Every Day some little old lady, or young kid we transport asks the same question during my small-talk sessions with our patients… “so why do you want to do this? Why do you want to be a paramedic?”

Most of the time it’s a little hard to just mutter out a response that isn’t clichéd. The “I like helping people” response is pretty common.

But its a lot simpler than that. It’s who I am. It’s what I am. This is me. I’ve worked on political campaigns–big and small. I’ve spent nearly a year with a Congressman 3 foot away from me. Spent time with more Presidential candidates than you could imagine, more business moguls and old money.

But none of that matters. In the end, win or lose–and I’ve had both–it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel anything like giving 23 minutes of comfort to a 79 year old woman who just knew she was going to die. She knew it. I couldn’t do anything for her. My med bag, my gear only does so much. But I know that for that 23 minutes she was in my truck, she was relaxed. I got her joking. We talked about her grandkids–her husband’s business, everything.

That is who I am.

I won’t get rich doing this. Unless you ask Marty.

The book linked above is a book that we were required to read in one of my more bogus classes in college. Some places use it for management and team building, some use it as a motivational tool. Most people read it because someone told them to take the time. Whatever way it is, it relates a lot to the world we live in. We are rarely thanked, often forgotten, and only appreciated when needed. But simple things can make it all worth while. Every now and then we get a save. More often than not, we spend time comforting friends and family. Remember–often everyone in the room is our patient–most of them need something we don’t carry in our trucks.

Compassion.

There are going to be countless times in my career that I will be called to act selflessly. I hope I hold true to that. I want to be able to go home at night, look my wife in the eyes and be proud of what I do. I will not turn into a lollipop!

It’s not what I DO. It’s who I AM.

The weekend(3 days!) is winding down. I’ve had a great weekend at home and we’re ready for this to be done! This weekend the wife and I met with the Manager of a local service in the outstate area. He was nice enough to spend an hour and a half showing us around town, pointing out all the fun stuff, where NOT to live, etc… It was very nice of him to take the time.

I’m really hoping to get a position there and it looks like a great opportunity for both of us! Now just to find someone who will let us have 3 dogs… maybe we’ll just say “2″ like we do now… Maybe we’re nuts!

Anyways, my computer is all kinds of f’d up right now and it’ll be a few days before we get it fixed(hopefully). My brother was nice enough to say he’d give it a go…

Anyways, less than 120 hrs of riding left to go! I’ll get back on here soon!

Didn’t still miss home, you’re nuts. I made it home for about 30 hrs this weekend and it was great–just too short.

I’ll get a full fledged 3 day weekend starting Friday.

Wanna Give a Shout out to EE at Bandaids and Backboards(see link left). She’s proven to be a great resource for me and I truly appreciate any help I can get to becoming a better medic.

So I’m a moron. I am on 1500-0300 fri/sat and somehow that got into my phone as 0500-1500…. I’m brilliant. So not only do I work overnight, but I don’t get to go home till Sat morning. I can handle overnights–but Since I didn’t get to go home last weekend we were looking forward to spending friday-sunday together. Now it’s Saturday moring following an overnight +4hr drive.

Did I mention I can’t wait to go home. I can’t wait to see my wife, my dogs, my bed… my tv… my wife… Did I mention I miss my wife?

I miss you!

Not a lot to write about from the field. I didn’t go today as I’ve been sick since sunday. I did however have a bad enough shift on Sunday that I’m just not going to talk about it. Sometime you have to let thins go, and move on. This is one of those time.

4 days baby.