Day 4-Monday, September 13, 2010-Quote of the Day…

Day 4

Monday, September 13, 2010

Quote of the Day…

Woke up right on time this morning… Past couple nights I have been having some pretty weird dreams… Oh, well.  So get up get dressed… the usual routine.  Grab Moa, get to work, right on time.  It only takes me about 15 minutes to get there.  We saw a drive-thru do-nut place we want to go to on Friday (which is our Monday.  The first day of our next set of four, and we are beginning to loathe just like a normal Monday).  Go into the bay and find Gina and we both say Happy ‘Friday’ to each other.  Since Monday is the last day of our set is now been blessed to be called Friday. : P  She is so fun.  I just love being on the truck with her and Candace.  They keep things fun and upbeat.

Walk through and say good morning to Camille.  She is the really nice girl probably about my age that works in Materials.  She is sitting on one of the cabinets with a chocolate lab puppy that was dumped at Post 41.  It was soo cute and looked so sad.  It needs a good home.  I would have taken if I had a place to put it and not had to worry about the 3 people I live with being upset.  So I see the Marlboro Man from the previous day walk in the bay and pray that he isn’t on my truck, and he wasn’t.  I did the ‘Bomb Dance’ inside!!!!  Apparently he is going to take the puppy home.  Poor dog will get the black lung and emphysema from the second hand smoke. : (

Get in the truck and there is no water in the cooler!!! Second day in a row 41 hasn’t had any water.  They are also out of cot sheets and 18 G needles.  That stinking supplier needs to get on the ball and get here!!!!  No one seems to know why we are running low on supplies.  Speaking of, I still haven’t gotten to do laundry. GRRR!!!  So I was stuck wearing Brant’s stupid, ugly, nasty, feeling weird on my skin, vented pits shirt.  And some pants Renee and Greg got me a while back, which I really like but don’t wear often because they button up, not zip.  So I feel weird and all discombobulated because there are no pockets in my shirt and so my pants pockets are hold things they usually don’t and I feel all off balance!!!!!  And out of whack because I have to think of what pocket is it in before I can grab anything. : /  Frustrating. 

Hit the streets on truck 69… THE LOVE TRUCK as Gina puts it, and get called to a 56 y/o F with chest pain and SOB.  Has a Hx of STENTS and HTN.  Nothing to terribly exciting.  Got a 20 G in her left forearm 1^st try.  Took her to Presby.  Really nice lady.

Post for a bit.  Called to 86 y/o F with SOB… I have a feeling today is gonna an SOB kinda day.  It is overcast and kinda muggy and that is when a lot of people with COPD and asthma have issues… or at least that is a trend I have noticed.  She probably weighed about as much as a basket of laundry.  Wheezes and crackles in all fields.  HX of ‘lung problems’, probably emphysema (which is a form of COPD) and HTN.  2 neb treatments, 125 of Solu-medrol and a trip to the ER, and she will be fine.  Her grandson fumigated the kitchen with Raid and didn’t tell her and it exacerbated her COPD.  She said she isn’t allowing Raid in her house again.  I think she needs to let it in more often!!!  : P

After her we were assigned to post and went to lunch at Swadley’s BBQ… YUM!!!  It was delectable!  I couldn’t even finish my plate there was so much food.  Surprisingly enough, we got to sit down in the restaurant and eat our whole meal, sit and have been posted at the Circle K down the road for about an hour or so now.  I am thinking I am gonna take a nap…… Or play my DSi, which also happened to make its way to work today.  Hmmmm, fancy that. 

So we post for about an hour or so, then called to a ‘right breathing right’ 87 y/o F.  Hx of Breast Cancer, HTN, Alcoholism (about a gallon of vodka a day, per daughter’s description), and falling.  My thought was ‘Well if I drank a gallon of vodka a day I would have a history of falling as well!!!!! Hahahaha!!!!!!!’  The house reeked of cigarette smoke too.  All of the family was in the kitchen eating chips and watching the game when we came in.  Someone had to go and get them to answer questions.  So she found in her bedroom floor incontinent of urine in half of her pajamas… her bottom half had somehow found its way to her ankles… huh.  She has pinpoint pupils, systolic of about 200, decerebrate posturing, and agonal breathing.  No one has spoken to her since Saturday evening.  This is not good. 

So FD got her line started and had her pretty well packaged to go.  We were on the clear other side of town when we got the call and it took us a good 20 minutes going full code to get there.  Load her up and hit the road.  The hospital is a good half hour away so we run hot into the hospital and mind you the system is at level zero (no available trucks on the streets).  Everyone is busy!!!! And the daughter who is riding shotgun is laughing because her husband and the pastor at their church are both following us in with their flashers on!!!!!! Running red lights and stop signs through a busy part of town during rush hour!!!!!!!!!!!!  I wanted one of them to get hit or pulled over just for the poetic justice of it all.  The family following was told before we left not to follow the ambulance through red lights, if we were going hot.  And to top it off they are all laughing and thinking this is the greatest thing to happen since sliced bread!!!!!!! The crew and I are pissed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So we drop her at Mercy and as we are the PT out of the back of the rig the daughter gets choked up.  She also drags like 3 people through the ambulance entrance.  Transfer care and the family is out leaning against the nurse’s station laughing and joking with not a care in the world.  Whatever…

So I go and help Gina with cleaning out the rig.  It smelt AWFUL!!!!!  Worse than Homeless CHF’er.  And we hear a call to 2 rigs and the bird.  Anaphylaxis turned full arrest.  Dispatch put the bird on standby.  The first rig to respond said drop her down and dispatch asked does the PT have ROSC.  Medic-Nope still in arrest. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY!!!!!!!!!

Dispatch- The bird doesn’t fly dead people.

I fell out of my chair laughing!!!!!  They sent two rigs because the first had something go wrong with it, then it magically fixed itself when it came across the radio as a full code… hmmm… So medic calls again for the bird.  Dispatch has the bird land and tells medic you can fight it out with them when they get there.  Now we are posting on the ‘worst part of town’ according to Gina. My thoughts are “Have you been outside near Alexander Rd and Roseland Park or in the San Jacinto Mall parking lot or in the south side of Houston after dark in Baytown/Houston??  This place is the Ritz compared to that.”  We laughed.  Posted…. Everyone seems to be busy and running everywhere but us today.  Gaaahahah.

So it is now 10:15 and there has been a shooting, robbery, domestic with injuries, and a bar fight go out… and I am still sitting at post!!!!!  I am getting bored and jealous. So I am going to watch The Back-Up Plan on my Lappy. : P  Suck on that most boring post in OKC…  and that was it for the last shift of my first set.  Until Gina and Candace got upset because I was sitting in the back watching a movie and they weren’t invited.  I felt bad for not even thinking to ask them to join.  I will think of them next time.

Day 3-Sunday, September 12, 2010-Holy Marlboro Man, BATMAN!!!!!!!!!

Day 3

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Holy Marlboro Man, BATMAN!!!!!!!!!

Wake up this morning around 9… I was supposed to do my laundry for work today, but alas, I did not.  It was rainy and stormy out, and I didn’t want to so I didn’t.  So I am wearing a gross uniform today.  Joy.  The $25 shirts Brant ordered for everyone are awful!!!!  Most of us just wanted normal basic polos, but no… He had to get the moisture wicking with vented pits, that make me look like I am trying to look like a man.  So I am not wearing them.  They SUCK!!!  And aren’t comfortable and don’t want to stay tucked in… So since I currently only have one pair of pants and one shirt… I am just working with what I have until I get the chance to get some more.  So we leave early so I can put gas in the car… Gas is up 10 cents over night!!!! I wasn’t very thrilled. 

This is Steve... The nut I take to work with me. : P

Get to work and we don’t have a basic assigned to us… and Moa’s Medic hasn’t shown so I am riding with Candace and Tim (an Advanced who Moa has been riding with the past few days) on truck 94.  We get all set in and are about to take off when we are told we are getting a Paramedic rider (someone who has been hired and is just doing their precepting).  So David is his name and he is from Nebraska.  We get to post and he hops out for about 3 minutes.  Climbs into the back of my truck smelling of Marlboro’s!!!!!! I think to myself ‘Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?!’  I was thinking he was a pretty good looking guy, until just now.  EW!  I am disgusted and the mal-odorous aroma is lingering in my nostrils like homeless CHF guy’s breath from Friday.  So we sit at post 21 for about half an hour or so and then we get moved to another post…. Low and behold, what does home-slice do the second the rig is in park????  Hop out and smokes another one like they are going out of style!!!  It hasn’t even been an hour since the last one.  So I am pretty disgusted and I get a refresher dose of the Marlboro Man as he gets back in the truck.  Joy… This is going to be an interesting day.  So I am sitting in the back of the truck with this putz, which means I feel like I have to behave.  Grrrrr.

We get our first call at 13:30.  62 y/o M syncopal episode, AKA the poor guy passed out.  Has a Hx of heart problems, diabetes,  HTN, A-fib (which is an abnormal heart beat), and is morbidly obese to boot.  Find him on the floor not wanting to go to the hospital.  His BP is about 90/40 and is dizzy and has a bit of tightness in his chest, so we convince him he needs a first class ticket to the VA (He really needed to go with how low his pressure was and he wanted to go to the VA.).  Story is he went to church, feeling dizzy, went to this hole in the wall diner to eat lunch (smelt amazing!!!), and passed out on his way to the table.  Get him in the truck, gets poked 3 times trying for an IV and a 12 lead.  Nothing significant on the 12-lead.  Blood sugars were good and gave him a bolus to try and raise his systolic BP.  Also gave some ASA to help with the chest pressure.  Turn him over to the VA. 

His buddy that is about the size of my drowner from yesterday follows him up.  Well while Candace and I are doing paper work and talking to the admin guy, the admin guy says there was a man in the waiting room that wasn’t a PT but was driving him crazy and he was about to beat him down.  I said hold on long enough for me to get out my phone so I can take pictures and he laughed.  Well while we are walking out to the rig the Pt’s ‘friend’ runs up to us asking for the code to get in the EMS entrance, saying the man in admin won’t let him back and is being a prick.  He just really needs to see and talk to his ‘friend’ and make sure he is ok.  I think he was a little overly concerned and I am thinking they were a little more than friends.  *Shudders… 

We are back on the streets by about 2:45 and Marlboro Man is watching some sort of baseball game on his phone.  The Lions and the Cubs are playing… At least that is what I think I am overhearing. :P  So I just asked and it is an ESPN app he has for his phone that goes through all the major games in professional sports… football, baseball… You get the idea.  Stopped at Cold Stone for some Ice cream… I can’t remember how much it is, but we either got a 10 or 15% discount for saving lives!!! WOOT!  Man I love this job. 

So we are posted and homeboy is on like cig #4 or 5 for this shift.  And isn’t even 4pm yet!!!!  Gosh I don’t really understand how you can be a medical professional and smoke at work!!! Your patient’s can smell that, ya know??  And so can your disgruntled co-workers. It is just frustrating to see someone who obviously knows better do something like that to themselves.  Aren’t we supposed to be the good example for our patients and the community??  What a wiener…

So around 4 we get our second call.  Goes out as a 47 y/o Stroke/CVA.  Well this poor woman lives in the projects. We get there and you could tell by her last name that she was at least part Native American.  Her son is running around freaking out and trying to tell everyone what is going on and get us the info we need.  So she is AOx1.  Has no idea what is going on, but knows something is wrong with her.  Get an 18 G in AC after blowing one of her hand veins.  Has a Hx of HTN and TIA’s and according to her son probably hung over… had way too much to drink last night and hasn’t eaten.  BGL is good though.  So we transport and she doesn’t have a facial droop or one sided weakness.  She just can’t seem to get her words out correctly.  Really confused as to what is going on and why everyone is there.  Also son says her initial symptom was visual disturbances.  He said she was seeing spots and no color. Left her at ER and went potty.  Talked to Tim the driver and intermediate for a bit.  He seems really cool and kind of flirtatious… Not really sure about that last part.  I thought he was a little bit but next time I talk to him I will pay more attention to give a more accurate account and hypothesis.  He is a pretty good looking guy, though.  : P 

Another call to a more shady part of town.  54 y/o M Grand Mal Seizure.  Has a Hx of seizures and had some sort of brain injury a few years back and decided to stop taking his meds.  DUH!!!  Got a 20 G in his forearm… really easy stick, just followed the track marks.  HA! He was postictal all the way to the hospital.  When we got there he started waking up though.  His momma had found him on the couch seizing and called the ‘ammalance’.  We then took a hiatus and I think dispatch lost us for an hour or so because we just kind of chilled at our post for an hour or so.  I took a nap! XD 

Took an inter-facility transfer from Edmond to Oklahoma Heart.  She had a pleural effusion.  52 y/o F.  Got lost in the maze of the hospital looking for the room.  When we went to go give report and nurse that we had been waiting on just walked right past us and into the room.  How rude?!?!  So we give report and get lost again.  We past a TV that was on the Cowboys game… They were down by 3 in the 2nd quarter.  GRR!!!  Talked to Tim and David a bit waiting for Candace to finish up what she was working on… Tim says it is time for a real freaking call!!! (edited for you by yours truly : D)  So it is about 20:30 and we hit the streets again.

Called to a 30 something year old female… I didn’t really hear the call go out.  Arrive on scene to find an Indian woman (like from India… not Native American) sitting in a chair with her 2 children around, FD beat us there as usual, and she was hooked up the monitor.  She wasn't sick.  She was terrified.  Her husband was coming home from work in about an hour or so and they had been fighting.  She said she was afraid for her life.  So we called PD and when we asked what we could do to help, she said make my husband a better man.  We left her in the hands of PD and I wish her the best.  How grateful I am to have never feared for my life like that.  My heart and prayers go out to her and her children.

We were posted for about an hour or so before dispatch told us to go find gas and return to post 41… WHICH MEANS!!!!  It is time to go home.  Man was it a dead night.

Day 2-Saturday, September 11, 2010-“You said you would do the paper work…”

Day 2

Saturday, September 11, 2010

“You said you would do the paper work…”

So I woke up at 6am… then 8am… then 10:30. WHOOPS!!!!  We were supposed to take off for Post 41 at 1100.  Yeah…. That didn’t happen.  So we get out of our apt complex parking lot at like 11:15.  Pulled into Post 41 right at 11:43.  Moa ran.  I figured we made it on time.  *shrugs.  So I walk up and find out I am on truck 57.  Sweet.  So I go to it and find the Basic that is Candace’s partner, Gina is there.  She invites me right on up into the rig and starts talking and chatting with me.  She is a real good driver. : P  So we get all of our gear check it, get our narcs.  Ask and find out why Diphenhydramine is in the controlled substance box.  Apparently a Paramedic and his wife (both worked for EMSA)  not sure if she was a Basic or worked in Materials or what, but they had stolen a ton… Like a CRAP ton of Benadryl and they got caught, fired, and it got put in the narc box.  Some people!!!! 

So we head out of Post 41 right at 12:15.  WOOT!!!!  On time.  I hear the call go out to another rig for a Cardiac Arrest and I tell Candace ‘ooo…. Maybe we can get one of those today!!!!’  She looks at me and says ‘only if you do the paper work’.  I said I would do it gladly. : P  We laughed and promptly get called to a hand injury.  21 y/o M who was putting another hole in his son’s belt and slipped.  FD had it all bandaged when we got there, so we didn’t see it til we got to the ER.  It was maybe ¾ of an inch long and maybe… MAYBE 2 mm deep.  I didn’t think it needed stitches, but he was in a medical assisting program and thought he knew it ALL!!!  So he just knew he needed that free ride to the ER we were gonna give him.  After the ER nurses were pissed because we brought him in, we were headed to post 24.  I was stoked!!!!  That post is at the best hole in the wall donut shop in OKC, according to several Medics and Basics I met yesterday. 

So we are pulling in the parking lot we are there, the donut’s are in sight…. And we get a call.  MVC-2 vehicles involved.  I was upset… but oh, well. It was an MVC!!!!  I saw my first starred windshield and a crack whore, who just so happened to use her head to star the windshield.  She wasn’t the driver, and she refused transport, probably had a head injury and I tried my best to convince her to come with us, but refused saying her mom would take her.  The driver of the same little Ford POS refused transport and had what looked like a fracture to the 3^rd metacarpal of her left hand.  OUCH!!!  I know what that feels like. Hurts like a some beach!!!  The car they hit was carrying a young man stationed at the Air Force Base down the road, so there were more good looking men in uniform standing around wanting to help in whatever way that could than any one woman would know what to do with. : P  He had some neck and left arm pain.  So he got the board.  He unfortunately was not a very fortunate looking young man.  We transported him.

So we putter around and get thrown from post to post like we are the ball in a pin-ball game, when we are called to respond to capsized boat at Lake Hefner.  They dubbed it a ‘major incident’.  So we find the boat and it is still in the middle of the lake.  See 2 people get in another sailboat and then the police search and rescue boat gets on the water and we hear of a missing 45 y/o M still in the water.  Then there are 2 missing people then back to one… took about 30 minutes before PD would confirm whether there were 3 or 4 people on the boat when it went down.  There were 4 and 3 were picked up in a sailboat.  Well the boat gets to shore and has a life jacket attached to it and according to the people on the boat at the time of its capsize the missing 45 y/o M wasn’t wearing a life-jacket.  We are pretty sure none of them were wearing life-jackets, but that’s beside the point.  So the chopper comes to the rescue and starts going around the lake looking.  Here are the pictures I took with my phone.

It's the largest white spec on the water.

Closer...

Almost there...

Got it!!!!

Can you see the fourth victims life-vest hanging on the boat by a carabiner!!!

The OKC PD helicopter looking for the 4th victim.

 

We are on-scene about 40 minutes, when we get word that PD has found the 4^th victim and he was on a pier so we get the rig turned around and head screaming behind the patrol car that was leading us there.  So I am figuring he was about a 130 lb small framed healthy guy (picture painted by the report given to PD from rescued victims), so he swam and was found…. Right?? WRONG!!!!!  I know my prediction is hinky when Gina says and I quote “Oh shit… They are doing chest compressions!!!!!!”  Which to you common folk means CPR… He has no pulse… He is dead.  So I hop out of the back grab the cot (which has everything on it) and run down the the dock where this poor man is.  Their compressions and bagging were effective his color was getting better and I thought he looked a bit cyanotic. 

So I am given the tube… ahhhhh… The heavens, parted angels are singing, and God is shining down on me, showering blessings on my head!!!!  My first in the field tube!!!!  Second day on my internship, first pt to need a tube and I get it!!!!  ‘Tube’ is an endotracheal intubation which goes into the pt’s trachea and secures their airway.  It is a big deal to be handed the tube on your second day as an intern!!!!  So I get my handle and Mac blade…. My light is white, tight and bright… I kneel on the concrete dock to go down to visualize and cords… and the light is reflecting back at me from all the water coming out with compressions.  SUCTION!!!!!!  It gets there I suction, lay on my belly to get a better view see the cords am about to put in the tube and a fire fighter thinks I am about to fall off the deck or something and grabs my legs… Startles me, I lose em… Look again and can’t see em… so a Fire Fighter/Paramedic takes the tube.  Grrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!  We get him on the backboard and start to wheel him off the ramp and almost loose the brand new LifePac 15 in the water, then on the ground when we are loading him up in the rig.  We never got any rhythm from him after 5 rounds of epi, 3 of atropine and 50 of Bicarb.  We transport with a FF doing compressions, me on airway and Candace on meds.  His lungs were so full of water that it kept shorting out our ETCO2 detector.  We get him to the ER and after confirming tube placement and doing an ultrasound of his heart, they called it.  The story made the local news.  Here is the link. 

http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=13137723

http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=13147592

After giving report and starting to clean up and restock the truck and the bags, Candace comes out of the hospital starts handing me the computer and says ‘You said you would do the paper work.’  Gina and I got a kick out of that.  I was taking it out of her hands saying, ‘You will have to show me how.’  She just smiled and laughed and went to go and do it.  While Gina and I were cleaning out the truck she told me I did really well.  I told her I was terrified and felt like I had no clue what I was doing.  She said she couldn’t tell.  Later I asked Candace how I could have done better and she said ‘Hell, I barely knew where I was or what I was doing much less what you were doing!!!’  We all laughed.  I told her she needed to pay better attention next time, so that I can get some feedback.  She just smiled. 

After being forced to clear the hospital because the system was on level 0 (no available trucks on the roads), we get a call, then get swapped calls twice and end up with a 90 y/o F choking on a piece of BBQ beef.  As we pulled up, I thought to myself ‘If this lady codes, Candace is never gonna let me back on her truck… ever.’  It had become a joke that the code and all the bad things on calls that were happening that day was because of me.  The code, Gina getting a refusal from a minor w/o a parent signature, getting ping-ponged around from post to post… All me.  It was fine though, I didn’t mind being the scapegoat.  XD  So we get to this poor old lady who wants us to suction this BBQ out of her throat.  None of us wanted to catch vomit, so we didn’t.  She wasn’t very pleased, but was transported without incident.  We are on our way to post and decided many, MANY hours earlier that we wanted ice cream.  So we stop off at Chic-Fil-A and Candace and I got milkshakes… YUM!  Did you know that on duty EMS and fire get 50% discount at Chic-Fil-A in OKC???  Well you do now.  I was stoked.  Gina wanted her Coffee Ice Cream drink from Sonic, so we stopped there…

The last call of the day was a pretty good one.  Psychiatric PT.  69 y/o M Hallucinating.  He was mad at every one and was seeing people pulling out his insides and all sorts of crazy-ness.  He screams all the way through the nursing home cause we are killing him (has a broken tailbone and we moved him).  and we get out to the truck and he calms down a bit until I try to put the PulseOx on his finger.  He is screaming that it is going to hurt.  So I put it on my finger and he says how is that not hurting you, your hand is covered in your insides.  I take off my glove and explain that it was my glove not blood and he still won’t let me put it on his finger.  So about 3 minutes later Candace asks if I can put it on his finger and he lets me.  Then she asks me to get a blood sugar with a finger stick.  I clean his finger, explaining what is going on and then I tell him it is going to hurt when I poke him, but it will only last a couple of seconds.  He says no, but is holding my hand so I take the lancet and poke him really quick.  Get the drop of blood, get the BGL.  The Pt then hands me something that only he can see (he had been doing that since before he left the nursing home), so I “take” it and “set” it down on the bench.  He looks me dead in the throws out a string of profanities and tells me to shove that (whatever he just handed me) as far up my ass as it will go, the crooked pointy end first.  Candace fell out of her chair laughing.  We send him off and get back to post then we are sent home.  WOOOT!!!!

Day 1-Friday, September 10, 2010-And the Basic stands alone…

So the real post starts about 3 or 4 lines down.  I have decided I am just too tired at the end of each shift to post before going to bed... Who knows, maybe this will change but for my first week I took my laptop and wrote my account as I was living it and here is....

Day 1

Friday, September 10, 2010

And the Basic stands alone…

So today was my first day on the truck.  My medic’s name is Candace… I was really worried about having a female medic because they can be as Emily says ‘Really yotchy’.  Which resulted in many nerves and a semi-hysterical phone call to my brother in law, Chris who happens to be a paramedic.  He tried his best to calm my nerves and lift my self esteem, which was lingering down in the 7^th circle of hell. Haha.  He lifted them and made me feel better… Then we got off the phone. : /  I finished getting dressed and making my lunch and headed out with Moa (the Tongan, who looks intimidating, but is about as dangerous as a piece of paper.) For some reason he convinced me we needed to be leave at 10:30, which put us at Post 41 about an hour before his shift.  So we stood around talking to the guys who work in materials.  They were really nice and made me feel a lot better about the whole experience.  So I went out into the garage area where you find your cot, bags and truck… All of which are not all kept together.  It was really interesting to see how everything flowed.  I met a Basic who was going through her bags and she was really nice and explained how getting your stuff checked out and all put together worked.  After she and her Medic took off I read the bulletin board about changes in protocols and materials on the truck… Apparently there is a nation-wide shortage of Epi 1:10,000 this summer.  Hmmm… Who knew?? 

This is what the Truck looks like.  We were on Truck 93, though.

So my medic walks in and I know she is mine right off the bat.  She is really nice. And has a really cute really short hair cut, which I am thinking of adopting.  I probably wouldn’t be able to pull that off though.  She has really dark hair and it fits her.  So I introduce myself and she takes me over to the trucks and our gear and our Basic… He is special.  According to a couple other Basics we ran into through the day, he isn’t good for much except being nice and getting your run sheet. Haha.  So Candace showed me where things went in the truck and we went through the bags together.  Our Basic, Paul showed me how to work the A/C in the back of the rig and find bottled water at Post 41.  Both very important… Some more useful than others.  So we go to get the narcs and our box isn’t there.  So we meet up with the rig that took our box and give them their’s.  Paul goes to ‘help’ and puts the wrong code in the lock box and we get locked out for 15 minutes.  So we have to sit and wait. 

After everything got  taken care of we went and posted for maybe an hour and then we got our first call.  Goes out as swollen legs.  Joy.  Turns out to be the nastiest smelling guy I have ever encountered.  52 y/o homeless Native American male.  Hx of HTN, CHF, and type 2 Diabetes.  Hasn’t taken his meds in over 2 months.  When we get there he actually has CP and left leg pain. So we load him in the back of the rig.  It didn’t matter how hard I squeezed his hands… I couldn’t displace enough of that water to feel his bones.  And I was given the job of getting the 12-lead and the IV started.  He was so dirty Candace and I had to hold the electrodes in place to get the 12-lead.  No ST elevation, but he did have a RBBB and frequent PAC’s.  So 324 of baby ASA and then an IV before we give nitro.  I can’t feel a thing… ANY WHERE!!!!  Not even in his AC.  Well I see a faint shadow of what I think is a vein so I got for it… and BAM! On my first stick I got it with a 20G.  For how long it had been since I had poked somebody I thought I was gonna screw it up for sure, but alas, I STILL GOT IT!!!!!  So we give him a H/A with 3 doses of nitro which gets rid of the chest pain.  He is now wanting pain meds for the H/A and the HARD-CORE cellulitis he has in left leg… It was DISGUSTING!!!!  He had a temp of about 103 as well.  So we hand him off to the unhappy nurse who as she put it ‘got stuck with that filthy man’ and went on our way.

While enroute to our next post, we get a call for trouble breathing.  We get there and a little old black lady is just about beating her grandson with her purse yelling, ‘I ain’t got no trouble breathing boy… why you call these people to come bother me!!!!’  So we got her to sign a refusal and were off to a 46 y/o male with ALOC.  This pt was in a nursing home for a traumatic brain injury due to a MVC a while back, and his LOC was always altered, but today was worse I guess.  He had fluid on his lungs and a fever.  According to nursing home staff he had been vomiting and had very loose stools (use your imaginations on that one folks).  So we get him in the rig, I am looking some place to start a line and nothing can be found by me or my preceptor, so we take a BGL.  Which is when I notice that homeboy’s hands are NASTY!!!!  So the poor guy was basically a vegetable and couldn’t walk, talk, or do anything for himself and obviously no one else was doing anything for him either.  I assume his hands hadn’t been washed or touched in a very, VERY long time, because the skin was so dead and new skin was trying to come through so he was flaking off about 3 mm thick chunks of skin.  My stomach turned over.  So we take him to the same hospital we took homeless guy, who was still there and according to the nurse wasn’t being very compliant with the staff.  Haha.  I laugh in their general direction!!!!  Then run around for a little while, Paul gets us locked out of the computer so we have to go unavailable for a while until we can get back in the system.  His driving was making me and Candace car sick.  Slam on the brakes, slam on the gas then on the brakes… ugh, just thinking about it makes me nauseous. 

So then we are called to an animal attack.  Turns out to be a 2 y/o M has 5 punctures about 1 to maybe 2 mm wide from grandma’s Lab mix.  Grandma wasn’t there, mom was making dinner when he walked in covered in blood screaming.  She called us because she thought the dog had attacked his neck.  There were 2 punctures near his left temple one on his left cheek and 2 more near the corner of his left mouth.  So since we were there mom had us transport.  Cutest little boy and we brought along his 4 ½ month old little sister, who I was put in charge of.  Didn’t bother me at all.  XD  Dang cute kids!!!!  After we left him and his family at the ER with a pissed dad yelling at a grandma who didn’t think she needed to have the dog who just attacked her grandson put down, we respond to a vehicle vs pole in a Wal-mart parking lot.  I am of course sitting in the back of the rig and have no clue really where we are going so I am not really learning the city very well. So I don’t know what Wal-Mart we were at.  Well he was fine. Vitals were WNL and refused transport. 

So I start to get hungry for things that aren’t in my lunch kit around the time we stop posting and aren’t able to get food… just my luck.  Then called to a very, VERY well-to-do gated community.  87 y/o F with a Hx of HTN and her BP is high and she has a headache.  So her son called us.  Well low and behold, good thing he did.  Her BP was 210/96.  : O  So we are in the back and our genius Basic hears her name and asks if she is of this ‘famous’ very rich local family.  Candace looks at him and gives him a dirty look and he kinda laughs it off and gets out of the ambulance and gets in the driver seat.  Which according to personal experience, is NOT where he belongs when driving code is needed.  Deliver her to Oklahoma Heart Hospital without incident.  Then we ran across the street to an empty field to pick up a flight crew and PT.  She was on about 7 different drips and was taken straight back to the cath lab.  She was flown in from South of Norman. 

Then…Back on the streets!!!!  Where I am trying to sleep in the back of a moving ambulance with what I would feel comfortable calling the ‘World’s Nicest BAD Ambulance Driver’.  Well we get our last call of the evening… 77 y/o M fall.  This man was probably 6 foot 7 inches tall.  I mean a BIG man!!! Had lost his balance and fell on his side and hit the top of his bald head on the side table in the living room.  Now these were my kinda people.  Picture of John Wayne and President Reagan were on the wall and more 24 packs of Diet Dr. Pepper (aka The Nectar of the Gods) than anyone should ever be allowed to consume in a life time.  Poor man had a kyphosis and mild scoliosis and those evil firefighters slapped a C-collar on him and strapped him to a back board… for a fall from a hunched over height.  He was not a problem at all.  Felt bad for his poor back though.  After that, we were at post for about 20 minutes then told to fill up the truck and return to Post 41!!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!  That means I got to go home. 

Got off about 15 minutes early, found Moa and we headed home.  Found a What-a-Burger on the way and stopped to introduce him to the wonder that is a Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit at midnight!!! Gotta love how the 24-hour service and breakfast from 2300 to 1100.  Went home, got ready for bed and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. 

and so the waiting continues...

Today I woke up and it has been over cast and drizzly all day. Needless to say I was pretty bummed out.  I have also been getting rather nervous about starting work on Friday, so I was trying to find ways to distract myself.  So after a stint of Viva Pinata on my Xbox and breakfast, I moped about til about noon.  That is when I texted Aunt Lori to see if I could come spend some time with her and I had lunch.  Novel idea, I know!  So as I was getting ready to leave to go to Aunt Lori's house I got distracted by a phone call from mom... It was a pleasure to here from her.... as always. 8o]  They are coming up on the 17th to go to the State Fair.  I am really excited.  I will have to take off work, but that is ok.  I will work it out.  I also called Financial Aid, to no avail.  My adviser was supposed to call or text or e-mail or smoke signal me a reply to the numerous emails and what not I have left for her, but of course I am on like day 8 with out money... and it is all the school's fault.  

 So I got to Uncle Bret and Aunt Lori's around 2 or so and we sat around and I showed her how to work her DVR and we talked and chit chatted.  I told her the story of how Moa saw a great family resemblance in the two of us.  She got a kick out of that.  We talked scrapbooking, how crazy the family is, shopping, the local ward (Mustang 1st) and her kids, of course! : P  When Uncle Bret got home, he started on dinner... I offered my services, but they weren't needed as burgers were on the menu for dinner.  Man they were YUMMY!!!!!!  We also had some sausage on a stick thingy's and talked about how EMSA's system works here and about all the food we want to eat at the county fair.  Uncle Bret said he was going to have to sit down and write out a list, so nothing got forgotten or left out. XD  Uncle Bret also gave me an open invitation to their place.  Which I knew was in place, but nice to hear out loud.  I am just so grateful to have family so close.  Only 10 minutes away!!!!!!  It is so nice to know that I have a place where I am always wanted and can go to if I need anything.  Tonight was scouts and Young Women's so at about 10 til 7pm, when Aunt Lori and Austin left, I followed suit.  Aunt Lori's Miamaids were making earrings.  Austin didn't know what he was doing.  

So I got back to my apt and Melissa (from Arizona) was packing her lunch and back-pack for work tomorrow.  I am not really sure what time her shift is, but since her car is in the shop she is hitching a ride with Levi, who is leaving at 0350.  OUCH!!!!  Well the backpack she had purchased earlier in the day, she discovered had a tear in it.  So we all hop in the car to go back to Target, which I really wasn't planning on going, but Emily looked at me weird when I said have fun and be safe.  She gave me that "What??  You aren't going?? Are you crazy?!?!"  look.  So I went.  On the way back to Target, they were all talking in their Russian accents, which I can't do and have been informed sounds awful, so I don't participate...  Melissa was riding shot gun and was trying to navigate.  She told Em to go one way and it wasn't the right way and Em caught it before being unable to correct the wrong turn.  She then turned to Melissa and said 'Don't tempt me whore!!!! You back seat driving bitch!!!!'  To which we all started laughing hysterically and Em got way embarrassed.  Her GPS took us to the closest Target... but it took the longest to get there!!!!  It was in fact the one they had been to earlier that day.  Em wasn't exactly pleased.  So the bag got exchanged and a movie was purchased for Em for driving all the way back into the city.  

On the way back, Melissa got a text from Josh (from Denver).  He said he was home.  Well, his shift started at 1345 today, which means he shouldn't be home til almost 2:30 in the morning.  So he told us he got kicked off the truck for not knowing what Haldol was.  Which is an anti-psychotic drug.  We didn't learn all the ins and outs of the drug in school though.  So we are all like freaking out!!!! and making plans to stay up all night studying drugs.  Well we get back to the apt and he comes over and tells us the story of how his schedule was wrong and his preceptor's shift starts at 0700 not almost 2 in the afternoon.  So the truck was called back to Post 41 and he hopped on for the last few hours of the shift.  Jerk.  Our insides wanted to become our outsides and we were preparing for the worst!!!!  I had a bowl of Cookies and Cream Bluebell Ice Cream to calm my nerves and my stomach.  Worked really quite well.  ; )  

So Josh leaves and Annamarie (military offspring from all over) went and sat in my Texas chair which is at the built in desk and starts laughing uncontrollably!!! So I go over to see what is so funny and see that when she went to sit her basketball shorts got caught on the arm rest and pulled down her shorts.  She is leaning to try to get them free and the chair is just kind of folding up on her.  I died!!!!!!  So funny!!!!!!!!!!  Then I go to talk to Em and Melissa in Mel's room and Em find's one of her bras and decides to put it on and stuff it!!!!  It was really funny.  Just picture a petite woman with an H cup size.... She was soooo front heavy it wasn't funny.  Then Annamarie put the bra on her head.  ahhhh, good times.  Well that was pretty much all for today.  I also got my movies back from Kraig and his wife if you were wondering.  The second movie was '50 First Dates'.  I am now going to go to bed... Tune in tomorrow evening for another heroic account of the EPIC event's in the daily life of me... 'of the Paramedic Sort'