The title directly reflects this past Saturday's shift in Boston.
It was a very busy 24 hours and I got almost no sleep. Actually, I didn't get to bed until after I got home at 8:00 Sunday morning. So suffice it to say I got no sleep to speak of during the shift. From 4:00PM on with the exception of about 45 minutes to grab dinner at about 10:00 we were non-stop. And I had a bit of a wrinkle thrown into my work routine which messed me up even further. The duty supervisor - a really good guy named Marty Cohen - rolled through at about 9:30 and asked me if I would be willing to go to Everett to work the overnight on the P-48 truck. I had no problem doing that; after all, was I really in a position to refuse? There was such a short list of people working that I really didn't have much of a choice as the area needed to be covered. So I went. The rub is that I was supposed to be there at 11:00PM, but I really didn't arrive until 1:15 Sunday morning because after he passed through we got more traffic from the BI. Three more transfers from 10:30-ish until just before 1:00. All pretty sick people.
So I left Boston to go to Everett - only about a 15-20 minute ride. I got there and signed on with Operations in Somerville (Boston, Somerville, and Atlantic in Peabody all have their own Operations centers) and not 10 minutes later we got sent back to Boston to transfer another patient from the BI ED to the ICU across campus. Just a little ridiculous, but that's how short-handed it was. We cleared that up and as we were heading back into Everett, Chelsea came on the air with a rollover and 4 patients. All of the Chelsea BLS crews were there and we were the only medic truck in the area, so we got sent to that. They were literally screaming for us - Marty, the same supervisor, was on scene and he had a rather seriously injured 16 year-old male with a fractured right femur. It was a high fracture with considerable deformity and, considering the severity of the crash (the car rolled end-over-end instead of sideways like most rollovers do) he was lucky it was his only real injury. He was restrained in the front seat as the passenger and there was airbag deployment. He was pulled from the car by his less seriously injured friends that he was with - also lucky that he wasn't hurt worse.
We took him to the Mass. General. I suspect he went to surgery not long after we arrived there.
By the time we cleared that call (including the time it took to decon and re-stock the truck) it was about 4:45. We still had to get back to Everett, and once we did I was still a little wound up. I think I napped for about an hour or so after we got there, but then shift change came at 7:00 and I got to go home.
All in all, it really wasn't a bad shift. Nightmarish is accurate, but I've had shifts like that in Manch, too. It was simply extremely busy and chaotic. The good part about that is that I only do that twice a week and I can do other things when I'm not there. I'm already discovering that my stress levels have come down considerably, and while I have to get up early on the days I work down there, it's really not that bad. I think I'm starting to like it, too. Now all that has to happen is for me to learn the streets better.....
I was planning to play softball yesterday with my friends from RRA. But I also worked at the track and by the time I arrived at home all I wanted to do was crash, which I promptly did until 7:30 this morning. Then I worked in Brentwood on ALS-15 - 9:00 to 5:00. Not a bad day, all said - two calls, both discharges. Now I'm just hanging out relaxing. I don't have to be anywhere tomorrow until 6:00PM, which I'm ecstatic about. So it's one more beer, and I don't hear you anymore.....
It was a very busy 24 hours and I got almost no sleep. Actually, I didn't get to bed until after I got home at 8:00 Sunday morning. So suffice it to say I got no sleep to speak of during the shift. From 4:00PM on with the exception of about 45 minutes to grab dinner at about 10:00 we were non-stop. And I had a bit of a wrinkle thrown into my work routine which messed me up even further. The duty supervisor - a really good guy named Marty Cohen - rolled through at about 9:30 and asked me if I would be willing to go to Everett to work the overnight on the P-48 truck. I had no problem doing that; after all, was I really in a position to refuse? There was such a short list of people working that I really didn't have much of a choice as the area needed to be covered. So I went. The rub is that I was supposed to be there at 11:00PM, but I really didn't arrive until 1:15 Sunday morning because after he passed through we got more traffic from the BI. Three more transfers from 10:30-ish until just before 1:00. All pretty sick people.
So I left Boston to go to Everett - only about a 15-20 minute ride. I got there and signed on with Operations in Somerville (Boston, Somerville, and Atlantic in Peabody all have their own Operations centers) and not 10 minutes later we got sent back to Boston to transfer another patient from the BI ED to the ICU across campus. Just a little ridiculous, but that's how short-handed it was. We cleared that up and as we were heading back into Everett, Chelsea came on the air with a rollover and 4 patients. All of the Chelsea BLS crews were there and we were the only medic truck in the area, so we got sent to that. They were literally screaming for us - Marty, the same supervisor, was on scene and he had a rather seriously injured 16 year-old male with a fractured right femur. It was a high fracture with considerable deformity and, considering the severity of the crash (the car rolled end-over-end instead of sideways like most rollovers do) he was lucky it was his only real injury. He was restrained in the front seat as the passenger and there was airbag deployment. He was pulled from the car by his less seriously injured friends that he was with - also lucky that he wasn't hurt worse.
We took him to the Mass. General. I suspect he went to surgery not long after we arrived there.
By the time we cleared that call (including the time it took to decon and re-stock the truck) it was about 4:45. We still had to get back to Everett, and once we did I was still a little wound up. I think I napped for about an hour or so after we got there, but then shift change came at 7:00 and I got to go home.
All in all, it really wasn't a bad shift. Nightmarish is accurate, but I've had shifts like that in Manch, too. It was simply extremely busy and chaotic. The good part about that is that I only do that twice a week and I can do other things when I'm not there. I'm already discovering that my stress levels have come down considerably, and while I have to get up early on the days I work down there, it's really not that bad. I think I'm starting to like it, too. Now all that has to happen is for me to learn the streets better.....
I was planning to play softball yesterday with my friends from RRA. But I also worked at the track and by the time I arrived at home all I wanted to do was crash, which I promptly did until 7:30 this morning. Then I worked in Brentwood on ALS-15 - 9:00 to 5:00. Not a bad day, all said - two calls, both discharges. Now I'm just hanging out relaxing. I don't have to be anywhere tomorrow until 6:00PM, which I'm ecstatic about. So it's one more beer, and I don't hear you anymore.....
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