Does "Sorta quit" count?

Yep, if you didn't guess from the title, I caved.
I was doing pretty good until class Monday night. Had a pretty stressful ride in to class, blah blah blah, excuses excuses, and I bummed a few over the course of the night.
Then today went good for most of the day. Got home from driving the cheese box (school bus), jumped in the shower, and halfway through someone knocked on the door and told me that VO was looking for coverage for the overnight, so I came in.

I made it until about 22:15. We were on our way back from a cancelled call and I stopped and picked up a pack. Shame on me, I know. I suck. I'm not gonna make plans or excuses about why I did it or how I'll restrict myself. I'm just gonna do what I can and I'll let you know how I did, how's that sound?

It's snowing! We pulled out for our call and it was snowing pretty good. I doubt it'll last though.
The call turned out to be nothing. For us, anyway. Call was for chest pains about a half mile from the station. We pulled up behind city rescue, they came over, told us that "The patient decided to drive himself because it hurt so bad he didn't wanna wait." Turns out the guy is like 22 y/o.

Cardiac problem? possible. More likely scenario? I dunno... anxiety, drugs, maybe. People are lacing some pretty nasty shit into drugs nowadays.

My rig and the rescue took a few different routes to the hospital just to make sure the guy got there ok, which he did.

That was an hour or so break right there... Did some IV practice and some ETT (Endotracheal Tube) practice. We have a pretty cool practice mannikin here. I do need some more IV practice. plus, the caths i was using here are shit. We apparently get the "Dollar Store" version of IV caths here from what I'm told.
I guess the practice part really kicks in with the 12 or 16 hours that I have to do on the IV team at the hospital. I've done good so far, back when we were practicing IV's alot. Ah well. practice, practice, practice.

I think I'm gonna call it a night.
Stay safe.

Gggrrrrrrr 2

OK, I am now 38 hours into the smoke free section, with mixed emotions.
Physically, I feel great (except for the congestion from the cold I mentioned last post.)
I can breath, my lungs don't hurt, and I don't smell like a chimney.
Yet mentally, I feel like someone is dragging my teeth down a chalkboard. I have that sensation, plus that annoying, irritating feeling like there are 4 people running close circles around me poking me with their fingers and laughing (you know how little kids like to do that to torment you? yeah, thats the vibe i've got right now.).
Weird descriptions, aren't they?
I know there are probably some ex-smokers out there laughing at me, calling me a wuss, but I don't care.
Everyone quits differently. For some people, they just put the smokes down, walk away, and never have another craving. Then some people lose their minds, go postal, and start killing people (ok, maybe not literally). All I have to say is this: 1. I am glad i work for peaceful little QVA, and not some huge high-stress place. 2. If i keep up at this rate, i'll be doing pretty good by mid-week.
The real test will come tomorrow night at class. That's gonna be a tough part to kick.
I have always been a firm believer that addiction to smoking as 5% physical, 95% mental. The hardest part of quitting smoking is breaking the routine of it.
Class goes on break, go outside and smoke. Hang out before and after class and smoke.
The real fun part will be Feb 10th, which is my next shift at VO. All we do there when we aren't running calls is watch TV, or hang out in the garage, smoke, and chat.
Then again, maybe it won't be that bad, because by then I should be over this. The hard part is going to be avoiding that "occasional" smoke. You know, you've been quit for a week or so, then you bum one off of someone to "ease the craving", but instead it just makes it worse.
But yeah, to make a long story short; so far, so good.
I just saw an interesting ad in the paper. Check this out.

Caretaker/Handyman needed for security and general upkeep of 125 acre wooded private recreation property with 18 acre lake, ideal for hunter, fisherman, or trapper. Modern cabin, garages, and workshop provided. Should be employed and have good credentials. Call blah blah blah for more info.

So i called on it today and got some interesting info.
For starters, it's in my fire district. once they told me where it was, i realized that it's the place that anm acquaintance of mine was caretaking for a while back. i will not be mentioning his name when i talk to the homeowners, because the reason he quit was a falling out with the owners that was mostly his fault, from the sounds of it.
Anyway.
It's a live-in position. They have a small cabin, they told me about the things that come with it, It's wood heated and the caretaker has to collect his own wood from the property.
They provide you with a 4-wheeler and some other stuff for recreation and work...
All they ask is that the caretaker keeps an eye on the place, keeps other people out, and keeps the property looking good (aka keeping the trails clear, lawn mowed, roof shoveled, driveway plowed, etc etc etc.)
Now here is the interesting part.
There's no pay. I'm assuming they have the attitude that the place is so nice, and staying there is such a privelage, that they'll let you stay there if you keep the place lookin good.
Being as how i'm familiar with the place, i know this is true. This is like my dream house. The actual house is huge, there's bass, catfish, etc. in the lake, there's freakin deer EVERYWHERE, and it's a heluva lot close to the firehouse.
So anyway, they expect 30 hours of labor a week in exchange for living there. I can deal with that.
They're going to be making phone calls in the middle of next month to do interviews in person.
The lady i spoke to is the owners next door neighbor, and she is also their P.O.A. I guess this place is their vacation home, because they live out of state, and they'll be back in Feb. so their doing the interviews then.
I think i impressed the lady, because she asked what i do for work and stuff, and i told her that i live in QV and i'm a bus driver and i also work for several area ambulances as an EMT, and i'm a paramedic student. That's when i heard her ears perk up. She said "Oh wow, that's very good. see, this couple is in their 70's, so they would really appreciate having an EMT around when they are home."
So we will see how this turns out. it'd be nice, having that place all to myself. She said that the owners can get kind of annoying though. In her words, "The old guy will call you over to 'give him a quick hand' or something and the next thing you know you'll be painting the deck and have 2 days of work ahead of you"

If i do get this position, I'll be getting myself a dog once i move in (as long as they don't toss in the no
pets card, which would really piss me off.)

Well as long as i'm on a roll, i think i'll start with my call history that i've been putting off.


My mom and I joined an extremely rural fire dept. back when i was 16. She was an EMT and always hearing this FD calling for mutual aid for medical personnel, and it was only about 8 miles from our house at the time, so we joined up.
My first actual call came in on a sunny Saturday morning. I had just about finished a shower when the tones dropped for an MVA, unknown injuries. I still pick on my mom about how fast I was ready. All she had to do was go upstairs, get out of her nightgown and into her clothes and come back downstairs.
I got myself rinsed, dried, dressed, downstairs, and out the door before she even came downstairs.
Anyway, we got moving and after a few seconds of deliberation, decided to head for the scene. The scene was about 4 miles away, versus the 8 miles to the station then 4 miles back to the scene.

We pulled up on the scene and our chief was already there. We got out of the car, mom grabbed her kit, and we started walking up. From the angle we were at, we could see a pick-up and a Caddy, both off the side of the road. As soon as the chief saw us, he jumped out of his truck and started doing the Steal Second sign. We got up there and he said to my mom, "Check on him, I think he's fatal."
I'm thinking "Oh, WTF. My first call is gonna be a fatal?" Sure enough, we walked around the corner of the chiefs truck and there was a body between the 2 vehicles (Which were about 10' apart) and it was covered in a blanket with one leg sticking out. That's when I realized that body blankets look a lot different when they are real. Talk about goosebumps.

We went over to him, saw the occupant of the other car (he was sitting there staring straight ahead, with his car door open and obviously not trapped) Mom asked if he was ok and he said "Yes, check on the other guy, don't worry about me".
We uncovered the guy on the ground, log rolled him onto his back, and saw that he had the works. J.V.D., (jugular vein distension for the non-medical readers out there... basically looks like 2 garden hoses under the skin in your neck) Blue Hood (this really shitty looking bluish-greyish-purplish color that runs from your collarbones up), bulging eyes staring straight ahead, and a very swollen tongue.
Mom was doing a quick check on him when she thought she heard him gasp or grunt or something, so we started working him.
This was turning into a pretty crazy first call for a 16 year old kid with basic first aid and CPR.
Mom took his airway, I took compressions and also a nice case of tunnel vision.
After a few minutes, I heard sirens coming from both directions (one direction was our FD, the other direction was the next FD north who our FD called for mutual aid alot.)
I swear that those sirens sounded like angels singing. Once the trucks all pulled up, things got weird.
I still had the tunnel vision, yet at the same time, I had this viewpoint that seemed as if i was leaning up against the big maple tree about 15' away, watching everything. As I was doing CPR, my field of vision pretty much ran from the guys neck to his belt. Yet at the same time, I saw 3 guys from our neighbors up north come running by with a backboard and EMS bags and start working on the guy behind us in the Caddy. It was strange.
Then 2 EMT's from our M.A. dept. came up with an AED and bags and I got out of the way.
After that, the whole thing was kind of blurry. I remember just kinda wandering aimlessly around, seeing what everyone was going and whatever. Mom wound up riding the ambulance to the hospital while they worked the guy. As i was walking around, one of the medics from one of the ambulances there came up to me, put an arm around my shoulders and asked "How's Adam doing?" I told him I was alright, and he said that if mom or I needed to talk, he'd be at the other ambulance he worked at (where mom and I also volunteered) that night, so come on up.

Once we were done at the scene, I drove our car back to the station. I hung out there for a while while i waited for mom to get back. After a while, I decided I needed the restroom. In the process of taking care of business, i looked down and saw blood on my knee. I started looking at it, trying to see where i was bleeding from, when i looked at my pants and saw that the right knee of my pants was soaked in blood, about half of the circumfrence and about 6" above and below my knee.
Turns out that gun racks and MVA's don't mix well. This guy had a gun rack in his trucks back window and when he collided with the other vehicle, his head snapped back and got impaled deeply on the gun rack right thru his upper occipital region. If he did have a heart attack right nefore the wreck, that would explain why that wound didn't bleed. Mom did a pretty thourogh inspection of the guy and she said she felt something on the back of his head, but he was not bleeding before we started CPR.
By the time i swapped off with the EMTs, we'd perfused him enough to get blood from his head to my knee.

What we were told eventually was that the now-dead guy (who was driving the pick-up) was pulling out of his driveway when he apparently had a heart attack (which would explain the lack of bleeding from the head injury) He crossed lanes and popped the Caddy just about head on, then they went into the ditch on the opposite side of the road from his house. He then proceeded to get out of his truck, walk around the back of it, and then collapse between his truck and the other car. Throw in the trans-occipital implantation of the gun rack and you have one shitty Saturday morning.


This call was a little extra stressful due to it's location. The dead guy and his wife lived on one side of the road, and their son and his family lived right across the street from them. So there was a wife on one side of the road and a son and his family on the other side, all watching in horror. Looking back , we would have done CPR anyway. I'm a firm believer that a chunk of the CPR we do is more for the families closure than it is to try to revive the pt. Anyone agree with me?

So that was my introduction into fire/resuce. I'm normally a white cloud, but every now and then i catch some serious 'oh shit' calls. I'll cover more later.

GGGRRRRRRRRRRRR

SONG OF THE DAY:
AIN'T MY BITCH
by Metallica. for lyrics, http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/metallica/load.html#1

Yeah. Now that I got that outta my system...
I'm a little wound tonite. Ok, more than a little.
This is one of those "C'mon, f-ck with me. I dare you" nights.

"Adam," you ask, "What's the deal? You're normally a little cheerier than this."

Yep, you're right. I am normally cheerier than this. The reason for this?

Well, one of several reasons for this is the fact that it has been almost 24 hours since my last cigarette. Quick, someone pat me on the back, I swear I won't bean you. Nah, no pats on the back necessary. I've been looking for some motivation to quit for a while, and this really pleasant cold/sinus infection provided it.

Yeah, I know. I'm an EMT, paramedic student, blah blah blah, I know what smoking does to a person. And like every other smoker out there, I know what it does to me.

I send a big fat "get your head out of your ass" to every person who says that they didn't know smoking is bad for you. Helllooooooo, heated toxic smoke and fumes and chemicals entering your lungs! Why do you think animals run away when they smell smoke? Because! Smoke usually means something bad is coming!

So I've been smoking since late in my 17th year of life. I'm almost 23 now. So about 5 years. maxed out at a pack, pack and a half a day when I was in college and living alone at the fire station (all there was to do was sleep, study, smoke, watch TV, and eat. Really healthy time in my life) I had a few times where I had just straight-up quit, no nic fits or nothing. Just woke up one morning and said "ya know Adam, I'm not in the lung-pickling mood this morning." One time, I stayed quit for a good month... Then driving by one of the places I regularly got smokes, I said "I'm in the mood for a smoke." so I bought a pack, and off we go again. When that happened, I wasn't even craving. Just wanted a smoke. Stoopid Stoopid Stoopid.

Between the 3 Stoopids and now, we had a call. Came in "Chest pain and sweating, guy met us at end of his driveway, took him in, no problems. He did have inverted T waves though. But that's normal for some people.

So I have yet another job lead. Saw a civil service announcement for an exam for "Public Safety Telecommunicator" (aka the beloved "Dipspatcher". No offence to any PST's out there. :-D)
I'm gonna go for it. Why the hell not, ya know?

I went down to the Ecnalubma that I was talking about a post or 2 ago and picked up an application. Get that filled out and turned in, see what happens.

I was gonna write more, but I'm finally getting tired... It's 0411, and I've been nic fitting so bad that I haven't been tired, but I'm finally ready to get some sleep. May as well say goodbye to any productivity that may have been accomplished today.

Peace.

Shot myself in the foot.

Yeah.
Module 2&3 results came in Thursday. I passed, but that's about it. I got a 75 on it. 76 average for the module.
ohhh, the pain.
2 problems with this module.
1. I barely studied. It was on airway, history taking, assessment, PCRs, radio BS. I studied airway, but that was about it.
2. I think I screwed up on my answer sheet. I got 21 out of the last 25 questions wrong.
I have to say, I'm usually a pretty good test taker. Even if I'm BSing a test, I can usually eliminate answers that are really wrong and have a 50-50 shot or better. I learned a lot about how to take tests in college. And I have never had a stretch of questions that long be wrong. Yes, maybe I just screwed up by not studying so bad that all of those being wrong was the result, but I'm a little more inclined to think that I messed up on my answer sheet somewhere. Oh well. I'm going to go over the trauma stuff we covered this week tomorrow.
We went over hemorrhage and shock, blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, and ballistics. Our instructor is one of those guys who's done everything. He was a deputy fire chief, EMT, paramedic, and city police.
He did the ballistics portion, talking about how bullets do their damage depending on their speed, caliber, velocity, etc.
One of the medical directors for the area did the trauma lecture, and I think he's teaching all of the trauma lectures. He's a trauma surgeon at the area trauma center (level 2 trauma center, to be exact).

So yes. It is time for me to quit talking about studying and actually begin to study. I'm on with QVA for a 24 starting in about 38 minutes, so as long as we don't run calls all day (which I really wouldn't mind), I will be studying, along with continuing the overhaul of my bedroom. I've never really moved myself into it so there are boxes everywhere.
Then Monday, I probably wont be driving bus. They said they don't need anything as of right now, plus I have a mandatory bus safety class at 0930 Monday morning. So I will spend the time between class and, well, class, studying.
I've got a possible lead on another job. One of the guys in my class said that the ambulance he works for is looking for FT basics and it's almost on a pick your shift basis. If he is correct in that, that could work out nicely. Maybe 2 24s or a 12 and a 24 each week, drive bus on the side, and still have time for field training.
We will see. I'll keep you posted.

It is quite windy outside. It snowed a dusting earlier, but it's been windy all day. It's supposed to start snowing again sometime in here... I don't know man, this is one extended January thaw. Is it going to be like this all winter, or is old man winter just reloading? We'll find out soon I guess. We're usually into springtime weather by the end of march. Every now and then it waits until sometime in April though. Who knows. Time will tell.
Ok, that's enough for me tonite. It's about bedtime.
Cya

talk about jinxing myself.

I royally jinxed myself with that last post.
From the weatherman perspective, not only was it freezing cold all day, it started to warm up (to mid 20's)
and then started raining. And we all know from grade school that when water comes into contact with a surface below 32 degrees, you get ice. I was reminded of this today when i was getting out of my car after work and almost fell flat on my ass on the driveway. Then looking at the forecast it is supposed to warm up and start raining heavily, to the tune 1.5 inches of rain by tomorrow afternoon, along with winds of up to 40 mph. lovely. New York is driving me nuts this "Winter".

Now to the jinx part.
Remember when i said how quiet it's been for me on the ambulance lately? Yeaaah. that was an Oops.
Sunday night about 22:09 we got hit for a male pt. unresponsive and not breathing. Nuts.
Beat feet for the station, follow the squad and the blue-light brigade to the scene, watch people run around in circles for a minute while they try to find out which house it was, get bitched at by our driver as i'm standing there with the stretcher waiting to find out where the house is before i take off... thats long winded.

Lets break it down step by step.

1. Beat feet for the station. We did very well this time around. En route in 3 minutes, which is excellent with everyone responding from home.

2. Follow the squad and blue-light brigade to the scene. Actually, it was more in this order: Squad, Meat Wagon, Blue light brigade. I've been on calls that have had 40 POV's on scene. and the scene was about 1/4 mile from the fire station. Figure that out. Anyway, in this case it was welcome. The more the merrier, when it comes to codes. Usually.

3. Running around in circles and pissy driver.
Squad calls on scene with us right behind them (If you're keeping time, this is another 2 minutes, so we're still at the tail end of the BLS link in the chain of survival) . I'm in the back of the rig getting equipment together, we stop, my driver and medic jump out, medic grabs some equipment, asks me to get the ET kit and follow him in. I dig around, find the ET kit, jump out of the rig... I take a look around. I see 3 houses, all either dimly or not lit up, and not a single person. No one doing the steal second sign, no rescue personnel loitering around, nothin. So i pick the nearest house, head toward it with the ET kit, when out of the shadows come about 12 people from rescue. Everyone has that confused, Bugs Bunny style "Which way did he go, George?" look on their faces, and they were asking questions like "Which house is it? Do you know what house it is? Cuz it isnt this house!"

So i do an about-face and look at the other 2 houses, still no sign of my medic or driver. Now I figure it would be safe to get the stretcher out of the rig since we've ruled out the house on one side of the road.

I threw the ET kit on the stretcher, pulled the stretcher halfway out when I heard the same round of questions; "Which house is it?! There's no one out here! There's no lights on! Is this even the right f-ckin address? WTF?!"


FINALLY someone comes to a window or something and signals that we were at the right house. I mean, people were about 1 second from splitting up and knocking on doors. (some people around here do not like marking their houses/mailboxes.)

I hear the calls of "It's this house!!!" so i start pulling the stretcher out the rest of the way, when one of the many things on the stretcher starts to topple off.

Here i am, by myself because everyone else is running toward the house, trying to hold up the stretcher with one hand while trying to reposition equipment with the other hand, when Mr. Driver comes around the corner, starts to shut the back door of the rig, sees me there, offers no help, grabs the front of the stretcher, shoves it (and me) backwards, and says "Get this f-ckin thing out of my way so i can move the rig into the driveway! Jeez!"

My thoughts at the moment? "Whyyyy i oughtta......"

So i grabbed the stretcher, started wrestling it and all the equipment that is on it across the nice, rutted, heavily sloped driveway toward the house.

Finally got some help about 15 feet from the door. The overflow effect was starting to kick in (where you have too many people inside so a few get sent out), and they told me they'd take care of getting the stretcher in, so i grabbed the equipment we needed and went in.

CPR in progress, asystole or fine PEA (Didnt get much of a look at the monitor), Paramedic from rescue drops the tube, IV's get flowing, Epi goes in, get the pt on the board, on the stretcher, in the rig.
Pick up a few ppl from rescue to assist with the code, and off we go.

Halfway to the hospital, it struck: The dreaded case of code cramps. I'm not the only one who's had it, right?
You're bouncing down the road at a high rate of speed, assisting with a code, when your stomache says
"Mwah ha ha ha haahhhhhh. Shouldn't have eaten THAT earlier, eh pal?"

We got him to the ER, got him into a room, and i did the 15 yard dash to the bathroom once the staff took over.
As I was walking out of the bathroom, i heard someone say "He's got a rhythm". A few minutes after that, "He has peripheral pulses", then "His pressure is dropping" then (Doc)"So give him some Dopamine."

When we left, he was holding his own. Haven't heard if he's gonna be pulling out of it or not. Didn't look too promising, but we did get to him in time, so depending on the reason for him coding, he may have a chance.
The medic doesn't think he'll make it out of the hospital, but we'll see.

So that was that.
And now it is dinnertime, followed by study time.
Cya

Brrr.

I love new york. We've been enjoying temps in the 40's and 50's all week, then we wake up this morning to 2 degrees. i don't think it's gotten out of the single digits today. We're in a wind chill advisory with the W.C. Factor in the -15 to-25 range. It's a little chilly.

I'm on a 24 with QVA today and we have not had anything so far. The whole county has been relatively quiet, actually. A few calls here and there throughout the county, but nothing too big as far as i know.

I haven't been on any calls of note in quite a while now. When i've been on with QVA lately, it's been either BS calls or nothing at all.

Paramedic class is back in motion and we've been going over assessments, history taking, stuff like that. I think we start trauma on thursday, i do believe. We have a module exam tomorrow night on Airway, History Taking, and Assessment. The last 2 classes have been medical and trauma assessment labs. Mostly BLS, but starting to integrate ALS into it. We're going to be starting hospital time in a week or 2, just gotta get our physicals done first

The bus job has been going pretty good. I've got the hang of the route i'm subbing on and from the sounds of it i'll be on this route for several more weeks. The regular driver hurt his back and the doctor won't let him come back to work yet. There are a few kids on this route that are a handful. The high schoolers are pretty good. I only pick up about 30 in the morning and usually only about 10 ride home in the afternoon.
My elementary run, on the other hand, can get pretty crazy. Somewhere between 67-73 kids from Pre-K thru 6th grade. It can get a little aggravating from time to time, especially in the afternoon.

Nothing new is going on other than work and class. Except for the NFL playoffs.
My team got knocked out last night. New England lost to Denver 27-13. N.E. was not on their game at all last night. Turnover after turnover sealed their fate last night. It was almost painful to watch.
Today, Pittsburg beat Indianapolis 21-18 in a very good game. I was on the edge of my seat near the end. Indy missed a 46 yard FG by a mile near the end of the game.
I'm ok with both teams, but i like pittsburg a little more than indy.
I would like to see Seattle get to the Super Bowl, but i'd also like to see Pittsburg win it all. I think it would be pretty cool if The Bus (Jerome Bettis) could get a Super Bowl ring before he retires.
So as much as I like Seattle, i think i'm gonna have to root for pittsburg this time around.

I was going to get into some recollection of past calls of note tonite, but i have to study for the module tomorrow and do a little work in my room.
So maybe next time.
Stay Safe

Christmas/New Years break and Module 1 evals.

How was everyone's Christmas/New Years? hope it went well for everyone.
Things went good here... it's been a weird winter so far though. It started snowin around Thanksgiving, kept snowing until a few days before Christmas, then warmed up and started raining. Snow in my back yard was knee deep before Christmas, now it's about 5 inches of slushy/icy/crusty crap.
The clear roads are nice though.

Anyway, i totally wasted the break from class. My plan was to catch up on making my flash cards (i was turning pretty much any definition in my book into flashcards), brush up on shock, pharm, and study up more on airway. I'm sure you can guess what happened though. Yup, had to blow the dust off of my book last night.
i dont feel too bad though, because my sister didnt crack her book at all either.

Class went ok, we went through history taking and the Q&A portion of Pt. Assessment last night.
We also had our module one evaluations with our instructor. (They had another one of the instructors teaching while our regular instructor pulled us into his office one by one and evaluated our performance and addressed a few issues before they got out of hand.

We'll be starting hospital time in a week or 2 from the sound of things.

The new job is going pretty good, i'm driving a route that i'll be on for a while, from the sound of things.
No real calls of note lately, either.

Wow, this is a boring post. lol

unfortunatly, i cant think of anything else to write.

Cya later.