I was doubting myself and my views of my blog. But it appears I have got about 10 or so in the last week. I hope that can increase as I have added it to many search engines. I am feeling a little more up now. I enjoyed a few days off and now back to the grind stone. I am often confused by things which once seemed easy to understand. I find myself stopping and thinking about them longer, and studying things which I once knew off the top of my head to make sure I understand them properly. The days of flying by the seat of my pants are gone, as I have emerged as an older version of myself.
I was thining over the weekend, what am I going to write about this week, what will become the highlight of the blog, of the world, of news in general? I did have one topic come up and I thought it was worth a good paragraph or so. When I was an EMT fresh out of school and within a few months hired by a paid service I trained on the day shift for a few weeks and then was dropped onto night shift. I was "trained" by the company policies, but still green around the edges. I was assigned with a seasoned medic, whom had a wild streak. He was probably in his middle to late 30's, and had actually came with one of his co-workers when they were recruited to the agency by the manager who had left their previous employer to come to our area to start up a paramedic service. He was hard on me at first. I am guessing in the first two or three weeks, I was so down I didn't know what to do. I felt as though I was a total failure and had no hope of being productive. I know I have mentioned the story before of the confusion on a cardiac arrest call where I grabbed a Non-rebreather mask instead of a bag-valve mask. And how I didn't know where anything was on the ambulance and how I felt like I was a member of the public trying to assist. And let's not mention my nerves and nearly getting sick from worrying about everything. Here I was, someone dead in our ambulance, working our best to revive them. I was so in shock, I was wondering what I had done to myself, where I would be heading. In the future after my partner left, I had mentioned to another co-worker that I felt as though he was hard on me early on and how he was also talking about we have to save this person, and how important working a code was. He made it out to me like, he didn't want to lose anyone, and it was his goal to bring as many back as he could and he had always had that mentality. And I believed he had a high revival rate based on his bragging and how he acted. Come to find out he actually had a 0 save count, and it was eating him up inside, he was coming down on me for his own anger at himself.
Over the next few years I began to think something was wrong with me, I had 4 other partners. I ended up with the former partner of my previous partner for a while, until he left to work for another service. I ended up with a paramedic whom I think disliked me from the start, then later changed for some reason. I drove like I had been trained, light on the brake, easy on the curves, slow up to the stop signs, and same for take offs. Well we would load the patient, and the medic would say I'm ready. They insisted on handling things on the go. So I would call us en route to the hospital and drive. Well then I got called out once saying that I had driven too fast to the hospital and they were unable to provide enough patient care. I didn't get it, I hadn't even driven with lights and sirens. I drove like I would drive any other time. I don't know what they had against me, but it went away.
I got out of EMS when my call came in, my knees were starting to hurt quite regular and my back and neck were getting quite tender after working. Looking back that is one thing I don't miss at all.
I always have to share little stories and happenings from things of today, and current happenings. The past is interesting and fun to share, but I might not have the past in the future if I don't write it down. I might think about it after today if I am not sharing it.
So here is where we go for a laugh at least on my part. We have two entrance doors, side by side at the dispatch center. One door is your typical door like you might see in an normal lobby entrance. It looks like a business door, with a center bar running left to right in the middle and a handle on the opening side. It also has lettering saying: Entrance, in white lettering. You can see through the windows into the lobby where you can see the seats in the waiting area. The other door, is an employee door, it has an access panel by the door outside, and it a pretty solid door, with a small window about a 6x6 square. It has no wording on it. It is amazing the number of times I hear someone pull to try to come into the other door. I even have had people leave without trying the other door. I don't know what is so confusing. I think we are so used to being able to open any door we try, that when we can't get it open, we don't even read to find out if we are at the right location. Same night that that someone couldn't get in, and left, is the same night that someone came in highly intoxicated. This subject was upset because I wouldn't provide him with the service he was requesting and asked me to let him out the door. We don't lock the lobby door, I have no way to do anything to to the outside door. We never have. We have an access door, that we can allow people through by pressing a button to release it, but not the outside door. It was a laugh for me.
We have been so fortunate to deal with this feuding couple. They have been at it since this time of last year. They ended up sometime this past year getting married. Since the holidays it has progressed more and more. They are back and forth. They both like to drink alcohol and they fight. Neither wants to press charges, and neither can stand each other. We have dealt with them so many times in the last few weeks it has all ran together. A few nights ago we received a call they were fighting in someone's yard. By the time the officer's arrived she had left the location. She showed up in dispatch shortly afterwards wanting to give her statement. After the officers came in and started talking to her, and advised her charges could be pressed against her too, she was reluctant but still wanted to give her statement. I saw them escort her to the back, and then a few seconds later she comes out cursing and screaming and barges out the door. I knew it wasn't over. Then minutes later I received a call requesting her be removed from a residence where the fight had taken place prior. She was gone again before my officers arrived back there. She arrived back at dispatch wanting to give her statement. At that point she was advised not to return to the other location. She started trying to say that she could go there because of this or that, and the officer corrected her that it was the property owner requesting her not to return. So she gave her statement and left. Shortly after leaving she called back in, and spoke with an officer. Then later the male half came up wanting to give his statement. The shift supervisor came to the lobby and informed him that he was tired of dealing with their issues, they were going to start making arrests every time they had to go and deal with them. The female finally went and got a restraining order. Later in the day the male was supposed to have flattened her tires, not sure she saw him do it. She went back to drinking and later in the evening showed up in dispatch wanting to speak to an officer, but unsure why. When the officer came to speak with her, she requested some information on a place to stay which they provided her, and then left the lobby. She then sat in the chair acting strange. She jumped up and said she remembered why she was here. She wanted to know if the restraining order had been served on the male half yet. We advised her when he was located he would be served. She then went on to bad mouth our agency and that we were not trying to find him hard enough. She left out the lobby saying she was going to find him herself.
Never heard from her again that night, who knows if she found him and spent some time with him, before he got served or what.
I was thining over the weekend, what am I going to write about this week, what will become the highlight of the blog, of the world, of news in general? I did have one topic come up and I thought it was worth a good paragraph or so. When I was an EMT fresh out of school and within a few months hired by a paid service I trained on the day shift for a few weeks and then was dropped onto night shift. I was "trained" by the company policies, but still green around the edges. I was assigned with a seasoned medic, whom had a wild streak. He was probably in his middle to late 30's, and had actually came with one of his co-workers when they were recruited to the agency by the manager who had left their previous employer to come to our area to start up a paramedic service. He was hard on me at first. I am guessing in the first two or three weeks, I was so down I didn't know what to do. I felt as though I was a total failure and had no hope of being productive. I know I have mentioned the story before of the confusion on a cardiac arrest call where I grabbed a Non-rebreather mask instead of a bag-valve mask. And how I didn't know where anything was on the ambulance and how I felt like I was a member of the public trying to assist. And let's not mention my nerves and nearly getting sick from worrying about everything. Here I was, someone dead in our ambulance, working our best to revive them. I was so in shock, I was wondering what I had done to myself, where I would be heading. In the future after my partner left, I had mentioned to another co-worker that I felt as though he was hard on me early on and how he was also talking about we have to save this person, and how important working a code was. He made it out to me like, he didn't want to lose anyone, and it was his goal to bring as many back as he could and he had always had that mentality. And I believed he had a high revival rate based on his bragging and how he acted. Come to find out he actually had a 0 save count, and it was eating him up inside, he was coming down on me for his own anger at himself.
Over the next few years I began to think something was wrong with me, I had 4 other partners. I ended up with the former partner of my previous partner for a while, until he left to work for another service. I ended up with a paramedic whom I think disliked me from the start, then later changed for some reason. I drove like I had been trained, light on the brake, easy on the curves, slow up to the stop signs, and same for take offs. Well we would load the patient, and the medic would say I'm ready. They insisted on handling things on the go. So I would call us en route to the hospital and drive. Well then I got called out once saying that I had driven too fast to the hospital and they were unable to provide enough patient care. I didn't get it, I hadn't even driven with lights and sirens. I drove like I would drive any other time. I don't know what they had against me, but it went away.
I got out of EMS when my call came in, my knees were starting to hurt quite regular and my back and neck were getting quite tender after working. Looking back that is one thing I don't miss at all.
I always have to share little stories and happenings from things of today, and current happenings. The past is interesting and fun to share, but I might not have the past in the future if I don't write it down. I might think about it after today if I am not sharing it.
So here is where we go for a laugh at least on my part. We have two entrance doors, side by side at the dispatch center. One door is your typical door like you might see in an normal lobby entrance. It looks like a business door, with a center bar running left to right in the middle and a handle on the opening side. It also has lettering saying: Entrance, in white lettering. You can see through the windows into the lobby where you can see the seats in the waiting area. The other door, is an employee door, it has an access panel by the door outside, and it a pretty solid door, with a small window about a 6x6 square. It has no wording on it. It is amazing the number of times I hear someone pull to try to come into the other door. I even have had people leave without trying the other door. I don't know what is so confusing. I think we are so used to being able to open any door we try, that when we can't get it open, we don't even read to find out if we are at the right location. Same night that that someone couldn't get in, and left, is the same night that someone came in highly intoxicated. This subject was upset because I wouldn't provide him with the service he was requesting and asked me to let him out the door. We don't lock the lobby door, I have no way to do anything to to the outside door. We never have. We have an access door, that we can allow people through by pressing a button to release it, but not the outside door. It was a laugh for me.
We have been so fortunate to deal with this feuding couple. They have been at it since this time of last year. They ended up sometime this past year getting married. Since the holidays it has progressed more and more. They are back and forth. They both like to drink alcohol and they fight. Neither wants to press charges, and neither can stand each other. We have dealt with them so many times in the last few weeks it has all ran together. A few nights ago we received a call they were fighting in someone's yard. By the time the officer's arrived she had left the location. She showed up in dispatch shortly afterwards wanting to give her statement. After the officers came in and started talking to her, and advised her charges could be pressed against her too, she was reluctant but still wanted to give her statement. I saw them escort her to the back, and then a few seconds later she comes out cursing and screaming and barges out the door. I knew it wasn't over. Then minutes later I received a call requesting her be removed from a residence where the fight had taken place prior. She was gone again before my officers arrived back there. She arrived back at dispatch wanting to give her statement. At that point she was advised not to return to the other location. She started trying to say that she could go there because of this or that, and the officer corrected her that it was the property owner requesting her not to return. So she gave her statement and left. Shortly after leaving she called back in, and spoke with an officer. Then later the male half came up wanting to give his statement. The shift supervisor came to the lobby and informed him that he was tired of dealing with their issues, they were going to start making arrests every time they had to go and deal with them. The female finally went and got a restraining order. Later in the day the male was supposed to have flattened her tires, not sure she saw him do it. She went back to drinking and later in the evening showed up in dispatch wanting to speak to an officer, but unsure why. When the officer came to speak with her, she requested some information on a place to stay which they provided her, and then left the lobby. She then sat in the chair acting strange. She jumped up and said she remembered why she was here. She wanted to know if the restraining order had been served on the male half yet. We advised her when he was located he would be served. She then went on to bad mouth our agency and that we were not trying to find him hard enough. She left out the lobby saying she was going to find him herself.
Never heard from her again that night, who knows if she found him and spent some time with him, before he got served or what.