Me? Oh, yah. I'm that guy who's supposed to be blogging and posting here. Uh, Right, oops! I've missed some of that.
Ok! New Year = New Start. I'm going to make no less than 365 posts this year. Even if it's to post that I've done nothing today, I'm going to stay current.
I've been out a while because much has been going on. Herself has recently quit her job and is starting her own business. This is a large consumer of both of our times. Ugh. To catch you up to what's been going on I'll refer to a previous post:
A life is saved:
Bulldog and I run a call down to a small hospital in a nearby military base. We're being sent to transport a patient from the emergency room to another hospital to be further evaluated for pneumonia. It's sent out as a Basic Life Support call.
At the ER desk, the nurse is telling me how the patient has a history of pulmonary fibroids, had a fever when he came in and responded well to antibiotics. He's a 57 year old retiree from the Air Force. I have a peek at the patient and he's snoozing (it's midnight) comfortably except he's sweating a lot. I wake him up and ask him how he feels (fine), is he feeling hot (no), does he have any pain anywhere (no).
Ok, back to the nurse as she's pulling out his chart to fill out the transfer paperwork.
Whoah! What's this? A 12-lead EKG! I love to read these things.
"Um, Is this EKG recent?" I ask the nurse.
"Yeah, an hour ago, why?"
"He's having an anterio-septal MI." (This is where the heart is starving for oxygen because the arteries are clogged or clogging. Often referred to as a heart attack. It shows up very distinctly on an EKG.)
"WHAT????"
This patient went to a cardiac center rather than an unmonitored bed in a community recovery hospital.
An alma-mater speaks:
I've been teaching a 3-credit course at school from which I just graduated. The person who was hired to teach the course became seriously ill two weeks before the semester started. I "stepped into the breach" and took over the class.
In the middle of October I get an email from the department head. "Can you meet with me tomorrow?"
Uh oh! I might be in trouble! I'm thinking I've goofed up or the students have complained or I'm not teaching very well or something. Who knows. So I go meet with him.
I'm in bigger trouble than I thought. Again, the university has a sudden vacancy. Again, I'm asked to "step into the breach." Only this time it's a full time position on the faculty!
"I need a salesman, paramedic, project manager and drill seargent all rolled into one." says Dr. Boss. "Maddog, you're perfect for this job."
Awesome! I don't punch a clock. Dr. Boss cares about results and that's about it. The job is very demanding and there's a LOT to do (that's one reason I've been so freakin' busy) but I'm enjoying myself very much. I'm the clinical coordinator, in charge of setting up all the clinical field experieces for the paramedic students, keeping track of their training goals and seeing to it that they are on target to meet them. The clinical coordinator postion was the weakest part of my whole education. There had been 4 people in the job in 3 years. I now have a chance to fix what's wrong with the job. I'm pretty stoked.
The pay is nice and I'm getting my Master's degree for free!!!!
Maddog succumbs to gravity:
The day after I get my awesome job offer I'm back at my less-than-pleasant job. It's the night shift and I head out of the garage to my ambulance. All of the ligts in the back of the building have burned out and it seems management is not in much of a hurry to fix them.
Pitch Black.
I fall off the loading dock.
OW!
This time, Bulldog gets to drive ME to the hospital.
I'm better now but not in much of a hurry to go back there.
So there you have it. I've mostly caught up with you. I'll post again tomorrow!
--maddog
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