Had another save last night. Fire dept was doing CPR when we arrived on scene. Pt was pulseless and apneic. History of renal failure and dialysis. My partner intubated while I started an IV. Veins were hard to find, typical of a dialysis pt. Finally found one in the hand and we started pushing drugs. She got 2 rounds of Epi down the ETT and then atropine, epi, bicarb and narcon in the IV. Then she had a pulse of about 120 and a blood pressure of about 160/80. She maintained both the pulse and the BP during transport to the hospital, although she was still apneic. The ER doc gave insulin and D50 after drawing blood for labs. Turned out that her potassium was quite high, which is presumed to be the cause of the cardiac arrest. She was transferred up to ICU after being stabilized in the ER.
Oct 28, 08:04AM PDT | 0 comments
First semester was mostly review of what was covered in EMT school, plus psychiatric emergencies and a few other things. Second semester is like a huge smack in the face – pharmacology, trauma, respiratory, OB, pediatrics…it’s tough. Things are starting to fall into place as far as understanding what’s really going on with the patient. The scary thing is realizing just how much more there is to learn. Every time I understand something new, I realize that there are so many other things that I don’t understand. Kinda puts a whole new perspective on things.
Sep 20, 11:30AM PDT | 1 cheer | 1 comment
Today I emptied three boxes and threw away two big bags of garbage from the bedroom. We have this big pile of boxes that we have been moving with us for nearly ten years. It’s time to get rid of this junk. We’ve wanted to get rid of them for a long time, but I guess we just haven’t been motivated to do so. Today I was motivated and they are GONE! Now the pile is three boxes smaller. We also took the orange couch and several huge bags of old clothes to goodwill over the weekend. There’s still a ton of work to do, but it’s a start!
May 26, 09:37PM PDT | 1 cheer | 0 comments
I'm doing 40 things
