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Redcell19512

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Everything posted by Redcell19512

  1. I haven't been here in years. I actually forgot all about this place. Found it by accident during a google search. Wow.
  2. Well, I had the surgery on September 2nd. Everything went well. I had a little bit of pain at the patellar tendon donor site after surgery, I'd say it was a 4 out of 10. By day two I had no pain while in bed and minimal pain while walking. I haven't needed the vicodin since the first day of surgery. I started rehab 5 days post op (it was late because of the labor day holiday). I was already at Zero degrees extension which they said was the "hard part" at this stage anyway. I'm currently up to 116 degrees of flexion. I have a great therapist. She keeps telling me she's going to push me to my limit, and I keep telling her that she's "failed..try harder next time". Since things were going so well I guess I had to be knocked down a peg or two. My girlfriend and I were out driving this past Thursday and an elderly driver decided to turn and cross into our lane of traffic (we have no idea where she was going...had she completed her turn she would have been in somebody's front lawn. She hit us on the driver side front corner panel and totaled her car and my girlfriends. I'm not sure how but I ended up without a scratch on me, wasn't even sore the next day. I was even able to pop my girlfriend's door open after the crash (not bed for a week post op). My gf's hands are swollen and bruised and she's got a nasty contusion from the seatbelt. I learned a few things. Bigger cars are good to have. Sitting back away from the airbag is a good idea (it never touched me). Seatbelts are super. And...no matter how good a driver you are, you are only as safe as the worst driver who is passing you at any given time.
  3. South Eastern PA. I already have a surgeon. He came highly reccomended. 15 years in practice. Has co-authored several textbooks.
  4. Thanks for the replies. I am extremely worried about the rehab process. I met with a physical therapist a week after the injury and she gave me a series of home exercises to do as well as some things I could do at the gym. She recommended leg presses at the gym....that was a disaster. Pre-injury I would do 3 sets, 15 reps with 240 pounds no problem. The first time I used the machine post injury I put 15 pounds on it and I could feel the bones in my knee shifting and grinding. I wanted to vomit. So I stuck to the leg lifts and resistance band exercises at home. I also got a stationary bike from a co-worker to use at home (I'm gonna be on a tight budget after surgery so the gym membership is probably gonna have to go away). I have no choice but to save my PT benefits till after surgery so I'm not getting any guidance from a physical therapist right now. My insurance will only pay for 20 PT sessions though I'm going to try to trade some of my in patient psych/drug and alcohol treatment benefits for more PT. We'll see how that goes. Oh and my health insurance has a $1000 deductible, followed by another $1500 80/20 split. $35 copay for all PT visits and Orthopod appts. I'm looking at out of pocket expenses here of at least $3500...probably over $4000. I have money set aside in saving that will cover the costs. Of course that money was set aside to help pay for college costs. College is now on hold. I'm not in a happy place mentally over that. I'm putting in four 12 hour shifts followed by four days off at work, light duty of course. On the four days off I have housework and the kids (I'm the only adult in the house). My youngest lives with her mother an hour away. It's going to be difficult to see her after surgery so I'm spending as much time as I can with her now. Before I know it the entire week has gone by and i've done my exercises ONCE! Seems like when I do try to work on my home PT someone interrupts me or there's something that requires my attention. It doesn't help that I'm incredibly independent. I refuse to allow people to do things for me. So when I'm riding the stationary bike at home and someone walks in the room...I get pissed. Tonight is the perfect example. I was on the bike, my teenager comes into the room and throws a pillow at me to be funny. I was 2 seconds from throwing the stationary bike through the window. I'm on the bike because I'm hurt, I got hurt because I'm weak....that's what goes on in my head. Then I get miserable. It's like that now. I can't imagine what it's going to be like after surgery. I have to get my head in the game...and fast. I've read about tendonitis and pain when kneeling on the donor site in post op patellar tendon graft surgery. My surgeon doesn't like the hamstring tendons and said the allograft (cadaver donor) would be the worst choice in his opinion. He is actually the third surgeon I saw and was the only one that gave me what i would call a "no BS" assessment of my situation and options. He told me what was going to work and what was not going to work then explained why. So I feel pretty good about the surgery itself. Of course that's only based on my gut feeling. Richard, it was Rehoboth in Delaware.
  5. My girlfriend and I took my two daughters to the beach back in June. It was the first time my youngest ever saw the ocean which was really neat for me to witness. Unfortunatley, life has a sense of humor and an hour into our visit a wave knocked me flat on my face. On my way down I felt a series of pops in my knee. My family doc ordered an MRI which revealed a torn ACL. I'll be getting a petellar tendon graft. I'm currently waiting for a surgery date but I expect to have it done before the end of August. Right now my boss has me on light duty (I'm redesigning our trucks and jump kits, doing lots of QA, and also yard work lol). The surgeon tells me that most people are able to return to their normal activities in four months with a return to sports in 6 months. When I asked him how long he thought it would be until I could get back to working as a medic he said probably 4 to 6 months if everything goes well and if I stick to the rehab plan. Has anyone else had this surgery? How long until you were able to get back to working on the street? What difficulties did you encounter?
  6. I did two intubations this year. Got both on the first attempt. One cardiac arrest in the field. One with pneumonia in the ER (my service medical director was the receiving physician in the ER. He let me use the Glidescope on that one). Some of the medics I work with have 8-12 intubations. They also work 7 days a week with several different agencies. I only have one job. According to my Service Medical Director the paramedics in Pennsylvannia average <1 intubation per year. There are some very rural areas utilizing volunteers who work other careers for their "real job". He also tells me the statistics are flawed because they are counting paramedics who are no longer practicing but are still certified (we are certified forever). So I have no idea what the average paramedic is doing. We have no access to an operating room. We have an annual skills review conducted by our medical director. We intubate the same dummy every year. We should probably make him a DNR, he's looking pretty rough these days.
  7. I'm curious what side effects you had, if you don't mind sharing.
  8. PA now has a program that deploys 'qualified' paramedics to district health center 'flu clinics' to assist in the administration of the H1N1 vaccine under the supervision of a district health Nurse working for the Dept of Health. Qualified medics would be paid $20.00 and are protected under the Commonwealth's liability shield. Question: I am faced with staffing shortages on a fairly regular basis. Why would I want to encourage my medics to work for the Dept of Health when I need them HERE? Is there a shortage of available nurses?
  9. I got my H1N1 vaccine 4 days ago and I've become the subject of a lot of jokes at work. Every time I cough, sneeze, or blow my nose someone, somewhere, shouts "swine flu!!!” The anti-vaccine crowd at work seems to take pleasure in telling me how stupid I was to get this vaccine. I hear the same thing about the seasonal flu vaccine every year as well. These same people chose to get vaccinated against Hepatitis B. I'm wondering why? Why did they feel that vaccine was safe but not the H1N1 or seasonal influenza vaccine? These same people have no problem getting a Tetanus booster after an injury or before surgery. Why aren't they afraid of that vaccine? One of my co-workers has refused to vaccinate her children for anything. She used the varicella vaccine to prove her point saying that kids used to get chicken pox all the time and nothing bad ever happened to them. As a person who not only had chicken pox but shingles as well I was sure to let her know that if her kids ever got shingles they'd be hunting her down and kicking her a## for the pain she put them through by not vaccinating them against varicella. Does it surprise you that this woman had no idea that chicken pox and shingles were related? So the decision to not vaccinate her children was an educated one?
  10. I'll gladly fill out a survey. I'd prefer an email if you dont mind... jmoyer@wbems.org
  11. I got the H1N1 nasal mist vaccine yesterday at an urgent care center 10 minutes from my house. The entire process took about 20 minutes. Both of my kids got the seasonal flu mist at their physicals recently so I'm told they have to wait 4 weeks to get the H1N1 mist or wait for the injection. My girlfriend is a respiratory therapist and currently has three H1N1 pt's in the ICU, two are on vents (26 and 35 year olds who have no pre-exisiting health problems). One of the vent pt's was initally admitted to a regular room with no isolation precautions before it was discovered she had H1N1. It's quite possible I've already been exposed to H1N1. My girlfriend has become a potential biological weapon lol...please dont tell her I said that, she will hurt me. I've gotten the seasonal flu vaccine every year for the past 16 years and have zero regrets. That's because 17 years ago I got sick with the seasonal flu and it was awful! I have no desire to go through that again and I'll do anything I can to reduce that risk.
  12. I wipe down the patient compartment and crew area at the start of every shift with an alcohol based disinfectant (we bought the same stuff the local hospitals use). I also sweep and wet mop the floor. The litter gets wiped down after every call. I typically only "decon" the truck after a call if there's blood or other body fluids or if the pt had a fever and a cough. If I have a patient that has nausea, vomiting, diarrhea I'll wipe down the litter and any area near the patient in the ambulance with the sodium hypocholorite wipes that we have. The down side is that many people don't like the bleach odor (go work at McDonalds, the fries smell good) and it leaves a residue when it dries. The residue is easy to deal with, just wipe it down with a wet towel and hand dry. Takes a bit more time to do but there's two of us on the truck so it really shoudln't be a problem.
  13. A large majority of my co-workers, friends, and family have NO plans to get vaccinated for H1N1 or seasonal influenza. These are the things I'm hearing people say: Vaccines weaken your immune system. Getting sick makes your immune system stronger. The government was in such a hurry to make the H1N1 vaccine that they didn't test it. It's not safe! So if I get a flu shot I can still get colds and stuff? What the hell's the point then? A friend of mine got the flu from the flu shot. I'll never get one. I've given up trying to educate my co-workers by pointing them to reliable sources of information (like the CDC). I look at it this way, more available vaccine for me and my kids.
  14. The media keeps mentioning the deaths in Mexico were not the very young or the very old. I haven't seen anything about the health of these people? Did they have chronic health problems? Were they impoverished with no access to medical care? Did they actually die from a seconday bacterial infection as a result of not obtaining medical care? 60 deaths and about 1000 reported sick. Sounds like a pretty high mortality rate. But how many people in Mexico are/were sick with mild flu like symptoms but recovered or are recovering and never sought medical attention or were off the radar. It's quite possible that there are/were tens of thousands of Swine Flu cases in Mexico. No one really knows. So far all the known cases in the US have been mild with only one person requiring a hospital stay (she was apparently discharged and doing well without antiviral drugs). The whole thing is a little scary. Of course we've had it pounded into our heads for several years now that "the big one" is coming and we're all royally screwed! It's too early to tell I guess. We'll see. On the issue of EMS providers taking proper precautions...I always wear a face mask when I'm treating patients who are vomiting and also pt's with a fever and cough. I wash my hands after every call and before every meal. I decon my stretcher after every single patient contact (to me this is a no brainer..who wouldn't do this?) I do not use the station utensils when I eat, I keep my own supply of plastics in my locker (our kitchen facility is disgusting...the sink smells like a friggin sewer). I have a speical area at home where I change out of and store my dirty work clothes...they are laundered separate from our normal clothing. As a result, my co-workers have labeled me a "germaphobe" and an "obessive-compulsive freak". I know for a fact that many of my co-workers DO NOT even wash their hands after they use the bathroom! The issue of annual influenza vaccines is another story all together....sigh. So I think we might be in trouble on the PPE front...hopefully it's a local problem for me and not an industry wide problem. I read an interesting article on the Spanish Flu. There are some researchers who believe the death rate was so high because many if not most of the dead were infected with TB thus increasing their mortality. The theory behind this is that in the year after the outbreak the TB infection rate declined dramatically and continued to do so as did the TB death rate.
  15. In the past I would gently open their eye lid with one hand and gently touch their eye ball with my gloved finger. Figuring that if they could stay still during all that they were either really unconscious or a good enough actor to deserve to be left alone. Now I don't really try to "prove" anyone is faking. Don't see the point really.
  16. Anyone remember these things? This was my first personal kit. As I recall there were 4 models to choose from. A small first aide/trainer's box, the box pictured with two fold out shelves. A box with three fold out shelves which were transparent and had battery operated lights that came on when you opened up the shelves. And finally a big old trauma box. Anyone else remember or have one of these things? &#091;IMG]http://img17.imagevenue.com/loc675/th_85062_100_0551_122_675lo.JPG' alt='th_85062_100_0551_122_675lo.JPG'>
  17. Out of the ashes I arise...Paragod Dick B. Horton...at your service.
  18. $1,106.99 - 1,254.99 :shock: :shock: :shock: Holy cow! Ours cost like $400 each with the bulk discount. lol
  19. We also received grant money to purchase vests. Sadly the vests that were purchased are less than ideal. It's an over the clothing style vest with a plastic/nylon zipper running right up the center. The two front panels overlap less than an inch when the vest is closed. The kevlar panels are permanently sewn into the carrier. So if you get blood or vomit on the vest you can't wash it. If the vest gets wet it's also tough to make sure the kevlar dries out fully. The vests are cut too long. Management felt that this was a good thing. The longer vest covers more of your body. True. But the vest extends below your belt line meaning that you can not bend at the waste while wearing the vest, unless you open the front of the vest. You can't sit in the ambulance with the vest on because it rides up and chokes you. You also can't carry anything on your belt, like a radio. I thought it would be a good idea to have a radio pocket sewn onto the vest but there was concern that we'd look like a "SWAT" team. Oh, no one knows what threat level they purchased either. All they know is that it's made of kevlar. While I'm happy that my company cares enough to supply us with body armor i wish some research had been done before hand. No one wears these vests because you can not function in them. On a side note, one of our vests was stolen from an unlocked side compartment on our ambulance. We think the theft occurred at the hospital but we're not sure. We are in PA. The vest turned up in a raid in Georgia about 9 months later.
  20. I fully agree. What concerns me is the number of people who feel the exact opposite.
  21. There is no such thing. At some point someone has to pay the doctor otherwise why is he seeing patients? If the doctor is collecting a salary from the government, then where is the government getting the money to pay the doctor? to run the hospitals? Taxes. Who pays taxes? Everyone who works and spends money ($20 per pack tax on cigarettes anyone?). NOTHING is free. SOMEONE always has to pay for it. No. I have health insurance paid for by my employer. Under the healthcare for all concept I'd lose that insurance plus some cash from my paycheck in the form of higher taxes in exchange for my new "Free" insurance. The money my employer once put towards my benefit package would be going to the government too. Employers will no doubt see massive tax increases to help pay for the...all together now....'Free' insurance. After all, no one likes big, evil corporations...especially democrats.
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