Posts

Mental

Many of you know that I have recently relocated to a new city. One of the facility contracts we have is a hospital, on the local Army base. Yesterday I was dispatched out to transfer a patient to the other VA Hospital, which from my understanding, is primarily a inpatient psychiatric facility with a few primary care offices. I arrived on the floor to get report from the nurse to find out that our patient was a 24 year old male, who was hospitalized for a suicide attempt. He returned from the Middle East with both his legs amputated, one just above the knee the other nearly to his hip. He "survived" an explosion, I assumed a buried bomb, landmine, or direct heavy fire. I didn't want to ask. The blast not only took his legs, but shattered his pelvis, which took months of surgeries and physical therapy to "recover" from. This last November he was discharged under disability. Since then he has been unable to cope with all the fallout of not only his injuries, his ne
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Hello out there...

Most of you all have e-mailed me asking about my hiatus from blogging. I've had so much going on lately that I have just simply not been able to sit down in front of the computer and compose anything. Packing and moving twice, job searches, apprenticeship, and chauffeuring friends keeps one busy. I wake up at 8 and don't go to bed until midnight or later. Nowhere in there do I have time to blog right now. I promise I will be back soon. And with an all new blog about the adventures of the new job.
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Because I Laughed...

I was happy to see that they finally enabled the embedding codes for this video. So happy happy happy I can share it. All my Atlanta friends and colleagues will laugh their asses off. It's a great spoof of Atlanta history and landmarks. Check it out.
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Life goes on... FINALLY!

I am delighted to report that I have been extended a job offer. This includes a significant relocation bonus, competitive pay, and decent benefits. I even have a second part time job in the works. It's a posh one too! Fantastic hourly pay with travel and lodging reimbursement. By my estimates, I will have fully recovered financially from the fall out of this last year within just a couple of months. The downside is that I will be moving to a city where I know absolutely no one. Considering the last year, this may actually be a good thing. But the most wonderful thing is that I accomplished all of this 100% alone. No help from "friends", or ex's. So I start new with a feeling of accomplishment, and no obligations to repay any debts. I will be starting a new blog, yielding the dish on my new journey and of course including all the anecdotes I anticipate to collect providing EMS in a new city. If you guys want the link, just e-mail me your request through the link on my
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ADOPT A SOLDIER!!!

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From Dragon's blog: Many deployed service personnel are without letters from home. This is a pen-pal organization that promotes letter writing through the adoption of a US soldier. I JOINED! I am wiggling in my seat to start up a pen-pal again. And this time around, my efforts will have depth and meaning! The last pen-pal I had was in highschool, through my German classes. It didn't last long, but neither did many other short lived phases I went through. Here's the link to the website: ADOPT A US SOLDIER (dot) ORG
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Paying It Forward... (or) Repaying a Priceless Debt...

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I worked the streets as a Paramedic in the inner-city for almost 8 years. I have been shot at, cut, beaten, cursed at daily... and for that I gained an appreciation of what our service men and women face overseas, fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. My own experience has only been a tiny fraction in comparison to the terrors and violence these brave souls face -- DAILY. Most regular every day folks don't realize how truly traumatic this war, and past wars, have been on our military personnel. Many come home with pent up emotions, anger, stress, hidden fear, panic attacks, nightmares, chronic and acute depression, suicidal ideations... even worse... violent outbursts and blackouts. This is all from a very real response called POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER . In some it is very subtle. In others it can be very obvious. Either way, it can be crippling to their daily lives, and damning to marriages and families. PTSD had not even really been recognized, much less be diagnosed as a very
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I was reminded...

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Out of sheer boredom for the slow nights... it can be really fun to fuck with dispatch. Most of them don't even realize it either. That's even funnier. Ambulance Driver had such an exchange last night apparently: Ambulance Driver: Radio Traffic From Last Night Dispatcher: "Borg Unit Four, you have an assault/rape at Masquerade, 1384 Waterfront. 23-year-old male at the rear entrance." Temporary Partner: "What's Masquerade?" Ambulance Driver: "Local gay bar. They have an awesome drag show on Wednesday nights." Temporary Partner [on radio]: "Dispatch, where did you say the patient was again?" Dispatcher: "Unit Four, your injury is going to be at the rear entrance." TP: "Ummmm, okay." Back in the old days, when Fulton County Communications handled Grady EMS's dispatching, one of our primary posts was in Buckhead. On Friday and Saturday nights we would move from our usual post at AFD Sta 21 over to the middle of the
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