I am finally at home after dinner with Mark, sipping a scotch and thinking about tomorrow’s first day on the ambulance. I am wondering if Mark will be able to contain himself the first time someone abuses the 911 system, or the second, or the third, when he sees we are required by law to take folks in.
My mind imagines Mark in awe when we apply our CPAP to the woman who would normally need to be nasally intubated and she not only stabilizes but improves.
What will he think if we get a chance to pace a symptomatic unstable bradycardia or convert an unstable SVT.
Will Mark search through my kit looking for pain medications when I have only morphine and oxygen for pain management.
I have so many things I want to show him about the fire based and private tier model we use that I almost forget about the ocean between us in capabilities for patient care. Fire engine and rapid response car aside we make differences in different ways, don’t we?
Tomorrow is Mark’s first day on an American dynamically deployed fire based ambulance and part of me is worried he’ll be angry we can’t do the right things for most of our patients and clients. Another part of me hopes he sees the benefits of some of the things we’re doing he is not. There is so much opportunity to learn from one another side by side I hope my clients don’t get in the way of our learning.
This will also be an opportunity, with the Chronicles of EMS filming along side us, to show he rampant abuse of the 911 system in San Francisco. How can we solve a problem that is not ours? That’s an entirely different show indeed.
So I’ll try not to sweat the small stuff and just do my job like I always do with that green jumpsuit close behind.
We’ll be in the yard at 830 for our shift at 9. See you on post,
the Happy Medic
Also on The Happy Medic…
- Thoughts on the Project so far – November 9, 2009
- Report from England – Part I – December 4, 2009
- Reflections on Day 2 – the Project – November 20, 2009
- I’m on a boat – November 15, 2009
