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I miss:

  • interpreting ECG’s;
  • the smell of tourniquets;
  • the feeling when I got to take my coat off in a warm truck after standing on the cold highway for hours;
  • getting a pulse back;
  • when I had a student and I let them sit in the front so I could sit in the back alone with my feet up on the stretcher, looking around my ‘office’, wondering how the heck I got to do the best job in the world;
  • the clang behind me of the base’s garage door when I first arrived at work;
  • patching to the hospital with a CTAS 1 knowing that everyone was listening and wanting to do a good job;
  • telling the room that I got the order for midazolam;
  • getting the tube;
  • hearing a healthy baby cry for the first time;
  • getting cancelled at 5am;
  • being a preceptor;
  • making my preceptor proud;
  • my fire guys and my police officers;
  • knowing a street address without looking it up – and knowing the patient too;
  • knowing the nurses and doctors well enough that they trusted your word;
  • being able to stand up in the back of the ambulance;
  • checking my bags and the sound of the zipper;
  • seeing the relief in a parent’s eyes;
  • new boots;
  • having a sunny day and not having to clean the truck;
  • getting the line that no one else could get;
  • lifting the patient after they said I was too small to lift them;
  • laughing so hard when my pants split that I almost peed said pants – and duct taping them back together;
  • having time to pee, have a coffee and eat on the same shift;
  • dynamic calls;
  • my partners;
  • the helicopter landing and taking off from the highway;
  • knowing the dispatcher’s voices;
  • Jugo Juice at the hospital;
  • when my partner brought extra dessert for me;
  • my EMS family.