He passed!

The guys got a call to a house where the patient didn't speak English. The firefighters on scene were trying to communicate with him through a woman who was there. My paramedic turned to the woman and asked her whether the patient communicated better in Spanish or English. When she said Spanish, my paramedic rattled off some questions. He just doesn't look like the kind of guy who speaks Spanish like a native, and this was the first time Brian and Dan heard him do it. Brian and the firefighters stared at him dumbfounded. Dan's response was:

"HOLY SH**!!! You just passed your internship!"

A mushy aside - a special thanks to all of our friends and family who are making this internship process easier. We really appreciate all of your various forms of help!

Sugar is a very good thing.

My paramedicrolled on the scene of an elderly woman who wouldn't wake up when her house mate tried to get her up in the morning. She scored a 1-1-1 on the coma scale (that's bad). Basically, it means she was unresponsive in every way. He went through the stuff he's supposed to do to figure out what's wrong and found out that she was severely hypoglycemic. It's amazing how quickly some sugar will bring someone back from coma land. In about 5 minutes she went from the lowest end of the coma scale to the highest end. Yay sugar!

Brian's new game is 'stump the Mount S.A.C. graduate'. Apparently, my paramedic's school has a reputation as being the most difficult paramedic program. Brian asks every paramedic they meet to try to come up with a question that my paramedic can't answer so that he can make him write a paper about it. I'm just waiting for Brian to come across another Mount S.A.C. grad to face off against my paramedic. I think Brian's going about it all wrong. He keeps asking medical questions. I could give Brian some GREAT questions to ask my paramedic that he can't answer (like what he wants to name this baby). I'd love to get a paper written on that one!! Maybe we can name him Sugar.

A bad day

My paramedic had a bad day yesterday. He forgot his work boots, did the paper Brian asked him to do on a similarly named but nonetheless wrong drug, had to put up with Dan and Brian fighting bitterly with each other (over the proper use of the parking break) and with dispatch, had trouble with some procedures, and had a supervisor show up on one of the difficult calls (the supervisor noticed the street shoes, too). Brian told him not to worry about the boots; he worked a day in sandals one time when he forgot his. Paramedicine and the fashion industry - two jobs where you do not want to be caught in the wrong boots.

It's worth it!

It takes 12.5 gallons of gas to drive to Hemet and back.

"Hi, my name is John. I'm a paramedic and I'm here to help you."

My paramedic got to be a 'real' paramedic yesterday. Head on collision on a two way road, 45 mph each way. Thank goodness for airbags, seatbelts, and crumply cars. The person in the car fared well, with only a few scratches. The person in the truck rolled three times. My paramedic cut her out of the seatbelt, c-spined her, and started iv's. She was a radiology tech at the local hospital. She had one, maybe two broken arms, airbag abrasions, and a possible skull fracture from the roof getting mushed. She didn't even want pain medication. It's amazing what adrenaline will make you feel - or not feel. My paramedic asked her a series of questions to determine if she was alert and oriented.

"Do you know what time it is?"

"About 1400 hours."

"Do you know where you are?"

"Yes. I'm strapped to your f****** backboard!"

Yep, alert and oriented.

Happy, Healthy Hemet

Thankfully, the people of Hemet have been driving safely and taking care of themselves. Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't need paramedics at all? My paramedic's calls lately have consisted of a few inter-facility transports, some fainting episodes, a frequent flyer looking for drugs, and a young man who called the paramedics because of a sharp pain he felt in his abdomen. He got the sharp pain after laughing really, really hard. My paramedic did have a first - he started an iv in the back of a moving ambulance.

Dislocated hip

An elderly woman fell and dislocated her hip. My paramedic drew up a dosage of Versed (a drug not within the scope of practice for LA County; one of the benefits of not being in LA County). The woman asked if the drug would help with the pain.

"Nope."

"Then what's it for?"

"To make you forget the pain you're about to feel."

He then pulled while Brian popped the hip back into place and they transported her to the hospital.