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Firefighter Intern: Day 53 and 54
Jan. 12th, 2019 07:34 amAfter our usual safety briefing and some minor house chores, I started printing out my notes and studying for my next term of EMT school, learning about Diabetic Emergencies and Altered Mental Status, and Allergic Reactions, and reading ahead about Poisoning and Overdose Emergencies as well as Abdominal Emergencies.
We were toned out to an elderly lady with breathing difficulties and some significant medical history of Congestive Heart Failure and COPD, and I grabbed the gurney and helped load our patient, and sat in the airway management seat and kept her at 10 Liters of oxygen per minute on a rebreather mask, while the paramedic administered a double nebulizer and started an IV. I cleaned out the Medic rig once we'd transferred the patient, and cleaned and reset the rig. Without screwing anything up, this time! *smile*
Medic 483 went out of service this morning with a broken airbag, but County Maintenance was able to fix it pretty quickly - so I chased in U482 and helped move around the Medic Units so that our first and second-out Medics were back where the should be, and our second-out Medic was back at the Delena substation.
We ate dinner and stayed up a bit later than usual to watch a movie, and then we all went to bed - and then we were toned out an hour later for one of our 'regular' patients, an older lady with comorbid mental health and substance use issues who chronically doesn't take very good care of herself. However, I got to place my first 3-lead with the monitor and got some practice actually using the monitor (usually the paramedic does that).
Once we got back and stocked the Medic, we went back to sleep - for about an hour until we were toned out at 4:30 am for a 93-year-old lady with some pretty serious low blood pressure and fainting problems. I sat in the patient assistance seat to the right of the gurney and prepped and spiked the bag (set up the line to introduce a liter of fluids that help with blood pressure) while the paramedic placed the IV. I got her an extra blanket and some instant hot packs for her hands and feet, and was called a 'gentleman'.
Once we got back, after stopping en route for breakfast burritos, it was about 6:30 am, so we got a quick nap in before our 8 am meeting. We were all pretty tired, and I was pretty glad to find that our Paramedic intern was there and was taking me off first-out medical responses. I'm still first out for fire responses and expected to chase with U482 if the medical response requires more personnel.
We took care of the rest of the house chores; fortunately, I got the upstairs bathrooms that I could clean in my sleep (and pretty much did!) and I took a nap instead of eating lunch. I got another nap in after dinner.
We were toned out at 11 pm to help with a Traffic Accident in Rescue 481 in a neighboring district, but we were recalled before we got out of the station, and again at 5:30 am for a public assist for an over-tired trucker who was a bit confused and disoriented - not a lot of consistent sleep this whole shift!
AEIOU TIPS is used to assess patients with an altered mental status (AMS) or an altered level of consciousness (ALOC).
A Alcohol
E Epilepsy
I Insulin
O Overdose
U Underdose
T Trauma
I Infection
P Psychosis
S Stroke
We were toned out to an elderly lady with breathing difficulties and some significant medical history of Congestive Heart Failure and COPD, and I grabbed the gurney and helped load our patient, and sat in the airway management seat and kept her at 10 Liters of oxygen per minute on a rebreather mask, while the paramedic administered a double nebulizer and started an IV. I cleaned out the Medic rig once we'd transferred the patient, and cleaned and reset the rig. Without screwing anything up, this time! *smile*
Medic 483 went out of service this morning with a broken airbag, but County Maintenance was able to fix it pretty quickly - so I chased in U482 and helped move around the Medic Units so that our first and second-out Medics were back where the should be, and our second-out Medic was back at the Delena substation.
We ate dinner and stayed up a bit later than usual to watch a movie, and then we all went to bed - and then we were toned out an hour later for one of our 'regular' patients, an older lady with comorbid mental health and substance use issues who chronically doesn't take very good care of herself. However, I got to place my first 3-lead with the monitor and got some practice actually using the monitor (usually the paramedic does that).
Once we got back and stocked the Medic, we went back to sleep - for about an hour until we were toned out at 4:30 am for a 93-year-old lady with some pretty serious low blood pressure and fainting problems. I sat in the patient assistance seat to the right of the gurney and prepped and spiked the bag (set up the line to introduce a liter of fluids that help with blood pressure) while the paramedic placed the IV. I got her an extra blanket and some instant hot packs for her hands and feet, and was called a 'gentleman'.
Once we got back, after stopping en route for breakfast burritos, it was about 6:30 am, so we got a quick nap in before our 8 am meeting. We were all pretty tired, and I was pretty glad to find that our Paramedic intern was there and was taking me off first-out medical responses. I'm still first out for fire responses and expected to chase with U482 if the medical response requires more personnel.
We took care of the rest of the house chores; fortunately, I got the upstairs bathrooms that I could clean in my sleep (and pretty much did!) and I took a nap instead of eating lunch. I got another nap in after dinner.
We were toned out at 11 pm to help with a Traffic Accident in Rescue 481 in a neighboring district, but we were recalled before we got out of the station, and again at 5:30 am for a public assist for an over-tired trucker who was a bit confused and disoriented - not a lot of consistent sleep this whole shift!
AEIOU TIPS is used to assess patients with an altered mental status (AMS) or an altered level of consciousness (ALOC).
A Alcohol
E Epilepsy
I Insulin
O Overdose
U Underdose
T Trauma
I Infection
P Psychosis
S Stroke
