Ok I promise I will post more often

I didn't realize that it has been close to a year since my last post. My how the time has flown. In My last post I had mentioned how I had gotten hired by the fire department. Well it has definetly been a year of highs and lows. I went from being very excited about getting hired at the fire department and really enjoying the job, to wondering if I was going to have a job. I am overweight, I always have been, but I am in alright shape for my size. Well about six months into the job we had to do one of 2 yearly physical agility tests, and I did not very well on it. The test involves putting on an air pack and crawling around in a maze that is supposed to simulate a house. I used a lot more air than the rest of the crew. I had a big come to Jesus meeting with my Battalion Chief and basically was told I need to step it up with my physical fitness or my job could be in jeopardy. I think my problem was that I became fat and happy. I worked my butt off to get in shape for the physical agility test that I had to take to get hired and once I got hired I slacked off with working out. Don't get me wrong I was still working out but I was not as dedicated as I was before. So my little come to Jesus meeting with my Battalion Chief was an eye opener and since I have gotten back on the work out train and have lost 30 pounds. Now things are great we are getting ready to take the second physical agility test and I feel like I am in pretty good shape right now and I shouldn't have any problems with it. The second test is the same test that I took to get hired which involves an obsticle course where you do a lot the activities that you would be expected to do at a fire scene...I will bore you with the details some other time. Now I am happy as can be again at my job. It has been one heck of a roller coaster ride. I will be happy when my year is up that way it is next to impossible for them to get rid of me unless I do something really stupid.
At my fire department we also have to be on the ambulance. Most of the guys think that I need a mental examination because I actually like being on the ambulance more so than fighting fires. I really enjoy the ambulance because on the ambulance you have to think. Don't get me wrong when you are fighting fires you have to think as well but it is a different type of thinking. On the fire ground you have to think about the stuff that you need to do to keep yourself and the rest of your crew from getting hurt but to solve the actual problem on the fire ground is pretty simple...you put the wet stuff on the red stuff. On ambulance calls you have to think about all kinds of things to solve the actual problem. However, there is a much bigger adrenaline rush going into a fire. So no that I sit back and think about I guess it is an even trade off.
Like all good firefighters, I got a part time job for my days off (which for the record, we are off 20 days per month). I am working at a very small hospital about 20 miles from where I live as a paramedic on their ambulance service. It is very different from my full time job as far as call volume. At my full time job we run an average of 14 calls a day and at my part time job we run about 40 calls per month. The cool thing is when we do have calls at my part time job they are usually pretty cool calls. When I say cool calls it is kind of a paradox, for me to have a cool day at work someone else has to have the one of the worst days of their life whether it be a bad trauma or medical emergency or someones home or business catching fire. At the part time job I have got see a patient that had 3 fingers amputated, and I came as close to delivering a baby as I ever want to. We were called to a residence for a woman in labor, when we pulled up to the house a small child comes outside and said to hurry becuase the baby is coming out. As I walked into the bedroom, the baby had just finished coming out so I got to the suctioning an clamping and cutting the umbilical cord. It is a very different job knowing that a lot of the time I am the only paramedic, because most times it is just myself and an EMT-Basic. At my full time job we always send an engine with the ambulance so there are always 3 other paramedics and myself to share the responsibility. I have only been a paramedic for about a year and half and I think that working at the part time job is making me a better paramedic since most of the time I have no one else to fall back on.
So between being a full time firefighter/paramedic, part time paramedic, volunteer firefighter/paramedic in the town I live in, and a reserve police officer in the town I live in I get my fill of adrenaline. I would not trade all the things I do for anything. Thank goodness for a very understanding wife.
I have rambled on for long enough however, let me leave you with the story of one the weirdest calls that I have been on so far which just happened last night at my full time job. We were dispatched for a male subject that needed water for humidified oxygen. When we got the call my partner and I were thinking okay this is strange why would someone call us for this. We arrived at the residence and we made contact with the patient, it turns out that the patient was indeed on oxygen but he did not need water for it at all. The patient was thirsty and needed a drink of water. The patient has terminal cancer and is very weak, he was in a small room that appeared to have been a porch at one time and there is a door seperating the room from the rest of the house. The patient had tried to yell for his caretaker to get him a glass of water. The caretaker had fallen asleep and could not hear the patient so the patient was really thirsty and called 911 for an ambulance. The patient was so weak that he could hardly talk and it turned out that the dispatchers could not understand what he was saying so that is where the water for the humidified oxygen came from. All of got a good chuckle out of this call when we cleared.
Well I as mentioned at the start of this post I promise to post more often. Take care and stay safe.