Well That's A Fine How Do You Do.

I'm back in the saddle again. My finger is no where near finished healing but it's good enough for me to return to full duty. And the call gods welcomed me back as only they can.

It was close to the end of the day. I jumped in the shower to get the sweat, dirt, grime and whatever else off of me before going to bed. I had just started to shampoo my hair when I heard sirens.

Crap.

A PD unit went screaming by the station code 3. Then another. And another. I immediately knew that we were going to be getting a call.

I hurriedly finished lathering up my hair and started to rinse off trying to beat the dispatcher. I just knew that she was just waiting for the computer aided dispatch system to tell her who to ring down. When it did.......dang it......too late.

While the automated lady gave the address of the medical emergency I jumped out of the shower. I threw on my clothes as best I could while still dripping. In less than 90 seconds I was downstairs sliding into my seat in the back of the rig.

Getting caught by a call while showering is one of those unpleasant experiences that few people outside of first responders will ever get to experience. It sucks. But it's fun to laugh at afterward. It's even more fun to laugh at the other guy on the crew when he gets caught.

Since you probably want to know, the call was for a 20 year old kid that decided to chug a bottle of aspirin. Not too smart. We provide a chaser for something like that. Activated charcoal. And it tastes every bit as horrible as it sounds.

Progress

Some say the fire service is 200 years of tradition unimpeded by progress.

Sometimes, I agree.

A Thank You Visit

Dispatch informed us that we were responding for a 38 year old female complaining of weakness. We groaned a little bit because this sounded like another BS call.

Walking up to the front door we were met by an older lady. She turned out to be the mother of my patient. She said that her daughter had been getting ready for work this morning when she started feeling weak and dizzy. The mom led us to the couch where her daughter lay.

When paramedics approach a patient we are already assessing the patient. We are checking to see if they're breathing and how hard they are trying to breath. We're looking at their skin color, if they're tracking us and appear alert. We are also looking for anything that is out of the ordinary weather that's empty alcohol bottles or a knife sticking out of the patient.

The urgency on this call went from low to high with one look at my patient. On side of the woman's face was drooping. My continued walking assessment showed that she was breathing adequately and had good skin color. I checked for a radial pulse as I knelt down next to her and introduced myself.

I then checked to see if she had equal grips and was able to push and pull with her feet, which she wasn't. Then entire left side of her body was paralyzed. Working while I talked I started an IV. She said that the symptoms had started about 15 minutes ago, well within the window for thrombolytics.

I explained to my patient what my worries were. That she could possibly be having a CVA. I then explained what was going to happen at the hospital. I also gave her the possible outcomes and reassured her that because of her quick action, she gave herself the best chance at recovery.

Once AMR showed up we loaded the patient up. I gave them a brief run down and said that I'd be riding in too. In the back of the ambulance there were no changes, for better or worse. The entire time my patient remained calm. At the hospital I let the AMR medic give the report (he was the one that had the rapport with the MD) and I answered questions as needed.

The next tour the doorbell rang just as we were sitting down to brunch. I slid down the pole and answered the door. It was my patient from the previous week. She stopped by the station with her mom and nephew to say thank you and to drop off a plate of cookies. She has spent a couple of days in the hospital but her symptoms had subsided within a couple hours of our meeting. She had a TIA (mini stroke). We talked a bit about her condition and I answered some questions that the neurosurgeon hadn't. I also gave her nephew a tour of the truck.

It was nice to get a thank you like that. It was great to see that one of my more serious patients had recovered.

New Traditions

This last shift I was talking to my BC. He's been in the fire service for 35 years and is getting close to retirement. He spoke of a tradition that he has with his kids and it's one that I'm adopting for mine.

Every year his kids choose new bed sheets for him. Doesn't matter what it is. It's a way to connect with the his kids even though he's at work. Admittedly his sons have tried to get him some pink unicorns or something like that but his wife put the kabosh on that one.

So coming soon to my bed will be my new sheets chosen by my kids. I wonder what they'll get me.

What We Do When Not Running Calls

Firefighters work all types of different schedules. Some work every third day, for 24 hours. Some work what is called a 3's and 4's schedule. They work every other day for 5 days (3 days working) and then have 4 days off in a row. I did this for a while. Other departments work 3 days straight but then get 4 days off. I think I have it the best. I work for 48 hours then get 4 days off. The down side to my schedule is that 48 hours is a long time to be awake if you happened to get slammed with calls.

My shift officially starts at 0800.  Although the crews try to get there a little early, that way the off going crew can bail right at 0800. The oncoming crew talks with the guys getting off duty. They find out if there were any issues, rumors, good calls, stories, etc. Quite often this is done over a cup of coffee or while setting up your turnouts and other personal equipment. It really depends on how fast the guy getting off needs to get out of there.

The first order of business in the morning is to check out our equipment. We make sure that everything is there and in order. The engineer will do a complete check on the apparatus. The medic will check all of the EMS gear. The captain does......captain stuff (I think he just drinks coffee and checks eBay.....kidding). The crew then gets together, eat breakfast and talk about the day (and drink still more coffee).

Topics normally covered in the morning include any training scheduled for that day, tasks that need to be accomplished that day and most importantly....dinner.

In the morning we get in a workout. the number on cause of firefighter fatalities is heart attacks. Most departments (including mine) encourage us to work out every shift. Sometimes we have training that the department schedules in the morning hours so we have to work out later.

The morning time is when we do most of our training. Sometimes it's set up by the department and several companies will get together at one time to do it (such as an EMS class). Other times, it's just the crew getting together and working on something that they haven't done in a while. Recently my crew decided to contact one of the local towing companies to see if they had any 'spare' vehicles laying around. We ended up tearing apart a 1994 Ford Explorer for practice.

After lunch we take care of any business that's left. Sometimes we go out and do company level business inspections. Most of the time we do company level training. In the afternoon we also take care of our grocery shopping. Let me just take a moment to set something straight. We pay for our own food. It's not payed for by you, the tax paying public. So if we want to have steak and lobster, don't freak out. We're buying it with out own money.

Sometime around 4 in the afternoon we start cooking. Who cooks depends on each crew. At the double houses (one with an engine company and another company like a truck or rescue) dice are rolled to assign jobs. Dishes are usually the last to get picked. Most stations have at least one 'skate' spot where you don't have to do anything. We try to have dinner sometime around 1730.

After dinner a lot of crews watch TV. Either sports or a movie. Then, usually around 2300, everyone goes to bed. In theory, we sleep until about 0700 and then do it all over again.

Now at any point during the day we can be interrupted by the tones. Usually this happens at meal times, at a critical moment in a ball game, just after stepping into the shower or when we just fell asleep. At least that's how it seems. Sower station may only get one or two calls a day. At the busier stations the tones can go off more than a couple dozen times in 24 hours.

Eventually, your shift ends, the talk to the guys coming in to relieve you and you get to go home. One of the reasons why I love my schedule so much is that my 'weekend' is always 4 days long.