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.
March 24, 2018 at 8:23 AM
Oh I love all of this so much. I also miss a Jugo Juice at the hospital while waiting for our patient to be done at the fx clinic
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March 24, 2018 at 5:05 PM
I agree and like all of them except the standing up in the back of the truck thing. Never gonna happen!
Then I remember working in the low rise van and doing CPR with your head against the cabinet wall, your feet pushed back against the bench and your back pressed into the ceiling.
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March 24, 2018 at 10:02 PM
Hi Nat.
It’s Leo. I so can identify with all of them except two, apparently I’m taller than you and I’m PCP. As you know, I have PTSD and I have contacted you before. Just an update. I retired from full time in Bruce and am still working par.t time in Grey. They have been great. I’m on WSIB and am seeing Dr. Lori Gray. She is awesome. I’m doing good and yes there is life after EMS.
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March 25, 2018 at 8:17 AM
Hello! So happy to hear from you and to hear that you are on the path of recovery. Sending you love.
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