BillKaneEMT

I've filled out over a hundred apps so far. I'm desperate for employment that pays more than 8 bucks an hour. I made more than this as a totally inexperienced high school grad 13 years ago!!! I got an email this morning offering a great job at double my current pay with full benefits after 90 days.. They even offered overtime!! I was so happy. Of course I was immediately transferred into one of those damn loops that try to simultaneously sell you things and steal your identity. I'm running a system scan now and I've already found a trojan and a keylogger. Way to go interweb thief! You want to steal my identity? Are you insane? Help yourself hoss. I'm tempted to mail my social security number and life history to them. I can't get a gas station credit card ffs!!!!! Normally I'd include a few emoticons to express the fact that I'm not gonna get riled up over internet idiocy. But I can't manage it right now. I just pulse oxed myself. 98% with a pulse of 114. My bp is 130/80 or so which is much higher than usual for me. I am seriously enraged. I thought, ever so foolishly, that maybe things were starting to look up. I thought that maybe I was gonna be able to get work in a job that isn't minimum wage, no hope of advancement, no hope of benefits, no hope of anything. Perhaps I should thank the would be thief for giving me a shred of sunshine. There. That was a joke. Still not in a smiley mood though. I'm in a "Why isn't there capital punishment for identity thieves? Via woodchipper?" mood. Anyway, I got so damn excited at the thought of having a decent job again that I violated one of my cardinal rules. Never click an email link. Fair warning to all jobseekers, it seems one of the career sites is probably selling email addresses. They made references to my resume, references to personal contact info that is supposedly kept on "secure" servers by the job finder sites... Be cautious. If you do get tricked by these pieces of excrement, run a system scan, Kaspersky and Malwarebytes are both serviceable scanners, and free. Sorry if this came off as too "rant-ish", I couldn't help myself. Terrible night at work, then I'm on cloud nine for 5 minutes, then I get shot down like a clay pigeon. Pulse is down to 88. Not great but manageable. Le sigh. Time for a nap. G'night folks.

As the title says, Happy Ash Wednesday!

For my money Kung-Pow was the best of those. Random comedian green screens himself into the lead role of an old martial arts movie and redubs it in a hilarious way. The Woody Allen one wasn't bad, I just dislike him. I realize he's technically a very funny guy he just irritates me.

This isn't really a funny post, it's just a pic sent from an east coast emt I know. Behold, the bacon and eggs cupcake!

What about this one?

Heh. The truly crazy thing is that the forum considers this a "HOT" topic. 2 posts in almost 4 years is hot? *cackles*

I saw this shirt last week. Just thought I'd share in honor of this thread. In case the logo isn't clear enough to read: "If The Patient Isn't On Fire, Get Out Of The Way!"

This may vary by locality. For us, if a scene is considered unsafe then technically we can't enter until it's secured by law enforcement. Of course, scene safety is determined by individuals on said scene and you need to use your own judgement. This places all responsibility on the responder and protects the service I say technically because my class was taught by a guy who'd been a firefighter/paramedic for almost 30 years and he had his own special way of teaching. He'd explain the rules/laws/protocols in detail, make sure we understood how the state wanted it done, then relate to us exactly how things worked in real life and how rules like the scene safety one are written specifically to give us enormous leeway in how to handle situations. Then he would set up some hellishly evil scenario in which all the people we dealt with were secretly escaped convict cultist cannibals or something and we'd try to do things by the book and get tricked, murdered and eaten. Then he'd get about 3 inches away from your face and bellow like an angry grizzly bear for 10 minutes or so. 13 of us out of 35 passed the class. I think it took me 2 or 3 months to even survive a damn scenario but I'm grateful now. Hated him back then of course All of us were shocked at how ridiculously easy the state practical testing was compared to what we had gone through in the class:P We got together afterward: "What the hell was that about, they didn't even try one diabolical trick?" "What is this, some kind of ultra sneaky trap? I never even had the examiner declare a scene safe then have another sneak in midway through the station, put a gun to my head and yell BANG YOU'RE DEAD!" Of course, what it really came down was: Better to fail in class and get yelled at then fail at a scene and get yourself/your partner/you patient killed. Sorry, got totally off topic there. The point I was trying for there, I think, is that local services will nearly always respond but according to the state they're actually not allowed to do so unless a scene is "secure". According to the state your priority list is supposed to go yourself, your partner, your patient, then bystanders. When I was with our paramedic unit it wasn't nearly so cut and dry but that's how the state wants it. So lip service is paid but how it would really shake out in the field may be entirely different. edit: spelling

Wow. Just....wow. That dispatcher makes me think unprofessional thoughts. I'd ordinarily never congratulate someone on losing a job but in this case- congrats man

Hiya Mark. Always good to meet new people You'll find this little community far more friendly and helpful than is the norm on the internet. Feel free to hop in and post if a topic catches your eye. *waves*

You've given me some great food for thought there Kiwimedic. I'd really enjoy seeing those rules put in place over here, even on a short term basis just to try them out. No doubt there'd be rioting by the poor, helpless, pure as the driven snow frivolous lawsuit crowd; but tear gas is cheap so it'd be a win-win. Sorry if the end of my post last night came across as bitter. Between the news, internet "docs" whose sole source of info is their meth dealer and who persist in passing out advice, and some work issues...well. I was somewhat irritated last night. Still, I made it home alive and uninjured and now I get to sleep at least half the day away so things are looking up!

I can understand your position on this issue Kiwimedic, though I don't personally feel the same. However. If the patient either contracts an illness or suffers ill effects from some problem which may or may not be related to a lack of vaccination you can bet that the parent or guardian will be filing a lawsuit against the child's doctor. The number of malpractice suits against docs and nurses, at least in my area, is insane. I wouldn't have a problem if they changed our rules to be similar to yours provided they abolished any legal recourse against medical providers based on a patients refusal of vaccines, necessary(in the doctor's view) treatments, failure to take meds, bad personal habits, etc. My grandmother used to work for a judge at the Lake county courthouse before she retired and many of the lawsuits they had filed were far beyond ridiculous. Smoke 3 packs a day, hypertension, high cholesterol, drink like a fish, weigh 580 lbs? Time to sue your doctor because you're having a bimonthly AMI and he isn't making you better! Be sure to file against the cigarette companies, the fast food joints and your local distillery too! It's all their fault, right? Parents don't want to vaccinate their kids? Fine. If the kids get sick because of it then they should be prohibited from blaming anyone but themselves. Of course, taking responsibility for one's own decisions is probably a felony in these parts. I hope the PC police don't come a get me!!! *runs and hides*

Thanks for the replies folks. I sent a message with the link Dwayne gave basically saying "I support you whatever you decide". Not much else I can do really. I also suggested speaking with the neurologist again before making a decision. We'll see how it goes.

Thank you both. I'm going to pass along what you've said immediately and I've also decided not to start an argument with this guy. My friend is capable of making her own decisions about that sort of thing and, well... it's a rough situation. Last bit of relief for her was some kind of blockers injected into the base of her skull. It granted 10 consecutive pain free days. These headaches are brutal. Hopefully she'll have better luck with what you used Dwayne. Seems like all of these treatments are just so short term. A week or so later it's back to the agony. Anyway, I'll pass this info along. Thanks again! edit: regarding the last point, she has a neurologist she sees every other week. I'm sure he's a good doctor and all, he just can't seem to offer a long term fix. It's not like he doesn't try, he's tried a bunch of things. Damn migraines.

Textbook example of Duty to Act. I'd hope to do the same thing. I tell myself I would but until it happens you don't really know. Good for them.

Migraine/Cluster headaches/"suicide headaches". You may have had them, or known someone who had them, or treated a patient with them. A friend of mine gets them regularly. She's been prescribed a number of meds, had thousands of dollars worth of treatment, seen several specialists. Most of the treatments offer some relief but it's always short term and when she gets them (the migraines, not the treatments) anything above candlelight or a whisper causes debilitating pain. Some wonderful young fella posted the following statement to her facebook page: "There is a cure, an absolutely proven cure, too bad they're illegal. Magic mushrooms will stop a cluster as it is happening and stave them off for up to a year. Too bad they're hard to find and all. lol" My friend is not stupid and I'm sure she wouldn't ordinarily run to a local drug dealer or anything but there are a couple of issues here. First, crippling pain can cause people to make errors in judgement they would ordinarily avoid. Second, I googled for a bit trying to find data to show that poster was incorrect and all I run into are websites full of testimonials from people saying "LSD/ psilocybin cured my cluster headaches!". What I'm hoping for is that some of you have heard this and can verify it's a load of bs or that it might be true in some cases but is nowhere near "an absolutely proven cure". I'd prefer the first but the second would be acceptable as well. I just don't want to make a statement of either without hearing from someone more experienced than myself. Damned internet is full of people espousing the use of psychedelics to cure their headaches and they keep referencing "clinical studies" but the studies always seem to be either in progress or carried out by 14 guys in a geodesic dome and published at Burning Man. Of course, in the unlikely event that the guy is correct and it is a genuine cure-all for cluster headaches then I'll just have to keep my big mouth shut. After I call him on his inappropriate use of ~lol~ naturally. Thanks in advance folks.

A gift certificate would be nice. A buddy from my class got a new stethoscope from his little sister, it was a nice model and it came with his name engraved on it. He thought it was great although our instructor pointed out that the engraving might make some people even more keen to steal it. Not that all EMT's are kleptos! Just firefighters >.> Bazinga!

Ok. First of all, that attorney is absolutely right. (Never thought I'd say that) What a stupid rule. If our protocols put property damage at a higher priority than patient safety then everyone involved in creating that rule, from the medical director on down, needs to lose their damn job. Secondly, I guess I can't speak for paramedics, the only thing we're trained for is a combitube (non-visualized airway device) and once it's in place if you don't hear breath sounds in the lungs OR you hear air in the abdomen you immediately swap the bag to the other tube and listen again. Now, before everyone gets mad, I admit I've never done this to a live patient on a rig, and obviously paramedics have had a helluva lot more training than me. I simply can't picture this happening around here. I did several ride-along days with the ALS unit of our fire department and between calls I heard about a ton of crazy calls and screw ups they had run into in the last 25 years but this is terrible. On the other hand, if those guys ever did something like that they probably wouldn't tell me. Just to make sure I'm not missing something here, a little girl was having an asthma attack. The paramedics intubated her through the esophagus instead of the trachea, then didn't check to verify the placement. The patient's condition did NOT improve, the rig had a fender bender and after confirming the other vehicle's occupants were ok the paramedics chose to sit on scene with their steadily worsening patient and continue bagging into her stomach. ffs.

Love it.

Doubt it. This was sent to me by a friend who found it on the facebook page of some ambulance crew on the east coast. Dunno where they found it.

I should add that I got no context along with this pic. It's possible that either A: The rig is used as such by medical staff for a large factory(brewery). B: The company bought the rig and repainted it, leaving it sitting in their lot simply for advertisement. OR, and this one is by far the unlikeliest; C: The beer company offered to fully pay for and furnish a new rig for some ambulance service in exchange for painting it as they wished. As I said, I consider that last to be highly improbable and wouldn't even suggest it if it weren't for the light bar. It's a very odd picture. Looks like a fairly new rig too. *shrug* Honestly, I just thought it was funny. Strange but amusing.

Anyone here have one? I admit this is a bit odd...

A buddy of mine who works in Chicago now sent me this. He found it on an ambulance crew's Facebook site and decided to share it around. Gave me a chuckle. Enjoy

Condolences of my family and I to his loved ones. They're in our prayers.

Thanks Mike, I'll check with the interviewer next time I get a call. Just hope it's for BP or some local place that pays more than 9 bucks an hour.