Greasy Spoon

A few BLS calls back to back. Then a priority call for a woman with abdominal distention. She wasn't in any pain, but her belly was hard as a rock and made her look 9 months pregnant. She had a history of bowel obstructions.

A psych transfer to a state mental facility for a woman with psychosis. I've had her before. She didn't like me the first time, and she really didn't like me today. It was a long 65 mile trip.

Another BLS return.

Last call was for a 55 y/o man that was burned by hot grease. I didn't get the whole story but he was frying chicken at a restaurant. He had first and second degree burns from his chin to his belt line. His arms and hands were probably the worst. We took him to the burn center. We didn't even take him to his room (in the ICU). He went directly to the washdown where they clean and remove all the dead tissue. The weird part was that it didn't smell like burned flesh. It just smelled like grease. Yuck.

We didn't get back to quarters until almost 0500. A very long shift.

Sluggish

Back at the ambulance company today. I have been terrible with keeping up with my blog. Sorry!

We haven't done too much today. All BLS calls. Nothing good. I am doing some public education tomorrow so that should be fun.

Hopefully more excitement soon!

Back from NFA

I have more stuff to post, I just don't have the time right now. The academy was great. I made some really good friends, and met some really cool people. The class was awesome-as I expected, but my classmates were the best part. I had people in my class from all over the U.S. Some of us already have plans to vacation by each other. Me and a friend from Idaho are already planning a trip to Hawaii in the spring to visit two other guys from my class. Good times.

When we left it felt like summer camp all over again. Very sad. I felt like I was losing my best friends. We all plan to keep in touch though. Spring will come soon...

NFA

I'm finally out at the National Fire Academy. We left yesterday around 1030 am. Yeah! We had check in as soon as we got on campus (after an hour and a half long bus ride from Baltimore/DC airport), then it was time for some fun. We had dinner, then went out drinking. A couple of us walked the mile or so to "town." Which is actually only about a mile long strip. A one stoplight town. We ended up at a hole in the wall bar, but it was a really good time.

I started class this morning. The class I am in focuses on community fire prevention. I think it is going to be a really good class. There are people from all over the U.S. here. Five people came from my department. We are all in different classes, so we only see each other for breakfast, dinner, and night time fun :). Lunch we spend with others from our class because lunch times may differ depending on what you are doing in class that day.

I have already learned a lot that I plan on bringing back to my community. It is interesting to hear about how other departments around the nation are run. I thought we were a very small department, but I learned today that we are really lucky. We may be small, but we have neighboring departments that we have mutual aid agreements with that we work with all the time. They can be to our city within five minutes or so. Some of the people I talked to said they would have to wait at least a half hour. Wow.

I have more blogs to post that are currently on paper. I just haven't had the time. I would do it now but I think I had a few too many tonight if you know what I mean. I apologize in advance for this blog because it probably makes absolutely no sense. :)

God bless and good night.

...Psycho

I spent most of the day today in the city. Good times. We did a psych from up north to the city. The woman seemed okay. She was hearing voices. I got about a quarter of the way to Chicago and all hell broke loose.

I was on the highway and I heard a ruckus in the back. My partner was struggling to get the seatbelts back on our patient. I was on the highway, and I had to pull the ambulance over, turn the lights on, get out of the rig and get in back. We got her in restraints and we were back on our way. Whew. She said that the voices were telling her to get out of the ambulance.

Dispatch sent us hot to a professional building in the city for a woman having difficulty breathing. We got on scene, up to the floor, and my dispatch called us and said, "don't go on the floor!" Okay, well now that we're up here. We never found out why we were cancelled.

We got a call right after that for a five year old with a femur fracture. He supposedly tripped and fell while running at the playground. Yeah, not quite believable. We had to put him in hare traction for transport to the Children's hospital.

Another day. The countdown begins for vacation!