I just split my pants unloading a patient at the horse pistol. I guess y’all will be getting a story later…
Blonde hair, beard, self shot, sitting in the sat truck with this laptop open in the background.
major blurfage
**Tugig *- that would be the expression that says "Why the %@#^& *are you taking my picture - I’ve got work to do!!"
**BBBobbio **- wow - full moon in the county during daylight!!! 
Mooooooom. I think I make pretty good stroganoff… my recipie:
1 lb Ground Beasht
1 pkt onion soup mix
woostershire sauce
black pepper
parsley
can mushrooms
1 1/2 T ketchup
3/4 - 1/1/2 C sour cream
1 pkg egg noodles
Butter
salt
1/4 c white wine (optional)
Cook beasht on med heat with onion soup mix & a little water, stirring occasionally. When cooked, add w. sauce, pepper, parsley, shrooms (partially drained) & ketchup. turn down & simmer on low. Cook noodles & drain. add butter & pinch of salt to noodles. Add beasht mixture to noodles & stir well. Mix in sour cream & serve (. I haven’t added the wine, but I would like to, Add when simmering beasht.)
(by the way, Short Drum. I use a honey mustard glaze on my meatloaf. Wayyyyyyy better than ketchup.)
Sticky Altzheimers sucks. CHF sucks. WIll be praying for your Grandpa. hug
**Nut **hope the treatment helps.
Catdood, When I laugh in a dream , I always wake up
Cleaning & errends today, hope I got time for both. L8er g8ers!
Moooooooooom, wrong side of the anatomy. :eek:
So, giggity how you doin’! 
It’s my job to flirt with all the men mumpers.
BBBobbio did a Full Monty! 
Howdy from da cave. I’m through runnin’ around the territory again. Matter of fact also through enterin’ case notes. Just checkin’ on a few more irk related things and then the weekend begins! WOOHOO!!!
And it’s officially the weekend!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! I think I shall celebrate by makin’ some chikin nachos. I am such a partay animal!
Daughter rescued a crawfish at her school - he (she?) will become a classroom pet. Ms. W’s classroom is the wild kingdom, even when there are no kids…
**FCD **is home and tired. When he’s ready, I’ll start the crab legs. Hope he’s ready soon - I’s hongreeee!!
Happy Weekend! Whoohoo! Yay!
: throwing confetti : :D:D
I had a nice short day at work - met my supplier came home checked my e-mail answered some random questions then decided screw it and logged off from work. I have also done 2 loads of laundry and unloaded the dishwasher since I got back. I am now going to go gas up the car as we are going to visit mr ems dad tomorrow if mr ems gets enough done at work today so that he doesn’t have to go in tomorrow. I am also going to buy milk and broccoli and vodka while I am out.
Supper tonight is angel hair anglio olio with whole wheat pasta, a side of the aforementioned broccoli and I have some spicy chicken sausages that will go in the pasta also.
congo {{}} for the headaches and 
at the four hour erection clock.
This week’s almost over. Thank God.
What was major but is now decidedly minor: older bro moved in with us after being laid off. Agreement was Dad would move into Mom’s bedroom, and older bro would take Dad’s old bedroom. Except on the day of moving stuff, Dad threw a hissy fit, said we’d never discussed it with him (we had), didn’t care what he thought (we do), and his needs were being ignored (they aren’t).
Conclusion? I gave up my bedroom and moved in with my mom. The limited space means all my books and computers go downstairs in the “library” (a 10x10 space with no HVAC and chancy lighting). Stuff has been moved but not put away.
That would have been enough.
Then, Wednesday, when I’m trying to give Dad his 1 p.m. meds, take his blood pressure, and discuss lunch with him, he suddenly went from a little cranky but cooperative to outright hostile, yelly, and incoherent. Didn’t want me touching him. Wanted his lunch. Couldn’t put words in order, couldn’t find words, couldn’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when I offered him choices.
If it had been anyone else, I’d have known immediately what was going on, but I’m so used to Dad being disagreeable and short-tempered that I kept trying to find out what he wanted to eat for lunch. Then Mom called, I explained what was going on (while Dad was trying to yell at me and getting more frustrated, because he couldn’t put words together).
Upshot? Dad was showing symptoms of a stroke. I got to call 911 and coordinate Dad, brother, me, five EMTs, and a microsecond grab of all the stuff I thought we might need to go to the hospital. And the only reason Dad agreed to go is because the EMTs were all male, and they very solemnly told him that his speech was very slurred, and he should let them take him in to have it checked out.
sigh
Six hours in the ER while they try to get him admitted. A CAT scan that showed nothing. Hours with his blood pressure over 190 (which is emergency time for us) and spiking as high as 225, an absolutely terrifying number, that the ER doc just shrugged over. Mom drives home from work. We finally get Dad in, brother goes home, I stay a little longer, Mom stays for the night.
Next day, another CAT scan and an ultrasound of Dad’s carotid arteries (the source of the clots he likes to flip off randomly). Also, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, two sets of volunteers, and, I think, a Dixieland marching band and traveling reptile show.
Verdict? Trans-Ischemic Attack - doctor speak for “we think there was a stroke, but there’s no evidence of a clot, so the clot fairy must have zapped it.” Dad got released yesterday. His mood is unstable. His speech goes from fine to slurred and back to fine. His short term memory is now fried. “Trans” my ass.
By last night, he had trouble remembering he’d been in the hospital and what for. Considering how completely pissed off he was at me for calling 911, I’m mostly neutral on this development. Last night, he comes upstairs to report that some person had ruined his mattress by pouring water all over the middle of it, and he was wet, and he was unhappy.
sigh
I got yelled at a whole lot for doing my best to keep my dad alive and intact. I got ignored by medical staff when I tried to tell them that, no, 197/90 was not an acceptable blood pressure for my dad, between his atherosclerosis and his aortic abdominal aneurysm. So, I’m feeling pretty fragile right now.
Good thing was, I saw my new counselor, she totally validates me, and has instructed me to start setting boundaries to protect myself.
We’ll see.
{{{kanga}}} hang in there. We love ya here at the MMP. Just remember that, ok?
Chikin nachos were good. They got scarfed down real fast. Beerverages and chikin nachos are a good combo btw.
Harvey, first of all, {{{{{{}}}}}. When you started describing your Dad’s weirder behavior, I thought stroke/TIA, but that’s the EMT in me.
{{{{{{Harvey}}}}}}}
and for everyone
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Pouka, after reading that I will say for a fact you are one of the most together, impressive people I’ve met in awhile, and I have met a few.
Hang in there. Life throws a lot of shit at all of us.
You have what it takes. By far.
Interesting pics, tugig. I like seeing the media encampment from the inside. 
Congrats on the new camera, too. I’ll bet it’s fun to have a brand new toy.
Sorry about all the struggles with grandparents, Sticky. And with your Dad, Harvey.
Will add stroganoff recipe to the blog in a moment, Pearl.
Long, tiring day. I get a bit of a break in the morning, but have a meeting at the park in the afternoon.
Off to knit and watch a movie or something.
There was more, but…I’ve forgotten.
Hugs all.
GT
Today I ran ambulance duty, and have a tale worth reporting for the first time in a long while. This is the condensed story of the Firday revolving door crew.
I started out with Hanna and Stacy. Hanna is the former assistant chief, and was the crew chief today. Stacy is a student paramedic and the opening driver of the day. After doing the checkout and unit stock, we headed out for brekkies, which we shared with the crew from the other station. Lots of war stories were told, with the best one from Stacy.
"Last night, we were called to the IHOP by the deputies for an unresponsive male in the yard. Our patient was awake when we arrived, and reeked of alcohol. He complained of pain in multiple locations, and would not shut up.
"After we got him in the unit, I had Bryan check his sugar. So Bryan asked for a finger to stick. Our drunk looked long time at his left hand, but never offered one, so Bryan suggested the ring finger. The patient objected, saying he’ll do the selecting. Finally, he offered his very grody middle finger. Bryan scrubbed and scrubbed to get clean skin to lance when the patient pulled it away, stuck it under his nose, and sniffed. Bryan pulled the hand, swabbed it again and the patient stuck it to his nose once again.
Bryan: “What are you doing? Every time you put that finger to your nose, I have to swab it, and I haven’t even drawn blood yet.”
Drunken PT: “I’m making sure it still smells.”
Bryan: “What’s so important about the smell?”
Drunk PT: “I had that finger up my girlfriend’s ass a couple hours ago.” :eek:
After breakfast we returned to the station. Stacy left, Hannah became crew chief, Eva came on as the driver, and David joined as the other crew member.
Our first call was in Calvert County, for a cardiac call at the nursing home. It was a non-event, because there were two calls and three ambulances. We were sent home, but were diverted to a four car chain reaction wreck. Of the five people involved, two were injured enough to warrant transport, and only one of them wanted to go because of lower back pain. The transport was mostly unremarkable, but I got my first chance since joining this squad to direct patient care. It’s a warmup to becoming the crew chief myself. 
The rub is that when we got to the hospital and started unloading her, I split my pants. They were old, so they didn’t wear quite right, and instead of jumping out of the box, I stepped and the area under the zipper gave up the ghost. I picked up the habit of jumping from the unit from my fireman days, because by jumping and landing with feet together when you hit the ground there is less chance of twisting an ankle than if you step.
Back at the station and forty dollars later, I had new pants out of the uniform stockroom. Eva left, and Don was the new driver, the fourth change to the crew today.
The next call was an attempted suicide by overdose, and it too was overdispatched, so we got to leave early. On the road back to quarters, we were dispatched to an unspecified medical emergency, which turned out to be a 92 year old woman who took her own blood pressure and panicked when it said 176/82, because she didn’t quite understand what the numbers meant. If I was that old and had that for a BP, I’d be in phenomenal physical shape.
Our last call was for one of our frequent flyers, a very sweet woman with nearly as many medical issues as VWife. If she’s lucky, it’s just a nasty infection, but I’m afraid she’s developing gangrene in a leg ulcer. Phew, whatever it was, it was nasty-smelling.
When I ran last on Sunday last weekend, it was snowing. Five days later, it was 72, with severe thunderboomers and a tornadie watch. Welcome to late winter in MerryLande…
Congratulations on the new camera Tugig! Sweetie just got a whole set of new cameras on his truck and the usual freelancers are keeping it a secret so the other guys wont suddenly want to work on his truck. It’s cute to see 5 20-year veteran cameramen getting so excited.
Speaking of Sweetie, he has the whole weekend off. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with him. I can’t remember the last time he had both days off. My best friend wants us to go with her and her husband to “piss-off the blue-hairs”. In other words, she wants us to play bingo at Foxwoods with them. I’ve never played bingo (except on Pogo). I think it would be fun.
So, I took a nap when I got home from the doctor - a 4 hour nap. When I got up at 4pm, I saw that I had a message and assuming it was my doctor’s office assistant telling me when my neurology consult is, I listened to it. It was my best friend. Apparently Sweetie called her because he’s worried about me (mentally and physically) and he just doesn’t understand medical stuff (She’s a medical assistant and an on-hiatus nursing student). She was annoyed that I hadn’t told her what was going on (seriously? I’ve been posting regular updates on facebook!!! :D). It seems that neither of them can understand why I’m not particularly worried so they think I’m in denial. I think I managed to convince her that I really don’t have a reason to be worried yet. I hope she is able to convince Sweetie of that because apparently he doesn’t believe me.
On the worrying topic, I really appreciate my antidepressant. I know how I would be reacting to all this without it. It’s not making me not care, it’s making me able to see the big picture instead of focusing on the horribleness. I wish everyone with mental issues would have such good luck in starting anti-depressants.
Thanks for the story bobbbio! Stacy’s story was funny, and gross. I hope your frequent flier turns out to be ok.
I loves me some Merrylande thunderboomers!! Best ones I have ever seen were when visiting friends in Laurel. It’s only pouring here and I’m jealous because we haven’t had thunder in ages.
I am so so so so so proud of my sister! She is a high school dropout with no college experience. Ten years ago she was married to an abusive psychopath, had a baby, and was working at dunkin donuts. Eight years ago she divorced her husband and got a job as a temp packer at a plastics company. As of today, she is officially their new product manager. She has worked her way up from temp to perm packer, QA ISO Coordinator and now Product Manager. They didn’t even post the job. The second highest in command in the company personally asked her to take the job.
She always tells me how proud she is that I’m doing well in college. Words can’t even begin to describe how proud I am of her. College doesn’t necessarily teach you about the real world and a lot of people graduate every year with great grades and find that the real world is totally different from what they were taught. She learned on her own. She proved her worth. Now she has her own office and her own parking spot. She’ll be making business trips all over the country to meet with new customers. She has no training for this job but she had none for any of her others and that obviously never hurt her.
So I asked her what is the most important thing she has learned so far.
This is what she said,
“When you have your own office and you fart, there’s no one to blame it on when someone walks in and it still smells.”
:D:D