Don't worry....I've done this before

Dead and just don't know it...

2009-03-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

We were on our way to a "sick party" with abdominal pain. Nothing I was particularly excited about, but I was glad to finally be getting a call. Lights flashing, sirens blaring and through it all I can hear the tones go off again. Medic 805, medic 805 stand down from current call, need you en route code three to adams rd for a reported gun shot wound. That was strange, I thought, we don't prioritize calls, but I was kinda excited none-the-less. I'm not a trauma junkie at all, but I had been kinda wanting a GSW just so I could say I saw one. We staged for a few minutes, and talked about how strange it was that dispatch pulled us off that call for this one. We were given the all clear to proceed in, made our way over to the house, and I immediately noted that there were no first responders. As we were parking, dispatch came back over the radio, medic 805, be advised, CPR is in progress. Well, crap. Better grab all the bags now. I tossed our bags out of the stretcher and we jumped out, making our way up to the house. As we approached I saw a cop come running out of the house, coughing and spit into the grass. I figured, eh, he's probably just grossed out. Then I noticed other cops coughing, then the first medic who went in was immediately reduced to a coughing fit and came running back out, followed by her partner, and the first responders. I didn't know what was in the house that was doing this to everyone, but I didn't plan on finding out. I looked over to the medic on my truck and told her I'd take the bags to the truck and get some lines ready. So I walked into the house, trying not to breathe just in case this was some nasty crap that was making everyone cough, looked over at our guy just enough to see it was a shotgun point blank to the chest. I made a hasty retreat and got out to the truck. Our guy was loaded and the fun began. We got dual IV's, I didn't have any luck getting one cause home-boy had shit for veins on the side I was looking, if you're gonna get shot and die on us, the least you could do is have good veins. My partner is a respiratory therapist student, so while I searched for something to stick, she got the tube. By that time I'd had two unsuccessful sticks so I told her to give it a go, and I took over the airway. We put an occlusive dressing over the wound, and a big trauma dressing over the chest and started pumping him. He was in an ugly agonal rhythm, we gave EPI and he went into an even uglier junctional rhythm. After the epi wore off, he was back in the ugly agonal rhythm, second epi didn't touch it, atropine didn't touch it. We were getting to the hospital now, and nothing had changed with him, but he still had a very faint pulse and a blood pressure, the army took over from here. After about five more minutes they called him. Then, the cleanup began...

And I thought I was gonna get out with just a routine abdominal pain...

Hopeless

2009-02-21T14:05:00.000-08:00

I gave CPR instructions on the phone for the first time last night. Well, not the first time, but this time they worked the code when my crew got there. I was going through my pre-arrival instructions, just like I'm supposed to, but when I got to the ventilations the caller said she couldn't open her sister's mouth, it was stiff. I went back to compressions. For almost 20 minutes she pumped on the chest. No one was able to relieve her. Between sobs, she counted. I was the voice on the other side of the line, supposed to send in the calvary, save the day, and in the meantime be the solution. All I could do was keep telling her to pump the chest. Stopping occasionally to check the mouth. I knew it was futile. I had already given up on this lady. Her sister never gave up though. She kept going. I felt like a fraud telling her that these chest compressions would keep her going until the paramedics got there. I told her these compressions would keep her going. I encouraged her not to give up, when I had already given up. I talked to the crew later, they transported the patient, worked the code...but I couldn't bring myself to ask if they got her back. I didn't want my thoughts to be confirmed. It just seemed...hopeless...

2009-02-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

So I'm right in the middle of paramedic ride outs again. It's keeping me busy to say the least, but I've been getting some pretty interesting calls so far. But, today pretty much took the cake. Got a call for chest pain, and sitting in the back I even thought, hmm....will this be the big one...I dunno if I'd call it the big one, but we made scene and found a 75yo woman writhing in pain on her bed. Pale, cool, diaphoretic. Popped on some 02 and got a 12....vwala...Right sided inferior infarct. My first thought....holy cow...that's a real STEMI. She had already pre-administered one nitro before our arrival, BP was initially 122/78. We got a line and bolused her. She started puking in the truck so we gave 4mg zofran. Then she had another nitro. Followed by ASA. Followed by another nitro. Pt was in a junctional escape, so HR was between 40-50, so we never got around to morphine for fear it would crash her. We had her to the hospital in 11min from making scene. She was in the ER for 9 min before being moved to the cath lab. That was shweet.

His sat's are down to 100%, Get a tube!

2009-01-27T20:50:00.000-08:00

We got a call for an elderly male with difficulty breathing. Got to scene, and when walking in the door you could see the man was working to breath. We approached him, first responders had a set of vitals and let us know lung sounds were diminished in all fields. He was satting at 94% on room air, so we put him on O2, brought him right up to 100%. The patient had a history of pneumonia and had been released from the hospital three weeks prior. En-route he got a combi-vent, patient was on albuterol at home. This really didn't touch him at all. EKG showed A-Fib, but patient had a history of this. Sats stayed at 100% the entire ride, he would cough from time to time but it wasn't productive. We got to the hospital, gave our report, and by the time we left the guy was RSI'd and tubed. And...I don't get it.

I understand that I'm just a student and I certainly don't know everything there is to know. It just seems to me, that if the patient was moving air, and a mask would bring him to 100% that he wouldn't need the tube. Patient had good cap refill, and ETCO2 was within normal limits. Maybe I just don't know enough, but it seems to me that you shouldn't want to tube someone unless absolutely nessecary. With the tube you generally buy them more meds, a longer hospital stay, and an increased risk of certain conditions. Here's my theory on things. I look at it as working my way up. Start with a nasal canula, if it's obvious that won't work, move on to a NRB. If the NRB isn't doing the trick, move on to bagging the patient. If bagging alone isn't cutting it, it's time to buy a tube. Maybe that's overly simplistic. I don't know. But what I really don't know is why this guy bought a tube. If you have any ideas, I'm totally open to hearing them.

School and schedule insanity

2009-01-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

So, I'm back in paramedic school. We started cardiology last week. It's not easy, but I'm managing. I also started my clinicals last week. That's what's really hurting me as far as my schedule is concerned. Today I got to the EMS station at 0700 and got off at 1500. I came to work at 1800-0600, and I'm due back at the EMS station at 0700 until 1500, then class 1700-2200. Basically, that leaves very little time for sleep and it's really catching up to me. But such is the life of a paramedic student I guess. It kinda boggles my mind that I'll have my red patch in just a few months. Kind of a scary thought.
I still don't know what I'm gonna do after this. I don't know if I just wanna get my CCEMTP, which won't do much good in texas. Or skip over that and go on to RN. Or maybe both? I'll just be content to get through school first.
I really don't even know what kind of medic I'll make. There are days where I realize that I'm pretty good at this and that I feel like I know what i'm doing. Then, there are other days where I feel like i'm completely lost and have no idea what I'm sitting in class for. I've had preceptors tell me that I'm the best student they've had, but at the same time I know that I don't know much. I've done all my rideouts witha certain service, and I'm really hoping to get a job with them come June. I don't know that I'll get it straight out of school, but it's pretty much my dream job. Well, aside from flight medic/nurse. But...nothing really interesting is going on in life, I'm kinda bored at work and am working hard to stay awake, so I thought I'd write a little post to let you all know that I'm still alive...Hope everyone is doing well out there in blogland...

code 5

2009-01-03T21:44:00.000-08:00

Here I am, sitting at work having a pretty boring day. We've been a little 911 heavy but nothing too bad. I don't think I've taken an actual 911 call today, maybe one, not really sure. I wasn't feeling so good earlier tonight but it has since passed. Well the quietness and routineness of it all just got shattered. I recieved a call from a local city EMS agency requesting we make scene at an area in their city but our county. So I took the call and we got a unit en route. All of a sudden three more 911 calls came in from that area. So we were a little busy and a bit stretched. When EMS talked to me they just said it was an unknown man down in a park, possibly having seizures. It sounded pretty benign so we sent our crew in counting on them to use their best judgement. Shortly afterward admist all the 911 traffic we recieved a short transmission, "Unit x needs SO NOW." And our crew sounded quite freaked out, something not normal for him. So I immediately called SO and made sure they were enroute. The dispatcher tried contacting the crew with no reply, we tried to reach them a lot and they would not respond. Needless to say, we freaked out....more to come later...
Anways...it pretty much set things into a tizzy up in dispatch. I was on the line with SO trying to find out how much longer until a unit made scene at the location, and trying to explain to the lady on the phone that we really really needed them there right this second. Another person was on the phone with our supervisor who was also on his way to location. We had to move all of the traffic to the backup channel on our radios and had a second unit en route to the scene in case our guys needed mroe help. 20 long minutes later they called out that they were transporting code three. No explanation of what happened. Well things slowly made their way back to normal. We cancelled the extra units and SO and moved everyone back. Of course everyone wanted to know what was going on, code 5 is not called very often at all.
We found out right before I left what had happened. Apparently when the unit pulled up on scene they found the pt down with a belt around his neck. So they thought it was a crime scene and needed SO to make location. Apparently their handheld radio didn't have good reception where they were located at so they didn't hear us over the radio. But we did send multiple pages to their truck's pager and personal pagers and they never got in contact so our supervisor for the evening made the call to put out a code 5 until we knew for sure what was going on.
From a dispatch standpoint, it was kinda terrifying. To know that we had a unit out who was potentially in great danger, and there was nothing we could do from where we were. Personally, I took the call and had made a bad assumption that there wasn't anything to worry about at this scene. But, lesson learned, and experience to check off the list. I'll be ok if we don't have to do that again.

What is the address of your emergency?

2009-01-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

I might have mentioned I finished my EMD course and I am now taking 911 calls in my dispatch center. It's really not a big deal, ninety-nine percent of the calls are pretty routine and easy to get through. But there's a one percent that just throw me off my game. The people who cannot tell me what the address is. And sadly enough, these are usually other public safety agencies that are unable to give me a location for the incident. We cover for our county 911 and so we very often get calls from the different cities whose call ends up being in the county. No big deal usually. Last night a local PD called and requested we send an ambulance to a country club. I did my normal thing, asked the address, and she had no answer for me. I asked for a map-grid. Nada. I asked if she could find out and I heard her radio one of her officers, who also could not give an address. Finally I brought up the internet and looked up the address myself. There are several things wrong with that. 1)I now cannot verify this is indeed the right address, its just a hope thing. 2)I only have about 30 seconds to get the call on our board, and we are now looking at close to two minutes that this call has been waiting. 3)All the lady can tell me is that its a nurologic problem. Well hell, a nurologic problem could be anything from "I wanna die", to "Oh look, I got shot in the head and there's brain matter all over the ground." It's a little frustrating.
Then as I was about to get off I recieved a call from another PD that serves out of our jurisdiction and they were begging for help. We had the truck available so we accepted the call and began getting ready to run it. The lady once again, could not give me a good address. This location is out of our jurisdiction so our crews don't know the area like they normall would. All she was able to give me was an abscure address that was neither in our map book or on google earth. It wasn't helping us at all. I tried to find it with no luck, had three different people working on it and none of us were having luck. Finally I called her back and got her to give me directions to the scene. By this time our call had been waiting at least five minutes to be dispatched and everyone was annoyed. My supervisor decided not to run the call afterwards due to not having a decent location address and the fact that this was further out of our jurisdiction than we realized, but as he called back to let them know it appears they were tired of waiting and cancelled us.
So..Basically if you're gonna call 911, please know your address. Or at the very least the closest cross streets. And if you call for mutual aid on new years eve, be helpful, don't be a bitch. OK? Thanks.

Tis the season...and other things

2008-12-23T23:51:00.000-08:00

Tis the season to be ridiculously busy. I've spent the past three days sitting in EMD class. It wasn't that bad, except that class started early in the morning and I've been doing night shifts so the hours about killed me. Not to mention we've been crazy busy at work lately so I've had to stay and help after I got out of the eight hours of class. I was scheduled to stay last night, but tonight I got asked to stay over. I don't mind too much, but I'm exhausted.
Something I don't understand though, seems like people I talk to who have been in the EMS profession for any extended period of time finds it necessary to tell me not to get in the field. Even my professors tell me that I'm young, that I should just get into nursing now. It hasn't changed anything, I'm pretty well determined to get my red patch. I just wonder why people in the field caution me about it so much. At this point I do plan on going on to my RN, hopefully through a bridge program, but the one I'm looking at requires experience as a paramedic, which makes sense and I'm perfectly ok with. I don't know what the eventual plan is. I'd kinda like to do flight nurse I think, maybe do some overseas work if the opportunity ever affords itself. I'm only 20, so I guess I have some time to decide...
Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and all that jazz out there to you bloggers. And for those of you working over the holidays, take care of yourself and be safe out there...

And the excitment grows...

2008-12-13T01:40:00.000-08:00

So my last blog post was actually at around 1am...
It is now 20 minutes to 4am. And I just got done showing the local FD, EMS, and sheriff officers out of my house.
Apparently, someone called 911 for my address.
SO showed up and knocked on the door, bringing me out of my sleep, due to the time, I didn't get out of bed, then the rang the door bell, and knocked, and rang the door bell and knocked...and well you get the picture. Finally my father made it to the door and asked what was going on. I beat a hasty retreat from the couch to my bedroom and attempted to go back to sleep. That was not to happen though, because shortly the FD showed up with their bright lights. Followed very shortly by EMS...the EMS company that I work for...
Everyone commented on the fact that my company rain jacket was in the kitchen, and I told them all separately, that yes, I do work for big company EMS.
Well..the plot thickens to find that it was my cell phone that called 911...And it wasn't just a call..someone talked and gave them my little brothers name. It was rather embarassing. And now it will probably be 4:30 before I get to sleep...and I have to work tomorrow...oh this shall be fun!!

I'm a lil' pissed off

2008-12-12T23:09:00.000-08:00

After work tonight I came home and found out my mother had gone to the local ER without telling me, so I leave as soon as I get home and go wait with her. My mother hurt her back 15 years ago and has been in pain for 8 weeks with her back, has tried numerous different medications, and finally three days ago began to find some relief. Well today she started having a leg cramp around 11:30 this morning, I didn't really think anything of it, but it never went away. Her leg proceeded to cramp up off and on for the remainder of the day. I finally talked her into taking her flexeril to see if that would relieve the pain, and it did for a bit. Apparently her foot went numb extending up mid-calf and she started crying when my dad came home so he took her to the hospital. Well I met them so my dad could go home, and we waited for only an hour and fifteen minutes. I thought that was pretty good considering the ER was full. Then instead of taking us into the ER we were put in triage, and they had a PA come and do an "exam" that was really nothing more than taking an extended history. He then proceeded to tell her that this was just due to her back hurting and that eventually the foot numbness would go away. Maybe I'm just naive, but that doesn't exactly fit my definition of an exam. The thing that really bothers me about this is the fact that my mom left in the same amount of pain with no relief in sight, and the fact that we'll get charged out the butt for this "exam". We'll be charged for an ER visit, but we never made it to the ER. We'll be charged for seeing the doctor, but only saw his PA. It just doesn't seem quite right...

I must say....

2008-12-08T19:56:00.001-08:00

That I surely miss being on the truck. Dispatch isn't too bad, but it gets old sitting there looking at the same computer all day. I'm hoping either my job will bend and let me on a truck part time, or that I'll find somewhere that will allow me to volunteer. Most of the places around here are volley FD, but I'm not fire certed, and have absolutely no desire to do fire. I'm thinking about also looking for a part time job as an ER tech. I really enjoyed my time at the hospital, so I wouldn't mind doing either one. I just want to be doing something more than answering phones all the time. I don't mind doing it, but I miss being out in the mix of things...suppose that makes me "Sparky"....

Scared

2008-12-03T20:54:00.001-08:00

My mother asked me to go pick up my lil' brother from church, no big deal. I went and got in my car, looked both ways before backing down the drive way, and I was on my way. After a few minutes I came up to a car, nothing special about it, aside from the fact that the driver was driving 10mph down my street. I guess I got too close, cause she slowed down and then came to a complete stop. No big deal, they just got where they were going...Then she started driving again, Alright, this person is gonna be a little tard, I'll show them...I didn't back off, but didn't get closer either. Maybe 100 yards down the road they did it again. Alright...this person is really starting to get on my nerves...At least we're almost to the stop sign, maybe she'll turn Right and I'll go left...When we got to the stop sign though...I could see her car shift in to park. Oh shit...is this maniac really gonna get out of the car? She is...holy cow..it's an old lady..Is my car door locked? Yes, it locks when you shift in gear, ok..stay in the car, stay calm..She started walking closer, I talked to her..told her to get back in her car, said you need to go away, tried to be as big and scary as I can, I'm not a big and scary person. She kept walking..coming closer to my car...then standing outside my window. She didn't have anything in her hands, but I was scared none-the-less. She was screaming and I couldn't understand what she was saying. I kept trying to tell her to go away, making the "shoo" sign with my hands, but she wasn't paying any attention. She started waving her hands outside my car, I was near tears by now. I told her I was going to call the cops, and she just stood there. By this point I was really wishing I was 21 and had my concealed hand-gun license...not to shoot her, but hopefully to make her get in her car and leave, but I'm not, and I don't. So, I called 911. Of course, I got the city rather than the county and had to be transferred. She stayed outside my car though, still screaming indistinguishable words, still waving her hands. I was doing everything I could not to cry with the lady on the phone. About the time the county answered the phone she started walking towards her car, got in and drove away. They offered to send an officer out, but I told them not to worry about it, not wanting to inconvenience someone's night...I was shaking as I drove off. Instantly wishing I had gotten her license plate, I'm scared she lives down my street, if she's crazy enough to get out of her car in the middle of the night and approach someone...she's probably crazy enough to target me later...

First and last

2008-12-02T20:21:00.000-08:00

Today was my last rotation for the intermediate section. I'm so glad to have my clinical's over. Now maybe my schedule can calm down for a bit. I'm also registered to go through school next semester, on to paramedic. I just hope I have what it takes...time will tell.
Today I saw real CPR for the first time. We walked into the hospital, a large trauma center here in town, and walked past the resus room and our attention was immediately diverted to the code that was being worked. They were already going on 20min, and it was a traumatic code, so I had no expectation that the guy would come back, and was just waiting for the doc to call it. We never got a full story, but from what we could tell he was either hit with a chainsaw, or cut with a knife on his neck...but managed to miss all airway structures, and missed his carotid. He took 8 units of blood, but once the last unit was in, after one more shot of epi he got a pulse, and his rhythm went to a pretty sinus rhythm, and once he had some blood his BP was better than mine. I couldn't believe they got him back...that's not supposed to happen. And even though I didn't get to work it or anything, it was still pretty exciting.

Blurry

2008-11-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

I went and played with the new camera yesterday, a lot. I quickly realized that I have to find a book and do some reading because this is more camera than I know what to do with. I went to the park, and got some pretty decent shots considering I was just popping off random things. I realized I absolutely love having that extra 55-200mm lens. After my clinical yesterday I drove down to the river walk since they have all their Christmas lights up. I realized very quickly the camera is a whole 'nother beast after dark. It just seemed like I couldn't get a well focused picture no matter how hard I tried. I probably should have taken the tripod with me, but it was a spur of the moment decision to go down there. I don't know what setting to adjust to make it take the picture faster, it seems like it would be a shutter priority setting that had to be changed, but I really don't know. Here's what I'm talking bout....
This image is clear for the most part, but the lighting SUCKS.

I like the lighting much better on this picture, it gives a better feel for what it really looked like...but I tried over thirty times and could not get a crisp image at all!

Shiny new stuff

2008-11-28T21:13:00.000-08:00

I made a huge impulse buy today.....
I bought a NikonD60
In my defense, it was a great deal. I got the camera body, a Nikkor 18-55mm VR lense came with it. I also got a 55-200mm Nikkor VR lense. And a carrying case for the camera, that came with an instructional DVD.....all to the tune of a little over $700.
I think it was a pretty good deal, but now I find myself in a quandry. I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to a DSLR, all I've ever had were point-and-shoots. I know that this camera is capable of doing some great stuff, but I don't know if I know how to make it do all that. I'll be playing with it over the next few weeks, maybe I'll post some stuff up here. If anyone has some deep dark success secrets, my ears are wide open.

Should I stay or should I go?

2008-11-23T22:22:00.000-08:00

I played this song a few times on rock band today..it wasn't pretty...

But this is not a rock band post...

I got my basic in May of 2008. Meaning, I'm very new to the EMS thing. I breezed through class with no problem, and I love being on the truck. I'm green, but who isn't straight outta school? I'm also in paramedic school right now. Next month I'll be able to test at the intermediate level. I've reached a bit of a crossroads for myself, I'm trying to decide whether to finish the paramedic section, or stop for a while and get some experience. Part of me really wants to go on and just get it over with.
Then, there's the part of me that is scared. I'm scared of allowing myself to go straight through. I don't feel nearly as confident with my skills and knowledge this time. I don't want to go straight through if I'm going to just be a mediocre medic. If I'm going to do it I want to excel. Nor do I want to go straight through and end up hurting someone cause I don't have any of the common sense that comes with experience. I don't know if I'm ready to be in charge.
So...I think I might have made my mind up to stop for a while and finish my basic classes. I just don't know. I wish I knew what I should do. But I don't, and I can't even make up my mind for what I want to do...

Nada

2008-11-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

I really don't have anything blogworthy to post about....nothing at all....
I take my national registry for the intermediate level in less than a month and I'm scared shitless...
After being employed with "the man" for two months...I'm finally being allowed to answer the phones, and this is harder than the other phone jobs I've had.
We've got skills practice in class tonight...which means a short class hopefully.
I miss being on the truck, I'm working to rectify that situation, probably not til I get my intermediate though.
I still wonder daily if I've got what it takes to be a medic...
I think helicopters are being grossly misused in our industry, and I worry bout my friends up there in the sky.
I think thats bout it.

I didn't save any lives today

2008-11-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

I didn't save any lives today. No CPR, no drug pushing, no order barking, not even any extricating. I wasn't there in someone's deepest time of need, nor was I the angel rushing in to save the day. What I did was far different.
I held the hand of a young lady who wanted to die, and let her talk, I listened without judgment.
I talked with a woman who was pregnant for the first time. She was alone and scared, and I didn't do anything clinically for her, but we compared experiences, and joked about her husband, and the great hospital food. In the middle of her fear and worry, she was able to laugh and enjoy her day, at least for a few minutes while I was at the bedside.
So, no, I didn't save a life today, but I could certainly go for another day like today.

First time on the range

2008-11-16T19:24:00.000-08:00

Gun range that is....

I convinced my dad(I'm only 20 so I can't go by myself) to go to the gun range with me today. I've never shot a handgun and was a little nervous about it but wanted to start trying to find a gun that I like so I can practice with it before getting my CHL...
First we shot a rented .380 bersa Concealed carry version. I liked that the gun was small enough that it comfortably fit in my hand. It didn't have much kick at all, which is something I was very nervous about. And I liked that the trigger was very easy to pull, barely touched it and the gun would fire. I was even relatively accurate with the gun after getting in a few warm up shots.
Next, we shot my dad's Beretta 9mm. I liked this gun as well. There was still minimal kick back to it. It was a little harder to hold, but not enough to effect me. This gun jammed several times, but my dad said it was because he hadn't cleaned it in a while. It jammed with both of us, so I'm thinking it's not just me. The trigger was much stiffer on this gun, there were a few times I thought it had jammed but just wasn't pulling hard enough after getting used to the .380. My accuracy was a little bit better with this gun, but the laser sight probably had something to do with it.
I'm still planning on trying to get out and try a few more guns. The glocks have been spoken highly of, and I've been told repeatedly not to get a .380 or 9mm. My dad told me today that he wants me to get a revolver instead of a semi-auto because he's been told that the semi-auto's jam with females. I personally plan on at least testing my CHL on a semi-auto so that I can carry either one, and I like the idea of the semi-auto more myself. Still got some time to decide...

History behind the name...

2008-11-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

For some reason I keep getting questions about the title of my blog...I would have thought it was obvious..but I guess I'll elaborate on it for the curious....

As I said a few posts back, I've had my basic cert for all of six months. I'm also short, and I don't look like I'm as old as I am...
There were several calls while I was with little private service where I would go get up front to drive and have a family passenger sitting in the cab already, and as I got in the driver seat they would look at me with the most serious face and ask, "So how old are you?" and once they got their answer, the next question was immediately, "And, uh, just how long have you been doing this." If it was a good day they usually got a smart ass answer, that this was the first time I'd ever driven the truck, or that I just got my cert yesterday...usually it brought on a laugh, other times a concerned look until I clarified....
I've been doing my ride-outs for the intermediate section of my class, and part of the ride outs is that we are required to have 5 IV sticks in the field, and five in the hospital. Maybe I look nervous, because most times I'm about ready to shit myself, but it seems every time I go to start an IV they ask if I've done this before. One poor soul even went so far as to tell me that I look like I'd do a good job at the stick and he felt good about me doing it...I didn't tell him that he was my first stick outside of class, and I certainly didn't tell him that I'd never tried a stick in the back of a moving truck...but I guess he was right, I got him, with minimal blood-letting even...
So...there it is in a nutshell for all you curious folk....Sorry it's not a more exciting story...Maybe one day I'll have some more interesting stories for ya...

I want a gun

2008-11-14T12:41:00.000-08:00

More specifically, a pistol...

My 21st birthday is rapidly approaching, and I want to get my CHL. The problem...I've never shot a handgun. Santa clause brought me a little .410 when I was younger. I've shot plenty of shot guns, but never a handgun. I don't even know where to begin. I've been told not to waste my time on a 9mm. I don't want something crazy powerful, I'm a tiny person and I think my hand size will complicate the choice. I do want something that's going to stop someone if I ever get in a situation where I have to use it. Ideally, I'd never have to, but if the need arises I want that option. So far people have suggested,

HK P2000 SK
.40 cal glock 27
.40 cal glock 22
Walther P99
Lady Smith M&P subcompact

I'm hoping to go out and shoot some tomorrow since I finally have a day with no work, clinical, or school to do. I think I'm leaning toward one of the glocks or the HK...but I really can't say without shooting first I don't suppose...

Senseless

2008-11-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

I've been an EMT for six months today. I've learned more in those six months than I have my entire life. I've pushed myself harder, walked into more awkward situations, and been privy to more private moments than I would like to admit. I've flashed more smiles, patted more backs, shook more hands, and dolled out more hugs to strangers than I thought I would.
I'm about 3 months into paramedic school, I'll be an intermediate next month. My rotations and ride-outs are in full swing right now. Last night I was at one of the trauma centers(we have three in town) here doing an ER rotation. We were busy. Three patients were flown in while we were there, and we had three "majors" brought in by EMS.
I was sitting in the parking lot before my shift started reading a book, Life, Death, and everything in between. Great book, but don't buy it when you've got things you need to do, I can't put it down. Anyways, I was in the parking lot, and I heard the helicopter take off, so I had an inkling we'd at least be getting one back during our shift. About fifteen minutes into shift they came in with an 18-month old little girl with second and third degree burns on about 25% of her body. I never got the whole story, but from what we were told one of her parents poured some form of hot liquid on her. She didn't stay in the ER long, her vitals were stable so they shipped her up to the Pedi floor pretty quick.
Not long after EMS brought in a 3wk old baby who wasn't belted into her car seat and fell out of a buggy(shopping cart for you northerners), the baby landed face down, head first with the car seat on top of her. She was fine, had an area of redness on her head, so she went to CT and I believe was released a few hours later.
Next we had another trauma flown in from about 10 minutes away, another post for another day on abuse of HEMS, he was a motorcycle vs car. His leg was sliced up pretty good, with a splinter of his femur showing in one of the lacs, he had bilateral fractures to his radius and ulna, as well as a hemapneumothorax, with altered mental status tossed in there to keep things interesting. His vitals remained stable, but he was in a lot of pain. What really caught me was that this was just a kid, he was only 18.
There were two cases brought in next, a transfer flown from south Texas, nail in the neck thanks to a nail gun, he was stable and I didn't get to spend much time with him. EMS also brought in a guy who played chicken with a car...on his bicycle...we had a more critical patient come in shortly afterward so I didn't get to spend any time with him either.
They brought in a 22 year old male who was taken to the fire-station by his mother when he passed out in the car on the way to the hospital. He had been having difficulty breathing for three weeks, asthmatic. He had agonal respirations when they brought him in. I heard the report when they said agonal respirations I immediately thought back, Agonal=imminent death...As EMS rolled him into the room, he was certainly having agonal respirations, he was working so hard to breathe, and when he got transferred on to the hospital bed he sat bolt up-right and started fighting. You could see the panic in his eyes, he clawed at his chest and tried in vain to gasp for air. He was immediately given a nebulizer with no improvement, still had wheezes in all four, so the decision was quickly made to RSI and intubate him. This was the first time I'd seen RSI used, and the first time I'd watched a real person be intubated. I've intubated countless dummie's, but it's a whole 'nother ball game on a real person. The doc looked like he was having trouble, but said he had the tube, we got positive color change and bilateral breath sounds but he was very hard to bag. We kept bagging until RT got down and got the vent set up, but he was still hard to ventilate and his CO2 was climbing, so they did a chest compression to force the patient to exhale, then he would be ventilated a bit then compressed. The doctor called it an "air trap" He described it as the patient was so constricted from asthma that he couldn't exhale. We got blood labs back and the patient's PH was six, as I left the ER for the night, they were still fighting a losing battle on trying to ventilate the patient.

So, it was a very interesting night in the ER to say the least. But, on nights like that, I can't help but go home and question the senselessness of it all...
Patient 1: Suffering child abuse at the young age of 18 months....how someone can pour boiling liquid on their own child, I'll never understand...
Patient 2: An honest mistake, but one that didn't have to happen...
Patient 3: He's 18 and his life will never be the same. Speed and wet roads are a bad mix, and unfortunately it seems to take things like this to teach people otherwise.
Patient 4: We found out that he had a history of heroin abuse, and had used recently. He had been given narcan, but between the respiratory depression and status asthmaticus...the doctors didn't have much hope of getting him back.

Is it wrong that I get angry when I see people battered and bruised, on the verge of death, when I know it's due to negligence or stupidity? I know it will never stop, but already, in a short six months, it's frustrating to watch the needless suffering that people put themselves through. I guess I probably shouldn't worry to much about it, and just hope that in a few months when the state hands me that little piece of paper that I'll be good enough in a few years to help in the aftermath...

Picture post....

2008-11-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

I'm a wannabe photographer...I'm not so good at it, but these are some that I snapped at an air-show a few weeks ago.

These aren't all by far...but I don't wanna overload the page with pictures...I've still got a lot to learn as you can see.

New to the blogsphere....

2008-11-09T10:33:00.001-08:00

I've been silently reading the blogs to my left <-- for several months, and decided I would finally jump in here. There's no better way to introduce yourself than a survey...so here ya go guys.

THE BASIC STUFF

Name as it appears on your birth certificate? Whitley M. C.

How old are you? 20 for a few more months

When is your birthday? 3-17-1988

What color hair do you have? a dark brown color with blonde highlights

Do you wish it was any other color? I like it right now.

What color eyes do you have? Hazel

Do you wish it was another color? Nope I love my eyes

Do you like the height you are? No, I'm short

ABOUT YOUR FAMILY

Who is in your immediate family? Father, mother, two brothers-I'm in the middle and only girl

Are your parents married or divorced? Married

Do you get along with your siblings? Sometimes

How many aunts/uncles/cousins do you have? 21

Are you more a mommys girl/boy or daddys? Neither really...But mommy's girl I guess

Why? Just because, not sure really.

Would you rather be an only child or not? I wouldn't mind it too much I don't think

OPPOSITES ATTRACT

Describe your perfect mate in a few words Handsome, loyal, sweet, honorable

What color hair do you prefer? Dark

What color eyes do you prefer? Dark

What about height? At least my height but not towering over me

Do you like them to play sports, if so what? No preference, but would like them to be in shape

What is the best part about the opposite sex? Eyes/hair

What is the worst part about them? Mentality of most

What are the ups in being in a relationship? I wouldn't know

What are the downs? I wouldn't know

What are the most important things in a relationship? trust

YOUR FUTURE

Do you want to get married, and how soon? Yes, and whenever it happens, I'm in no rush, but wouldn't mind it.

What occupation would you want? On my way to be a paramedic, possibly on to nurse afterwards

How many kids do you want? several

Boy or girl or both? both

What are you going to name them? I don't know yet

Where do you see yourself living in 20 years? Prolly texas

Have you thought about where you want to get married? Not really

What about the honeymoon? Not really given a lot of thought to it

YOUR EDUCATION

What school do you attend? San Antonio College

How many people go there? I dunno...a lot

Do you have alot of friends? No time for friends

What grade are you in? Sophomorish/juniorish

What elementary school did you attend? Troup

What middle school? Troup

High school? Troup/Judson

Do you plan on attending college? I am

If so, where and what for? San Antonio college apparently, and also apparently for EMS

Do you play sports for your school? nope

Are you apart of any clubs at school? nope

Would you like to play sports in college? nope

Do you think you will get a scholarship anywhere? I did

MISCELANEOUS

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite TV channel? TruTv

Do you have a favorite TV show? Not really, Dog the bounty hunter, SVU

What is your favorite movie? I have lots

Who are your favorite actors/actresses? Don't really have a favorite

THIS OR THAT

MySpace or Xanga? Myspace

Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla

Laguna Beach or The OC? Neither

Jesse McCartney or Aaron Carter? Neither

Backstreet boys or NSYNC? NSYNC

Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera? Christina

Fun mate or Romantic mate? Both

Rap or Rock? Rock

Pop or Country? Country

English or Math? English

Summer or Winter? Winter

Outside or Inside? Outside

RANDOM

Do you believe in love at first sight? Nah

If you could only wear one color for the rest of your life, which one? Back or navy

What makes MySpace better than Facebook? Lots of stuff

What is your ideal date? Something fun and non-formal

Do you believe anyone can fall in love at any age? Sure

If you could have a super power, what would it be and why? Stretch..so I could reach stuff

What would you change about yourself physically? Height, weight

So if you didn't catch that, I'm a 20 yr old EMT-B in the state of Texas and am currently taking the paramedic courses at my local community college. I will actually be testing for intermediate next month. I currently work for "the man" in dispatch. I worked at a small private service this summer but we had some disagreements and I left there with haste. I'm in the middle of doing all my ride out and clinical hours so if my posting is sparce that is why. Hopefully I'll come up with some stuff worthy of posting soon, any questions about who I am feel free to drop a comment or somethin.

For Albert

2008-11-06T12:11:00.000-08:00

Pepaw...as far back as I can remember. He was the gentle giant, standing at almost 6'5'' he towered above me my entire life. There were plenty of threats through childhood, but he never raised a hand to me. He taught me just about everything I know about dogs, and hunting. He encouraged me to chase my dreams, and led a Godly example before me. I remember days inside running around on all four's pretending I was a walker coon hound. I remember the excitement of turning the hounds loose after we'd released a coon, the cold mornings as we went out to check the traps. I remember the hours spent driving through the country looking for the dog that didn't come back after the hunt. There were endless days spent looking through the hunting magazines, cleaning guns. As I got older we fed the dogs every day(he had at minimum 8, at most over 20 depending on the time of year). As I grew up I began helping him build cages for the hounds, or I'd move them around when need be, I'd go and feed all of them so he could rest as his age began to show, for a few years I even helped him give shots, starting as the head-holder, and moving up to the shot-giver once his arthritis kicked in. After we moved out of Troup, I never saw him as much, not nearly enough, but I missed him for sure. Every time I would call and talk to him he would tell me not to get a boy friend here in San Antonio, that I needed to date a country boy and move back. I wish I would have visited more. I kick myself daily for that.
I remember clearly the night when it all started. I was sleeping soundly but suddenly I heard voices, and the garage door raise. I jumped out of bed and ran out of my room thinking my mom was going back to the hospital, but was told it was my grandfather who was in the hospital five hours away. I wish now I would have gone with them. Instead I stayed home to feed our own anmials and so that I could keep working, it was a sleepless night. Followed by a few more sleepless nights. Sunday morning I got up and my mom finally told me I needed to make my way there. His kidneys were failing, he'd had a heart attack and was going into heart failure. This was probably going to be it. I gathered my things and had a few errands to run before I left town. My mother told me not to drive fast, but I pushed 90mph the whole drive just praying that a cop wouldn't bother me and that the old man would make it long enough for me to say goodbye. There were times where I cried so hard I could barely see the road ahead of me but I kept driving. I finally got there and as soon as I got out of my car, I knew he was gone. My heart broke into a million pieces right there, but I didn't cry in front of my family. I kept my big girl face on and went about the day. Helping write his obituary was one of the hardest things I'd done in my life. We went and picked out the flowers, then the casket. The night of the visitation was hard on everyone. This was the first time I'd seen my father truly cry. But I still kept my big girl face on. Thinking back, maybe I should have "broke" sooner. I didn't really cry until the funeral, we played "When I get where I'm going" and that was it, I couldn't hold it in any longer. It was hard saying goodbye to someone who had been your everything for so long. He was my hero, my confidant, my inspiration. There were times I got in a fight with my mother as a child because I didn't want to leave his house. And he's gone. I'm still here, and I only hope that one day, I'll matter that much to a kid.....