My kid brought me my favorite Christmas present (a little late), a big ol’ bear hug in the Norfolk Airport on New Year’s Eve. Much to my chagrin, Fly-EZ airways (Motto: We can’t AFFORD to crash) canceled his flight out of Indy to Detroit right out of the box, so I spent a good part of the day walking him through the process of getting re-ticketed for another set of flights. Instead of arriving at 11:30 as planned, he got in around 3:30 PM.
The poor kid was beat, but it was also his fault, since he didn’t sleep the night before. The weather also sucked, with 40+ MPH winds. All of this was part of a conspiracy that succeeded in destroying my plans for a midnight bonfire with stuff to eat that was tasty and in no way good for you, and bubbly for all. Before we turned in early for the night, he said to me 3 times, “Dad, if you get a second duty call, I wanna go.” Of course I’ll get you up for that.
Lo and behold, around 11 PM I was paged, not for an ambulance run, but a car fire. I let him sleep because he can’t ride on a fire call.
The actual call was nothing, but very suspicious. A car parked on the shoulder of the road, no keys in the ignition, no visible source of ignition, the driver’s seat actually burned, and directed to a location about a quarter mile from the actual scene. :dubious: We suspect the car was torched ahead of the repo man. If you’re going to do that, at least start it under the hood and leave some keys in it. I was back home just before midnight.
When we got up in the morning, we made a big breakfast, and took half of it across the road to Fred and Sarah. They were tickled for the meal, and to see my Rugrat.
Most of the day was spent goofing off, but I had arranged for ambulance duty that night, and he was part of the plan. We got to the station at the appointed time, found out buddy Sue was also pulling duty, and she brought her Wii along. She set it up, and promptly kicked the kid’s ass playing tennis. Pretty funny for a 60-something great-granny. 
We went to eat, and were joined by Sue’s hubby Eddie, who was on his way to work. Just after we ordered we were paged for a pedestrian hit by a truck :eek: That scene wasn’t too far from where we were eating, so we got there fast.
The patient was lying in the middle of the road. Apparently, she was trying to cross when a pickup came by, and she stood on the centerline to wait for it to pass. She never saw the trailer it was pulling, and walked directly into the side. She was combative, had a slightly bleeding goose egg above her right eye, and had an apparent fracture to her right forearm.
The scene got a little ugly, because she was surrounded by friends and family, and they all wanted to help. Three guys wanted to pick her up by her legs and shoulders to backboard her. :rolleyes: Enough help arrived, we loaded her up, and called for the helicopter. We were questioned about the need for the helicopter, but it was apparent that she was slipping from combativeness to lethargy, which is classic signs of concussion or worse, so that was ultimately a good call. VKid got to watch the LZ operation, and thought it was cool.
We got back to resume dinner, teased the waitresses who we know well mercilessly, and headed for the station. I had to fuel the unit while Sue and VKid went inside. When that was done, I parked the unit, grabbed everything I needed to do the paperwork, and was walking to my favorite chair to start writing when we were paged again, this time for a miscarriage.
I had to brief him about what to expect, because this wasn’t a typical sick person call. He should expect a lot of blood, mommy parts, and the possibility that she doesn’t want guys to be around. Sue was the only woman working that night, and she’s not an EMT, so that would be a potential problem.
We got to the scene, and the patient was sitting on the toilet, in tears, and passing some major blood clots, but fortunately not expelling yet. We made sure she had something absorbent down there, loaded her up, and Sue put the pedal to the metal.
Our patient knew for a couple of days that she was going to lose the baby, because the doctors had lost the heartbeat and had scheduled a D&C for the next day. Knowing it was coming didn’t make it any easier on her emotionally, though. Jack, our Paramedic for the night, and I did our stuff, but that didn’t do a lot to comfort her. I had the kid working as the scribe, writing down vitals, and stuff, which he did with great relish. When I had the chance, I’d hold her hand and let her squeeze hard.
The action slowed down for a bit, our patient was sobbing harder, and my kid stepped in. He started chatting her up, asking about her job, where she liked to eat, and anything he could think of that was not related to kids or obstetric emergencies. She talked back, calmed down, and actually chuckled a bit with him by the time we finished the 20 minutes to the hospital. Jack motioned to me that VKid was a chatterbox to give him some grief, but he was also glad to see VKid’s bedside manner and how it helped.
We left the hospital, and had just crossed the state line on the way back when we were paged yet again, this time for a 60ish woman who was having lightheaded episodes. We spent some time with her, hooked her up to the heart monitor, and Jack determined she might have a potassium problem. Since she was going to the doctor the next day, she declined transport, and we headed for the station. We got back around midnight, and that was the end of our calls. Soon all of us were sound asleep.
Friday, we bummed around again. There was a fire page in Cracktown West for a house fully involved and unoccupied; it turned out to be an active residence with a chimney fire that melted the vinyl siding around the smokestack. Three departments for something you could handle with a garden hose. :rolleyes:
Saturday, we went up to Williamsburg to bum around, and VWife bought a lot of crap, then we went to eat at Hooter’s. My son is a red-blooded he man, let me tell ya… 
Sunday, he went home to Indiana. :sad: We had a workday for the fire department in the afternoon, and took down the town Christmas decorations. We also took a statement for another witness in our case against Sharon The Felonious Housekeeper, and the package of paperwork went to the TV judge show yesterday.
Let me close with the anticlimax of my trip to court yesterday. I’ve hinted several times about the case, but never explained it fully. Last June, I took a call for a shooting, where the victim was at the gas station by the rescue building. The victim was shot 4 times, in revenge for a burglary he was accused of. The shooter was the cause of a 3 week long manhunt, before he surrendered on his own.
I was a witness because I was in the ambulance when the victim named the perp, and I wrote it down to go in our report.
I took the day off, let the boss know where and why, and did everything I was supposed to. When the persecutor was going through the docket, the defense attorney announced she had not gone through discovery, :smack: her client was trying to plea bargain, and motioned for a continuance. It was granted, for March 3rd. :mad: March 2nd is VunderKind’s 21st birthday, and I’m going to be in Indiana at all cost so I can buy him his first legal drink, dammit. That SOB had better plead out, so I don’t get a contempt citation for failure to appear.
That was my New Year’s weekend. How was your’s?
Well, we have plenty of cheese: Swiss, some smoked Gruyere, feta, and this weird-sounding but really really tasty chicken soup cheese. But none of those would work very well in Mexi-lasagna. ::sigh::
