Our trucks carry 70 ALS skill only drugs and interventions. There are an additional 200 BLS skills and interventions. we use ONE of them. The bed. When I can avoid it, the jump seat gets the abuse. It seems to me that the only thing people seem to care about is that 1) they can stay on the phone 2) that we won’t bother them during the transport for their critical emergency. 3) That the EmergiTaxi will be quick. Less than 10 minutes to get there and 10 minutes to get to the hospital. They’re deathly ill, btw
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Where did I go!?!
I’m not sure. But I’m hoping to be back, more often. Life has caught me off guard over the last year, but I’m doing a better job of managing my time and hope to spend some time posting here.
Welcome Back, Welcome Back, welcome baaaaaaaaaack. to me. 
Test
Do you ever feel like we’re playing a losing game?
The other day I went through my cardiac arrest statistics. Dispatched to 91 cardiac arrests since I became a medic. ~30/year. I have worked approximately 50% of those. I have EXACTLY 1 cardiac arrest save.
ONE!.
If this were baseball, I’d have a batting average of 0.01098901098901099. OOOH! If we call all of the no start calls “sacrifices” I’d have an average of 0.021739130434782608. If we only say that the ~45ish times I’ve actually worked an arrest count as “at bats”, then I have an amazing 0.022222222222222223.
In baseball the record for lowest career batting average for a player with more than 2,500 at-bats belongs to Bill Bergen, a catcher who played from 1901 to 1911 and recorded a .170 average in 3,028 career at-bats. I’m well below the “Mendoza Line”
What is YOUR batting average?
Seriously. It did. I take ambien for sleep(12.5mg XR), as the chances of me sleeping on my own are not so good. But if I am awake past that first 40 minutes it makes me do crazy crap. Like post on my blog. Or clean out the fridge. OR trim, cut and cure 40 lbs of deer meat for Jerky slices. I’ve rearranged my 75 gallon aquarium and not remembered. I’ve don a LOT of things and not remembered.
It is mildly terrifying to know how much can happen with so little control. MY wife sure like the cleaning version of me though, so I doubt I’ll be changing over soon.
Do any of you have first hand experience of the crazy things meds made you do? We hear stories all the time from patients and coworkers, but I’d like to hear your own stories.
ON a clinical note, what do we need to look for with these odd situations? Can a patient sedated with ambien be reliable?
Drop me a line!
Ambien Side Effects
- Constipation
- Difficulty with coordination
- Hallucinations
- Disorientation
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Binge eating
- Memory problems (see Ambien CR and Memory Problems)
- Spinning sensation (vertigo)
- Nausea
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) – heartburn is the most common symptom
- Heart palpitations
- Fatigue
- Muscle pain.
Ambien Dosage:
Dosage in adults
The recommended dose for adults is 10 mg once daily immediately before bedtime. The total Ambien dose should not exceed 10 mg per day.
Special populations
Elderly or debilitated patients may be especially sensitive to the effects of zolpidem tartrate. Patients with hepatic insufficiency do not clear the drug as rapidly as normal subjects. The recommended dose of Ambien in both of these patient populations is 5 mg once daily immediately before bedtime [see Warnings and Precautions (5.6)].
Use with CNS depressants
Dosage adjustment may be necessary when Ambien is combined with other CNS depressant drugs because of the potentially additive effects [see Warnings and Precautions (5.5)].
Administration
The effect of Ambien may be slowed by ingestion with or immediately after a meal.
The passengers and crew gave “the entire country an incalculable gift: They saved the capital from attack,” an untold amount of lives and denied al-Qaida the symbolic victory of “smashing the center of American government,” Clinton said.
They were “ordinary people given no time at all to decide and they did the right thing,” he said. “And 2,500 years from now, I hope and pray to God that people will still remember this.”
Here is a little preview of our family Vacay…
As we near on the anniversary of 9/11, the memories of my grandfathers final days are turning pretty deep.
I’d started a post, and maybe I’ll get back to it… but then I just read my short post from a year ago.
I miss you, Grandpa.
If you’re not going to use it properly, there isn’t much point in doing it all.
Medic/FF/LEO friends: When you see a car seat installed in a crappy fashion, take the time to educate the parents on how to do it right. It’ll save you from treating the baby that was ejected 180 feet into a corn field.
Even “cheap” seats work well, when used properly.
For all of my life I have been “moley” as my mom calls it. I have a lot of moles. My parents both have a good deal as well. When I was younger I had a few larger moles removed, but nothing was ever found. They were Benign. Over the years I let myself get more than my share of sun. Years of life guarding and doing stupid crap while not protecting my skin. Well, if only barely, it is starting to catch up with me.
About a month ago I had two moles excised from my back, mostly as a precaution. They are two of nearly 2 dozen of various sizes and shapes on my back. A week or so went by and I had nearly forgotten about them when the Dr’s office called and said I needed to come in to have them excised out further. I was in an awkward place and busy, but I said ok and scheduled an appointment.
I arrived on the day of my appointment with basically no idea what was going on. The doc came in(a doc I have went to off and on for 15 years) and we chatted casually, and then he got a little more serious. He explained the moles were not malignant… not yet anyways. They were dysplastic nevi. “Abnormal moles” if you will. The name sounds worse than it is, or does it….
Skincancer.org says:
“those who have 10 or more have 12 times the risk of developing melanoma compared to the general population”
Ok. You got my attention. I now have take a pledge with my wife to not go out in any way without sunscreen. We’re still looking for the best oil free sunscreen that comes in spray on. But it just has to be part of my life. I’m in search of a good Dermatologist too, since I feel like the previous doc just guess at which to excise.
Also, I’m a little scared. I’m a lot scare, really. Of all the medical problems I’ve had over the last decade, none of them have had life threatening implication. None of them involved the C-word. Most of them were “voluntary” surgeries. Maybe even “elective”. I’m having unnatural thoughts and fears and I only know enough to scare me.
Ugh.
So I just ask you. Get check. Check out the info at dcmf.ca for some tools to help you track the moles you have. I plan this week to take photo documentation of the moles I have to “catalog” them and their progression. My wife is going to be creeped out by this, but I really don’t care.
Just get check out. Ok? And watch this video. Its worth the 5 minutes of Desperate Housewives you’ll miss.
f
One of my favorite pics of all time of me and my dad. Circa 1988ish. Dad helping me put the wooden tulips in the ground.
Do you trust your partners? Do you think they are good medics? People? etc?
I’ll follow up more on this later, but I want to hear your answers, first….
Wait… I don’t think I was? But this says I must have been if I logged into my account from there? Bastards. Sorry to everyone who got a spam email from me this morning….
I’ve had me m3 email address hacked, and I am in the process of getting it back from Google, right now. It was actually completely taken over…. so If you get an email from me, disregard. I am NOT in London and do not need you to send me your credit card/social security number/first born.
Stand By for Tones…
He doesn’t appreciate my after-nap antics.
How I love potato chips. And Mt Dew. Oh, and I love pizza, beer, cheese, hamburgers, and my personal favorite… the Butterburger from Culvers. (yes, they really cook it in butter)
But it is time to lose this gut. When I graduated high school in 2002 I weight 132 pounds. I was a distance runner… Now the distance I run is from the couch to the fridge–with two stops, ended with a beer….
Kelly over at www.ambulancedriverfiles.com has placed the challenge, and I accept. Time to lose the weight.
My goal is 155lbs by June 18 when we go to Vegas for a friends wedding. Any other takers out there?
Is not the big tank full of blood. But the fact that there is a method and receptacle for collecting said blood.
I am thankful for many, many things…. but just wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
Hope all is well in the EMS blogosphere… Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you!
I got…
1 Stroke
1 AMI
1 Trauma
and 3 (dozen) drama queens.
Yay, Birthdays!
- You are running around the house trying to gather your cellphone, charger, makeup, purse, keys, underwear, kitchen sink, and other miscellaneous ”essential”.
- You continue to cut me off, tell me I’m wrong, and insist that you must have some sort of cancer(unrelated to the 3 pack a day habit you have).
- Are mad I am not going to carry you to the ambulance after you have been running around the house(up and down stairs, too!).
- Are made that I will not give you morphine for this mysterious leg pain that just started when we got into the ambulance.
Reasons I don’t care:
- I only work one day this week.
- I haven’t listened to anything you’ve said.
- I’m dreaming of a nap.
- You smell something like a mix of cigarette smoke, old cheese, and pot roast.
Sincerly,
m3
That I need to post more often. My site was shut down for 9 days and I didn’t even know it… Lol.
I’ve got one in draft right now.
This is a repeat of THIS post, for 9/11/2009. I don’t have it in me to write a new one.
At 0846 AM Eastern Time on 09/11/2001 American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north side of Tower One of the World Trade Center Complex. This was the beginning of one of the worst days in American History.
Before this day “hijackings” were about money and power. Before this day you were much less likely to look at a Middle Eastern male the way you do now. Before this day the word “terrorist” wasn’t a political buzz word. Before this day there wasn’t a burning grave on the tip of Manhattan.
I’ve talked before about 9/11′s significance to my family. But now, just one year after that post, it is hitting me pretty hard. I’m sitting here with my son–Asher Harold. Harold for my grandfather–the man we put to rest on this day 8 years ago–and I keep blubbering like a baby. I miss him. I understand death. I understand that it is part of the process we call life. I also understand that his death left him in peace, whereas the end of his life was in pain and suffering.
I understand that.
But I’m still pissed. I’m pissed that he, and his wife, and my mother’s father didn’t get the chance to meet my son.
I’m pissed that so many people didn’t get to see their loved ones that night. I’m pissed that innocent men and women paid the price for someone’s ideology. I’m pissed that my brothers in service ran IN to a building to save people, only to never come out.
I keep struggling to find a way to just let it go. My emotions take a roller coaster thinking about it. I’m sad for the families who have had to suffer this great loss. I’m pissed at the men who thought this to be the only way to get their message out.
I don’t know what to say to any of them, but I think this is most appopriate for the victims families:
On behalf of the President of the United States and the people of a grateful nation, may I present this flag as a token of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service your loved one rendered this nation.
Sure, they weren’t “soldiers”. But they lost their lives because they lived on American Soil. They lost their lives on that principal alone.
My Grandfather was in the Army. Those words were said to my Grandmother with my Uncle by her side, his Navy Dress clean and crisp. Every time I hear them, or read them, or even think about them I get the same chill.
Today might not be about our troops… but we need to be better as a country and make EVERY day about our soldiers fighting on our behalf. They didn’t sign up to fight. They signed up out of pride. They signed up out of need. They signed up for a million reasons, but so very few people signed up because they want to go to war… So please, please take a minute to remember the fallen, and pray for those risking it all on daily basis.
Godspeed all. We miss you all.
We miss you grandpa.
