First EMS Stories

Well, I had my first really busy day at the 'ol EMS shop. By the time the day ended my head was throbbing and I just wanted a glass of wine and some peace & quiet. I was also so sore, biceps and thigh muscles, that it took me 2 days to work out those kinks!!

For my 7-1 shift I am expected to arrive at 6:45 AM. The tones first went off at about 8:15 that day. It was also a code red. That meant that it was considered serious enough that we would be going lights and sirens. This person was the first one to throw up in my presence. It did not bother me. I also had wondered about getting car sick while working in the back of the ambulance, but you are literally so busy; moving around and actually working that you do not even realize that you are in a large moving vehicle. I walked all around the back of that thing. We got this guy to the ER and then decided, afterwards, to stop and get gas and some coffee.

The station we stopped at had a Dunkin Donuts. The other EMT was pumping the gas, the medic went for coffee and I headed right to the bathroom!! I really, really had had to go for quite some time. Everyone who knows me knows that I have a bladder the size of a peanut. Naturally that morning I had made the choice to have a 5 shot beverage from the coffee mega giant!! Not a wise decision. I have since decided that on my work days, with EMS, that I will drink a much smaller drink and empty my bladder often.

As I was taking care of business I can hear the medics pager going off and him yelling my name!! I finish quickly and run out to go the next call. It is also a code red and we take the next person the an ER with lights and sirens. The entire call takes about an hour. When we get the patient situated in his room we proceed to the EMT room where the other EMT, who is working on her paramedic license, fills out the reports. I am so dehydrated by this point that I get a Gatorade out of the fridge and watch and learn.

It is at this moment that the medic says to me, " Under different circumstances that might be a turn on" and I look to see that my zipper is wide open!! The pants that I am wearing are not mine. I was fitted for pants a few weeks ago, but until they come in I am wearing loaner pants that had been someone else's. I have to cinch the belt in a bit and that leaves some bulk material in the zipper area. So, since they were unzipped they were WIDE open!! Needless to say I did get quite red, but it did make for a good laugh at a much needed time!! I was already overwhelmed with knowledge and experiences that day.

We managed to make it back to the station where I was able to do my own training paperwork and quickly eat a PB&J when the next tones went off. Also a code red. It was a very busy day for me and I managed to work almost 1 1/2 hours past my normal shift. There is tons of paperwork to go around. My head was swimming. Learning where things are at different hospitals. Refilling items used on the ambulance from the various ER supply rooms. I felt like a rat in a maze. I must have gone through 6 or 7 pairs of latex gloves that day. I did so many things, and in such quick time, that I was not even sure what I did do and learn. You do become immune to the sounds of the sirens, but at the end of the day I drove home in an absolutely silent car.

It is hard, physical work. I am really going to have to kick a work-out into high gear to be able to keep this up!! The EMT's really do much of the grunt work, physical lifting etc. for the medics. That is where I need to be by next year. The lifting is the worst part. The vomit and blood do not bother me at all. The physical work is the hardest so far. I was exhausted.

It has truly given me a new respect for the people that do this work. It is much more than medical knowledge.