Thursday, March 13, 2008

Cross-Eyed

I should be in bed. But I wanted to write before turning in.

My brain is a little bit addled - this has been a rather intense two days, just because of the work schedule. Last night I worked my regular tour on ALS-2 (5:00P-7:00A this morning), and when I left I had to go to court to deal with the guy that punched me back in January. He decided to plead out, so I didn't have to stay. On my way home I got a call from Goffstown - they needed coverage for a few hours so that they could get the burn house ready. I'm bummed - I'll miss the burn because I'm teaching Saturday..... Left there, came home, got to see my kids and have dinner with them. My wife called me to let me know that one of her nurses banged out sick, so she's covering until 11:00 tonight. So I am by myself, killing time, writing, getting my head settled down for the night.

Last night was actually a really easy tour. I only went on three calls, two of them non-transports. The third was a 79 year-old female having difficulty breathing. I'd transported her before, maybe a week ago, same thing. Except this time it was at 2:30 in the morning instead of 1:00 in the afternoon. She was still sick, though, so we took care of her.

It's what we do.

One of the other crews got called out to a cardiac arrest. The patient, a 60 year-old female, was a frequent flyer - she and her daughter abused the system pretty regularly. Their combined weight was approximately 1200 pounds - no joke. Anyway, her daughter found her at about 2:00 this morning. She had gone up to bed at 7:30 the previous evening and hadn't been seen since. When our crew got to her, she was cold, rigor had set in, and her eyes were open. The medic on the truck described the expression on her face as one of surprise, although with a gross weight of approximately 500 pounds, there couldn't have been much in the way of surprise with a death that was quick like that. Her 37 year-old daughter weighs in at between 700 and 750 pounds, and my suspicion is that she won't know what to do with herself without Mom there with her. But time will tell; it almost always does.

YouTube - Jeff Beck & Jennifer Batten - Blue Wind

Jeff Beck and Jennifer Batten are in the above video, performing Jan Hammer's "Blue Wind." I've always admired Jeff Beck; he's a phenomenal guitarist in any venue. But this combination of the two of them is most impressive. Watch their hands; it's like they're not moving, but they are manipulating their guitars to produce some really incredible sounds.

Tomorrow night is another ALS-2 tour. This weekend is going to be busy, between teaching Saturday and evaluating Sunday morning, it will be another weekend worked, for the most part. But we'll survive it; we always do.

2 comments:

Ellie said...

I'm behind in reading your blog, and just read about one of everyones favorite frequent flyers dying. I am certainly not surprised. Maybe the daughter will get better, now that her enabler is gone.

Unknown said...

Either that, or the daughter will die herself. I'm hopeful that you're right, but I'm not so sure....