Lung Cancer and CHF

In the middle of the afternoon we were toned out for a man having trouble breathing. When we got there we were met by his hospice nurse. She informed us that he was having rather severe breathing problems but his vitals were stable. My patient had a history of CHF and terminal lung cancer. I felt bad for the guy but there wasn't much we could do. We gave him some oxygen. Checked his lungs sounds (which were clear). His lungs were operating as best as they could as far as I could tell. All we could do is make him comfortable and get him to the hospital to get further testing done.

The Academy The Preamble

Over the upcoming weeks I am going to write about my experiences in the fire academy. I hope to give a glimpse of what I and my family went through to get where we are.

Once I was hired by my current department I was informed that I would be attending a fire academy in the area. Once I discovered this I did some research. I was unable to find out too much other than that this academy has a reputation for being rather tough.

A week before the academy started my wife and I (kids in tow) attended a family night for the academy. It was geared to let our loved ones know more or less what we were going to be going through for the next 4 months. The instructors tried to scare and intimidate the recruits (starting the mind games early). At one point the recruits were separated from their family members. The families got to watch a video from the previous academy and had a question and answer session. The recruits were marched into another room where we met our mentors. The mentors were firefighters that had graduated from the last academy and had volunteered to help us through this academy. If at any point in the academy, we needed help or had questions, they were there for us. Some of the recruits would use this resource a lot and others wouldn't.

By the end of the night my wife and I had decided that the family night was more geared towards the parents of rather young recruits still living at home. It was more or less, "make sure they get fed and have clean socks." I think my paramedic program did a better job at their family day. It was more like this...."say goodbye to the nice person that you call your loved one. For the next few months they will be tired, stressed and grumpy. Don't worry, they will return to normal after the program is over." That about sums up the academy.

Spanish Comes in Handy

We got toned out for a woman with a headache and high blood pressure at a assisted living facility. The manager met us at the front lobby and escorted us to the apartment. While we were walking the manager let us know that the tenet was Spanish speaking. As we approached the elevator the manager asked the custodian to come along to translate. I was met with some incredulous eyes by my captain and the manager when I said that wouldn't be necessary.

We were met at the door by the husband. As I approached the patient I introduced myself and asked what was going on, in Spanish. My captain was shocked at my linguistic abilities. The patient had a history of high blood pressure and had been having a severe headache since about one in the morning. I did a quick neuro check to see if she might be having a CVA. By the time that I was done AMR was on scene. We quickly loaded her up and sent to get checked out.

After that call we were toned out for another in the same facility. This time it was another Spanish speaker. This time a nice old lady had just slipped down out of her recliner and couldn't get back up. Her friends weren't able to do it either. We helped her up and then I spent a few minutes just chatting with her. Turns out she was Cuban (her accent was a dead give away). I don't get the chance to talk to many Cubans any more so it was fun. After making sure everyone was OK we cleared the call. Afterward my captain said that he didn't care if I was a lousy medic (which I'm not). The ability to speak Spanish alone made me a 14/10 in his book.

GSW

We were toned out for an EMS call just a couple of blocks from the station. At times it is difficult to understand our dispatchers so we were responding without knowing fully what we were headed into. Once we understand that this was a GSW and that PD was not there yet we shut down and staged. No sense in getting us shot. After a few minutes PD cleared the scene and we pulled up. We found a teenager sitting on the ground up against a couch. He was holding his left hand. He had been shot once by a .40 caliber weapon. He was one of the luckiest people I know getting shot. The bullet grazed the side of his head leaving about a 1 inch laceration. After that (an assumption) the bullet entered his left hand between his thumb and index finger (in the thick meaty part) and then exited out the palm. We quickly bandaged his injuries and then sent him on his way. One thing that I thought was interesting. One of the first things that he asked for was Morphine. A bit of advice. Paramedics don't like giving out narcotics to people that don't need them. And most medics that I know agree that if a patient immediately asks for Morphine the likelihood of that patient getting it drops to about zero. If you want something for the pain...let us know that you're in pain. We know what to do from there. I don't know if the transporting paramedic gave him Morphine or not but somehow I don't think so.

Virus=Very Yes...

We were toned out to a fire alarm at one of the elementary schools. When we got there we met up with the custodian (school is still out for the summer). He showed us to the alarm panel where it showed 3 trouble areas. We silenced the alarm then checked all three areas with the TIC. As we finished the alarms sounded again. Once back at the panel we silenced the alarm and noticed that there were now more than 20 trouble areas. The alarms then went off a third time. Now there were 67 trouble areas. We decided that the school needed to get the alarm company out to service the system. It reminded me of a Home Star Runner episode dealing with Strong Bad and viruses.