Attention: Would the pilot of the illegally parked black cloud please immediately MOVE IT!

What a week.
This last week or so has been totally NUTS, both from a personal standpoint and from the effects of the black cloud hovering over the area.

Last weekend, a 21 y/o girl died in an MVC just outside of VO's district. She was going down some back road in her little Matchbox car, lost it going around a curve, and started spinning like a top. Not a big problem, in and of itself. The problem was the bread truck that was coming around the curve from the opposite direction. He saw her spinning, stomped the brakes, went sideways... They collided, she got knocked into the ditch, and the trunk ended up on top of her car. Either way you look at it, it was pretty much a lose-lose situation... Getting T-boned by the bread truck would probably have hurt pretty bad too.
News story link: http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1140947974325290.xml&coll=1

Also over the weekend, a 21 y/o male died when he went head-first into a corn shredder. Noootttttt pretty. Apparently all that was left intact on him was from the waist down. The OIC from the FD requested "Bring the jaws, cancel the ambulance."
Here's the link to the news story. http://www.news10now.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=60751

Then the worst news around here in a long time...
A local police officer was killed in the line of duty last night. It happened not very far from where my paramedic class is located and it actually happened during class. Sad situation. The first PD LODD in the county since 1969.
Here's the article.
http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=0B1BCEAC-003F-495D-8980-8FE25D0A0267

So yes, this black cloud has worn out its welcome and needs the GTFOH.

The craziness on the personal level is much more mundane that the newsworthy stuff.
I went on a "vacation" last weekend. Went to see a friend of mine about 110 miles from here, we were gonna chill, go to a big party friday night, etc etc. None of that happened. Except for the hanging around part, which there was alot of. He had some stuff going on when I got there (at like 0230 friday morning). I didnt get to bed til about 0530 and he was up all night and didnt get to bed until 1730 or 1800 friday evening, then he slept straight through until about 0900 saturday morning. The party got cancelled anyway because the host moved. So obviously, it wasn't happening. Sooo, we just hung around his place for the most part until I left saturday evening. We did go a few places here and there, but nothing of note.

The whole drive home saturday night was slow because it was snowing like crazy.
Then I worked an 08-1700 at VO. That was an OK shift. We had 3 calls during that time span, one for each crew.
My partner and I got called for a 77 y/o Female with injuries from a fall. We got up there, and FD already had her packaged. We were told that she was standing on a countertop hanging drapes when she FDGB backwards and landed on her right side. C/o right shoulder pain, originally also complained of right hip pain, but that was pretty much non-existant when i did my P.E. on her.
I did, however, notice obvious forward displacement to her right shoulder. Her shoulders were not equally shaped and there was a large lump protruding from the front of her shoulder, obvious pain on movement and palpation. I was looking at her and thinking about how to immobilize it best and I decided to leave it as it was. FD had strapped her arms down when they secured her to the board, she had good distal CMS, so i decided to leave it secured as is. Why disrupt a perfectly secured limb just to resecure it slightly different, right?

We transported, I gave my report when we got to the hospital, and I told the nurse about the shoulder and how it was secured and asked her to use caution when they took her off the board.

The rest of the shift went pretty uneventfully. I went straight home because I was supposed to go on duty at 1800 with QVA. About 3 minutes shy of 1800, we had a call. Stacey called me and asked if i wanted to take it (she was on til 1800) and I said "sure". It was one of our justified frequent flyers. He is a Duchenne's M.D. patient and apparently he has lived longer than any other D.M.D patient has ever lived, at 23 years old.

We took him to the same hospital that we took the FDGB patient earlier with VO. After we transferred his care over to the ER staff, I tracked down one of the nurses who was there earlier and asked how the lady made out.
The nurse said "OMG, she had a horrible arm fracture."
I said "You serious? She didn't have any major swelling or anything, other than lump on the front of her shoulder... You still have the X-rays?"
Nurse said "Yeah, let me bring them up on the computer." So she brought them up and this fracture was BAD. She had a complete oblique fracture of the upper Humerus and the distal end of the fracture basically slid up the proximal end and lodged itself in her shoulder socket, partially dislocating her shoulder. Ouch. She was admitted upstairs and scheduled to have surgery the next day.

Other than that, the sheer joy of Cardiology is in motion. Our first lecture on it was Thursday the 23rd and it wasnt too bad. My instructor in the Basic-Orginal class I took in 2001 beat the crap out of the A&P of the heart, how the electrical system works, alot of the more basic but important stuff. That was what we covered on Thur., along with going over Sinus Rythms. Then last night we covered Atrial Rythms and we're learning the appropriate meds for each condition as we go. Right now he's telling us which drug is used for which problem as we go and we have to study up on the appropriate drugs along with learning what each rythm is. Starting this coming Thur., we'll be getting into Heart Blocks, then Ventricular Rythms.

I also learned some new words Monday night. Verapakill (which I've heard before. For the non-Med. people out there, there is a cardiac drug we use that is called "Verapamil" and "It either works, doesn't work, or works too well and kills them. So they call it Verapakill.), and then "Misconscrewed". One of the guys in class asked about what can happen if you misconstrue (sp?) a rythm and call it "This" vs "That"... And as our instructor started answering him, he starting saying "Misconscrewed". He has issues with pronunciation at times, but after he said it 2 or 3 times, i realized that the word Misconscrewed can actually be pretty accurate from time to time and that I may need to add that word to my vocabulary.

Ok, it's 2330 and I need to start thinking about getting some sleep. Good night to all.

An interesting few days.

I did my 911 time on Tuesday. It was interesting. I went to an adjoining county to do it, just because I wanted to. This county has everything from city (small cities, though) to absolute EBF country.

I left the house around 0530 because I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there. It only took me about an hour. I went in a little before 7, got introduced to the 3 people working the night shift (they normally only have 2 on at night, but the way they do scheduling, there's three people on once a week or so). I learned some interesting stuff about that county from those guys.

One thing I learned was that the county is about 28 miles East-West and 90 miles North-South.

At night, there is one, MAYBE 2 State Trooper cars that cover the whole county... There is a sheriffs dept., but they pretty much just cover the correctional facility and the courts. There are a few town/city PD's, most of which will or do respond to or cover other areas of the county.

The guys told me about one call in the far north of the county... You're gonna laugh, but you can't make this stuff up. There was a cardiac call up by one of the lakes to the far North of the county.
The ambulance responded, parked part of the way there, the crew got their stuff off the rig, GOT ON A RAIL CAR (I shit you not... I believe we're talking one of those old hand powered jobs.) and took the rail car up the rest of the way and got to the Pt. Then they loaded the pt. onto the rail car, got back to the rig, then transported. The guys told me it was like 2.5 hours from Alert to Arriving at Hospital. Either that or 2.5 hours until they got back to the rig. I can't remember which. I'll never make fun of North Nowhere again. Welllllll, maybe. We'll see.

I also learned about a place called the Adirondack League Club. It is almost a compound. This huge chunk of land is fenced and gated, owned by a bunch of rich people, and patrolled 24/7 by their own security force. The place is one of those rich people's paradise places, with alot of land and alot of multi-million dollar homes. This place is so secretive and exclusive that the members won't even allow 911 personnel in to assign addresses and find out what's on the property. But I'd be willing to wager that when one of those places goes up, the owners want FD there yesterday. Then again, maybe they're just so hell-bent on staying private that they'll let everything burn and rebuild?
Maybe you're curious as to the clientelle up there? Kevin Bacon has a place there. The phone number is even listed in the area's phone book. Figure that one out. Also, several NASCAR drivers snowmobile up there during the off-season. Someone said something about Shania Twain having a place there too, but they weren't sure. I know she used to own a farm up near Lowville, I believe was the town. This state is full of stuff no one would guess. I've also heard that Charlie Daniels owns land in North Nowhere, but I don't know for sure. I guess that would be a good explaination as to why he puts on a concert every year in North Nowhere.

There were some interesting calls, too. I think the first call after I got there started out sounding like a code, then got downgraded to difficulty breathing. The caller had a really heavy accent. Then there was some mix-up with the ambulances. It was one of those deals where the call was in another county, came to this county's 911 center, they called the county the call was in, etc etc etc. It worked out though.

After the day shift showed up and took over, there was a 3rd party call for a 75 y/o female possibly with a gun to her head. Turned out to be nothing. No gun, probably just looking for attention from the sound of it.

Shortly after that call, some guy called 911 because his dog was having a seizure.
The dispatcher was like "What do you want me to do??? About all I can do is give you the number to the dog control officer or tell you to take it to a vet!"
Then the guy started getting pissy with the dispatcher and the dispatcher said "Sir! 911 is for actual emergencies! Human emergencies! I can't send an ambulance because your dog is having a seizure!" Then the caller went off about how "Well, you're 911! You're supposed to help people AND animals!!!" Dispatcher said "Sir! 911 is for HUMAN EMERGENCIES!" Caller then said "Well we'll just see about that!" and hung up. After laughing and shaking our heads for a few minutes, the dispatcher got on the radio and asked for the Trooper car to landline. When the trooper called in, the dispatcher told him about the call and asked him to go have a talk with the caller to "Remind him what 911 is here for".

Other than that, nothing really big happened. A few calls here and there, a lot of talking, alot of sitting around doing nothing. It was pretty fun though. Alot of cool people working up there. Some of the other dispatchers showed up to talk, a trooper and his wife came over for lunch, the wife of one of the dispatchers came over for lunch and brought cake cuz it was her husband's birthday.

After that, I went over to VO for an overnighter. You know, some people that i've mentioned before are getting more and more tolerable. I'm noticing that the BS factor is alot less on this Supervisor's shift. Then again, a few of our more rambunctious employees weren't working Tuesday night, so that had alot to do with it. Plus, I think this S.S. lightens up a bit when you present yourself as willing to learn stuff and asking for advise/info. He still has his moments, but it doesn't seem as bad.

I was on with a paramedic and we only ran 2 calls. Well, 2.5. We got hit for an MVA rollover with entrapment, and my partner and I were up in rotation, so we got rolling. Then the other rig took the call because they went to the SS's house to get something a little while earlier, which put them about 5 miles closer to the scene. The call wound up being nothing though. No injuries, anyway... FD cancelled the ambulance right after the FD got on scene.
Then we had a call at the local hot spot for S.O.B. We walked the stretcher through what seemed to be half the building, through hundreds of people.
Our Pt. was an elderly English guy. He was a riot. We ALSed him, so my partner had the pleasure of talking with the guy on the way to the hospital.

Later on we got called to the local ER for a transfer to Syracuse for an 86 F. with a leaking AAA. (Abdominal Aortic Aneurism). We weren't really surprised, because my mom and sister brought the lady in on QVA an hour or 2 before we got called. We ran into them at the hospital right after they had dropped her off and they told us she had a AAA, so we were thinking we'd probably be taking her to Syracuse sometime that evening and sure enough, we did.

After the hotline rang for the AAA transfer, I asked my partner if they had labelled it a Stat Tranfer and he said "Ehhhh" while doing the "So-so" hand wobble.

We got to the hospital, walked in, the nurse pulled us aside and said "I just want to let you guys know that there is a very real possibility that she may not make it to Syracuse." Lovely. She then proceeded to tell us the vitals and other info and ended her report with "Lights and Sirens, guys. Get her there fast and have a safe trip." THAT got our attention (the very little bit that might have still been wandering after the "She may not make it to syracuse" part). I have worked for VO for 2 years now and I have been on plenty of transfers that have been obvious "Deisel Drip" trips, but I cannot recall one trip where the hospital actually used the words "Lights and sirens". And the nurse who said that to us is one of the most level headed, unrattleable nurses at that hospital.

So we got the lady loaded up, her son jumped up front with me, and we got going. We had a safe, fast, and rather adrenaline inducing trip to syracuse. With the exception of the nice gust of wind that broadsided me as I came past a Semi and started to change lanes. That was a little hairy.
Our times for that run were quite impressive. Made to from the local hospital to the syracuse hospital in 32 minutes. :-D Total time from when the hotline rang until we pulled into the hospital in syracuse? 50 minutes. Those are some pretty impressive times. We were at the local ER for maybe 10 minutes before we left.

My partner told me "This is crazy. I've been in EMS for 6 years, 2 as a paramedic. I have never seen a Triple A before today, then I get 2 Triple A transfers in one day."

By the time we got back, I was not tired at all. I don't know what the deal is, but for the last few months, whenever i work a night shift at VO, I don't sleep. And if i do, it's from 0400 or 0500 til 0700 or 0730. I wound up getting to bed around 0500, woke up at 0745, got up, washed and mopped the rig out, and left. I got right home because I went on duty with QVA at 0900. As soon as I got home I went to bed because I was really tired. I was hoping to get up at 1300 or 1400 and do some studying. Yeah right. I woke up at 1445 because my pager was doing the dying battery beep (and it had been in the charger the whole time. figure that out) I got up and changed the battery out and I was so tired that I was half numb. I laid back down, fell asleep, and woke up at 1740. I rolled over, looked at the clock, and said "Well this is gonna be a long night." It's 0500 now and I'm barely tired.

We have had a few calls so far. We got a call around 1750 (literally 30 seconds after I got in the shower. I hate when that happens.) for a 7 month old with difficulty breathing. We (Driver, Paramedic, and I) got up there and the baby was doing these little grunts with each breath. The mom said that she was feeding the baby, then right after feeding, the baby started grunting with each breath, turned blue around the eyes and mouth, and his legs got mottled. By the time we got there, there was only a little bit of blue around the mouth and he was still grunting a little bit, but he quit grunting before we got in the rig. Gave him some blow-by O2, kept an eye on him, and had a safe, uneventful ride to Syracuse. That kid loved that O2 tubing. spent the first 10 minutes of the trip chewing on it and looking around the rig, then decided to take a nap. This kid was incredibly calm! He only whimpered when the paramedic stuck him for a blood sugar check. And it wasn't a sick calm either. Color was fine, breathing was fine... I was glad. A shitty peds call is not my idea of fun. It isn't anyones idea of fun.

Once I got home, I pulled out my drug cards and my notebook and started working on memorizing some stuff. So far I have Methylpredisolone, Metaproterenol, and Terbutaline down pretty good. What sucks is I have to know about 15 more for class 13 hours from now, and i'm gonna have to sleep sometime today. I got a feeling I am not gonna know them all by tonite.

While I was studying, I watched Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs (yes, i can do both at the same time). Then we got called to North Nowhere for weakness and abdominal pn. I went down to the station, pulled out the rig, sat there for a few, then the paramedic (Andy) pulled in. We sat there for a minute and looked for our destination on the map while we waited for the driver. Apparently he didn't hear the call come in, because he was not showing up. So we called en route. We got up there and finally found the house after some confusion with the addresses. We heard what was going on with the pt., then Andy looked at me, smiled, and said "She's all yours, get in there."

She told us that she felt a little better, but there was still some stomach pain, etc etc.
We got her info, got her into the rig, and Andy got up front to drive and off we went.

I was asking her questions, talking to her, and all the while I had this strange inkling that this call wasn't going to stay BLS forever. I took her vitals and got 80/50 and 88 and irregular. Hmmmm. No mental status change, no color change, she's still alert, talking, not complaining of anything... I asked her what her normal BP was and she told me that she had been to the doctor the other day and her pressure was "In the 70's". I asked if the doc had given her anything for it and she said no, that that was pretty normal for her. Ok... Maybe I misheard the pressure due to road noise and bumps?

Then she said that her right arm was kind of numb, so I did a recheck of her vitals....
Now I get 70/44 and 100 and very irregular. Ok, I'm not liking this.
I ask her again about her BP and this time she said that it's the bottom number that's normally in the 70's. Ok, that's what I though. I told her I'd be right back, that I had to talk to my partner for a minute.
I popped my head up front and said "I don't know if you're interested or not (I knew he would be. This call has definately entered ALS territory), but now we've got right arm numbness, a BP of 70/44, and an extremely irregular pulse of 100". He replies "Uh, yeah, I'm definately interested. Hang a bag for me, get the IV stuff and the monitor ready while I find a place to pull over." I pulled out the IV stuff and started getting everything set up while I told the lady that we were gonna pull over and Andy was going to take over because her BP was low. She asked how low, so I told her and she said "Oh wow, that is pretty low, isn't it."
I got a bag spiked and hung, got the IV start stuff out, and got the monitor in place. By now, the rig was pulled over and Andy jumped in back. Got the monitor fired up and I saw 148 for a rate. Andy says "Whaddya know, A. Fib!"
So he got her ALSed and told me we were ready to continue our trek to syracuse.

The fun was not over. It's been a while since i've been to this hospital. It has a horseshoe drive for the ED entrance, first driveway is the entrance, second is exit. Guess which one i picked? Yup. As I enter, I see the "Do not enter" sign. Too late now. As i'm going around the horseshoe I hear Andy laughing and saying "you're going the wrong way, you know that, right?" No shit, Sherlock. (not my actual response) So I take the driveway back toward the road, get really strange looks from the pts family (or friends, whoever they were) because they must be wondering where the hell we're going... Pulled out onto the road, backed up a little bit, then went down the correct part of the drive. I had noticed the first time I drove past the ambulance bay (which had 2 rigs in it already) several people watching my screw-up. So I backed into the last spot, shut off the rig, got out, and just as I got out, who walks around the back of my rig with a big smirk on his face but one of my friends from paramedic class. He says "What the hell was that maneuver???" and I immediately responded with an upturned middle phalange. (out of site of the pt, of course.) He started laughing and as he walked back toward his rig he said "You won't be hearing the end of this one anytime soon, trust me." By now I had the stretcher out of the rig and Andy heard the last little exchange there and said "Dude, it's crazy. This guy (referring to me) can get us to the far reaches of North Nowhere without a map, but you get him into the city and he gets lost in the hospital parking lot!" Thanks, Andy. Thanks a bunch. He repeated that phrase again in the hospital because one of the docs or nurses had been smoking outside with my friend and his partner when I pulled in the wrong way.
Then to top it off, as we were leaving, Andy asked if I had trouble getting dressed earlier. I'm checking my fly, looking to see if maybe i have 2 different shoes on or something, then he points out that my shirt's inside out. Nice. This whole call has been back asswards.

So that was the excitement of the last few days. Hopefully I can get more of these drug cards memorized today. After class though, my short vacation begins. Once I drop my sister off at home after class, I am going to visit a friend near Geneva. I'll head out tomorrow night and come back saturday night because I have to work the day shift at VO on sunday. I've got a feeling there is going to be some alcohol flowing this weekend. There may even be some ink in my future. More on that later if it happens. Have a good weekend.

I think I just shat myself....

Yes, it is a memorable line from Mr. Deeds, a halfway decent movie in my book.
It also sums up how I felt on my way to work today.
I was on my way in to VO. i'm working a "Backwards 24" (aka 5pm tonite to 5 pm tomorrow night.)

I was going through a small village that is pretty quiet this time of year. The place is nuts during the summertime, but this time of year it's just the locals. It's a vacation magnet during the summer because it's on the lake and everyone goes there. Anyway, i'm getting off track.

I went through town (which is a 30 mph zone), crossed the bridge, and headed out of town (40 zone which switches to 55 after a short distance). I was a just out of the speed zone when I caught a glimpse of something in my rearview. I looked up... lo and behold, a State Trooper is coming up on me with his lights on like I was standing still. I promptly started to pull over, saying to myself "Please go by me, please go by me, please... Aww, shit." Sure enough, he be after me. I'm thinking to myself "ok, what'd I do..." The only thing i could think of was maybe I was going 45 or 50 near the end of the speed zone.

Anyway, I pulled over, turned off the radio, shut off my car, rolled down my window. By this point he is getting out of his car and I am reaching for my wallet.
This is the conversation that ensued:

Me: "Good afternoon, Officer."
Him: "License and registration please."

I hand him my license, reach up, pull out the sleeve with my registration and insurance info... I start praying he doesn't ask for my insurance card, because my new one is still in my room. oops. I get the old cards out and put them on my seat, but I can't get the registration out cuz it's stuck to the inside of it (I dont know why, quit looking at me like that. Yeah, you.)

Him: "Don't worry about taking it out, just give me the whole thing. You know why I pulled you over?"
Me: (Thinking hard) "Nnnnooot really, no..."
Him: "You seriously don't know why I pulled you over?"
Me: "No." (I am honest with police, but I do not make it a practice of volunteering possible infractions just in case he missed the one thing that I mention)
Him: "Well, several reasons, actually."
Me: (Thinking) WTF?
Him: "Were you talking on a cell phone?"
Me: "No Sir!" (I reach for my phone, hold it up) "You're more than welcome to look at it and see when my last call was."
Him: "No, that's ok... Any idea how fast you were going in that 40 zone back there???"
Me: "ummmm, 45, maybe 50?"
Him: "How 'bout 58?"
Me: (Thinking) F----ck me...
Him: (As he walks to the front corner of my car, looking at my registration and inspection)
"Any suspensions or revocations on your license?"
Me: "No sir."
Him: (Holding up my brand spanking new CDL Class B that really needs to stay clean so that I can keep my job... I believe 15 over the limit also goes down as Reckless driving. I could be wrong, but if i'm not... bad news either way.) "Do you use this for work?"
Me: "Yes sir."
Him: "Okay. Do me a favor. Slow it down and pay more attention to where you are and what you're doing."
Me: "Yes sir."
Him: "Drive safe and be careful of traffic when you pull out."
Me: "Yes sir! Thank you, sir! Have a good day!"

That was my excitement for the day. Took about 2 years off my life. When he said "58", my stomach just dropped. "Suspended license", "large ticket fee", "losing my job" and "skyrocketing car insurance" were all running circles around my head laughing at me. I was incredibly relieved when he handed my stuff back to me and let me go. Thank God for warnings. The Troopers are usually relatively hard nosed about stuff around here, especially new ones. This guy looked like be probably had a few years under his belt though.
So I spent the next several miles laughing at myself and going 50 mph. I tend to laugh at myself in situations like that. It helps diffuse the stress quite a bit.

I got my ride assignment for paramedic class thursday night. It's weird. I didn't ask for this agency on my three choices, but it was one of the original ones that I thought of.
So I was pretty surprised when I got the ambulance that I did. It should be cool though. They run a pretty good call volume and cover a pretty big area.

I'm going to be doing my dispatch time on Tuesday. Gotta have at least 8 hours at the 911 center, observing how everything works. The 911 center I'm going to has a reputation of putting you in the hot seat after you observe a few calls and letting you run the call from when the phone rings until the unit(s) call back in service. That would be pretty interesting.

Well, i'm gonna call it a night. I just realized it's almost 2 am.
cya

Turn the freaking page!

Here is the song of the day. Not really due to mood or anything, but due to the very useful message "Turn the Page"

Turn the Page
By Metallica (originally Bob Seger
If you want the lyrics, http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/metallica/garageinc.html

That is, by the way, one of my favorite songs of all time, especially Metallica's rendition of it.
So why did I choose to put this song up as the subject of my post? Well, because I forgot to turn the page today. I can see the "???" looks out there. relax, i'm getting to it. :-)

Today was the day of our Trauma Module Exam. I was kind of worried because I didn't get my planned studying done. The plan was to study while at VO on Sunday, then after my shift, then this morning.
Wellll.... Stayed up a little late Saturday night visiting some relative who were here from out of state.

Sunday, I woke up, vaguely to my alarm clocks (yes, plural) but specifically to my dad waking me. I rolled over, looked at the clock... Uh oh. 0725!!!!! My shift starts at 0800 and I usually like to be there at least 15 minutes early. Not happening today, folks. The shortest route to VO is about 20 miles, about half of which are back roads.

So I shot out of bed , threw my uniform on, poured a cup of coffee, and ran out the door. I pulled out of my driveway at 0738 and pulled into VO right at 0800. I moved right along when I could... not at stupid speeds, but definately burning fuel.

So I got there, did the chores, etc. Then we got sent on a 3.5 hour tour (one of our longer regular interfacility transfers at VO...) and by the time we got back, I was even more tired than I was when I got up in the morning.

I wound up just hanging around and talking with the people I was on shift with and getting pestered by the company prick... It was quite the crew sunday. Myself, 2 other paramedics who are pretty cool, then the Company Crab Apple, the Company Prick, and the Red-headed stepchild of the organization. It's fun, watching the antics of the C.P. and the red-headed stepchild. They can be pretty amusing. They are always antagonizing each other.

So that shift shot right by, I came home, and still couldn't study. I wasn't tired enough to go to bed, but I was tired enough that had I tried to study, it would have either not been retained at all or I would have passed out on my book.

Sooo, I did what any logical young male would do. I went to the bar. I wound up spending about 2.5 hours talking to the girl who was bartending. She's pretty cool. She is quite animated. Not my type in the dating department at all, which is fine because she's taken anyway. Cool person to talk to though. She said I was her 11th customer of the day. This was at midnight. She had been working since 1600. THAT sounds like it's about as boring as you can get.

Anyway, going to the bar kind of nixed any plans of getting up early. I rolled out of bed around 1130 this morning. Stacey (my sister, who is also in the class, if anyone didn't know) and I left around 1245 because it was snowing pretty heavily, plus we had to return the helium tank from my parents' anniversary party. We got out to the Training Center right at 2.

I got the exam, sat down, started taking it. Our Instructor lets us take breaks during exams, so i usually break it down into thirds and break after each third just to keep from getting overwhelmed. I need to work on breaking that habit though, because I don't believe we get that freedom during the state exam.

Anyway, I felt pretty good about the 1st third of the test... Then the 2nd third... then the final third. There were a few questions throughout the course of the exam that I wasn't sure of, but overall I felt pretty confident. It was especially nice because he had told us on Thursday that it was going to be 225 questions. Well, it only turned out to be 170, er, 175.

I dropped my finished exam off on his desk and by the time I had finished it was about 1645, so went to Arby's, got some grub, then came back.

I got back inside and I asked where the instructor was. One of the other guys in my class said that he was in the other room grading the exams. So I hung out in the hallway, then heard the door open. I looked over, out he comes. He looks around, looks at me, and says, "You did goooood. It's on my desk."

I went into his office, looked on his desk, and saw a beautiful "90" looking at me.
YES!!! YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!!! I needed that 90 sooooo bad. My first module average was an 88 or 86, then my second module average was only 75 or 76. Between the 90 on my Trauma/shock/burns module exam, the quiz grades of 88 and 100, this module makes me feel sooo good, especially going into Cardiology. I absolutely HAVE TO study my ass off for that.

Anyway, I was trying to figure out what questions I got wrong. Some were stupid, some weren't. Then I noticed something strange... I got 170-175 wrong. ???
So i looked a little closer... There was nothing filled in on 171-175! WTF? No... Nooo way. I didn't.... I DID! How the hell did I do that?!

So that is where "Turn the page" comes in. I forgot to check and make sure there were no questions on the back page of the test booklet. Oooohhhhhh, was I pissed at myself.
There I was, all excited because I got a 90, then I realize that it could have been a 93 or so had I answered all the damn questions... I have no idea how that slipped by me. I can gaurantee it'll never happen again though. Plus some of the questions that I had wrong were kinda BS... One, I really disagreed with, but my instructor wasn't in much of a debate mood tonite.

We had a lecture after the test at our normal class time. A respiratory doc came in and did a lecture on pulmonary diseases/disorders. Really informative lecture, it was.

Then after she was done, our instructor went over the list of meds for airway and respiration.
I have to have the following drugs, their classes, descriptions, indications, contraindications, precautions, and Dosages/routes memorized by next Thursday:
Succinylcholine, Terbutaline, Vecuronium, Pancuronium, Oxygen (that's a hard one, eh?), Methylprednisolone, Metaproterenol, Ipratropium, Racemic Epinephrine, Isoproterenol, Isoetharine, Hydrocortisone, Fentanyl, Etomidate, Diazepam, Dexamethasone, Aminophylline, and Albuterol.
I have to look and see which of those we can give in our region. I know we give Albuterol, O2, Solu-Medrol, Valium... I'm not sure which of the other ones we can. I know we are probably getting a few more of those drugs with the new protocols... We're supposed to be getting at least Etomidate and Vaponefrin, not sure what else.
Did you notice how I went from generic names to trade names there? How bad did I mess you up? :-P

So yes, that was my excitement for the evening, being a doofus and overlooking the last 5 questions on the exam.

The instructor was not a happy camper tonite. He said the scores ranged from 90's (He said that I had the highest score in the class on this one) to the 60's. I think he said 2 people flunked the exam. He was pissed. He and I were talking after class and he was saying "WTF am I doing wrong here? I'm busting my ass for everybody and this is what I get? 90's to 60's. I dont f-ckin believe it." From what I gathered chatting with my classmates, alot of the people in class scored in the 70's. I felt kind of bad for him, because it's gotta make him wonder what's going on. I think the best way to sum that up is "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." Some people tried hard and did pretty good, some people just kinda threw it away. What sucks for them is that we only get one retest. For all of our modules we have one retest and thats it.
You fail 2 modules, it's "see ya later".

I know Stacey did well on the test also. Congrats, little sister. :-)

Ok, it is officially past my bedtime. Gotta bring out the dog first.
Oh, and it's finally snowing again. :-D we got about 10 inches today, i do believe. We're supposed to get more tonite and tomorrow also. We shall see!!!

Busy weekend!

What up, blogland?
It's been a fun few days.
Class got cancelled Monday due to weather (somewhere. it wasnt snowing at our place). Being as how it was a trauma lab, I figured I would leave early and get some last minute cramming in because I have to make sure I do good on this Trauma Module. My quiz scores were 100 and 88, and I want this module to be in the 90's.
So I left my house at about 1315, went to visit my grandfather (he's in a home at one of the area hospitals. Had a bad case of hyponutremia (low sodium), which got corrected but then went to hypernutremia... kinda messed him up a bit. he wound up back home for a while, but because a few screws got knocked loose, things weren't going well... my grandma was getting sick because grandpa was keeping her up all night and not even realizing it. so now he's at the home in the hospital). I visited with him for a while, then headed out to class. Stopped at Arby's and got some grub, went to the training center, sat in the car, ate, and cranked some Metallica until about 1500, then went inside. My theory was that I would study for an hour or 2, take the exam, and get outta there. I studied until about 1630 and then I was told that we were having a lecture instead of the test. I was slightly peeved because I blew several hours of my day (I did not consider the visit to Grandpa as wasting time). So anyway, I got quite a bit of studying done, picked another one of the paramedic instructors' brains, and hung around.
At the end of our first break we heard our instructor screaming on the phone, to the tune of "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE F*CKING KIDDING ME!!!!!!!", followed by "EVERYBODY GET IN THE F*CKIN CLASSROOM!" followed by an impressive slamming of the door. He then began pacing the front of the room. After a few laps, he asked if anyone has started any IV's lately. Turns out someone has been pre-empting ride time and starting IVs with their home agency, somebody blabbed, and ratted them in to a MAJOR name in area EMS... You know, that one figure who's name induces a pucker factor?
So we got a nice loud lecture about ONLY starting IV's with our preceptor and no one else, or he'll have our asses for malpractice. He was slightly pissed, to say the least.
Anyway, got done with class and that was that. I talked to our instructor for a while, then with my sister and one or 2 classmates, then went home.
I went on duty at midnight last night with QVA... hung around online until about 2 am, and just before 4 the pagers went off for a cardiac. Wound up taking her to Syracuse, got back around 6ish... took a shower, went back to bed. I had some plans for the day, but I slept a weee bit too late... woke up at 1530, looked at the clock, said "Oh crap", got up, got ready, and came out here to VO where I'm doing the overnight (1700-0800). My partner and I had one call a while ago, but it was nothing big.

Tomorrow I'm going to be doing a standby for the "Old Dog Races". My bar is having snowmobile races for sleds 1979 and older. It should be fun. There isn't alot of snow though. Hopefully it goes well.
Then Sunday I'm working the day shift (0800-1700) here at VO again.
I'll be heading in early Monday afternoon to take the trauma module, so hopefully I can get a solid amount of studying in Sunday and early Monday.

Then we have a week or 2 of Pulmonology and then we get into the big stuff. Good old Cardiology, all 2 months of it. I'll be surgically implanting my book to my face for that section.

Other than all that, not much is happening around here.

Here's my second major call of note. This is the call where I learned the true meaning of the term "dead weight" and that the hardest part of a code is the family.

This call was only a month or 2 after the fatal MVC I was broken in on.
About 3am on a really snowy morning the pagers went off for an Unresponsive female, unknown if breathing... aww, Nuts.

Got up, headed up to the scene (it was just around the corner and down the road from where that MVC was)
We got there (Mom and I... Dad chauffered us) and an elderly gentleman told us to come on in when we knocked. We walked in and there was an elderly lady lying in a recliner with an eyes-closed death mask.

Mom and I tried to pick her up, but you all know that freshly dead people are quite limp and hard to pick up. We tried to get the chief inside to help us move her, but he was more than content to stay in his truck and play with his radio, so dad came in and between the 3 of us, we got her on the floor and started CPR.

As we were doing CPR, the husband told us that his wife had woken up, stated she didn't feel well and wanted to go outside and get some fresh air. So they got up, and on the way to the front door, she DFO'd. Now the impressive thing was that when the wife dropped, the husband picked her up by himself and put her in the chair. They were both in their late 60's and I was quite impressed that he got her in that chair by himself, yet it took 3 of us to get her off of it gently. (Doing the 'Grab the feet and pull' trick isn't very PR appropriate, ya know?)

So mom and I did CPR til rescue got there (I don't remember if dad was in on it or not.) and as soon as rescue got there, I immediately got displaced. I was still a Jr. Member, so they didn't like me getting my hands dirty (at least after there was enough help to bump me to the side).

As I was standing there with 2 other Juniors in the kitchen, the husband was walking around looking lost... trying to find his shoes and whatever else it was. We offered to help him, got him a few things, then as he was shuffling across the kitchen, he stopped, looked me square in the eyes with tears rolling down his face and said
"I feel like I just lost my best friend..."

I'll tell you what folks, that statement hit me like a baseball bat. It almost physically hurt. It was painful to watch him too because he just looked so lost and stunned... As his wife was making CPR noises, he kept asking if that was her breathing or coughing or trying to come back...

Codes don't usually make it out of this fire district. The ambulance that covers it is about 20 miles away, so figure in 20 miles, 3 am, snowing with slick roads. NOT a good prognosis.

Sure enough, they got there, hooked her up, and called for permission to call it. I really felt bad for that guy.

That call bothered me a bit for a day or 2. It's alot harder to let a call roll off your back when the family is involved that directly and you see their reactions to the situation.
It still bugs me when the family is there, especially at the hospital.

After a recent code that I was on, we had dropped the lady off at the hospital and myself, the driver, and the EMT from rescue that we grabbed had finished cleaning up the rig.
We were outside talking and smoking when the family walked out of the ER doors to leave. They were, of course, red and moist in the eyes, walked up to us, shook our hands and said "Thanks for trying." I understand that they mean well when they do that, but it sucks. How do you answer them? Hey, we tried? Sorry we couldn't save her? I'm sorry for your loss?

I don't know. It just sucks. I guess because when the surviving family is there, it's alot more real, for lack of better words... If it's just a dead patient and no family is around, the only reactions are those among your crew. Nice try, She was dead before we got there, blah blah blah, all the justifications we use to keep ourselves somewhat impartial so that we don't lose it every time someone bites the big one.

I would really like to be on a code save one of thse days.

The code I wrote about a few posts ago did not make it. We were in the time frame, but when your number is called, time's up.

Well, there's my thoughts for the night.
Stay safe, blogland.

CAUTION: This is a vent.

This blog is a vent and probably nothing but a vent. I doubt there is anything here anyone will find constructive, so read at your own discretion.
I don't know why, but I am in an INCREDIBLY dark mood tonite. I'm almost scaring myself.
There hasn't even been anything abnormally bad happenning lately. I'm really getting stressed though.
It feels like everything is just taking a giant shit on me all at the same time.
I'm stressing about class, finances, personal stuff... it seems like anything that could possibly bother me just kicked into overdrive today.
If you haven't noticed, i've kind of taken to posting songs that reflect my mood. Well, here's the song of the night.

The Unnamed Feeling
By Metallica, for lyrics, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/metallica/theunnamedfeeling.html


And i think that is the end of my rant. I was gonna be going alot
farther than that song tonite, but i was bailed out by a friend.
I'd like to say thanks to Cindy, she just came online as I was putting
the finishing touches on the lyrics there.
There's nothing better in life than a good friend who understands
what's going on, almost without having to tell them.
I did kinda spill my guts on her, but she cured my night with about
3 sentences. God bless her. :-)
Well, now that i dont have anything to vent about anymore, I'm outta here.
I'll try to write something constructive this weekend.

Who the hell paid off the zebras?!

Was it just me, or was the Super Bowl XL officiating a joke? Think maybe someone payed them off? Maybe, maybe not. Why is offensive pass intereference even a penalty? He stiff-armed
that guy before he had the ball and there goes a touchdown.

Then that freakin Roethlesberger TD.... don't even get me started on that shit. WTF! That right there proves that referees are blind. How could they call that a touchdown? That ball was a foot from the line until he was down, looked around, brought the ball up, and that damn ref called it a TD. Bull.

Can you tell I was rooting for Seattle? I do kind of like the Steelers, but not as much as the Hawks. It is kind of cool that Bettis got his ring in his hometown, but still. Those calls... I knew after the B.R. TD that it was over. And the farther it went, the worse it got. I was hoping for a high-scoring, down to the wire game. Didn't quite turn out that way.

So there's my rant.

I was surprised how many people around here were rooting for Seattle. Probably 2/3 of the crowd at the Ridge were rooting for them.

How about some of those commercials though? I liked the Caveman commercial. I REALLY like the Ameriquest commercial set in the hospital. I almost died laughing when I saw that.
Then there was the 'touching moments' commercial, with the young Budweiser Clydesdale. The folks at the bar liked that one. there were alot of "awwwwwwww"s floating around for that.

Not much new in the world of EMS here... We didn't have class tonite... We have a nice lake effect band pounding the general area and our instructor said he didn't see the sense in risking lives for a Trauma Lab. I do believe our Trauma Module is Thursday. sheesh. i've been doing
some good studying so far for trauma, i just have to make sure i get more in.

Just thought i'd post, show some signs of life...

Anti-Stress Techniques

I love the de-stressing gurus. Meditate! Yoga! Soft classical music! Nature sounds! Yanni!
Yeah, ok.
You know how i de-stress? Either a nice long walk in the woods, either silent or arguing with myself, or full blown, flat out assault on the senses. That's what I'm doing right now. I have 2 major de-stressing bands:
Disturbed and Metallica. There is something extremely theraputic about "Ain't My Bitch" at near ear-bleeding inducing levels.
At the moment I'm on the Disturbed kick. More specifically, Just Stop, Stricken, and The Game. All very loud.
Repeat multiple times over and feel the stress melt away. Is it strange that I find that soothing?

So anyway.
I really screwed up big time at work. During my application process (for the bus job) i had to get fingerprinted.
Well, guess what i did? Or more specifically, forgot to do? I forgot to sign the form with my prints!
So i got a phone call around 13:45, with my boss telling me to come to the office and sign the form. Sooooo, until they call him back saying that i'm ok on my background check, I can't drive. He said (boss) that if all goes well, i'll be driving again by tuesday, but still. Freakin pisses me off.
So tomorrow I am gonna finish the application for the ambulance job and i'm also going to fill out and mail the app for the civil service test for the dispatch job.

Saturday we have an all day class. Trauma labs. cool stuff. We had our quiz tonite. I did ok i think. there were 4 or 5 questions i wasnt sure of. i hope i got most of them right because it was only a 20 question quiz.
Our trauma doc was doing the lecture tonite. It was on Trauma during pregnancy. There's some pretty crazy stuff involved in that.

I think i'm pretty much out of stuff to say. Constructive stuff anyway. I could probably vent a novel right about now, but i'm not really in the mood to lay it out in the open right now.
So have a good night, blog land.

just another day

This week is really sucking bad from a work standpoint.
Monday, I covered someones route (we're talking about cheeseboxes obviously, not meat wagons at the moment)
Tuesday, I covered an afternoon run that goes all over creation, Last night I took a bunch of skiers to West Nowhere (Next town over from North Nowhere if you were wondering), and now it is 0555 and no call from the bus garage yet. So unless they get a last minute call-in, i'll have the day off. Which is good and bad at the same time. It's bad because I need the money. It's good because I really need to study for our quiz tonite on Head, Face, Spinal, Thoracic, and Abdominal trauma. And if they don't call by 0630, I am going back to bed for 2 hours or so. I am tired. Been a long couple days.
As I mentioned last post, VO called me in for a shift Tuesday night. I didn't sleep a lick. It was by choice though. I got on a roll studying and i studied right through to about 0530, 0600 yesterday morning before my eyes started going in different directions. The only call we ran that shift was a call for chest pains about 4 or 5 blocks from the station, and they self-transported before we even got there.
Anyway, I came home from there, passed out for a few hours, went on the skiing run, came home, went to our scheduling meeting with QVA, came home, watched Mythbusters (love that show), got online, started chatting with a female friend of mine, and the next thing i knew it was 0040.
I've been up since 0500 today because I like to try to get up before the bus garage will call, that way it saves the phone from waking the whole family up.

I have to talk to my instructor tonite. I think i mentioned it earlier, but I'm planning on taking the civil service exam for a county dispatch job. I just discovered a small problem. I think. I may have class on the day of the civil service exam. The exam is 3/18, which is a saturday. 3/19 is listed as a Cardiac Lab covering Protocols/Treatments/CPR. That could go one of 2 ways. It could be saturday, or it could be Monday. I'm thinking it's pprrrrrroooobably supposed to be monday the 20th, because for one, i don't remember any major March holidays... oh wait... St. Patty's Day is the 17th... That's about as good as it gets for my instructor and most of the class. Hmm. I still think he meant to put Monday the 20th down, especially since it doesnt show any class on the 20th, it goes from the 19th to the 23rd. I'll ask tonite.
I had my first real lesson in paramedic brainstorming Tuesday night. Well, Wed. morning actually.
The paramedic I was on with kind of helped me along on a brainstorm of the possibilities of problems our pt had. it was cool. He said that a huge part of paramedic care is thinking, figuring what the problem could be and what it could be connected to. pretty cool.

Well, work isn't calling, so I'm going to go get some more shut-eye.
In closing, I just figured I'd put up the lyrics to a new song that I find freaking awesome.

"Just Stop"
By Disturbed, for lyrics, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/disturbed/juststop.html