Updates and such

Life has been keeping me extremely busy the past few weeks and the internet, much less this blog, has fallen to the side.

I've spent a lot of time with my horse lately, and it somewhat payed off this weekend. We placed 5th in a halter class, behind 3 horses that are ranked in world standings! Now, my boy is nowhere near a halter horse. He was bred for cutting and reining, but will not focus enough to cut and was sold because the past owner didn't need another turnbacks horse.

My goal is to have him dead-broke for trail riding, and for us to someday compete in a reining competition. For now, I'm trying to save up money I don't have to pay for lessons for both of us. At $40 an hour, it's cheap, but still more than I can spare right now.


As far as work is concerned, some things change, while other things stay the same.

I'm still awaiting the transfer that never was.

I'm continuing to be sent off quite a bit to drive. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing, so I'll take it.

The department has decided after getting all this new equipment, and making so many people scramble to get training that was thrown together and mandantory, to remove the entire style of units from a few stations. They replaced them with ambulances. I'm not saying it's made anyone happy, but we severely needed the extra transport units. Especially with the way we dispatch units to ALS calls.

As for the calls, I ran one while at another station that made me laugh in a way. We were dispatched to the parking lot of a VERY busy nightclub that's in the corner of an old mall/plaza. All we were told was that the patient was assualted, and they'd be waiting by a red car.

Ummm, can we get some type of a better location? It was so busy when we passed by earlier that evening, I knew we'd never get in the parking lot.

As we were driving around hoping PD would locate and help us out, I just happened to notice an update on the MDT that said the patient was moved to a different address. Gee, thanks for the heads-up on that vital tid-bit of info radio. Not like you're overly busy at 3am...

Anyways, we get to the new location and the patient is holding a tshirt to the side of his head. Since I don't speak a lick of spanish, one of his buddies said the blood would spurt if he took the shirt away. I grabbed a stack of 4x4's and a roll of cling. Using the friend as a translator, we made 1 fairly swift motion to remove the shirt and replace it with 4x4's. I didn't get a very good look at the laceration, but I knew it was in front of his ear and at least an inch long, and we all know how great any head laceration will bleed.

In the truck, we got a 16gauge IV, and I gave a bolus of ringers (was fresh out of saline bags). His blood pressure was stable, but we weren't exactly sure how long ago or where the assault occured, so I figured I'd play it safe and give a bolus, then titrate it back to KVO.

I called the hospital of choice to give a report, gave them vitals, what little of a story I had, and made sure to tell them that he possibly had an arterial bleed. The nurse said "ok", so no worries, or so I thought.

Enroute, I continued having a helluva time controlling the bleeding. Having used all the 4x4's I could reach, I grabbed a nearby spare sheet and held pressure the remainder of the way to the hospital. I also continued to use the buddy from onscene to translate to the patient what was going on. **NOTE- we are not supposed to allow friends or family, except in rare circumstances, to ride in the back. I felt it justified by my need for a translator to gain info about medical history and such.**

At the ER, one of the male nurses made a very snide comment about 'this is the type of patient better suited for, ya know, a trauma center.' I bit my tongue, hard.

#1- The nurse that took my report was made aware of the bleed and still accepted.

#2- The patient wanted to come here.

#3- Since when are trauma centers the only one's that can do stitches?! (what I really wanted to ask)

#4- I called in on a recorded line. Therefore, I have PROOF that your facility was aware and still accepted my patient without question. Get over yourself, you weren't even the least bit busy.

I stayed in the room for a few minutes once the patient was moved off my stretcher. The Dr was preparing to start putting in the stitches, and I basically just held the other side of the patient's head so he wouldn't move it around. The Dr was done by the time I finished and brought a copy of the PCR, and my partner was done decon'ing the rig.