Unconscious Drunk Guys are Heavy.

Working mostly weekend nights I'm seeing a lot of intoxication and the resultant stupidity. If I did drink, I think that seeing the incredibly moronic behaviour that results would turn me off for good! One thing that all drunk guys should learn is that talking to another guy's girlfriend usually results in said guy attempting to rearrange your face. When standing in front of a cement ledge, it tends to get a lot worse on the way down.

When we got there, 250 lbs of intoxication was laying neatly on the sidewalk, rolled in the perfect recovery position by a bystander who was concerned about the blood gurgling out of his mouth. I do love it when people do first aid before I arrive, it makes me feel like teaching first aid classes during the week is making a difference.

We ended up doing a rather messy lift once he was backboarded and on stretcher, and as a result, it ended up impacting against my leg rather hard. I don't bruise easily, but when I do, it looks bad! For scale, it's the size of my hand.

 

Mirror Image

I'm finishing up my weekend and heading back into my run of shifts, and the familiar nerves are back. Ever since I was around 10 y/o, I looked at paramedics in awe in the hope that one day I would be one. Now, it's hard to believe that I am the person who shows up when somebody calls 911. I wonder if the poor bugger who sees me walk through the door sees my nerves and inexperience, or if they see confidence and the uniform. I know what I see when I look in the mirror.

Calming Nerves

First few weeks of shifts are behind me, and I am proud to report that I haven't killed anybody yet! Seriously though, I'm still nervous, but it feels good to have even a couple weeks of experience. One of the things that concerned me the most was the one thing we never did as students - driving. It always seemed like it would be a big jump, driving a large vehicle lights and sirens on the first shift with no experience. It isn't that bad though, just have to keep it slow and expect other drivers to do the opposite of what they are supposed to do. One of my first lights-and-sirens drives was a stat transfer to a pediatric hospital an hour away with a doctor, nurse and a woman in 30-week labour. The doc told us that they had managed to get her labour stopped, but we had about 45 minutes before they expected it to start again, and they REALLY needed to be at the hospital with the NICU when that happened. Thank God it was a beautiful day, not at rush hour, and the roads were good, because it went well. Not perfectly, but well. Fighting off the throat/chest infection of a lifetime now after a weekend of patients with pneumonia, so here's hoping I get better instead of worse so I can make my weekend shifts.