Catch up on the experience

Ok since I've been horrible at this a quick catch up.  I think my favorite part of the internship is all the people we deal with.  Everyone is so unique and interesting.  The things people say and do just cracks me up.  :)  So one lady we picked up for heartburn was talking about how she had her grits for breakfast "country style."  My preceptor knowing I"m not from the south mentioned how I probably didn't know what country style grits were, or grits for that matter.  She looks at me in disbelief and disgust; in her southern country accent then says "You ain't never had grits before?"  I respond with a smile "nope, never had em."  Her jaw drops open!  Then my preceptor says I've probably never had okra or fried green tomatos or something else, that I really don't know what he was tlaking about.  This much information pushed her over the edge.  She was going into shock. Not really, but she just started going off "You ain't never had grits or okra or...."  I reply no.  Then she just shakes her head, "mmm, you need to go to the store and buy some aunt jemima.  Yep aunt Jemima is ma favorite grits.  Hers are real good."  She still can't get through her head that I've never had so much southern food so she starts asking about more food.  "You ain't never had fried chicken?" I say I have had fried chicken.  Still wondering she asks "You ain't never had pork?" I agian inform her that I"ve had pork.  Then she tells me again to get some aunt jemima. :)  She was funny.

Those of you've that have seen my hand writing will appreciate this.  I hand my preceptor my sheet to sign and he looks at it and respons; "Holy S*** your writing.  What's wrong wit you?  You're a woman!" :) Yes I know that, thank you.

We went to a call for a lady who just needed help getting on the toilet to use it, then back in her bed.  So we put her on the toilet and ask her if she'll need some more time, like if it's a #1 or #2, she replied "oh I just gotta deposit a quick one." Cute.

After dropping our patient off at the hospital another grady ambulance pulls up with a lady who was switching from asystole to NSR w/ pulse.  So we stayed to watch them come in.  She was fine in the ambulance, soon as they pulled her out she went into asystole again.  The extra firefighter that was with them just jumped on one side of the cot standing and put one hand on the handle bar across from him and with his extra hand started chest compressions again.  Then rolled them into the hospital like that. :)  I'd never seen that so it was interesting to me.

We picked up a bum and took him the the hospital.  Go on some more calls and after about 6 hours we see the same bum at the ambulance bay.  He just needs a ride closer to home.  So my preceptor allows him to catch a ride with us back to Grady.  Tells him to make up something that's wrong with him and that when we got to Grady he was to walk in and say he doesn't want to be treated.  We asked what the doctors had said about his illness from previously and anytime he would talk about what the "Doctors" said, he called them the "Ders" So he'd say "The ders told me I has pneumonia..."  So funny!! :)

Another funny lady we picked up...  She's sitting next to me on the bench and after doing our assessment and it's time to casual talk she looks at me and says "you're so pretty. You have a great smile."  Few moments later "I like your size!"  Once inside the hospital I"m standing with her and she just keeps repeating. "I just love your size.  Must be real comfortable huh?" She was a little overweight with a cute southern accent. :)  Love these people!

Finally picked up a patient that had "da shakes and da shivers!" :)  When they said that I just smiled, since Dallen introduced us to the term.  Glad I had one!

When we ask patients what hospital they want to go to they either refuse to go to grady, or they reply "Well Grady!  I'm a grady baby!  All my doctors at Grady, always go to Grady."

We've picked up lots of purely psychotic patients!  So weird talking with them. One lady thought she'd been kidnapped and had to get back to the french consolate.  She was smart tho.  She would play with her words and with what we'd say to her.  She was crazy. 

There is one tall guy we've picked up twice now.  Says he has a 19 yo wife.... he's 48.  HIs name is George and I think he's developed a little crush on me.  The second time we went to pick him up we were asking ppl if they called an ambulance and he said no.  I smiled at him tho, cause I'd picked him up only a week prior.  After I waved at him he perks up and says uh yes I did.  So my preceptor says alright well let's get in the truck.  I don't sit next to him this time, last time he kept touching me and almost threw his smelly jacket over my head b/c of the story he was telling.  (he's very eccentric) So I sat at the captains chair this time.  He told the same crazy stories about his favorite movies.  In the hospital I avoided geting close to him, but it didn't work.  He still walked up to me and said "I like you, I can trust you." Then proceeds to give me a side hug.. Blah! Gross!! Smelly guy, homeless... blah!

Everyone smells down here.  Always a mixture of being homeless and not showering, not brushing teeth, drinking alcohol, and smoking.  I wish I could capture their smell in a jar so people could understand what a REAL stink is.  Crazy how they live wiht themselves.

Day one

First day was Thursday.  Todd is my preceptor and Matt is the EMT/driver.  Both of them are really nice and helpful.  Our day consists mostly of driving.  Drive to post... drive to patient.... drive to hospital... drive back to post to only get called in 10 minutes to pt.... drive to patient.... drive to hospital... and the cycle continues.  Since we only spend about 10 minutes on scene I do feel like I sit almost 12 hours of the day.  I try to get out at post sometimes, or we'll walk around a grocery store, it's till not much.  Driving in traffic is the worst.  Matt isn't the best driver, he drives the ambulance as a car and doesn't think about those in the back so much.  By the end of the day I feel kind of sick, since the last few hours are usually full of traffic.  Alas, it is still fun.  My first 2 days were slow.  They said an average day is 12 calls.  Day one was only 6.  Still kept us pretty busy for most of the day, still more calls than I ever got in Rexburg/Idaho Falls! 

Day one was an observing day for me, to get use to how they do things and their protocols.  Some patients worth noting:

• Some women who was having difficulty breathing, about 8 pillows were stacked behind her to hold her up.  She weighed about 300 lb. and I was looking at her one leg hanging off the bed and her other leg to see how we'd lift her.  Turns out she only had one leg... Her left leg had been amputated and was a fat nub just sitting up there.  I was caught a little off gaurd. :/
• The only emergency of the day was to a 66 y/o M having an asthma attack we did every step on their protocols.  For me it was good to see the process that they went through and how fast they caught on to how severe this was for the guy.  We'd only asked him if he had asthma and if he tried his albuterol, before we had our own oxygen on him and was nebulizing our albuterol with his atrovent.  Crazy!
• The rest of the day was to sick people not feeling well, or minor injuries.

Something I love about being here in the south, no matter if the patient is extremely sick or just called us becuase they couldn't get up, they are so thankful that we were able to come and help them.  It's so nice of them!  So far at least, I'm sure I'll have other patients that aren't so thankful, but everyone has been nice, funny, and easy to talk to. 

I've found many new places I want to explore downtown too watching out the back of the ambulance window.  I try to see street names and write them down so I can remember them for later!  Can't wait to go back and explore! 

A little about Grady

My scedule is to ride Monday and Tuesday with Ronnie Puckett, and Thursdays and Fridays with Todd Clark.  Starting at 0630-1830.  To get the truck ready and everything I arrive at 6, and we don't usually get back to the station till 7.  If we get back sooner than 7, we still have to wash the truck.  So I usually leave between 1900-1930.  I love my schedule though, I couldn't have asked for better days!  I can basically pick any other days I want to add ride alongs either with my preceptors or different ones based on when I want to go.  Love having the options. :) 

Most medics here do a 3 schedule where they only work 3 days a week of 12 hours.  Everything about their medicine is pretty straight forward.  I felt like Rexburg had TONS of options of drugs they could use compared to Grady.  Pain Med= Fentanyl, Benzo.= Versed, then they have all the typical drugs atropine, epi, mag sulfate, nitro, aspirin, amiodarone, toradol, albuterol, decadron... that's all I can think of, like I said straight forward. 

The treatment here is different than what I was thinking, just because of what I was used to.  Most of the time it's just a simple pick up for somebody who isn't in critical need.  We'll even bring patients to the hospital just to sit in the waiting room.  Sometimes because there aren't any beds, other times becuase they don't need to be seen right away so they go to the waiting room.  Most patients don't get a full assessment becuase it is unnecessary to them.  They just know what will happen and I haven't caught on to that yet. 

There are also time restraints on everything.  So based on the call we'll have 7, 10, 15, or 20 minutes to get to the scene.  Once on scene we have 10 minutes, unless they tell dispatch what they are doing and how long they will be.  At the hospital we ahve 15 minutes to drop off the patient and get our cot ready and be back in service.

Grady hospital is such a unique hospital, I love it!  When we bring a patient to grady we always lock the doors of the ambulance becuase of  the area we're in.  We bring the patient through the first sliding doors where a cop asks "Do you have any weapons?" Then proceeds to scan them with a metal detector and puts a sticker on them with their number in line.  So crazy! 

I'm excited to have more experiences and see what else this city has to show me!! :)