Wish Me Luck . . .

[NickDG 23]

I probably won't be around here much for awhile as I'm starting Paramedic Prep classes in October, and hopefully shortly after that I'll be accepted to Paramedic School. I've been out of school close to 35 years and I have to take the Hobet entrance exam and the math is going to kick my ass.

I officially left my job as an EMT here in a medium sized So Cal coastal city and I've been thinking over my time there and about things I've learned, things I'll miss, and things I won't miss.

When I started as an EMT I was lucky to get on with a private ambulance company that ran 911 calls in support of the local fire department. We did some interfacilty transfers but it was mostly fire calls. I started by working 12 hour day shifts and then went to nights.

My very first partner was a jovial Mexican fellow assigned to break me in. On my first morning out we stage the ambulance in our assigned sector of the city. And his first lesson to me is, "Hey man, ya know what EMS really means, right?"

"No what?" I say.

"Earning Money Sleeping!"

And he goes into the back of the ambulance and curls up on the bench, "listen for our call number on the radio," he says and promptly starts snoring.

We have three radios in the rig. One is tuned to our dispatch. Another is on fire's frequency, and the last is a hand held we take with us on scene. But it all sounds like noise to me. I pick out words here and there but I'm absolutely terrified they are going to call us and I'll miss it.

The city has five different fire stations and they are numbered. I study the plastic covered street map we have trying to figure out where we are in relation to what fire station. If I can pick out the fire station we are covering, and then hear them being called out, I'll know to expect a call from our own dispatch on the other radio. Problem is I'd never been in this city in my life, the map is printed for 20, not 54 year old eyes, and I haven't even figured out what microphone is connected to what radio.

I don't want to make it sound like I didn't get any training or orientation from the company when I started. But I'll just leave it like this. If their instructors taught skydiving we'd all have been shut down by the FAA long before now.

I'm anxious for my first real call, of course, I feel more than ready to make the jump from school to the real world. But at the same time I'm like the kid in right field who's just praying the ball isn't hit towards him.

This goes on for about a half hour and I gotta pee. They never covered that in my training. I hear fire stations being called out and I hear the corresponding ambulance being called out too. I pay particular attention to how they answer as that part is my job. I knew I wouldn't have mike fright. I've talked down thousands of skydiving students, took flying lessons and talked to ATC, and B.A.S.E jumped a lot talking to my ground crew all via radio. The last one being mostly about how's the wind and is the coast clear.

Suddenly I hear, "Engine 24, Rescue 24, difficult breather, 123 E. 3rd street." And just as suddenly the snoring in the back stops and my partner says, "That's going to be us."

Things are happening fast now. I'm frantically scribbling down the address on my pad when our dispatch radio calls us. "54, non-emergency."

I pick up the mike hoping to god it's the right one and say, "54." in my best fighter pilot voice.

"54, non-emergency," they come back, "respond with Engine 24, Rescue 24, 123 E. 3rd street, 123 E. 3rd street, Code 2."

"Tell 'em two to four minutes," my partner says while he's still in the back yawing and putting his boots on.

I click the mike and say, "54 copies 123 E. 3rd street, with Engine 24, Rescue 24, give us two to four minutes."

I thought it went well. So far so good, I thought. But my partner got behind the wheel and laughed. "You sounded a little squeaky there." I found out he could be sound asleep and still hear the radio just fine.

This was my first call. The one they say you never forget. I thought how the tables were turned now. I was the excited and scared first jump student, and next to me was my non-nonchalant, even bored looking, first jump instructor.

We rolled out onto the Blvd as I fumbled with the map trying to find the address. "Don't worry," my partner said, "I know where it is." But I kept looking just for the practice. Code 2 isn't lights and sirens but you still have make time getting there. My partner, I'll start calling him Ricky, so I don't have to keep writing "my partner," skillfully and efficiently weaves us around the morning traffic. "Put your seat belt on," Ricky says. Man, in all the excitement I totally forgot.

Ricky reaches into the plastic bin that sits between us and grabs a pair of rubber gloves and puts them on. I do the same. "You can start the paperwork now if you want," he says. I reach again into the bin and pull out the metal case with our run sheets in them. I start filling in what I know, the date, our unit number, the address we are dispatched to. I realize it's hard to write in a moving vehicle. The traffic is bad, and even though Ricky knows the best streets to use, they are all clogged with people still driving to work.

"In another minute," Ricky says, you'll have to call fire and tell them we need an additional two minutes." And just as I'm figuring out how I'm going to do that, they call us. "54, what's your ETA?"

"Tell' em two more minutes" Ricky advises and I do so.

And fire comes back with, "54, bump it up to Code 3."

"Copy," I say, "bump to Code 3"

"Rock and roll!" Ricky says as he puts up the windows and hits the switches on the emergency lights and sirens. The traffic ahead magically parts as I call out, "Clear right," at every intersection. I don't want to sound like a whacker. A whacker is someone in EMS, usually a newbie, that wears too much equipment on their belt, and gets off way too much on the lights and sirens bit. But damn! This is very exciting!

While I'm watching the road ahead I'm trying to run through my protocals for SOB (shortness of breath) but I'm drawing a big fat blank. We turn another corner and I see a fire engine and the smaller fire paramedic vehicle in the middle of the block. We park in front of them and I go around the back and pull the gurney out. "Got the hand held?" Ricky asks. No, I forgot that, so I walk around and grab it out of the cab. And I grab the metal case with the run sheets too. Calm down I tell myself, you're not thinking.

"Critical thinking!" It's my EMT school instructor. I can hear his booming voice in my head right now. He hated cook book medicine. "No, no, no," he'd scream. "Your patient is presenting with this, this, and that, but not this. What does that tell you!" I loved that guy.

We roll the gurney up to the front steps of a nice, but modest house. "Go inside," Ricky says, "see what's going on." I thought to ask if he was coming with me, but instead I just went. The door was ajar and I opened it. There was no one on the living room, but I could hear people further back in the house. I walked down a short hallway and looked into the first bedroom I came to. She was in her eighties and laying supine (face up) on her bed. She was talking with the two fire paramedics. It was obvious she was having trouble breathing, and she seemed confused. They had her on O2 and also hooked up to their portable heart monitor. One paramedic looked up at me and said, "Bring in the gurney, if you can't fit, bring in the stair chair."

I went out and relayed the info to Ricky. "We'll get the gurney in there," he said, "I've been here before." I came to learn later Ricky would say that a lot on the calls we ran.

As I stood in the woman's bedroom again I took a minute to look around. There was a picture of her on the wall. In the photo she's about twenty and beautiful in that way all woman were back in the 1940s. On the table next to her bed was a photo of a man in a WWII military uniform. He was also about twenty. Put him in a jumpsuit and he'd look like any other young dude on the drop zone. It was the beginning of my realizing these were real people. People with lives full of hopes and dreams. "Her husband died about ten years ago," Ricky mentions in my ear. But there is his photo, I notice, still on the night stand, right by the bed they spent a lifetime in.

The paramedics stood back while Ricky and I placed the woman on the gurney. We were the grunts after all. There are very specific techniques for lifting and moving patients but it went well and we buckled her in and covered her with a blanket. Ricky got my attention with a look and motioned to the O2 tank on the end of the gurney. I didn't get it at first, but then caught on he wanted me to switch out the O2 hose from the paramedic's tank to that one. We rolled the woman out and lifted her down the stairs. I was concentrating hard as the worst thing is dropping a patient.

We put her into the ambulance and one of the paramedics got into the back with me. This was an ALS (advanced life saving) call. What made it that was the woman was altered. Her level of consciousness wasn't normal for her. Some other things that make some calls ALS are trauma, strokes, heart attacks, etc. For the lessor things we'd have taken her in alone. Those are BLS (basic life saving) calls. And a paramedic doesn't need be aboard to transport.

I sat on the left side and the fire paramedic was on the right side of the gurney. I saw he was preparing to run an IV line. "Get me a blood pressure." He directed.

I grabbed the blood pressure cuff off the shelf and the stethoscope out of my pocket. I'd done this a hundred times in school and another hundred times on my poor Julia at home. The paramedic told Ricky up front to, "Go easy three." He meant use the lights and sirens on the way to hospital but don't kill us getting there.

I put the cuff on upside down the first time, but quickly fixed it. I found her brachial pulse in the crook of her arm and pumped up the cuff. But then we started moving and I couldn't hear a thing under the siren. I kept trying but it just wasn't there. The paramedic noticed I having trouble and said, "over palp," is good enough." I knew he was telling me to get her pulse at the wrist and do it by feel.

"110 over palp." I told him.

"Okay, strip out this bag for me." He threw me a bag filled with saline that he was going to hook into the IV he was putting in the woman's vein. I'd done this few times but he noticed me fumble dicking around with it. "First day?" He said.

"First call," I replied.

He smiled at me and said, "Okay, look, here's the easy way to do it."

He was a cool guy. He let me do the blood sugar stick on her finger and he explained everything he was doing to me. I got lucky again. I later found not all the fire paramedics were as easy going. In fact some of them were down right pricks.

"Your a bit older than most of the new EMTs I see." he added. But instead of giving him my life story, I just shot him a "that's the way it is" look.

"Change that O2 hose over to your house tank." He told me. "Those small gurney tanks don't last long."

We rolled into the emergency bay at the hospital and wheeled her into the ER. The paramedic gave his report to the nurse while I listened. I'd have to do this myself on the BLS runs. We were given a room after a bit of a wait and transferred the woman to the hospital bed. I removed the EKG leads from her chest while trying not to notice her bare breasts. You do, I found out later, get very used to that sort of thing.

When I came out of the room the paramedic was already gone. Ricky was off getting some new sheets and blankets. Then he would make up the gurney and clean up the back of the ambulance. In the meantime my job now was to get the woman's medical insurance information and finish up the run and billing sheets. Besides the basic info the run sheet must include a full narrative of the entire call. Every intervention we made, and the outcome, must be included. I think of myself as a fairly good writer, but it's hard to be too creative using all those medical abbreviations and terminologies. "Are you still working on that," It's Ricky. "What are you doing, writing a book?"

Back in the ambulance Ricky told me to clear us on the radio and I did. "That's ice cream," he said.

What's ice cream," I asked.

"Any first," he explained to me, "like your first run, your first cardiac arrest, it means you gotta buy ice cream!"

I couldn't help laughing out loud. After a lifetime of "beer firsts" on the drop zone now it was ice cream.

"Whata ya laughing at, I'm serious, man."

"Nothing, Ricky," I said, "I ain't laughing at nothing.

So the time passed. A whole year's worth of calls, some routine, some not. Overdoses, gun shot wounds, stabbings, beatings, drunks, car accidents, and just plain sick people. Sometimes just lonely people and often those who simply abused the system. But we took care of them all.

The best part? I found I have a soft spot for elderly people. Rolling them into a nursing home, sometimes knowing they'd never roll out again, I'd stop outside and watch a sunset with them. Or grab a flower on the way in and lay it on their bed stand. Sometimes I'd just sit and listen to their stories of how no one in their family comes to see them anymore. Other times I'd just let them hold my hand for a little while.

When ever I got back into the ambulance Ricky was always going, "What took so long, what the heck were you doing in there?"

"Nothing," I'd say, trying hard not to let him see the tears in my eyes, "I wasn't doing nothing, man."

Wish me luck in Paramedic School!

NickD

• Quote

[mwabd1 0]

Good luck!

That was a good read too!

[FlyingJ 0]

Good luck! I think you just described the first day of almost everyone on the job!

Killing threads since 2004.

[SARLDO 0]

That was awesome dude, good luck in school and if ya ever roll up on me, let me just say in advance, Thank You.

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest" ~Samuel Clemens

MB#4300
Dudeist Skydiver #68

[airtwardo 6]

You don't need 'luck', you got the nod.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[iluvtofly 0]

Great story. Made my think back to my first call as an EMT. I was lucky though in that I worked as a dispatcher at the ambulance service before I was an EMT so I already had some idea of how to do certain things. There are many aspects of EMS that I miss and sometimes think about going to back to school so that I can be an EMT here in GA. (Dummy me never got nationally certified.)

Good luck in medic school. I'm sure you'll do great.

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

Good luck to you Nick. As time allows, let us know how Paramedic School goes and when you graduate and such.

Quote

...I've been out of school close to 35 years and I have to take the Hobet entrance exam and the math is going to kick my ass...

Ummm, you're married to a rocket scientist and you're worried about getting some tutor-age on math??!?

[d_squared431 0]

I normally dont read long post but I always read yours. Every time I do I am glad I did. I have never worked on an ambulance but I can relate to you with the first medical situations.

I remember the first patient I ever had to assist the doctor with. I laugh to this day about it. Man with hemrrhoids came in and I was called into the room and told to spread his butt cheeks and hold them open. All I kept thinking was he had the hairiest butt and OMG I cant believe I am spreading a guys butt cheeks on my first day. School teaches you many things but doesn't teach how to hold butt cheeks, insert a suppository or even deal with the stench and smells that go with the job.

Almost 10 years later I still love my job and all the odd things,people, and items I have to do.

I wish you luck returning to school and look forward to more of your posts about it.

TPM Sister#130ONTIG#1
I love vodka.I love vodka cause it rhymes with Tuaca~LisaH
You having a clean thought is like billyvance having a clean post.iluvtofly

[LisaH 0]

Good luck, Nick!

Be yourself!
MooOOooOoo

[NWFlyer 2]

Quote

You don't need 'luck', you got the nod.

Yeah, what he said.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[Muenkel 0]

Hey Nick,

Best of luck! You'll do great.
I have the utmost respect for EMT's. They've helped me so many times. I've been in an ambulance over 30 times in the past 6 years. I never met an EMT that wasn't a total professional.

_________________________________________
Chris

[RhondaLea 3]

Quote

Quote

You don't need 'luck', you got the nod.

Yeah, what he said.

Yeah, what they said. ;)

If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

[pcramil 0]

good luck, dude

[lawrocket 3]

Kick ass, Nick!

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[JohnMitchell 14]

Good luck to you. You'll be a great EMT. I think skydivers are a good fit for those kind of jobs, because we seek out and thrive in situations that reduce most people to jello. Also, you're a very caring person. You'll make the most of a career where there exist so many opportunities to do good things for people.

[NickDG 23]

>>Ummm, you're married to a rocket scientist and you're worried about getting some tutor-age on math??!?
First, thanks everybody for the wonderful words of support.

When I first looked into the Hobet Exam I checked all the EMS websites I follow and was heartened by what I found.

"It's eight grade math!"

"If you're breathing, you'll do well on it!"

So then I download all the practice tests I could find on the net and also went down to Boarders and purchased a few study guides.

Well, it might be eight grade math now, but it wasn't, at least for me, when I was in high school. I actually did well in school until I was about 15 and discovered sex, drugs, and rock & roll.

This was the sixties and the high school I attended in New York was less "Welcome Back, Kotter," and more, "Lock-up, San Quentin." And my course of study was designed for those students sure to drop out but too young to legally throw out. As for thoughts of college, that might as well been someplace on Mars. In my neighborhood that's where the rich kids went, and I didn't know any rich kids. The kids I knew became longshoreman, garbage collectors, or joined the Mafia.

I'm being flippant about it now, but my teenage years, and how I acted, will always be the biggest regret of my life. And I have no one to blame but myself.

On my sixteenth birthday I wanted to quit school. My Dad was all for it wanting me to come to work in his Barber Shop. But my Mom begged me to continue. So I stuck it out for another full year. Each morning I had to walk past the others kids who'd already dropped out. "Where ya going, ya little pansy!"

So the very day I turned 17 I busted out. And did go right to work in my Dad's Barber Shop. But I soon realized I wasn't there to learn a trade. My job was to carry bagfuls of paper slips around and between all the bookies in the neighborhood. It was the first time I realized my father was into other things besides cutting hair.

Then I pulled my first job. It involved boosting a few items we could easily sell on the street and I was the lookout. And of course I was looking the wrong way when we got busted. In those days in a neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else these kinds of things were handled in-house. So two big Irish cops beat the living daylights out of me before dragging me home. And thank god for that or I would have started life with a criminal record.

I was a dumb kid all right, but I wasn't stupid. I was smart enough to see where I was heading. Too many of the older kids I knew were already in prison. And one even got the electric chair.

I could see only one way out. So the next day I went down and enlisted in the Marine Corps. Dad thought it was great, "Let someone else feed him," I think he said, and of course Mom begged me to reconsider. I was still only 17 and needed parental consent, but only from one of them, and Dad whipped the pen right out.

It was the best decision I could have made at that point. In the Corps I took up skydiving and that changed the course of my entire life. I also earned my GED which made Mom happy.

So, I guess that was the long way around of explaining why the math on the Hobet test is beyond me. Yes, Julia is helping me and I'm starting to get it. And we've set aside time each day for tutoring.

Here's what I'm up against:

If Sally can paint a house in 4 hours, and John can paint a house in 6 hours, how long will it take for both of them to paint the house together?

Julia is showing me how to gather the pertinent information from the question.

"So," she asks, "what do you know just from reading the question?"

"It was written, "I reply, "by a woman."

NickD

[airtwardo 6]

"It was written, "I reply, "by a woman."






~You probably be right, but since they're both union, and paid by the hour...who's really 'smarter'?!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

Quote

If Sally can paint a house in 4 hours, and John can paint a house in 6 hours, how long will it take for both of them to paint the house together?

Julia is showing me how to gather the pertinent information from the question.

"So," she asks, "what do you know just from reading the question?"

"It was written, "I reply, "by a woman."

Ummm... how'd that go for you, Nick?

[RhondaLea 3]

Quote

Yes, Julia is helping me

I know you know how lucky you are, but I just wanted to highlight the fact that allowing you to live after this:

Quote

"So," she asks, "what do you know just from reading the question?"

"It was written, "I reply, "by a woman."

was above and beyond the call of duty.

If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

[mutumbo 0]

Good luck dude!! I JUST graduated medic school at the beginning of august, so if you have any questions feel free to PM me. granted the drug dosages you guys will use will be slightly different im sure, as long as the drugs you carry on the box, but other than that I can pretty much tell ya what ya need to know (i hope ;]).

Just remeber, BLS before ALS, dont get too wrapped up in the details, and if you get stuck, just remeber, "air goes in and out and blood goes around, if its not happening FIX IT."

Rember to completely size up youre scene, because crazy shit happens, and you dont want to be caught with your pants around your ankles working a car wreck adult with minor cuts and bruises when you have a pediatric whose about to code that you missed because you jumped on the first thing you saw.

Just a few tips i learned from medic school. Maye theyll help, maybe not.

Above all, medic school is HARD, but you can do it, worst, yet most fulfilling year of my life. I would totally do it again if i had to, but id hate going through it, haha.


EDIT: i know youve been an EMT in the past, but those were the points that i saw 99% of the EMT's struggle with in my class as well. I went straight from EMT shcool to fire school, to medic school, so you got some experience on what i had, but trust me, its no easy feat. At least it wasnt for our class.

Thanatos340(on landing rounds)--
Landing procedure: Hand all the way up, Feet and Knees Together and PLF soon as you get bitch slapped by a planet.

[DSE 3]

Quote

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You don't need 'luck', you got the nod.

Yeah, what he said.

+1.
Great read, too.

[guppie01 0]

Go Nick!

g

"Let's do something romantic this Saturday... how bout we bust out the restraints?"
Raddest Ho this side of Jersey #1 - MISS YOU
OMG, is she okay?

[jcd11235 0]

Quote

Here's what I'm up against:

If Sally can paint a house in 4 hours, and John can paint a house in 6 hours, how long will it take for both of them to paint the house together?

2.4 hours.

You might find this short tutorial helpful. (Pay particularly close attention to the formula at 2:47.)

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

[ZigZagMarquis 8]

Quote

If Sally can paint a house in 4 hours, and John can paint a house in 6 hours, how long will it take for both of them to paint the house together?

Nick,

I read that post while home at lunch and fired back asking how things went when you fired your smart-assed comeback to Julia... no offense, was just kidding.

Anyway, An odd connection on my part to your math problem there as well as your story above... while back to work, I decided to stop by the barber shop for a haircut and while sitting in the chair, decided to work your problem in my head.

Y'all can check my work, but here's what I came up with...

(x/4 + x/6) * 100 = 100% of the house painted

(x/4 + x/6) = 1

(3x/12 + 2x/12) = 1

5x/12 = 1

x = 12/5

x = 2 2/5

or

It would take Sally & John 2 hours and 24 minutes to paint the house together.

QED




Now the real problem would be, "How long would it take Sally & John to agree on a color to paint the house?"



Caution... its a trick question.

[jcd11235 0]

Alternately:

Q:If Sally can paint a house in 4 hours, and John can paint a house in 6 hours, how long will it take for both of them to paint the house together?

In an hour, Sally can paint 1/4 of a house. In an hour, John can paint 1/6 of a house.

If they paint the house together, it will take them x hours to complete the job of painting 1 house.

So, each hour they paint, they will paint (1/4 + 1/6) houses:

x·(1/4 + 1/6) = 1.

Finding a common denominator for our fractions gives us:

x·(3/12 + 2/12) = 1.

By adding the fractions inside the parentheses, we can simplify:

x·5/12 = 1.

We divide both sides by 5/12, which gives us

x = 12/5 = 2.4.

So, by working together, they can paint the house in 2.4 hours.

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!