Medic 59 & 80 (August 13&15&17, 2006)

If I haven't mentioned it, I love my job. Let me tell you why I love my job. I am writing this right now at work, eating a cup of ice cream which is half dulce de leches and half fudge brownie overload. Man life is good, I get to help people and eat Blue Bell and get paid for both and I'm on overtime which means it's time and a half - all extra dinero!

One of the great traditions of HFD is that you buy icecream when you are on overtime- treat the guys who are making regular money. We also are supposed to buy cake and icecream for our own birthdays, and any time there is a "first." When you are a rookie, the firsts come daily, multiple times daily to be exact. First fire, first care fire, first house fire, first house fire on ...street etc etc

This past week I made a lot of calls and worked more days than usual. As a matter of fact I was 6 hrs late to my debit day. It was the first debit I didn't have a fat clue about. A debit day is an extra day that we work where ever they want us to for free. Some how they city accountants figure we owe them 24 hrs a month. I have no idea how that works and I figure it to be a scam of some sort. Anyway I was late- AWOL to be exact which means now instead of working for free, I now get docked about 100 bucks pay because of it. Now that is just messed up and on top of that, I didn't get to go to sleep until 4am and we get off at 6:30.

The most note worthy call this past week was a motorcycle crash. It appears this kind fellow who happens to own a bar had just left a dart tournament on his Harley. He took a curve too fast and lost control and hit his head on the road. His ear was hanging on by some skin, and he had a huge gash on the side of his face that was oozing blood the whole way to the hospital. He had no clue where he was, what had happened, or that he was close to death. He kept saying he didn't own a bike and wanted to know what happened. As if we saw the accident ourselves. He then asked an attractive Dr if he was in heaven beacuse she looked like an angel. I had to leave the room laughing. What a character.

I got to start my first IV on a baby. That's more cake and ice cream huh. I personally wouldn't have taken the kid to the hospital for a high fever, but when the mother asked me if she did the right thing, I said of course. I guess you can't go wrong erring on the side of safety, but Heck little Riley had the same thing last week and I didn't take her. Walk it off kid, put some dirt on it. What doesn't kill you will make you stronger.

There were the usual feeble attempts of suicide. I know life is hard, no one said it would be easy. I know some people don't have many people who love them. I also know that no one really wants to die, we want to be heard, we want to matter to others, to fell loved and accepted. Memo to everyone out there: Aspirin will not kill you, so talk to someone about your problems, get counseling and pray. Aspirin will just give you a stomach ache and they might pump your stomach. But Christ can give you a sense of purpose, a reason for living. Try Him first. He won't disappoint.

Tis the season for asthma lalalala la lalala. I can't recall a time in my life when I couldn't breathe. I don't want to even imagine what that's like.They say it feels like you are drowing. That is just messed up. We made at least 3 guys who couldn't breathe. Two of em were real bad off. Kicking fighting doing all they can to survive. We have nebulizers for asthma and all we can do is watch them suffer if it doesn't work. It is a truly helpless feeling. The whole time you are anticipating them going unconscious and putting a tube down their trachea so you can breathe for them. Then there was the guy who had a ton of fluid on his lungs and we sprayed nitroglycerin under his tongye all the way to the hospital. At one point he wanted to lay down, because he was tired of fighting which is like tapping out of a UFC fight- you lose, game over. Luckily the nitro worked and he was 100% better when we got him to the hospital. It wasn't his time.

Cancer is a bad deal. We have no cure and don't really know what causes it. We met lots of cancer patients this week. One family was in denial and we spent about an hour explaining the process and the impending mortality of their loved one. The patient had come to terms that it is the Lord who begins and ends life and she was ready for whatever he decides.

I definitely spent some time just thinking about my own mortality. We are all terminal patients of a disease called life. That is a sobering thought. I'd like to blame Adam and Eve for that, but then I'd be a hypocrite. I mean after all the wages of sin is death. We don't know what lies around the next corner or when we'll breathe our last breath. The only thing we can be sure of is our final destination. I'd love to talk with you about how exactly you can be sure. Until the next episode.