katgrl2003

I'm still kinda new to emtcity, so everyone please bear with me.

I've had a few experiences over the last few months that are still getting to me. My partner has become my lifesaver, but I feel like I'm putting too much onto him. I want to get my life back.

Almost three months ago, I was sexually assaulted twice in one week. Both people worked in the ems field, one in my company. One of the reasons it's still hitting me so hard is that its happened before, approximately five years ago. I didn't start talking about the first incident until a year ago, and I waited a week to tell anyone about the other two.

I've pissed off some people by telling them I'm used to being treated this way. I know I shouldn't. I know I should be pissed at guys for treating me this way. I just can't. Other than my family (and yes, that includes my ems family), and one ex, I've been treated like this from most of the guys I know. It's almost like I'm there to make them happy, and I'm just an afterthought.

I know some of the responses I'm going to get are counselling, things of that nature. I'm just wondering if there is anything I can do short of that? I've been talking with people, especially my partner. For a space of about a month, he and my dad were the only two males I trusted. While on shift, he never left my sight.

I'm still having nightmares, but they are down to about one every two or three days. People that know are making me talk, which is probably why I'm getting better. I just wonder if its ever gonna go away. I wonder if I'm ever truly going to feel comfortable around guys again. I wonder if life is ever going to go back to normal.

Thank you all for letting me rant.

-Kat

Could that have been caused by an overdose of "Peanut Butter Balls?" (a mispronouncement of Phenobarbital)

Or "Motowns", mispronciation of Motrin.

I had an interesting conversation with a CNA at a local NH. According to state regulations, to be certified as a CNA, she has to also be CPR certified. But at her nursing home, she is not allowed to do CPR. If she does, she can be fired. Tell me if that makes any sense at all.

I've never been a firefighter, but I agree with Spenac and Ruffems. I have worked with female partners that can't lift the foot end of an empty cot. A lot of the girls I work with seem to have the attitude that they are female, weak and helpless. They can't lift as much as the guys, and shouldn't have to. I HATE that attitude! I worked with a female partner for approximately 4 months, and together, we could lift as much as guys could. Women can lift, they can do the job, but a lot of them just don't want to.

1. When you call us screaming because the patient has snoring respirations, make sure the patient isn't snoring because he's asleep!

2. When we go in on an altered LOC, don't tell us the vitals have been stable for the past 6 hours when you haven't taken them in 6 hours.

I've never been a firefighter, but I agree with Spenac and Ruffems. I have worked with female partners that can't lift the foot end of an empty cot. A lot of the girls I work with seem to have the attitude that they are female, weak and helpless. They can't lift as much as the guys, and shouldn't have to. I HATE that attitude! I worked with a female partner for approximately 4 months, and together, we could lift as much as guys could. Women can lift, they can do the job, but a lot of them just don't want to.

YES. Most definitely yes. That's common here. I don't know they truly are stupid or if they don't want the person to go through the pain of being revived and living like a vegetable (which they were probably already doing). I don't know

I had a partner tell me of a total opposite experience. He walked into a NH to see the nurses doing CPR... around the patient's outstretched arm. It turns out she had died face down with her arm off the side of the bed. When they turned her over, her arm was so rigored, it stayed upright. When they were told to stop CPR, their response was, "But we were just talking to her!" As my partner says, they may have been just talking to her, but she was definitely NOT responding.

katgrl2003, you specified your partner's size, but not your own.

I'm not complaining, as I know quite a few female EMTs and Paramedics who don't look, if you will, bulked up, but can bench press well better than I can, and there is always the line about "big surprises in small packages".

Re that last quote...A lady clerk at a convenience store in Suffolk County, New York, weighing in at 90 something pounds and a height of under 5 foot tall, took on an armed robber, over 6 foot high, with what looked like a small battle ax, chasing the man off. Covered by all the news services here in the NYC area, by the way.

Ok, I have to admit I'm not a tiny person. I'm about 5'7", but I've surprised guys at work by how well I can lift. I work with a girl thats 4'10", can't see over the end of the cot, but can outlift most people. We sent new people to her to learn how to lift.

I do hope the folks in trouble were the ones working the "hospital", not the FD/EMS responders. Can you clarify, please?

Oh yeah, it was the nurses at the hospital. The night nursing manager was busted to floor nurse, and I don't remember what happened to the room nurse. There were about three or four people that were either demoted or canned over that one.

According to the nurses, this was the guys normal state. They also said he had been on a backboard before, and he reacted the same way then. He was just really cranky.

I caused a big controversy on a run recently. Obviously I'm female, and my partner is a male, 6'2", pretty big guy. We went to an ECF for a pt fallen, still on floor. My partner, a medic, tried to clear c-spine, but the pt was complaining of pain even when nobody was touching him. So, c-collar, backboard, the works. The patient was not happy, but since his wife was POA, and she wanted him to go, he went.

All the way out to the truck, he's pulling on the collar, telling me he vomits if he's on his back. Once the stretcher is locked in place and he realizes hes going, he goes ballistic. Pulls the collar off twice with both of us holding him down, throws punches at us, basically trying to beat the crap out of us. Funny considering I'm 22, my partner is 42, and the patient is 92.

My partner tried to protect my by tying the patients wrists to the cot. Even so, he managed to pull the collar off AGAIN. I gave up and just held manual c-spine. My partner then pissed my off by trying to take over my patient. I shoved him out the back saying, "It's BLS, get up front and drive!" Partner marked BLS, emergent to the ER, kinda because I was getting beat up in the back. That's where people got irritated at us.

The entire trip, the patient is yelling at me, pointing his finger at me, and finally landed a solid left hook on my jaw. Ouch. We get him to the ER, and the doc immediately cleared c-spine after the pt unhooked all the straps and rolled off the backboard.

Three nights later, I'm riding with a medic supervisor who asked me why I was in the back instead of my partner. The male supervisor told me a man would have been able to handle it better. He got the tongue lashing of his life. Oh, it was so much fun seeing the look on his face during it. After all this though, not a single guy at work even dares to make a comment like that. They know I can handle my own.

It's all really funny, once I look back on it. And once the bruises faded!

My partner, in his part time job as a medic on a fire department, went on a call to a rehab hospital (a glorified NH). They tried resuscitating her, but nothing worked - tube, IV drugs, nothing. They got permission to stop the code, and went back to station. At shift change, the tones dropped for the same hospital, same room, for a cardiac arrest.

Turns out night shift didn't tell day shift that there was a dead pt in one of the rooms. A nurse walked in, saw the pt, started CPR. LOTS of people got in trouble over that one.

One of our crews was dispatched to a hospital to take a psych pt. from that er to a local psych er. According to all reports (I wasn't on at the time) they were dispatched on a male, 20 month pregnant, hermaphodite vampire with a velvet cape and a wand. I'm surprised all of our crews didn't run off the road.

Never called 911, but I've had coworkers take me in

Experience 1: Never let your partner know you're having an asthma attack. I ended up in the back of a medic truck (both males) with a 12-lead, but no oxygen or albuterol. Personally, I think they just wanted to see under my shirt. Very interesting experience.

Experience 2: Never do a fire standby with asthma. Went from audible wheezes at 20/min, to wheezes only by stethoscope at 40/min, to no breath sounds at 50/min. Nurse at local ER thought I was faking. I was not happy.

Experience 3: My current partner, not partner at the time, took me in on this one. Doing house duties one night, all three medics noticed I went completely white, and got me in the back of one of the trucks. After three IV attempts, 100 of fentanyl, and a pissed off supervisor, I got the diagnosis of ovarian cysts. I am now a fentanyl convert.

Our company has the top three managers as Med 1, Med 2, and Med 3. Street supervisors are 401, 402, etc.

Medics are Medic 1 through 15, BLS is Ambulance 50 through 70.