang. A Brand new Mustange with ZERO damage. All because the bitch driving it was SCREAMING like a FUCKING banchee that her back hurt everytime she moved. We could not get her out of the car other wise. So not only did I make the call to pop the door off, we rolled the roof too. I never felt such satifaction as I did watching rescue demolish that car. The look of horror on the police officers' faces when I said "I need the door and roof gone" I think spoke for every male on that scene.


Scone



Pirate's Courtyard

Music Beta. Version 2.0 or My favorites of 2005

Now I know some of the albums came out earlier than that of 2005, So fuck off. I know, so there is no need to tell me. I discovered them (the albums not nessasarly the band) this year. So These are the albums that have taken over my iPod this past year.
God I love iTunes.

Rachael Yamamgata
Happenstance

What a wonderful debut album. Some songs, like "Letter Read", are reminecent of Fiona Apple. Others, like "1963", sound like Norah Jones. But her voice and lyrics are truly unique and all her own. These are songs made for slow Saturday mornings. With beautiful piano and strings, the melodies build a perfect little frame for her voice. Check out "I Want You" and "Meet me by the Water" But I will say I love every song on the album.


Frou Frou
Details
Imogen Heap
Speak for yourself

I put these together because "Speak for Yourself" is Heap's solo album. Frou Frou is her band, well its not really a band its a pair. But whatever. Both have very similar sounds. Ghost like voice over top an electronic sound. Electronica is no longer cold and icy. But now has heart. Good lyrics. Great sound. All around a very well done effort. If you are a fan of Jem or Dido check Imogen out.


Death Cab for Cutie
Plans

"I want to live were soul meets body"

This band's fifth effort makes me believe people can still put out good music. It's not all linsay lohan, britney spears crap. Thoughtful lyrics. Well done Death Cab. I do tend however to like their last album "Transatlaticism" a bit more. But still an awwsome CD. I can listen to it over and over.


Rilo Kiley
More Adventerous

I know, I know this came out in July of 2004. But I'm still going to put this on my top of 05. Try and stop me. I love the lyrics, the political comentary. By now yall have heard "Portion for Foxes" ("Im bad news") because it's been a song on Grey's Anatomy. Oh yeah, and their live show is just a good as the albums. I heart Jenny Lewis.


Audioslave
Out of Exile

Never have Chris Cornell sounded so good. The sound still has some Rage Against the Machine's undertones. But Cornell has transformed that band and made a sound that is truely awsome. This album has taken over the spot that RATM had when I paint and listen to loud angry music. My favs include "Bee Yourself", "Doesn't Remind Me" and "Man or Animal"


Foo Fighters
In Your Honor
Disc 1 and 2

Can the Foo's ever put out a bad album? Not even word to explain how fucking bad ass this is.

The Killers
Hot Fuss

"I got soul, but I'm not a soilder."

Kick ass debut. And I'm not normally into glam emo rock, or whatever you want to call it. Brings back memories of an ex who LOVED David Bowie.


Stereophonics
Language, Sex, Violence, Other

"Thinkin' bout thinking of you..."

Perfect driving album. Kelly Jones' deep raspy voice and hard guitars makes an incrediably sexy combination. Wonderfully hard and thoughtful. Memorable tracks include the single of the summer "Dakota", "Brother" , and "Pedalpusher"

Weezer
Make Believe

I love Weezer, even if their lead singer is a fucking lunatic. Rivers's two year of celibacy aparently means that they can make good music. From the radio friendly "Beverly Hills" to the drug indused lyrics of "Freak Me Out" this album is fantastic from start to finish.

So these are my 10 favs of of 05. There are many, many more, but I only feel like writting 10 really short reviews. Check these out.

My christmas present

Well then...the holidays are now coming to a close. And What I have left with is a maxed out credit card and a brand new camera. My father went all out this year. What I asked for was a small point and shoot Digital camera. Nothing too fancy. What I got was a Nikon D50 digital SLR. Something I wanted but didn't want to fork over the bank for a new camera body. According to my mama, my daddy bought like four diffrent cameras, one just slightly more advanced than the next until he settled on the Nikon. Every photographer has a preferance on cameras. Some, like my dad, prefer Canons, some Pentax, I am a Nikon girl till the end. They are easy to use and easy to find lenses and other accessoiries for. I was not expecting this at all, so imagine my surpirse when I opened a small heavy box Christmas morning to find a new Nikon. Unfuckingbelivable. Now one mistake was made. my dad thought that my 30year old manual lenses that I have for my 30 year old Nikon (Julia is her name) would work on the new digital. Not so muuch. It works in the fact that I can take pictures, however there is no light metering and my apperture settings are wrong. I would have to guess on all of my exposures. So my dad being that he was so proud of himsef for the nice surprise of the camera, and then the sheer let-down that the lenses I have didn't work, he immediatly got on B&H's website and ordered me a brand new AF Nikkor 18-55mm lens. I also got a few other small things like a copy of "Harold and the purple Crayon" ( book from my childhood that was read to me almost as much as "Goodnight Moon"), and a Van Gogh book. A new mixer because I burned out the motor on mine making sugar cookies. All and all a fabulous holiday. Expect lots of photographs posted as soon as my new lens comes in.

Happy Holidays.

Merry Christmas to all. Hope the hoildays are bright for your families, hope for no calls for those working and if you do have to run calls, go forth and save a life for christmas.

Stupid Medic Tricks

Wow, I had a dumb medic moment last night. Now every one of us has an off day (or night in my case). So we get called to a Severe Respiratory Distress at 0400. Not a time when I am on my A game to begin with and then walk into an actual sick patient who is really having respiratory distress. Now in the four short years I have been in EMS (less than one of them as a paramedic) one of the things I have learned is that calls at 4am are one of two things: complete and udder bullshit or fucking sick. This old woman was the latter. Now walking in the small apartment you could tell she was fighting to breath. I listened to her lungs and she was very very diminished and what I could hear was wheezes. She stated she had asthma and had been short of breath since this morning. She had been taking her Advair all day, and of course that didn;t help, as that Advair is a treatment not for acute onset. I loaded her up and she was still very short. I get her in the back of the ambulance noticing the swollen legs and the enormous bag o meds she had. One of the pill bottles had the label for furosomide (Lasix or Water pills as they are also know) Still that didn't tip me off that what was going on was not asthma. ( like I said dumb medic moment) SPO2 still in the 80s, still fighting to breath. And of all things to forget we have on the ambulance now I forget that we now have access to CPAP. Yes, I forgot. It's fairly new to us and I completely forgot. Plus I was still treating Asthma not CHF, which is what was clearly going on with this woman. However we were two minutes from the hospital, so I start a quick treatment of albuterol for the wheezes and encode the hospital. Now of course the Blood pressure monitor isn't working and she moving so much that a manual pressure is impossible. Everything I tried to hear it all I got was an earfull of diesel engine and siren. And of course the hospital keeps asking me what the pressure is and, well I don;t have one. Finally I palpate a shitty way off pressure. Give them that. And we pull into the hospital. I have no IV, given no Nitro, and forgot about the CPAP. So I felt about two inches tall. And to make it worse the MD on duty HATES medics, thinks we are all incompetent boobs. And he tell me she is in Florid CHF, which I have no ideas what that means. (it apparently means she be real full up) so then I felt really stupid. I did everything I could just to get the hell out of the hospital. I felt stupid and angry at myself that I missed it. I had suck tunnel vision that I didn't see the forest for the trees. Now I know everyone was a bad day, but being a medic your bad day can turn into a death. She didn't die, she was fine. As soon as we pulled into the ER they had the BiPAP ready and everything was good. I am not normally this retarded. I know the treatments. I know my meds. I just had a bad call, made a bad call and tow minutes from the hospital doesn't give much time to think, especially when the nurse on the other end of the radio is yelling for a pressure. I got this AM and called my mom. Being an ER nurse she understands what goes on in the streets. She knows that everyone makes mistakes, we are not always perfect. She told me, so you made a mistake and forgot something. The next time you won't make that same mistake.

You mean he's really sick?

Well...I had my first real kinda live sick patient in two months. In the past two months I have been dealing with flu-like sympotoms times three days, fevers, sore throats, bullshit chest pain secondary to crack intake, spitters, depressed suicidals, ABD pains from too much egg nog, drunks, and anything that the police department calls us for. The poilce seem to think drunk is a medical emergency. Hell, I was drunk three days ago and I didn't need an ambulance. I needed a taxi and Advil. Anyways, back to my sick man. He was a fairly young veteran, 52 years old. The call had come out as Respiratory Distress secondary to Asthma. We were met outside by several police officers, a young male officer I have known since my days working the the ER comes up to me while I grap the airway bag and computer and says "B, He's got some kind of growth on his neck, I have never seen anything like it and he's bleeding...bleeding alot."
"So this isn't a Shortness?"
"Shortness, where the hell did you get that?"
"Our dispatchers told us this was asthma."
"Well I 'm not the meidcal expert you are, but I don't think this is asthma."
So I put the airway bag back and grabbed a trauma box and a D-tank. My partner was already in the house. The front door is a peice of plywood and there is another door to the immediate left. The doors swing in the oppisite directions so you have to close one door to open the other. (this detail about the doors is important in the extrication od the patient from the residence) It is a tiny one room apartment where these two best friends live together. It reeks of cheap booze,cigars and the metallic scent of blood. A small black and white TV blares on the floor. The paient is sitting on the blood soaked bed being supported by his buddy. He is damn near dead, unresponsive with no radial pulses. He friend tells us what happened. The large tumor on the mans neck had split open and had started squirting blood. The man was covered in it, as was his buddy. His friend had tied a tee shirt around the wound and was holding pressure on it. "M..M..Miss ambulance lady...It just started bleeding...I...I...I Put this on it, but it just wouldn't stop. Y..You help my friend? I felt for my patient and I felt for his friend who even though was somewhat intoxicated knew to call 911 and knew to put pressure on the wound. He had a look of sheer panic in his eyes. I gathered all the infomation I needed from the buddy while my partner called for the fire ddepartment. The extrication from the house was gonna be tough because of the way the doors lined up. And the fact he was COVERED in blood. So the fire department showed up and we wrapped him up in what is refered to as a "Shit Taco" ( a huge fluid proof yellow sheet) And carefully carried him out of the house. We get him in the back of the ambulance and he is still only alert to pain. I lay him back and throw his legs up in hopes to bring his pressure up somewhat. The wound had quit activly bleeding for the most part. It was still slightly oozing. The first offical Blood Pressure was 72/44. He had shit for vascular access. I tried 6-7 times for a line my partner tried twice. My second pressure since putting him the trendelenburg was 92/50 and he was starting to wake up a bit. If you hollered his name he would look up at you. After trying for several lines I just look up at my partner and tell him to just get me on the road. He needs a central line and blood. Cat Two, please and ER's channel. High flow O2, High flow diesel is all I can give him. By the time we arrive at the hospital he is more awake and starting to fling blood around the box. I learned from the hospital that the tumor had started out dime size about six months ago and he had refused all surgery. It was now the size of a large grapefriut.
The rest of the night was uneventful, a broken leg, a drunk and a weak all over.

Also of note I had my court date for the speeding ticket. Reduced to two points and $77 fine. Accoding to the judge I could have just called, I didn't have to drive all the way out there to get it reduced. Apparently the arresting officer had told him that he had told me that. Which he hadn't of course. I couldn't even get the courts phone number out of the officer....damnit

The Goat Rape

I know it's getting longer and longer between post, but my excuse is not much as been going on that is blog-worthy. Well until the other day. I learned that my little city on the east coast is one of the top cites on the vunerable lists for attacks, due to the fact we have the 2nd largest port on the east coast (NYC, I want to say is the largest, maybe Savannah, or Boston), we also have a Navel Weapons Training center and a large Air Force base. We also have the largest Cable stay bridge in North America. I learned this because we had a "surprise" county-wide Haz-Mat WMD terrorist drill. But let's call it what it really was... a big ol' fashion goat rape., as most of these type of drills are known as. Now I know it's kinda supposed to be so that emergency responders know what the weaknesses are and how they can fix them before the Big One happens, but shouldn't be a Surprise type of thing. We already had six ambulances ready and running before it started, as were the Special Ops teams already on suited up. In real life none of this would be ready. What I think should of happened is that yes tell us a drill is going to take place sometime during the day, have the special Ops teams on stand-by, But have that the only information that is released. Not the times, not the places, just that it's going to happen at some point. Then when it starts, do the ring down of the teams and other emergency workers to staff the medical, fire and police vehicles needed. That way the response times of getting the response vehicles, trailers and busses 10-8 and ready can be recorded somewhat realistically. But what do I know, Im just a paramedic. SO it started and first thing right off was that the dispatcher (who did a wonderful job, even though she is a part-timer who normally plays in the streets as a paramedic) received wrong information on where the first incident was so they sent us, the medical support, to stand-by at one location to wait for fire and port authorities to "clear" our scene and set up the zones and Fire got sent to a totally different location. It took almost 30 minutes to clear up that there was, at this point, only one incident. Not our fault, not fires fault, not even the dispatchers fault. It was the fault of one person who gave the wrong info to us. So we got that cleared up and we were sent to the right place. Now all the while the mix-up is being fixed two more "incidents" happened at two more locations so we were being dispatched to all of these different locations. From what we got on the street, the different accidents were to train the different agenties what they were supposed to do. One was to train the Fire department, One for the Medical teams, and one was more aimed toward police and SWAT. I was at the Fire's Haz-Mat incident. So we really did not have patients per-say (we had like two) but we were to do the entry and exit exams for the Fire department. So the senario was that a container at the port had been dropped, was smoking and leaking something and the the port people had readings of radiation and explosives. Not many injuries of bystanders (like I said two), this was more geared toward the fire's HazMat response. Now the fire guys were actually suited up in there HazMat gear, were on SCBAs and the whole thing so entry and exit exams needed to be done. The fire department we were working with, unlike most of the department were work with, has a problem working with EMS. SO They had already suited up an were working before we could do our exams. Then when they were told nobody else could go into the hot zone without exams, they bitched and complained. I had one guy yell at me because he was extremely hypertensive and I told him that he would not be allowed into the hot zone. "Look," I told him "Its' not my call, its your chief's call, I was given a max number for blood pressures, I am not allowed to clear you when you pressure is in the 220s, you should have taken you Pressure meds or something. Don't bitch at me, its not my call." He carried on about being up for promotions and why was I not keeping any one else out, bitch, bitch,bitch, blah, blah,blah. I did have to keep tow more out, but they both were like "Hot damn, I hate wearing those fucking suits anyways" So I finished my entry exams and when it came time to do the exits I had three, three of the forty domething fire guys come back to me for their exit exams. WTF, IM NOT STANDING HERE FOR MY HEALTH YOU DUMB BASTARDS. I standing here for yours. If one of those guys had collasped or something, it would have been my head. I didn;t really know what the other incidnets were, I know one was a tanker overturned with "green stuff" leaking from it and there was some dirty bomb detonated at another site. From what I understand, the other sites had their share of problems, but we also found solutions to a lot of them. So, Al and All, by EOC's standard it was a successful drill. Other than the late lunch, lack of bathrooms ( at least ones that you didn't have to walk through the hot zones to get too) and some other minor problems, the public was told it was a positive drill. Now ask some of the responders and you might get a different story. But these things are supposed to be a fucking nightmare anyways.

Mad World

I just returned home for a long shift. I didn't feels good yesterday, that horrible achey feeling you get right before you get sick. Never a good sign. Also never a good sign when you get called to the same house twice in one shift. Yesterday AM we get called to a house when a very angry woman lives with her parents. According to the parents, she when psychotic after she hit her toes on the bottom of the stairs. Of course when we got there, she had taken a Xanax and had calmed down. Answered all the right questions all the right ways, so that we could not take her to the hospital. So later on that night we get called to the same house for the same woman. Except this time she had threatned herself and her parents with a box cutter and said she had taken 15 Xanax. She is now extremely violent and screaming like a fucking banshee. Dad had called us and was the only one in the house with any goddamn sense. Because of Course the mom couldn't handle any of this, she kept crying out "What are you people doing to her?!?" So while I was busy with the 'rents my partner and 4 police officers where upstairs restraining this woman. The Dad finally got the mother to calm down, so that I could go and assist in the restraining of this nut. Now I'm fine with the name calling ( YOU DUMB FAT UGLY DIKE! FUCK YOU YOU BITCH!) and I can keep my cool through the kicking and swinging ( have restraints for that), but when they start spitting in my face that's when I lose my patience. Spitting to me is just about the nastiest thing you can do to a paramedic. It's horribly disrepectful and completely unnecessary. I hate spitters. So all the while of fighting this woman we are getting rained upon by spit. My partner got the brunt of it being that he was closer to her face, I was at her legs getting the shit kicked outta me while I tried to tie them down. We get her down the stairs after about 45 minutes of fighting with her. With her screaming to UNTIE ME YOU FUCKING BITCH, YOU CAN;T DO THIS! I'M GONNA HAVE YOUR JOB AFTER MY LAWYERS HEAR ABOUT YOU! I AM AN IMPORTANT PERSON AND I KNOW PEOPLE WHO WILL FUCK YOU UP! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! AND YOU ARE HURTING MY FUCKING ARMS ect ect ect she demeaned us, and our choice of work, that she was a RX rep and that she was more important (so how many lives have you saved?)...So my partner and I silently continue. There is no talking to these people. We get her on the stretcher and get the arm above her head and the other at her waist, get her legs tied down and I load her into the truck. At this time she starts kneeing at the restraint at the top arm, spitting the pieces at me. Gets that arm loose, then gets a leg loose (our soft restraints suck balls) So then I resort to cravats and get everything back tied down, get a mask on her face to keep the biting and spitting at a minimum. My partner asked if there was anything else. Nope just a ride please. The City officer hops in the back with me so If I need help if she manages to unrestrained herself. And off we go. She cusses and screaming for the entire ride, up until the point were she starts complaining about her shoulder hurting because of the restraints. Now Of course being the responable medics that we are we checked all the the points of the tie down. Making sure we got pulses and everything is loose enough so that we don't loose circulation but tight enough to keep her at bay. So when she started in on her shoulder hurting (at first it was MY FUCKING SHOULDER HURTS YOU DUMB BITCH!...Then she tried a different approach of Can you loosen my right arm, please, it's hurting me? ) I told her that I could not loosen anything because of the fact that I cannot risk my own safety in the back of an ambulance. "You did nothing but hit, kick, cuss, bite, spit and call me names while I was trying to help you, so no I cannot loosen it. It's as loose as I can safely keep it I can however help you reposition your body. But under no circumstances can I untie anything." So I helped her reposition. I think she got it through her head at this point that she is no longer in control and that I was. She started crying and apologizing. She said she was scared and angry. She asked if I could stay with her. I told her I could not, however the people at the ER are very nice, they, like us, are just trying tohelp her. According to my mama, who works at the ER we took her to, that lasted about 45mins. She became violent again spitting at my mom, calling her names, swinging at her. My mama is a very kind and wonderful nurse. She cares for her patients in a loving manner, even the fucking crazy bitches. I felt for my mom. I know she can handle them, she knows when to be...Well a mom...When dealing with completely unreasoning patients. But nobody messes with her on my watch.

Music Beta.

Okay Since I tend to buy at least three to five CDs a payweek (or now iTunes had become a better option due to everything being 9.99 and you can buy just the songs you want it's great!) I will try and do 30 sec reviews of at least 3 new albums. This is the testing phase, if yall like it tell me and I will try to keep up with it once a week or so. Cool? Okay here goes...

James Blunt/ Back to Bedlam
David Grey but better. Great voice for a British Recon Officer. According to iTunes he kept a guitar with him while in Kosovo and the songs he created there became Bedlam. He does get a bit whiny in a few songs like "Goodbye My Lover". "Beautiful" is a great first single, though a bit stalkeresque . Also check out "Tears and Rain" and "Out of my Mind"
***1/2

Panic! At The Disco/ A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
If The Killers and Fall Out Boy had a love child it would be Panic!, Emo with a beat. Songs of Note "Time to Dance" ("When I say shotgun, you say Wedding"), I write Sins not Tragedies", and with it's sexy lyrics, "Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Off Her Clothes"
***

Brandi Carlile/Brandi Carlile
I discovered her while watching "Grey's Anatomy" when they played "What Can I Say". This is a great debut album. She has taken place among my top five female artists ranking somewhere between #2 Liz Phair (circa Exile in Guyville) and #4 Tori Amos (circa Little Earthquakes). Brandi's lyrics are well written and complement her voice perfectly. "Happy" is remincent of several of my failed relaltionships, but not in a depressing kinda way. The melodies just flow from song to song, this album is great to chill out to. This is the album that keeps me calm while stuck in traffic.
*****

If I offend you, you can keep it to yourself.

Spiderwebs


Oh happy days...Five days actually. I have a stretch of five days off. Five days to do nothing. And that is exactly what I'm going to do, because after my five days I have to go back and spend the next three weeks in uniform. I have a shitload of OT coming up to help pay off the credit cards bills I'm going to rack up in the next few weeks. Three weeks of the sick and stupid. Though works recently has been uneventful. Last shift consisted of three calls, a respiratory, a "I think I had a seizure and a hypocondriac. Her chronicfibromialgiafatiguesydromedisorder was acting up. This woman had more chief complaints than a CHFer having an MI with a CVA just for kicks. She was weak, dizzy, had tunneling vision, with black spots, couldn't move her ring finger on her right had, her legs felt funny, she couldn't fill her lungs all the way, chest tightness and had kidney pain and that was just the list she gave me. She had a whole new list for the hospital. The list of meds she was on was a page and a half long. I've had cancer patients on less stuff, she was a walking pharmacopoeia. Nobody should be on that many Meds. Drugs for her pain ,her hypertension, her heart, her lungs. Drugs to counteract the side effects of the other drugs and then more pills the counteract the ones she takes to counteract side effects. A never ending circle of action/reaction. Why?...no really why? And they were all prescribed by different doctors. She had to have been under the care of six different doctors for a disease that modern medicine doesn't even know if it exsits. Come on, if you are going to summoned an ambulance at 0230 al least let it be for a real disease. Like a pseudo-seizure.

I have a show coming up this weekend. I am going to be selling some of my photographs is a local arts show alongside of my mama. My mom is a jewelry designer and makes her own glass beads. So together we are hopefully going to make some cash for Christmas. AKA "Holiday" No longer in The Holy City is Christmas to be referred to under any circumstances as "Christmas". It has not been replaced by the more politically correct term as "Holiday" No longer does the local Lowes sell Christmas trees, they are to be renamed Holiday trees. Because Christmas has now become offensive. Now I have several friends who are Orthodox Jews. They have different stories, games and traditions. I'm not offended by the lighting of the Menorah. I am not offended by the different prayers they say in Hebrew. But all of a sudden the Christian story of the birth of Christ has become offensive. Christian children are no longer able to act out the Christmas story or decorate a Christmas tree. Santa has become a fat evil elf. The Three Wise Men have been fired. My roommate works in a local store that had a "Merry Christmas" sign outside by the trees. The store was made to take the sign down because a man came in and furiously demanded that it be removed because he found it offensive. IT'S A SIGN PEOPLE! BY THE CHRISTMAS TREES!
When did this change? When did the season stop being about family, friends and celebration?

Happy Turkey day and all that crap

So Yeah...Fa la la la fucking la. The holidays are now upon us. The family get togethers, the tree trimming, the over indulgence of chocolate and other sweet stuff, the maxed-out credit cards and in my family the copious amounts of alcohol. We know how to celebrate in my family. Thanksgiving at my house is a wild time consiting of lots of food, drink and very animated game playing. I don't think there are many familys that can turn CSI: the board game into a free for all except for mine. A calm game of Taboo, turns into "give the baby to my father and then tell him about my tattoos" But this is why I love to spend time with these crazy people. Nobody in my family is quiet. I was awakened at 0730 to my 5 year old cousin jumping on the couch I was sleeping on screaming "WAKE UP, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!" I did however miss the karaoke festival because I was on an ambulance chasing down an imaginary stabbing victim. We did have a shooting though...who the hell shoots people on the day before thanksgiving. Thats one hell of "happy hoildays." But fortuanatly there is video of my father butching "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" so I didnt miss much.

I spent today with my cyclist who was struck by a car last year. He is doing well. His surgeries are making him look more normal everytime I see him. His scars are getting btter, he begining to have a more normal jawline. It is wonderful to see him and how well he is progressing.

Also today I got a speeding ticket. 48 in a 35. On a very small barrier island population 657 where appernetly the police have nothing better to do than give tickets out the day after thanksgiving. Now I understand that I was speeding, I am not arguing that. Give me the ticket, thats fine. But there is no reason the be a complete ass. I get pulled, I get my licence, registration and insurance card out, and roll down the window. I greet the officer with a Hello. I get a gruff "Licence, registration and proof of insurance...I pulled you for going 48 in a 35 why are you going so fast?" Before I could get two words out he says "Tell it to the judge" and trudges to the crusier. So I sit and I wait for my ticket, I know I'm getting one by this point. He comes back to my car given me my ticket and tells me my court date, which is on my shift day. Now I have excepted my ticket I am not going to try and get out of it. However I need to know who to call to change my court date. As anyone in EMS would know it would be easier to try to change that than it would be to try to find coverage for my shift. It's not like a I work in a cubicle in which I can call my boss and tell them I will be several hours late. So I ask the officer who I can call to change my court date. I explain that I am a Medic and work 24 hour shifts. I get a rude responce on how "even I have a life" and that he was having surgery in January and that the date had to be in December blah blah blah. Then he tells me that "the ticket is already written so I should stop trying to get out of it." I tried to explain I was not trying to get out of it, I just want to change the court date, and who do I contact to get the date changed. But he would have none of that...I finally got frustrated and every responce he gave my I just gave a "Yes officer" and silently begged him to go to his vehicle and leave me the hell alone. And he still never gave me a number to call. What a douchbag. I made it home without further incident. So pissed I was crying at this point. I go up stairs explain to my family what had just happened and they tell me to call the Muni court they will help me. Now How hard would it have been for the police to tell me that?

3am and awake

Back to posting in the middle of the night. Can't sleep again, This sucks. I spent the evening with the new graduating class of Charleston paramedics. If I can say anything paramedics know how to throw a party. I also was the DD. After last weekend I decided that I would abstain from ETOH for a while. Since I was not able to keep anything down until 1900 the night after my big birthday bash. I surprised my house wasn't set on fire after the guests started a huge fire in my fire bowl. Lets just say the woods behind my house was cleared of a few tree branches. Work has been slow nothing of note really, except the police department has been calling on us for really retarded stuff recently. I think there must have been an incident in the jail again. CYA type of stuff like a small laceration that needs no stitches on an assault victim's forehead. Comes out to us as a "head injury" or "bleeding, possible dangerous body area"

I got an email from on old patient. I don't really condone having contact with patients after we leave them at the Trauma Center, but this particular one holds a special place in my heart. Anyone who has read this blog before has read the post "The artist in the ambulance" It was June 27th 2004 at 0712 in the am, I had had about three hours of sleep in 48 hours ( I was still in paramedic school at the time) I had my first real trauma in which us as paramedics in the streets are the reason he is still alive. It was a hard call, he was pretty messed up. Awake with a gag, yet he had no face below the eyes. His jaw was completely gone and had no airway control. His arm was amputated and had a large alvusion to his upper chest. This call almost made me quit EMS altogether. However I worked through it. I still keep in touch with him. He is back to being a triathlete, just finished an Ironman race. My first save really. A save that has caught the attention of Zoll Medical. Zoll is the company who provides us with out AEDs, cardiac monitors and AutoPulse ( a CPR machine). Apparently Zoll has been tracking our Saves and wants to use my patient at a national shareholders meeting. So thats kinda cool. I really could care less about the Zoll thing. yeah getting recongnition is nice, but it's not why I do my job.

Miss you long time

Water



I know I promised paintings next...however I have to get the negitives of the portfolio pieces scanned so as soon as that gets done I will pos painting. Till then enjoy the photgraphy damnit.

Long time no write. Actually life has been pret-ty dull here in Chucktown. Other than the drunken debachery at my birthday party last weekend most of which I lost in the bottom of Tangeray. No lives to be snatched from the greedy jaws of death. No bloody messes to be cleaned up and swept off to the ER in a rush of lights and sound. Just a bunch of bullshit...and a crowd of violent hypoglycemics (or NGAH; translation: No Groceries At Home) that have to be restrained with several pairs of handcuffs generously donated for the transport by the City Police Department. It has been slow in life as well as work. I just felt I needed to write something...anything...

The underbelly

It amazing really how the same city came be portrayed in diffrent ways. One of my birthday gifts was CSI:NY on DVD. It shows NYC as dark, dirty, and seedy. It shows the underbelly of the city in stark reality. Now take they same city and tell it's stories through the eyes of the girls of Sex and the City. It's all that glitters, five star resteraunts, gallery openings, Manolo Blahniks. Diffrent shows, diffrent point of views. I was reminded of this as I walked the streets of my own city earlier armed with my Nikon. I live in a coastal southern city, known for it's history, food, beaches. Wandered through Waterfront Park, down East Bay Street until I hit The Battery. The homes on The Battery are multi-million dollar historic homes, some that have survived The Civil War, The Quake, and many years of hurricanes. Just a few blocks from there is the ghetto of downtown. In my line of work we see all parts of the city. I've been in the big historic homes with all the antique furniture and I've been in the Section 8 housing with the second hand sofa. I have found out that the rich can be just as filthy and nasty as the dirt poor. I have seen the wealty ignore thier children, just as the indigent pay no attention to thier own. Some of the poor are just as demanding, just as rude as some of the rich. But I can say with all certainty that I have seen the best and the worst of all humanity. I have been witness to acts of kindness that whould bring tears to even me, The Ice Prinecess. I have seen some of the most henious crime scenes in Charleston. Accidents, sickness, deaths, and births, thats my work. I can tell stories of the beautiful parts of my city, of the world outside of my work. Friends, drinks, good food, family. But I can also tell the stories of my life while wearing the uniform. Blood, guts, the sick and the stupid. Every person, every place has it's own unique story to tell.

Happy Birthday to me.

The Pineapple

It's been a calm couple of days, had several days off. No OT for me this week. Fisrt time in a month I haven't spent the week in a uniform. Celebrated my birthday on Thursday in style at a rooftop bar over looking The Market. Friends and cosmopolitons. Very Sex and the City you might say. I got everything I wanted, Nip/Tuck and CSI:NY on DVD, some new PJs and an old Kodak camera to add to my growing collection of antique cameras. Spent yesterday and today with my family. I should spend more time with them. My daddy is still getting over not having his girls around since both my sister and I aren't living at home anymore. I think it's harder on him than he likes to admit. Mama says he is having a bit of seperation anxity. He worries about us. Me because of my work. My sister because she's still young and living in the big bad city. I do get to see my mom more since she works in one of the busy local ERs. She just left the pediatric ER to work at County ER so intead of dealing with children, she treats more psych, drunks and homeless. She says some of those psychs are like the toodlers anyways. She likes it, except for the borderlines, she doesn't like them, which I can understand, they are an odd group people to deal with. I love encoding the hospital when she's working because she always ends the transmission with "See you when you get here, sweetie. Drive safely!" It was embarassing in the beginning because all the other medics could hear it and would give me a hard time, but now most of them relize who she is and they all refer to as "Mom". And she always tries to stand up for the medics when the ER staff gets bitchy with us.

Genius, Just Genius

Okay, So eveyone by now has seen those commercials for Vonage, that broadband phone company, right? If you haven't the general premise of the ad is People do stupid things, like chop down a tree that falls onto thier car or they throw a bat through a plate glass window. And the theme song is this whoohoowhoohoo song (it was also a song used in Kill Bill). Okay, so today during monthly TRMT (technical rescue medical team, see "Dangling and hanging" and "I'm just a girl" posts for more info) We had a Vonage moment. See our training today consisted of "rescuing" a patient from a tree. They had to get the dummy hoisted up into the tree before we could rescue it, so they (and I use they because the genuis idea I'm about to illustrate was the boys' idea. Me and the only other girl on the team were only bearing witness to this madness.) decided that the best way to get the rope over a branch about 30 feet off the ground was to tie a large wrench to the end of the rope and toss it up and around the branch. So we all got our helmets on, I mean we are throwing wrenches up into the air. The other girl and I set up two lawn chairs and sat and watched as the boys hurled wrenches at this tree. We had a pot going on how many times it would take to get the rope around the tree. (I said 25 times, I lost by one.) Now this was some of the best entertainment I had in a while. Watching them as the huttled around each other like they are working out a football play or sometime. Even so often one would stop, toss it and miss, then they would all huttle around again figuring out the laws of physics this was going to require. After about 45 minutes of tossing the wrench, one stated that the rope was to heavy to heave up high enough, so they switched to several large sockets and a long peice of webbing. Finally getting it up there we were able to hoist the dummy up. We made our pully systems and it was now my turn to be pulled up into the tree. I get in my harness, which is most uncomfortable. And they hook me into the system and hoist me up. I then have to pick the 200 lb dummy and get him hooked into my harness, which in itslef is a feat. As they were getting me down they genuis boys wanted to change something on the gground so they kept me hanging for like an hour with my harness cutting up into my crotch (I am so glad I was born female) with my left leg stradling the dummy's neck and my right leg underneath my ass. I think it was position # 47 in the Cosmo last month. So I sat up there, took a nap and waited for whatever they were fixin to be fixed so that I could get down.

Clusters of Madness

Wow...We were busy yesterday. I did a shift switch with another medic, so I worked his shift yesterday, so I am off today. Thank god I'm off today I don;t think I could handle anymore people. 11 calls in less than 12 hours. And these people were sick. Actually sick. Well the first call they weren't however it was kinda humorous. I was 3 minutes late for work. I woke up at 0530 and hit the snooze button, what I thought was once, however when the alarm went off again it was 0640 and I had to get dressed and drive to work in 5 minutes, which was doable because the station I was working is two blocks from my house. But I had to pack up my stuff for the shift like I was moving in and get all my shower stuff together. So that took the extra 3minutes I had to spare after I got dressed. SO I get there and immediately get a call ( hurray for bedhead, I need a shower).. MVA...Car vs house....yep he was in the house alright, this particular house has been struck by a vehicle at least three times in the past six months. It's just in a bad place with no protection from the traffic flow. The car he hit first was slung through a fence and came to rest in a driveway, t-boning a parked truck, which had a man in it. We had six patients all of them High School students. And they kept wandering around the scene. I didn't know who I had treated and who I hadn't and then the parents started showing up so that distracted the kids even more. I finally got on the PA in the truck intructing "Anyone involved in the accident who wants treatment get over to the ambulance, NOW!" I finally got them lined up next to the truck and then the police officers started calling them over. I told then "STAY PUT! Don't go anywhere" Then looked at the cop and told him to "Give me just a minute to let me get vitals and information and then you can have them, But as of right now they belong to me."
"Yes'um"
"Thank you"
Damnit. We finished up with that cluster of a call, got back to the station, I got in the shower. Mid shower get a call. Go...Go again...And again...And again x5 more. Total of 11 calls and that was just the first 12 hours. The second half consisted of 5 more. All sick, most of them unconscious. Goddamn, I was happy to get off that truck.

Im sicker than you...

I gotta stop working so much OT. This is getting a bit ridiculous. I just worked a 36 hour shift with terrible allergies. I feel like crap. I think I was sicker than my patients this shift. Sneezing for 36 straight hours kinda works your nerves after a while. My nose is running and stopped up at the same time. Even the firemen that work at my station are like you look like shit, why don't you go home?. EH...All in a days work I guess. I think I would not be as bitchy if the patients we saw actually needed an ambulance. I worked nonstop the night before last and not one of then needed me. Two assaults, two "chest pains" and one "Shortness of breath with fluttering in chest". The shortness of breath was the last straw because...One the fucker lied to me...Two he wasn't short of breath and three it was at 0430 in the AM. If you're going to call me at o'dark thirty for an ambulance, don't lie to me when I ask have you been drinking or doing any illegal drugs. (he smelled of ETOH and had been doing cocaine all night) And a least PRETEND to be sick. Do not just sit on the stretcher and suck your teeth at me when I ask you questions. Show me the respect I show you, you lowlife. You called me REMEMBER! I'm getting fed up with the not sick and stupid...So that means a good call is coming. It's when I completely lose all patience that I get a call that reminds me why I do what I do. Why I put up with the bullshit and low pay. The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that somewhere, sometime I am going to get a call that puts it all in perspective. Until then I have to put up with teeth sucking, not sick, and 4am calls for nothing.


PS...anyone know of a good sites to get EMS related programs for PDAs?

On Being Green

There are several sayings in EMS, like "it's not my emergency", "never do anything you don't want to have to explain to the paramedics later", and my personal favorite "Paramedics save lives, but EMT's save Paramedics" My first crew chief taught me that one. She said it after a bad call in which I was able to catch something that she had overlooked. It was something simple, something in the Basic Life Support department. We, medics sometimes get so wrapped up it doing the advanced medicine that we sometimes forget the Basic stuff. One of my pet peeves is Paramedics who develop this god complex and think they are above their EMT partner. I recently worked with a Paramedic who spoke very harshly about one of newly hired Basics, who is very green, however very sharp and always asks a lot of questions. The Basic was my relief one night after working with this medic, and she asked me if she could vent a bit. As she spoke of being very nervous during calls and how she really didn't know her place, I was brought back to when I was first hired as a brand new EMT. I had the same feelings. I shook my way through my first calls, hell, even now, I still shake through some of the bad ones. I told her that my voice sometimes still cracks when I give an encode to the hospital, especially if it's a sick patient. Since she is a part timer, she has had to work with many different crew chiefs and she said that was hard for her not working with the same partner. She was worried because every partner wants things done different ways...Like some carry all the gear into the house, some just carry a drug box. She got all worked up because she has worked with some of the most asshole of Medics, she kept saying how stupid she felt. I calmed her down, telling her that even I get freaked out, I'm still a bit green myself. I showed her how to set up things like the nebulizer and the CPAP machine. I told her most medics expect the basic EMT partner to put the patient on the monitor. If she works with a good Medic, not only will they show her how to work the 12 leadEKG correctly, they will show her what they are looking it, especially if it's interesting. I told her to ask alot of questions if she didn't understand. And that eventually it will all come to her. She will be able to do it without thinking. I hope I made her feel better. I still remember my first days. It was the hardest two weeks of my life, not counting the 14 months I spent in paramedic school. (but that was hard for different reasons). I was constantly being yelled at about my driving. And running code, and not blowing through intersections without clearing them first. Everyone has their strenths and their weakness. My just happened to be driving the unit. Hey, I was used to driving a compact car....What can you expect from me?