Okay it has been a long time

So you will have to pardon me as I have had a hell of a class schedule and lets not forget about my oh so lovely line of work! So classes are good just trying to stay a float with those work and my 2 1/2 yr old who seems to have the amount of energy ems personnel only dream of. Everyone in the house is sick right now even the lil one but wait I have somehow been skipped over (finally my flu shot paid off). As summer works it way here it seems the amount of ridiculous calls have increased 4 fold. I mean this week alone I have worked three bike wrecks with NO helmet (I mean come on people they sell them for a reason), 6 drunk kids/teenagers, 3 cardiac, 2 overdoses, and 2 diabetic calls. I swear when I decided to be a medic I had this preconceived view of working real emergencies and helping people who really needed it. Man was I so off. Don't get me wrong I still work the occasional real emergency but it seems that most of those have been replaced by lack of control on a patients part. I mean honestly it is common sense most of the time, don't drink past your limit or take your meds as prescribed. But it seems the general public fails to practice common sense. I don't mind working the calls I mean it is the job I have chosen but I feel that sometimes I am taken away from working real emergencies for working things I thought should have been avoided by even a 5 yr old. I know one thing for sure, as long as people con't to do what they do we ems'ers will always have a job, and that is one thing I can not complain about.

Here we go again.......

Yes, it is that time again when all of us little college students scurry off to find ourselves. I am taking the new yr and this new school yr to really kick my butt into taking better care of my diabetes in general. I have a great A1C but sorry my friends A1C's can be deceiving in fact my 6.0 is beyond deceiving. See I have highs but I also get low lows that cancel out those highs and thus equal out to a great A1C. Now I am planing on really testing when I am suppose to and wear my CGM all the time but not use it as a crutch to avoid testing. I am one blessed college kid I have the best diabetes gear and top notch doctors but I have taken it all for granted. I have the supplies needed including Pinky (my Pump/CGM combo), my meter, and endless other things to keep me alive and going strong, I just don't use them all like I should. I have not tested like I should instead I would rely on my CGM for my results which BTW never do! I have went without my CGM leaving me open for lows I didn't even know I had. I also skipped 2 endo appts because I had school and didn't feel like I had any room in my schedule for them (I found out later that those 2 appts might have saved me a week of hospitalization). I have decided to test the 8 times a day in fact I set up the alarms on my pump to remind me, I also decided to ensure I have my CGM on me all the time. I am going to always ensure I have a snack on me and water and am going to ensure I double check my supplies before I leave to make sure I have everything I need for diabetes. My schedule is ruff with 5 classes and lord only knows how much homework this time but I am better prepared for it this time. I went to the doctors to get my check up and ensure I can tackle whatever comes up this yr with school, work, and Diabetes.

Holidays and EMS

She is 6 yrs old and it is days before Christmas she is calling 911 for daddy. He is on the floor and won't wake up. They were working on the decorations for the Christmas party tomorrow and he just fell out. Dispatch is telling me the details of the little girls call. It has already created that sinking feeling in my stomach, she is alone with him mom died earlier in the yr and so it was just the 2 of them. We pull up to a beautifully decorated home nicely trimmed. We knock and the lil blond hair and brown eyed 6 yr old lets us in. We run to the kitchen and there is the man she could not recall his age she said " he is my dad so he is old" her tears are tearing my heart in two but I must focus her father is in need. we asked fire to stay with us to keep the lil girl away while we work to save him. Fire also looks around and finds his wallet and med's so i had something to work with. He works for a neighboring fire dept that makes him our brother. We work hard to convert his A fib it is not working drug after drug and shock after shock nothing is working. but wait there is a change he is now PEA uggh really we pack him and go the lil girl rides in the front in tears and ask my partner rich "you guys are going to make him better right?" We arrive at the hospital in record time and I hand him over to the code team. In my mind I know he does not have a chance but I hope against all odds that he pulls through. The nurse takes the lil girl and we must head out to yet another call but when we dropped off the next pt we ask and the nurse didn't have to say one thing the whole story was in her eyes. As for the little girl they were in the process of finding family since not one of them had the heart to put her in custody of the state days before Christmas. Thank goodness we found the number to her aunt in her dads cell phone. I couldn't help but shes a tear for that sweet girl.

Exam stress

I am not one to freak out, I mean heck I am a medic for goodness sakes and every here and then I have to save someone based off of my skills and I am cool with that. These exams are going to be the death of me I mean I don't understand why I feel so much anxiety about the exams! They are not hard I think more then anything I am overwelmed and that is making me think I am just going to bomb them! I never felt like this before I mean don't get me wrong I had my fair share of hard college exams before but this is just eating me alive! I can't sleep and my mind can't focus! My blood sugars are really paying the price and I am sure they are not helping me along either. I am questioning everything I study it is just my mind goes blank ( well not blank more like off to a distant land like J.D in scrubs with his day dreams ). I just want my A's I have worked too hard to get anything less. I swear tomorrow I might be in a padded room with high doses of anxiety meds you know a lil of haldol and xanax and prob. some antipsych meds too!! please for the love of God I want my A!! okay I feel slightly better back to the books.

Finals and diabetes

So as every good diabetic does I made sure I was eating well and getting sleep and not over doing it throughout the whole semester until finals week. Now let me start by saying I am a freaking studying machine the two weeks of finals and this time it got the best of me. It started with a meal skip here or there and then no sleep nights and then the less testing equals more study time which by the way is a big NO NO!! don't ever rely on the CGM for results people. always test!! Okay now I got to my fist class that morning did fine and was going to put in my CGM right after class since I was running late last Thursday. I forget to put it in because I was getting in one more hr of study time with my group and then went to class. well I am not one to feel a low BG. I got to class and finally tested for the first time after not eating breakfast and my professor is a nurse and stands there always checking out the number before I take any exam and it popped up a 31 mg/dl. I was seriously like no way and trying to deny it while my professor is like sit don't move. He comes back with juice and crackers and tells me to eat it and then proceeds to lecture me on type 1 diabetes control and uses this time as a great way to instill certain diabetes points into my classmates. ugggh really?? I mean I am fine can we just take the test already?? uhh check again 37 mg/dl so he decides it is time for an ambulance I look at him like seriously?? I am still awake and can treat myself!! Not good enough for him so her comes medics into my class stretcher and all and they decide to agree with him and talk me into going saying that I could come back for the exam if the doc okays it. So off we go to the ER where the real problem happened. I get there and I know that this is the ER where my other professor works so I might get out real quick like. No she was not there and the doc comes in says to start a line and push D50 1 amp. ohh and eat this while they work on that. okay no problem. Well 14 IV sticks later including 2 EJ's it was not happening now I am all for showing some love to the ER staff they make my life easy most of the time but I sat in the room for 14 hrs with no IV access and a BG of no higher then 40 mg/dl at any given time! This is an epic fail on the ER docs part because her has the training to start a central line and it was warranted in this situation after finding I had a hella kidney infection which for some freakish reason always causes lows in me ( so ha so not my fault on lack of sleep or skipping meals well okay maybe a little) Anyways It is like 11 at night now mind you I got to the ER at 10:30 am and all this time with no access and no rising in BG. They sent me to the floor with no IV access and what they call a critically low BG. The floor flips a lid but has to take me and calls in the surgeon and he puts in a central line and apologies for the lack of care in the ER saying he was going to ensure this never happens again. Now even worse was the pic line person that was on call was 5 hrs away yes 5 but the on call surgeon who was great was there in 5 Min's. I get amp's of D50 and and put on a D 10 drip till morning. here pops in a nurse every hr to check the sugar and ensure my safe sleeping. My doc shows up in the morning and he apologizes for everything that was an epic fail and decided based on previous admissions and history that I needed a port for the future and he scheduled it with the surgeon who put in my central line and so now I am good with access for the future. Now my numbers are getting better and off of the D 10 I go and I shoot high in the 300's for the first time in a while so I feel like crapola and the doc didn't ask me what my correction factor was he just decided that 1 dose fits all or something cause he did the BG-100/20 which equaled out to be 7 units. Way to much for me people!! if it would have been calculated by my correction factor bg-100/50 I would have been fine but No lets not listen to the diabetic who deals with her doses daily!! I fall asleep and the nurse comes in to check the sugar and finds I am at 41 and wakes me up and I am  so tired and sweaty and it was my professor she was working the floor that night and had me some juice and why I am addicted to gram crackers in the hospital with the lil peanut butter cups I have no clue but she had those too ( I have been known to grab a couple on busy days when I am dropping off a pt ) She told me about the port placement and how that was going to go and asked me if it was okay to talk to my other professors about still being here and needing an extension on my exams and said heck yeah. so I am assuming it was a slow night cause she sat in there with me for a bit till I was nice and leveled again and then she did all my checks for the rest of the night instead of the tech. I learned a lot from her though out this stay with her care towards patients and families and even other nurses she showed me compassion and Patience's she also showed me how a true nurse is the patients advocate. She stayed after he shift was over and was there when I got out of the surgery for the port ( not as bad as I thought BTW ) and she even helped me knock out some studying for exams I got out of the hospital 6 days after my admission and was spoken too by the hospital administration who I guess was worried I was going to make a big fuss over this who ER fail thing but I told them while I am really upset that it happened I just wanted to ensure that it never happened again. A lot of nurses ( my professor said they should have been questioning the doc as to why he was not treating my lows more aggressively and made sure that I was okay because A BG of 40 and below for 14 hrs is unacceptable )
I am not a sue happy person and that is usually what happens that causes the health care to go through the roof. I just don't want anyone else to ever have to deal with that. They assured me that they are reprimanding the doc and nurses and also implementing new polices so this never happens again. Would I go to this hospital again? yes I would I know that this was the failure of a few not the whole hospital and that they are in the process of fixing everything as well. hey good news for me is new port = no iv sticks or digging although that port access needle is huge!! lol

diabetes picture day

I never take the time to share many pictures with you guys but today I thought I would give you a glimpse into my households life with diabetes.

This is what the diabetes supply drawers look like when you have not 1 but three type 1 diabetics in your home. That is 4 boxes of reseviors for each totaling 12 boxes, then you have 300 test strips per person that is 900 test strips per person per 3 months so grand total of 2700 test strips, then we have 4 boxes of infusion sites per person which is total of 12 boxes plus you have to add in the random extra test strip brands that we have for "just in case" times. There are 3 boxes of sensors per person =9 boxes plus iv preps and ketone strips and glucose tabs and 27 bottles of insulin plus the back up boxes of lantus pens and humalog pens for pump failures or pump vacation times! All of these supplies keeps 3 of us alive for 3 months amazing huh?

this will make any diabetics day look at the matching numbers on my CGM to my meter and not to mention that beautiful straight line! that took some careful work on my part but so worth it!!

And last but not least this was in celebration of world diabetes day 2010.

Happy world diabetes day!! 2010

Today is World diabetes day and although many of my fellow bloggers posted on the 6 things you want people know about diabetes already I thought today would be perfect for this post since this is what this day is about. Increased education on diabetes and spreading the word. so for your reading pleasure her are the 6 things I want to share about diabetes:
1. I have type one, no I did not eat too much sugar and junk nor did I not exercise enough. My body killed of my Beta cells in my pancreas and left me insulin - less. Thus there is no amount of exercise or good eating that will stop me from having to take insulin. It is not my fault people! lol I feel better now.
2. This disease is 24/7/365 days a yr! It does not sleep nor does it take a vacation. I am not sick but I fight each day to keep from getting sick. there is so much that goes on behind the scene to keep us healthy. this includes and please remember every diabetic varies more or less on each event but for example purposes my care goes something like this. prick and test my blood 8 times a day and more if I am off on my numbers rather that be a low or high. pump site change as well as a CGM site change 1 time every three days. count carbs at least 3 times a day if not more. pack the diabetes bag each day to ensure I am prepared. when I hear a beep I always wonder if it is my pump or CGM alerting me to changes in my blood sugar or problems with insulin flow. At some point in the day a number I was not expecting will pop up only proving to me that no matter how prepared and knowledgeable I am on my disease I can not control it perfectly.
3.We need a cure people!! We would love to enjoy a life without the worry of complications or parents wondering if they did everything right today. what is next?!? I don't enjoy sticking myself even when I act like all is right in the world please know that behind that smile there is worry.
4. Stop just taking the medias word on diabetes!! We are not all the same!! there are different types people!!
5.despite my amount of knowledge on diabetes after living with it for over 16 yrs plus a medical background I am still scared of diabetes!! I am scared of complications, and going to bed and not waking up, doing it all right.
6. Some diabetes etique for those who might encounter a diabetic along the way. Do not ask us if we can eat that, do not treat us any different then anyone else we are people too, don't freak out when we test or take a shot or bolus I mean we have to do it. It keeps me alive!, if you have questions then ask we are usually more then willing to educate others on diabetes.

I really hope that if you don't have diabetes that you will never have to truly understand this disease and everyday life with it. so to all my friends happy world diabetes day and enjoy!! My family and I will be enjoying some blue cupcakes diabetes friendly of course as well as a great day at the park!! ohh and for the big blue test my test was 131 mg/dl before then after 14 mins of exercise 129 mg/dl. so there you have it!!

watch this video and a child will get a week of life-saving insulin

watch this video and a child will get a week of life-saving insulin

Hey everyone please just take A quick 2 mins and watch this video. Every view of this video will provide 1 child with diabetes insulin for A week!! It cost you nothing more then 2 mins of your time. I promise no gimicks!

Diabetes Awareness month!!

 Yes the blog has gone blue for the month it is all about diabetes education!! I want to spread the word. So Nov. is full of festivities here in my home as we gear up for the World diabetes day on Nov. 14th. As most of you know my twin and I are type 1 diabetics and so is my 2 yr old niece so it is very important to us to ensure we get the word out because frankly insulin is not a cure it is A treatment. Yes we are blessed because we have insulin pumps and CGMS and every other useful diabetic tool out there but I am looking forward to the day I can tell my niece she does not have to be stuck anymore or when I don't have to count another carb! So for all my blogging friends please go blue this month for diabetes!! get the word out and help us educate others diabetes!! Also on Nov. 14th go blue with your whole day I personally with be sporting the blue shirt as well as the symbol representing the day!

college

Okay so I was struggling with the blood sugars for the past few weeks getting into my college schedule and had A horrible scare last week with A low of 29 mg/dl while walking to my next class. I stopped and sat down in the walk way and tested and called my guy because he is good dealing with my lows and helping me get back to normal. anyways I got that feeling you know the one where you get all sweaty and hot and your vision starts to go all tunnel on you and then goes black then there is that intense hunger where you just do not care what food or drink you inhale you just want it then and there. It was freaking me out cause I am still new to this school and only know my friends and so it was like okay like at the freak sitting in the walkway. Well needless to say I have A great school my professor happened to walk by and helped me out and then john shows up right after him and I get some food in me and I was back to normal well minus the low hangover headache. Needless to say john and I have be partners for 7 yrs on the ambulance and we decided to start dating at the beginning of this semester and he is great with the diabetes he sure as heck does not let it become any of my excuses and really helps me to figure things out but he does not over step the line you know? We found that I have to eat in the early morning if I have class cause my basal is higher due to the dawn phenomon and without eating I go low from working out eariler in the morning (5am) and running around all day. If I eat like I am posed to then I don't have a morning low which after treating was causing a afternoon high later on. I can't believe how much work it takes for me to readjust my pump for semester changes! great news is we figured it out and now I am back on the tight rope and had class on thurs without falling off the tightrope for once lol. Thanks for all you guy's help when I posted without it I really think I would still be trying to figure this mystery out!

My butt is sore!

Okay what I meant to say was college classes and work are kicking my ass!! I made a 98 on one exam, yay me! lol then 1 I didn't take due to a blood sugar of 42 mg/dl, which sucked because I was so ready for that exam just a little on the low side! on the last exam that was A 103. I know what you are thinking, 103? what? okay well professor is all about Xtra credit so sweet for me.
Work is no easy task lately. I have no clue why but it is so busy!! I believe I hold the world EMS record of "amount of drug related calls in a row" Never in my whole EMS career have I worked 8 back to back overdose/didn't know/ thats what the bottle said/street drugs/grams narc's calls. Not cool!! Now I know my job is EMS and yes I love it and I am not all about complaining but I got no break so I couldn't do my homework and study or sleep or even sit down to eat a meal. not only were there drug calls but also all of our fav's chest pain!! and a trauma 3 car MVA.
Oh well I will survive!

running slightly high

What the crap is that! I don't like to have my sugars stay consistently in the 150 - 200 mg/dl range. I am on the tight rope again and I have leaned a little to far to the right, no this is not a horrific range or anything it is just not where I feel comfortable. I am more of an 100 to 145 mg/dl kinda girl.I have a great A1C of 5.7 and want to keep it that way. I think my body now has to get used to the 5 college classes added to my 24 on 48 off shifts. I am just debating if I am going to change the basal now thinking this high is caused because my basal needs to be upped a little or do I wait and see if the body goes back to normal this next week as I settle into this new schedule adding the classes and work load of each to my week? I am going to prob. wait it out and just dose for the running high with a temp basal till the BG starts tapering down to normal. I just fear an impending low that my mind can not take on right now I mean I so need all the brain cells I can keep and I don't feel like letting diabetes kill off a few due to a low bg. I do have great tools to help keep the lows away with my CGMS which has really helped but it is only a tool and requires me to act on its warnings which I sometimes put off due to working on something else, so for now looks like I am going to have to put the D first. In other news I did tell my professors about the D. I felt it was best. I never plan to have an issue pop up but if I do I know they know ( and since they are all in the medical field 2 nurses and one NP and a PA ) I am Diabetic and where my info is if I can not speak for myself. They were all fine with it just told me to eat when needed and to tell then about a problem if I have one instead of hiding it. this school had a D kid last semester who didn't want to stop taking notes or whatever and let his low go untreated till he was passed out and had to take a lovely trip to the ER. He told the teacher he was sorry he just didn't want to interrupt class and he was embarrassed. I think if I was going low and needed to treat I would just pull out the glucose tabs or my trusty peanut butter crackers out and do my thing. Better safe and smart then sorry and embarrassed.

Going pink for October Pick up the challenge!

Some fellow EMS bloggers have started EMS for a cure to help educate others on breast cancer. So for the month of Oct. I have set my blog pink to stand up and show my support for a cure! So I say to all my other bloggers to please pick up the challenge from Oct. 1st to the 15th turn your blog pink and bring awareness to breast cancer. Thanks to The happy medic for putting the word out!

On another note I will get back to blogging tomorrow as I have way too much class work to get done today and work tomorrow.

Narcan

Day like today are ones where I think I should invest in the company that produces Narcan. I worked 6 calls requiring this drug. The top reason was for perc overdoses! I mean seriously! how many people can require this med in the amounts these Pt's had? Now don't get me wrong I understand pain issues for me I have had my fair share of kidney stones and thus needed pain med but geeze these people have it for some of the stupidest crap or got it from someone else. People if you have pain meds and you live with a junky then lock them up don't leave them in your bathroom!
1. Headache
2. Stomach ache - This guy didn't have a disease he just said he went to the ER for stomach pain and was dx'ed with gastritis and given these pain pills! WHAT!?!
3. wanted to get high - took grandmas pills for her back
4. needed to sleep - had a bottle of 60 filled 2 days ago and only 21 left in bottle when we got there.
5. cancer - I completely understand on this one he was one tiny guy and had perc 10's and took 3 he just could not get the pain to go away and could not get a hold of his doc.
6. attempted suicide - had pills from car accident. Life sucked because he cheated on his wife and was getting a divorce.

Busy

Sorry for putting the blog on the back burner but I have classes starting this week for my grad degree and trying to work those classes with my work schedule is well interesting to say the least! I have some new professors and I am debating on telling them I have type 1 diabetes or not. I would not want them to be scared crapless if I had a low BG or some complication of the D but at the same time what are the chances of that happening? I take that last statement back that was cocky and really asking for future issues. I don't know I will keep thinking about it. what do you all think?

Rookies

We all know rookies in EMS when we see them. Their uniform is all nice and neat and they have every piece of equipment known to ems on their belt and in their pockets. These are the ones that tend to act one of two ways either 1. they are quiet and do not do anything unless they are told otherwise known as scared sh!tless and 2. being the trauma chaser ( these tend to say the words quiet or slow on an other wise good day and then hell brakes lose and a lot of times they get in the way and tend to have to be knocked down to size and put in their place.) either way when you become their FTO a.k.a babysitter you know you are screwed until they learn the ropes. Now let me say this before I get slammed yes I was a rookie at the time and yes it was scary at first till I learned the ropes and yes I am sure I was a pain in the arse to my FTO. Now that being said, I have had a rookie on the truck for the last week and dear lord someone shoot me! I am already A trauma magnet and psych call magnet but the rookie had to go and say "man I wish we would get some action already " on a day where I was doing good as I had only had 2 calls in 6 hrs. So I figured it was time to guilt trip him.

Me: "Seriously? you want people to get hurt or sick so you can get some action?"
Rookie: "What? huh? I mean I just want work I don't want them to get hurt or sick."
Me: "Dude no medic wants to work a call, we actually want it to be quiet because that means people are safe and healthy. We are here when they need us but we hope they don't."
Rookie:" Why did you become a medic?"
Me: To help others in A time of need and the fact that I love emergency medicine. I am apart of a different breed. We tend to take the abuse and not fight back, we help all rather they have insurance or not, and we sure as heck don't get the sleep we need or a warm meal 1/2 the time but we still do it. I am sure for me that I get more out of helping these people they they get from my help. all it takes is one kids smile or a thank you and knowing you saved someone to make it all worth it."
Rookie: "My dad and brothers work as medics so I did the same thing."
Dispatch: "medic 464 please respond to XXX Pace road for a 3 car mva, police and rescue have been notified"
Rookie: "finally"
Me: " Crap!! Dude one day you will see what I mean when you will hope you don't get a call"
Me: "dispatch medic 464 on scene"

The three care wreck was bad one was a older wind star minivan with two young children and the mom driving. She was the reason the wreck happened. She was 29 and the cops at first thought she was DUI but after assessing her we found she was diabetic and was suffering from a hypoglycemia and passed out while driving. The two kids, 6 and 8 yrs old were injured one with a broken arm and cut on his forehead and was screaming at the top of his little lungs which was a relief in a sense that he was doing okay, The other much worse. The child was quiet he didn't respond to any of my questions,His vitals were up sh!t creek and we needed to get him out immed. When he was packed and ready we discovered a seat belt bruise across his chest and abdomen giving us the signal that he was high risk for internal bleeding especially with his vitals.
Mom was treated for the hypo and she received stitches from where the windshield shattered and needed urgent transport as well since her vitals were not as good as I hoped. when we got he BG it was 31 mg/dl When she awoke in the back of my ambulance she of course wanted her children and I informed her of their whereabouts and condition. I had to ask her why she was low and why she didn't stop? she said she tested before she left the house and her bg was 101 mg/dl and she didn't feel the low. I told her I was diabetic type 1 and I do not feel mine drop either so that is why I have a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) to let me know when I am out of range. She thanked my rookie and I for all the help and for taking care of her sons. The boys were life flighted to the children's hospital.  Rookie and I went to check on the boys and they were doing well the younger one was okay minus the broken arm and cut and would be released when his father arrived while the other son was in surgery to repair he fractured pelvis, lacerated kidney and his spleen. He will recover and was doing way better. the boys smiled at us and said thanks for helping my mommy she was low. We thanked him for his help because when we got there he told me his mommy was diabolical and low ( he meant to say she was diabetic and low. Bless his little heart.
Back in the truck my rookie looked at me and said " I understand now " I nodded and we went to get some lunch.

Changing and learning...

Well as you can tell I have updated the blog to be more festive. You know give it some spunk. I felt it was due for a change. With all that is going on in my life right now like College which is kicking my butt and work that well I love but feel so unappreciated which brings me to a call that changed that feeling today. It was 3am or so and we received a EMS call to a older couples home where we have been many a times. The call came in as Chest pain and SOB so off we go and I see the address and quickly remember the couple. The woman always has a fresh batch of cookies that she always offers us and her EMS calls on her husband are usually not life threatening. a couple of times it is the I can't get him up call in teams that he fell or a diabetes related call, but today was different. She was so scared and crying when we got there as he was talking to her and then became unresponsive. so vitals were going down the drain fast he was a scoop and guy pt. he stopped breathing and went in to cardiac arrest. IV was placed and he was intubated immed. CPR was going life pack on and flat line crap crap crap! so shock and shock we get him back thanks to my cardiac drugs and he got him to the ER and he ended up having an infection in the blood cause him to have these issues. In a normal healthy young adult they would have the immune system to help fight but not Mr. B he Was still on chemo and thus leaving him open to any infection and harder to fight off. I did hear from Mrs B he was doing better and that she was just not ready for him to go. She told me their 50 yr anniversary was next week and he promised to be alive for it. This brought a tear to my eye I mean almost 50 yrs what an accomplishment. I am truly blessed as she brought us dinner at the station with all the fixings including my fave homemade apple pie. It is people like Mr. and Mrs B that remind me the love of why I do it.
As for my diabetes I met with my endo this week and we made some adjustment to my workday basal rates and sensitivity factor to improve my numbers my blood work was great with an A1C of 5.7 Heck yeah was i excited. I am looking at changing my mini med 722 to maybe the ping and then get dexcom for my CGM but not sure yet I am very happy with my current pump but just want to try the ping after hearing all the good press on it in the d.o.c so we will see.

The calls I am subjected too.

call # 1 of the day came over the radio for A 24 yr old female complaining of broken foot. okay no problem I am game lets check it out. well we get there and for starters the lady answers the door while walking on both feet might I add no limping involved and  in fact the lady told me that she got a call from her doctor this morning that her Xray came back with a break in the right foot and she was told it needed to have a cast asap and so she called us to take her to the hospital to cast it.Her doctor told her to stay off of it till it is casted. Really?? first you broke it two days ago, second you have been walking on it for those past two days, third the hospital won't cast it they splint it give you a referral to ortho and maybe a script for pain meds if needed ( which she clearly did not ) and fourth this is not an emergency! I of course kept my composure and explained to her that she was not going to get a cast at the ER but instead she needed to call a ortho doctor to have it casted and cared for but she did not budge she wanted to go to the hospital and even insisted we get the stretcher out and take her to the ambulance as she did not want to break it worse. but before she got on the stretcher she decided to walk to her room to get some things like and brush her hair. We took her and I later found out from ER nurse that she had a hairline fracture and was splinted and sent home with the referral and a script for Tramadol (she was not happy about the script since it was not a narcotic. Oh and she wanted a cab voucher as well to get home. imagine that lets see how many resources we can wast in one morning.

How to ruin a emergency officers day

Now if you follow these instructions you will successfully ruin your responding emergency officer day.
1. Drink whatever beer you drink and get drunk oh and don't forget to add in your fav. illegal drug but don't do so much you pass out you want to be awake to follow the instructions.
2. Go to girlfriends/boyfriends house and have your drunken argument and threaten to kill yourself and then leave.
3. Go to so and so bridge and sit on top of bridge with beer in hand and cell phone and call that girl or boyfriend and tell them where you are and that you are going to jump.

~~~ This will result in the girlfriend calling 911 and us getting called to the scene to have a standoff with this guy for 4 hrs why you ask? I have no clue as it is not a busy bridge, it is not a well known area heck I think the whole time we were there the cops had to block maybe 5 cars? needless to say they talked him down and we took him in on a psych hold.~~~

Counting my blessings...

I am blessed in this life to have a good job doing what I love and helping others in the process. I have a nice home to go to and a family to share it with but some calls in EMS will remind us that not all are so fortunate. We received a call around lunch time to a apt. in the projects as many of the officers and my fellow co workers call it, to a woman in her 20's unresponsive. Now with this area these unresponsive calls are usually to a drunk or drug overdose but not today. We arrive to a home with three children none over the age of 10 who were in need of a bath and some clean clothes and the oldest who was 10 took us to their mom who was in the bed not responding to any of my calls to her. The child tells me mom is sick and goes to the doctor for medicine and it made her lose her hair so I guessed mom had cancer as the little one did not know the disease but looking at this frail woman with no hair, very skinny, pale and mouth sores just told me the story on it's own. My partner and some of the firemen kept with the children while I helped mom. It seemed by her vitals and presentation that she was dehydrated and sick from more then just the chemo. after many attempts I got an 22g in the inside of her wrist and started fluids. A 22 is not ideal for fluid pushing but it was all I could get so I figured use it till the hospital could do better. The kid comes up to me and asked about her mom she had tears in her eyes, she told me she had been helping with the little ones so mom could feel better but she wanted to know what to make for dinner since mommy could not cook tonight. I wanted to cry I explained we were taking mommy to the hospital to get help and that she needed to get shoes for all the kiddos and pack a bag with some fav. toys. and she did and they all rode to the ER with us. The ER had the social worker waiting when we got there to help with the children and the nurses were great they got all the children cleaned up and in a room where they could watch t.v and play and then one nurse went to mcdonalds and got them all dinner. They were so happy for that. Mom finally came around and I was right about the cancer she had breast cancer and was a single mom with 3 wonderful amazing kids. She had been sick for a week with nausea and vomiting and weakness and other stomach issues. She thanked us for our care for her and her children and the her sister was called to take the kids till mom was released. I didn't have the heart to ask where the dad was but the sis told me he left when she was dx'ed with the cancer and has not been seen yet. How do you leave your wife and children in a place like this when they need you the most? The social worker  was getting her the resources she needed to better care for her and the children.