Just Plain Ruff

KEEP THIS CIVIL Ok, now that the website is sort of up and running, and the state exchanges are up and running for signups- What has your experience been with insurance? Have you received the dreaded cancellation notice? Have you been able to sign up? Have you seen a increase or decrease in your premium? How bout a increase or decrease in your deductible or out of pocket? If your company offers insurance have they said whether or not your insurance is grandfathered in and OK or not? Just curious. Ruff My insurance will remain the same next year - no real changes. According to a piece in the Investors business daily today, the real change for employer provided plans will happen next year over a period of many months when the employer plans that you are covered under will begin to be looked at under the ACA microscope and many will be cancelled or forced to change. If your plan is self funded (employer self funded) those are already being looked at from what I understand and they are really being targeted. So be ready to be told your coverage is going to be cancelled. But for now, my coverage at my employer is good to go.

yep, the good that you do surpasses the bad stuff doesn't it. Comfort care for the family, I found that to be one of my most honored parts of the job, at least to me it was. I was always the one in our ER that was chosen to be with the family when a loved one passed in our ED. Everyone said I just had the gift of knowing how to deal with those situations.

Just let me know when you work so I don't come see you, you party pooper you, stinky pants

What about the police officers who work 4 months as day shift, then switch to evening shift for 4 months and then switch again to night shift for 4 months. I know of some departments that do that.

I can tell you that I did not want the dilaudid but it did feel good though and I can understand how people get hooked. Maybe the first batch without the dilaudid would have worked. Can't say for sure as I was shitfaced snowed under and flying over the grand canyon all from room 3 at the ER.

I had a migraine a couple of months ago and went to the ER. 25 mgs of phenergan, 10 mg toradol and 2mg of dilaudid and I was done. I can definately see how people can get hooked on that crap. It took an additional 1mg of dilaudid to get rid of the migraine. the only reason I got the dilaudid was that I knew the doctor from a long time ago during paramedic school and he felt that I was not a drug seeker. He said that I got the special treatment that other migraine sufferers didn't routinely get. They got everything but the dilaudid.

And I would not want to be the person who told the parent company about that. Ill bet that person is not destined to be around for very much longer at the hospital. Some convenient way to get rid of them. But yes, this lawsuit does indeed have traction and teeth I believe. That's why it's so important for all of our agencies and companies we work for to watch this. If they win then this opens up the floodgates to many lawsuits of the kind. How many people have fallen asleep when driving home after a mandated overtime shift? How many ambulance wrecks have been because of sleep deprivation. I have long been a proponent of no more than working 12 hours a shift with at least 10 hours in between shifts. And night shifters should be given 12 hours in between shifts.

Myself as well CH. Being a diabetic and being under the care of a very very good Endocrinologist (their clinic ranks 11th in the country), they are into this preventive medicine and they had me on both meds until just 3 months ago when they decided to do a trial on me of taking me off one of the medications. (for now I cannot remember which one they took me off). My cholesterol and triglycerides have gone down with my being off the one medication and my doc called and said that she wanted to keep me off the medicine for 3 more months to see what happens again. But she did say she wanted me to go see a cardiologist as part of my Diabetes regimen before this year was out, so I guess another appointment is in the works for me. Thank God for Obamacare right??? I'm sure that cardiologist will put me right back on my meds again. Sure he'll say it's for the best. I tend to follow the money.

This lawsuit has a lot of traction - This is focusing on Nursing and the overworking of nurses in our hospitals but if the plaintiff's win, it's only a matter of time before an EMS agency is brought into the same type of lawsuit. http://fox4kc.com/2013/11/13/lawsuit-ohio-nurse-was-worked-to-death/ I know that there were times at one service I worked that you would work a 24, then someone would call in and if you were on call you got mandatory Call in to work the next 24 and then you might just be scheduled to work the next 24 after that. Good possibility you would get 4-6 hours of sleep total for 72 hours. I lived it for 3 years. This should have a lot of both hospitals and EMS systems looking at this.

I had a physician who supplied my family pretty good with narcs. I went into her office and she wrote me a script for vicodin for 150 pills, a script for percocet for 150 pills and a script for 50 dilaudid's. ( I only got the vicodin script filled) She kept my mother and father in pain supplies for nearly 5 years. My last appointment with her is when I found out she had terminal colon cancer and she asked me point blank what medications I needed and she would write the scripts. I told her I needed more pain pills and she wrote me multiple scripts for multiple pain meds, including fentanyl patches. I was given all my normal meds RX's as well as 8 pain scripts of differing strengths. I asked her if she was worried that the DEA would come after her and she said "I'm dying, they can try but what are they going to do, put me in jail?" My parents fared much better with the pain scripts. Bottom line, this doctor didn't fear the DEA. She did tell me to get the scripts filled at different pharmacies though. Get one filled at Walgreens, one at CVS another at a local mom and pop shop. She asked if I understood what she was saying. I told her I did. But the pharmacies didn't care, I filled 3 of the scripts at one CVS and they didn't bat an eye. This doctor also just left script pads that were signed lying all around her office. She had a stamper that she just stamped all her pads when she got them I guess. It would have been easy to just grab a pad or two. I can see how Missouri is 7th in the US for overdose deaths, I ran quite a few deaths in my small town, I'm just surprised the numbers aren't higher. boy I miss Dr. Prohaska. RIP Doc, apart from being a drug dealer, she was a great clinician in her day.

According to the CNN this is big news. Here's what I got in my email inbox today Twice as many Americans may soon be taking statins, the most popular cholesterol-lowering drugs, under new guidelines released Tuesday by the American Heart Association. The guidelines call for a focus on risk factors rather than just cholesterol levels.

Or the patients who are joking and laughing when you stand outside the room and when you enter they start to writhe on the bed in pain. I even had the doctor stand outside he room of one of them doing it one day for the doctor because he didn't believe me. That patient didnt' get their requested narcotics. And then theres the ones who are allergic to Ketorolac but not allergic to Toradol.

oh ok, One of my favorite subjects was always the toxicology and overdosage parts of class. I spent a lot of time going over in my spare time with this type of thing.

And that we transport all dead people regardless of level of rigor or decomp. Call it the myths of EMS Wiki page

this could be added to the wiki too.

Like?????

The plant's deadly symptoms are caused by atropine's disruption of the parasympathetic nervous system's ability to regulate involuntary activities, such as sweating, breathing, and heart rate. Symptoms may be slow to appear but last for several days. They include dryness in the mouth, thirst, difficulty in swallowing and speaking, blurred vision from the dilated pupils, vomiting, excessive stimulation of the heart, drowsiness, slurred speech, hallucinations, confusion, disorientation, delirium, and agitation. Coma and convulsions often precede death. The two paragraphs above are taken from 2 different websites. These all support Nightshade or Atropine overdose. I would think that if we don't do something with this kiddo he's not long for this world.

oh crap, let me get my field guide out. Berries that are not in clusters like blackberries are not ever safe to eat unless proven otherwise. How long has this kid been sick again? What is our timeline now??? How many hours??? hmmm let's look these berries up They appear to be nightshade berries and they are bad bad mojo - treat as atropine poisoning. Depending on how many berries this kid took and how long it took to call 911 from when symptoms appeared, this kid will either survive or Die. Start gastric lavage if you can IF you cannot, then drop an NG tube and give activated charcoal IV fluids, For what I can find this might be the correct treatment In the event of toxic overdosage (See ADVERSE REACTIONS), a short acting barbiturate or diazepam may be given as needed to control marked excitement and convulsions. Large doses for sedation should be avoided because central depressant action may coincide with the depression occurring late in atropine poisoning. Central stimulants are not recommended. Physostigmine, given as an atropine antidote by slow intravenous injection of 1 to 4 mg (0.5 to 1.0 mg in children), rapidly abolishes delirium and coma caused by large doses of atropine. Since physostigmine is rapidly destroyed, the patient may again lapse into coma after one to two hours, and repeated doses may be required. Artificialrespiration with oxygen may be necessary. Ice bags and alcohol sponges help to reduce fever, especially in children. The fatal adult dose of atropine is not known; 200 mg doses have been used and doses as high as 1000 mg have been given. In children, 10 mg or less may be fatal. With a dose as low as 0.5 mg, undesirable minimal symptoms or responses of overdosage may occur. These increase in severity and extent with larger doses of the drug (excitement, hallucinations, delirium and coma with a dose of 10 mg or more).

Take one person from the crew and have his brother show them where they were playing. Then report back with what they found.

will be interesting to see what she has to say to all that has been said!!!!!

Well it seems that she's been found out and I havent' seen her back.

I can remember my last interaction with Vent, my butt still hasn't healed.

Keep em Coming. Mike, that's a great idea as well. I'll let this run thru the end of the week with ideas, then take those ideas and work up a plan to submit to Admin for our own section of the forums if he's game. Then we can really go about getting this off the ground. And ERDoc, no one forgot you, wannabe whackers just can't go from zero to doctor hero in 9 months.

My God, what will you do with yourself???? Maybe contribute to the new EMTCity Wiki/FAQ page?????

I'm all for suggestions, Let's use this thread as a suggestion for the forum topics. Maybe have a specific forum area for this idea. I know Admin could do that. So call for suggestions begins today. Please provide suggestions as to what a new user would need to know and take into consideration what they have in the past or are currently asking. One consistent thread topic is this "I want to become an EMT/medic/ff/nurse" but I don't know where to start" That is a very consistent topic over the past several weeks. So consider that as the first topic in this WIKI/FAQ. Admin- what are your thoughts as to how this should be managed - can you set us up a wiki or can you set us up a new group of forum pages that are for Newbies - it's your forum so I'll let you think about it and help us with this.