I’m about to head out vacation. My wife, the consummate planner, decided that we would need a vacation right about now, and bought our ski/chill out vacation in Lake Tahoe about 6 months ago. Tomorrow morning we’re off to the airport and we plan to be immersed in the hottub by 6pm, with a cocktails in hand.

The folks at Tacoma received my Paramedic application and said, via email, “Looks good… we’ll let you know.” I’m not going to think about it ’til vacation is over. (Who am I kidding? I’m going to obsess about it non stop.)

I’ll be back on the chain gain at IFT on Wednesday, the 1st, and I’ll bet they’ll be glad to have me back. One of the Barbies, mentioned in a previous blog, fell down the stairs and broke her leg. Either her tib and/or fib. (It was hard to tell through her slurry percocet haze) and she’ll be out for at least a month. And, it turns out that the senior FTO, a woman I greatly admire, is leaving to go to another ambulance company. IFT will be short handed.

I’ll also be talking to the other Ambulance comapany about jumping ship and gettng on that 24 hour shift rotation. Of course, if I’m accepted to medic school all of this planning becomes moot and I’ll be a studying machine for the next year.

Ah, hell. Vacation is calling. See you when I get back.

I made a pact a few weeks ago to find positive thing to blog about, to provide a counterpoint to my acerbic comments about my current place of employment.

So, to that end, here’s a few of my favorite things.
And yes, some of them actually have to do with working for IFT.

1) Driving an Ambulance across the 520 floating bridge on a beautiful day.
2) Doing the above with a fresh cup of coffee and classic hits on the radio.
3) Working 4 days on, and then having three in a row off to spend with my wife.
4) Selling all my accumulated junk on eBay.
5) The satisfaction that I was able to make a career change at 38, which leads to…
6) Applying to Medic School.
7) Spending time with my friends and NOT talking about work.
Walking my dogs on a sunny Seattle morning.
9) Talking to my sister, who lives in Eastern Europe, on the phone once a week.

I sent my application in for the Paramedic Program this afternoon.

Fingers and toes crossed.

Today is my last day off on this rotation. The new schedule was posted today and I’m on the typical Fri, Sat and Sun 0700 to 1700 schedule. Then, I’m off for a week, as my wife and I are taking a much needed vacation to Lake Tahoe. We had planned this getaway a while back and I told the folks at IFT when I started that I had already bought the tickets and made the reservations. I’d heard horror stories from other people about how the scheduling department would ignore or not approve Time Off requests even if they were submitted months in advance, so I was a little worried. No problems. The scheduling folks just said, “Have fun. See you when you get back”.

In other news, I’ve been really vacillating on what to do with the Medic School application. I know I wrote that I was not going to apply this year and until last night, that was the plan. In all honesty, I don’t think I have much of a shot at getting in, but after a chat with my wife, we decided that I should submit my application and see what happens. If I am accepted, and she takes another job, I’ll stay, finish school and sell the house. If she doesn’t take another job, well… I’ll stay and go to medic school. If I don’t get accepted to the Paramedic Program, I’ll look at other options for school and work this year. That RT program? Maybe so.

See, here’s my problem. If I lived anywhere else in the country, I’d have no problem getting into a medic program. I’d go to the local community college and apply. I have great grades, enough experience and glowing letters of recommendation. The issue lies with Washington State only approving a couple of institutions to teach the Paramedic curriculum. Harborview/UW has an outstanding program. That’s Medic One. The Seattle Fire medics and King County paramedics have to go through this course. It’s the only approved medic course in King County, and one that I have ZERO interest in. Aside from other programs run by fire and the ones way to far for me to drive to every day, like Central Washington in Ellensburg, that leaves Tacoma Community College. Each year TCC has a zillion people apply and takes 24. Am I good enough to be one of those 24? I’d like to think so… but that’ll be up to the admissions board and the Program Director. So, again… we’ll see what happens. I’d be flattered just to be invited to the interview.

Not much in the way of fun stuff has been happening at IFT. There has been a rash of theft of electronic goodies at the station, including an iPod belonging to my Monday partner. She discovered it was stolen right before she came on shift, so you can imagine how her mood was for most of the night. I keep my GPS and other stuff close to me at all times when I’m there. I think that anyone who steals from a coworker is the lowest form of scum there is. I can see stealing food if your family is starving… but stealing a coworker’s GPS or iPod? That’s just low.

I talked to the folks at the other independent Ambulance company in the area again yesterday. They originally wanted to hire me back in December, but couldn’t put me on until the state cleared up the cert process. Well, I now have my card and when I spoke to the HR director, she said “I’d love to have you join the family, talk to me after your vacation and we’ll figure it out”. That sounds promising. This other company works a Modified Detroit schedule, (24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 4 days off), so I’d be on 24 hour shifts. Oh yeah, they pay more. And they run 911. Hmmm. No brainer.

It’s just about the end of the quarter and I’m just about finished with the prerequisites for entry into the Paramedic Program. Medical Terminology was a breeze and A&P II has been a lot of fun this quarter. My Anatomy prof has a pretty good sense of humor, so as an “extra credit gimme” he offered 10 extra points to anyone who would bring in a cooked, edible item that was not skeletal muscle or bone As an incentive to taste test, he offered 2 extra points to everyone who tried more than one thing.

So, this morning after lecture, we had a weird buffet of Chicken Hearts, Pig Brains, Calf Livers, Beef Kidneys and Chicken and Duck Gizzards…as well as a strange dish made by a Romanian guy that consisted of cooked pig ears and hoofs in a snotty, viscous jelly. It looked so disgusting that the prof offered an extra point to anyone who ate some.

I will admit, most of the offerings were pretty tasty. My contribution was a mess of pan fried gizzards, which went over pretty well. I tried everything, including the hooves in snot sauce. However, I did need to grab a large coffee on the way home to wash the taste of liver out of my mouth.

I really appreciate good writing. And the the guy that writes THIS BLOG does an amazing job.

Turning into the Drive I can see the splashing blues of the police car a little way off in the distance. As we careen along the poorly lit road, our blue lights tag after theirs, and we become mad paparazzi in the dark, wasting our film on some chain fencing, a group of kids, that tree.

Yes it’s another recommendation.
If you’re not regularly reading Siren Voices, start.

After reading a “what was your biggest EMS screw-up” thread on a message board…

Not really my screw up, but I was there. I was a very young EMT in the late 80s. My partner and I were working a code. It took a while for the medics to get there, so we were on our own for bit. The family was watching our every move and sobbing loudly as we performed the fruitless “CPR and Shock” dance. After we packaged and transported to the hospital, my partner got this awful look on his face.

“Oh hell. I left my jacket and the radio at the house.”

Now, if it was just his jacket, we would have left it there. (Remember, this was in the late 80s and we wore really tacky windbreakers.) However, we had just been issued these spankin’ new radios and the company would have hung us by our gonads if we lost a radio only a week after getting them.

Soooo… back to the house we went, which was now full of sobbing relatives.

“Knock, knock.” Door opens. “Hi, we forgot some stuff here…”

Awkward and uncomfortable.

My partner never lived that down. Every call after that I always asked, “Hey Numbnuts, got the radio?”

I’ve had a pretty good couple of days at IFT. Last week, I worked with a couple of new partners that I really like. One is a younger firefighter who is mature beyond his years. Pretty easy going and a great sense of humor. He’ll be known as “Wildfire”. The other is an outdoorsy, super intelligent, well read guy who has the most unwavering moral compass of anyone at IFT. I mean, this guy has ethics and a true belief in doing the right thing. From here on out, I’ll call him “Ranger”. It’s refreshing to know that not everyone who works there is an idiot who just want to play video games and drive the truck like they stole it. I’ve said it before, Good partners are a joy to work with.

Of course, we didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, just the typical dialysis shuffle. Oh yeah, we drank a fair amount of coffee, too.

Last week, I was on a late shift, along with two other crews. None of us had any calls pending, so we all met for dinner and then went on a “nature hike” at a local park. It was a beautiful, clear night and we grabbed flashlights out of the rigs, tromped down some well worn paths in the woods to the edge of the water and enjoyed the cool night air. It would have been outstanding with a small campfire and a few beers. If only we hadn’t been on duty. However, if we weren’t on duty, there would be a ZERO chance of me spending time with those kids. It’s funny how work friends are just not the same as non-work friends.

We also had a bit of a Charlie-Foxtrot the other day. While transporting a regular to dialysis, our dispatcher radios and asks how long it would be before we cleared our current call. She had just received a call for a “BLS Emergency” and a lift assist for a 400 pound patient at the same facility. After we tell her it’ll be 45 minutes before we clear, the dispatcher sends three crews to the facility, with the first one there getting the emergency call. Another crew arrives quickly and that leaves me and Wildfire, along with the self titled “Barbie Car”, a rig staffed by two girls, to do the lift assist. We arrive and start to plan the move, noticing quickly that the patient was simply too large for our Stryker. And when I say too large, I don’t mean in weight, I mean in width. There was no way we could put this patient onto our gurney and lock it into the retainer in the truck. No way, no how. We tell the dispatcher that she will need to call a bariatric truck for this transport, and she agrees. Shortly after, the Station Chief radios and chews the collective ass of the Barbies. He claims they’re not motivated and don’t want to do the call, all the while saying, “What’s wrong with you guys? I’ve moved a 600 pound person. It can be done”. Well, sure, it can be done… but can it be done safely and comfortably for the patient? Sorry to say, not in this case.

It turned into a huge mess, with the station chief again attempting to motivate the younger crew members through intimidation. The nursing staff was confused, the Barbies were near tears, my partner and I were embarrassed to be there and we were sure that some comments made by the Barbies would lose the contract for IFT. After much yelling and gnashing of teeth, we cleared the scene. “More coffee, stat.”

And, just for the record, the station chief didn’t say anything to me after I took the radio and apprised him of the situation. He later called me on the phone to thank me for taking charge of what was going on. Hoo boy.

As I mentioned earlier, my wife and I are considering a move to another part of the country. We both really like the Midwest and since she makes a LOT more money than I do, the place we move will be dependent on her job.
We talked briefly about moving to KCMO the other night. Hey, I like BBQ. There’s sports teams there. MAST has a great reputation.. It’s much closer to St Louis than we are now … Sounds like a winner to me.

Here’s a brief email exchange:

Me: Hey, I just checked. It looks like there’s EMS jobs in the area, both in Kansas and KCMO. And medic school choices, too.

Wife: Ha Ha. I love you. Go get a haircut today and clean the garage.

Hmmm. That was a nice vague noncommittal answer. I guess I shouldn’t get excited about moving yet. And there is this huge expensive house to sell, too.

None the less, I can tell that we’ll be moving soon. The gypsy spirit lives in both of us.