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.

Making the low go....................

Day 2 – Making the low go. Tell us about your favorite way to treat a low. Juice? Glucose tabs? Secret candy stash? What’s your favorite thing to indulge in when you are low? What do you find brings your blood sugar up fast without spiking it too high?

with lows I tend to vary on the treatment at any given time so first off my fav's

fruitables juice it has 13 carbs and a serving of fruit and veggies!

next up if I don't have time to sit and drink or snack I will use glucose tabs my fav's on those are sour apple and fruit punch they taste the best.

If I am going to indulge then bring on the snickers!!

What brings up my sugar fast with out a spike? peanut butter crackers.

A little side note on yesterday's shift.

so it was 8 am and we were on shift change and all was quiet till the rookie mentioned the word quiet! and of course all heck breaks loose. the first couple of calls were crap EMS should have never been called out. but those didn't bother me. The one that got to me and really broke my heart was for this family we were called out to A 10 y/o male with leukemia and the cc was severe pain with N/V and fever. We get to the home and the whole scene was just sad. The child is on the couch with a bucket beside him. He is very pale and very dehydrated, he was very lathargic. Worse is his vitals sucked too. I started a line and gave him some pain med's to make him comfortable for the drive to the children's hospital. we package him up and get him to the hospital and as soon as we hit the ER doors the child starts to code. In trauma he is intubated and draw labs to find the cause. about 20 mins later he crashes again and all I could think of is beautiful blue eyes with a frail body and the grimaces on his face. he was just a child I said to God in my head why him? he never came back from the second crash. We brought mom and dad in to the room to be with him. I asked the staff to leave so the family could be alone. I passed by about 10 min later and the mother was right there telling the lil one how sorry she was and to be safe. her head on his arm and father trying not to cry. Mom must have seen me and most of the staff because their was not a dry eye in the staff, she came and thanked us all for our hard efforts and gave us hugs she said it was his time to go and she was relieved he was no longer in pain. I don't think I will ever forget those blue eyes.

As always thanks for reading on my crazy life, and God Bless

take 40 dollars worth next time!!

We get called to a patients home last night for a drug overdose. It was 3 am and I am sorry but at 3 am even EMS needs sleep. We arrive on scene to find a 24 yr old male passed out on his couch his roommate had called cause he would not wake up and it had been several hrs. The roommate was not 100% sure if he had done drugs that day or not but did admit to us that they do use heroin, His pulse ox was 93% b.p down the drain at 70 over 30 and pulse was brady at best. I started a line after like the nine mins of finding a usable vein and admin. some Narcan ( I have mixed feelings on this drug it does its job well gets my patients out of the drain but a lot of them come off that high very mean and cursing, hitting and what not ) I admin the drug and the patient wakes up and mad as hell I had a firefighter in the back of the ambulance with me since I can never judge how a patient is going to react to losing that high. The conversation went like this:

Me: welcome back Sir

Addict: what the hell?? you just took away a 80 dollar high!

Me: well if you would have done 40 I wouldn't have been called.

Addict: But now I feel like crap!

Me: well once again refer to my last answer.

This whole call got me thinking (which I prefer not to have to do at 3am ) but seriously we have clinics out there that give out clean needles to people to help keep the spread of disease down so why can't we just hand them all vials of Narcan as well and if we market it properly it might work. I mean think about it every drug addict knows how to shoot up and they know where to find good veins and the ones I pick up always get high with others around so say you and your drug buddy are getting high and he passes out then you can be the "responsible" drug addict ( what ever the hell that means ) and save your friend and allow me some nice longer bouts of sleep.

College finals coming up and ugh that just adds to my lack of sleep. Books go everywhere I do and in between work calls and training events I try to pack more knowledge of stuff I am sure I will never use into my fried brain.

As for soccer yep the season is over and those little girls played their heart out and won the finals!! so all in all not a bad week.

On other notes I have a dang kidney stone right now with a kidney infection so tomorrow I will be heading to the OR for stone removal and stents. I will try to post again this weekend I know I will feel ten times better once all the pain is gone.