Last post! See ya on the flip si…
Wait! What the hell? You there! Boy, what day is it?
Why it’s Christmas Day, sir! I mean, day after Labor Day, ma’am!
How did I get here? It’s like I missed a whole weekend…
I had the weirdest dream…
Helllooooooo!!!
Whoa, trippy! The smilie list is arranged differently and my butt has pinch bruises on it, what the hell happened this weekend?
Hey, the upgrade left us a hot tub! How cool is that? Thanks, Jerry! 
That was some weekend. Too bad I don’t remember any of it. Nice hot tub!
I don’t wanna do another upgrade ever again.
Holy Hannah, it looks like I’ma gonna get my hurrycane. Well, at least the rain.
Got another rescue story for y’all, coming momentarily as a separate post.
Whew, I was worried you’d remember… stuff… for a while there
Also, not telling **Aleq **how she got that pinch…
ETA: Oooh, looky! Cool new Quote function! 
The lion’s share of this tale is TMI and gross. You have been warned.
I took Firday off to make a 4-day weekend. It was about 3 AM when Loki decided he needed to go outside for his midnight landmine run, and I was cussing him because I wanted to sleep. It’s not very often I get to slug around.
Loki came in, and I had just laid back down. duuuuh DEEEEE BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP [pause] duuuuh DEEEEE BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP… my pager was going off. “Station 80 (rescue), check in for traffic. You have a 60 year old female patient coughing up blood.”
Bubba was at the station and answered, then asked for help because he was solo. I answered right away since I didn’t have to go to work. I dressed wondering why she might be coughing blood. I figured TB, lung cancer, or pneumonia as the big three possibilities.
I didn’t lollygag getting to the station, but I didn’t audition for NASCAR, either, because there was no urgency to the page. Remember that detail.
Similarly, Bubba drove quickly, but not urgently. We spotted deer on the way, and I was razzed good for hitting one. We got to the scene and were met outside by a man shouting, “We’ve been doing CPR for 10 minutes!”
Oh. Shit.
Our patient was on the kitchen floor, and there was blood EVERYWHERE. That shooting I went to was nothing in comparison. I’m sure at least a quart was on the floor and in the clothing of the patient and family trying to keep her going.
I intubated her. Bubba set up the oxygen. All of us took turn with compressions and respirations. The cavalry arrived, got her on the monitor, and we loaded her up. Unfortunately, she had flat lined. Still we did everything for a cardiac arrest all the way to Suffolk: IVs, epinephrine, and shocked her 3 times. This time, Bubba did floor it as appropriate.
Suffolk FD was called to meet us en route for paramedic support, but we passed them going the other way. We kept going to the hospital.
After transferring her to the hospital bed, I went outside to clean the truck. More blood on everything. One of her relatives brought us some of our equipment we had left behind, like the intubation kit, and she asked me if the patient was gone. I’m not supposed to tell her anything like that, but I said yes anyway, and offered my condolences. She said thank you and gave me a sad smile.
When we left, Bubba decided the four of us needed caffeine, so we stopped at a Hardee’s for breakfast. While we were eating, he gave us some of the back story.
Our patient had several health problems in general, but was recently diagnosed with late stage cancer. She was in the same ER and seen by the same doctor the day before, but he told her to quit taking aspirin and sent her home still coughing up blood. One of the male relatives was last seen having a very heated shouting match with that doctor when we left.
My guess is she had cancer somewhere in the GI tract, and the tumors had eroded enough tissue to start a hemorrhage, which then blew wide open while she was in the kitchen. She then arrested from the blood loss. Nothing we could have done would have saved her.
It would have been nice if the dispatcher had told us how urgent the situation was getting; the family called back several times while we were en route, and he never passed the information on as he was supposed to.
We left Hardee’s for home, and Bubba decided to go through downtown Suffolk instead of hitting the bypass we normally use. Bubba turns around to us in back and says, “There’s a wreck up here, and we’re stopping.”
Someone had stole a van, and hit a pickup truck. The perps ran for it, leaving the guy in the truck as our only patient. He was off the seat, laying on the floor. We got him up to where we could backboard him, and slid him out. About that time, the Suffolk ambulance crew showed up, and ironically, it was the same one that was supposed to meet us an hour before. Snerk.
I was finally home about 7 AM. I took a long hot shower, washed my clothes, and went to bed. I’ve finally gotten a call that out-oogied the guy losing the toenail.
Imagine me sitting at your feet with wide eyes
“tell us another one, Mr. Bob!”
I do love your work stories.
Wow, Bobbio, that’s something about the poor lady and her family. It doesn’t sound like there was anything you could have done to save her, even if you had gotten there earlier.
I’m home today. Massive headache and I’m sick to my stomach. I feel badly about missing work because I have a large project I’m supposed to be assisting on.
Let’s hope this works. This is the second time I’ve tried to post a reply.
I figured it out!! Neat!
Oh god, Bobbio. I’m so sorry. Here’s to the dispatcher getting a good solid thwap upside the head.
Speaking of…there was some emergency vehicle happenings down on Trash Heap Road about a mile from my house yesterday!
Along the right side of the road (coming in from town) there are some lovely old buildings. This old general store is the first in the line. Second was an abandoned farmhouse with a couple of barns behind it. According to Adopted Dad, migrant workers used to live in that house during harvest season but they haven’t been there in about ten, fifteen years. All the fields around here are being bought up for overpriced particleboard apartments/duplexes, but that’s a rant for another day. Anyhow, back to the story.
I was driving Toy Roommate to work at about 12:30 yesterday afternoon. We smelled woodsmoke. Then we saw the old farmhouse in a state of total collapse with smoke pouring out of it. Part of me was hoping it was a controlled burn, but there were no fire trucks anywhere around and there was all that smoke indicating that something was still burning. After I dropped Toy off, I raced back home, grabbed my camera, and got some pictures of it:
Complicated Roommate and I drove back past it at 3 pm and the chimneys had collapsed. Adopted Dad and his Amazing Ham Radio and Know Everyone Within Fifty Miles skills confirmed that the police suspected arson. There’s a lot of trash living in the apartment complex nearby. Fortunately the dump is right around the corner from the smoldering heap so no one has to go far to throw it out.
This really makes me mad. I liked that little house and I miss seeing it as I drive home. This is why we can’t have nice things.
I love the link in a quote to the actual post!!!
I love it!!!
Huh. Interesting new format.
It’s taking forever to load.
Gah–it finally works? Off to start a new TMP.
New MMP here
Why am I wet and nekkid?
You were expecting something different? 