RECOVERING GRADY ADDICT

As New Orleans (and the rest of Southern Louisiana) prepares to be seriously fucked for the second time in three years... My favorite Louisiana blog buddy, the Paramedic I wanna grow up to be... Kelly, ( aka "Ambulance Driver", aka "A.D." http://www.ambulancedriverfiles.blogspot.com/ ) prepares for a 6am shift tomorrow in New Orleans. He has packed and prepped, as all good public safety folks do, to spend several days stuck at work, possibly unable to leave, most likely his relief unable to get in, and tons of 911 calls awaiting his attention. Please say a little prayer for him, and all his colleagues as Gustav ass rapes Louisiana tomorrow. My only question is this: As we EMS peeps have lovingly referred to Katrina evacuees as Katricians, will Gustav evacuees be Gustavians? Nope, that almost sounds classy.

TOP 10 THINGS A PARAMEDIC SHOULDN'T SAY...

My friend Stephanie sent this today in a bulletin. It's not the original video by the band, but maybe even more moving. As I watched the 9/11 footage infused with clips of our soldiers caught up in this goddam war... I WAS MOVED TO TEARS. Whatever your political affiliation or views, surely we all can appreciate the loss of life (world wide) this war has cost, and continues to cost every day, as well as the snow-balling political and economical fallout. The media box is posted here, but to really appreciate it you have to use the actual YOUTUBE link below, and view it FULL SCREEN. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwAGc4aM5q0

I am simply amazed at those who lack tack and diplomacy, no matter what level of dyke drama has ensued in the last three months. Two certain people feel that it is their business and right to stick their two cent's in WHERE IT DON'T FUCKING BELONG. Candice, Mike, and Matt have lost their sister. Loretta has lost a daughter. Three precious children lost a mother. And that is that. I asked my blog readers for their prayers and well wishes for this family during this tragedy. What do I get? What does this family get? VENOM! Hateful, spiteful VENOM! From two people who don't know this family, have never met any member of this family, who have no direct knowledge of the situation, and most especially don't know the events and circumstances leading up to and surrounding the situation. Ex called me Sunday, while driving to BootyCall's from West Virginia. She actually had the audacity to argue with me about how this was NEVER a murder. I am sure she was cued by BootyCall...

Just after 3am my phone awoke with back to back phone calls. Unusual for my phone to ring at odd hours of the night these days. It was a phone call I feared I would one day get. The person calling has been of significant importance in my life for almost a decade, and we have seen each other through some seriously rough times. When I saw who was calling, I first thought she and her girlfriend had probably had THE fight. But this, sadly, was not the case. She and I had, together and individually, bailed her little sister out time after time. She had been in and out of psychotic and abusive relationships, battled addiction since she was a young teenager, and had three precious children before she was 21. My friend and I both feared that one day we would get a call from some police department that little sister had died of an overdose, had been beaten to death by a boyfriend, or whatever. It was an unpleasant and heartbreaking thought, but we were realistic. We prayed that day would never ...

The verdict is in. Yesterday's appointment with the orthopaedic was less than promising. Thanks to 9+ years in high volume, 911 EMS, that has mostly functioned under the "Spawn of Satan" System Status Management... (Grady & Metro), I have purchased my ticket to return to school this Fall. May I explain the X-Ray... The more solid chunks are the vertebrae of my lumbar spine. The dark spaces between are the disks. The two disks marked at the top are L2-L3 & L3-L4. The thin sliver is L4-L5. This disk is at 1/3 it's normal size. It has deteriorated. The next disk is L5-S1. It is decorated as well, but not as bad as the one above it. It is also displaced anteriorly (toward the front) leaving the posterior portions of the L5 &S1 vertebrae to grind against each other. Good explanation for the worsening, now debilitating pain I have endured for the last 3 months, for why my legs don't want to work, and for why I have completely collapsed to the floor twice - f...