# When your partner feels "sick"



## daemonicusxx (Jun 27, 2005)

Last shift, my partner and I got a call to transport a pt from Louisiana to Dallas. It was gonna be a cool txp. We got disregarded, and I'm sorta glad we did. The EMT I was working with wasn’t my regular partner, just a fill in. shortly after we got canceled on the call, we stopped by her residence, just down the street from the ED. We were just sittin there watchin some TV when she looked at me and said, “I think I just went into SVT” PERFECT. Well, I put her on the monitor, sure enough, SVT. Pulse was at 250, and the area just above her clavicle was pulsating. she tried to vagal down, that didn’t work, so I got her in the front seat, took her to the ED and they gave her 6 of adenosine. Brought her out of it. She got admitted last night. She does have a significant cardiac history so it wasn’t out of the ordinary for her. I'm used to working on patients, not really used to working on my partner. I didn’t really perform any interventions due to the fact that we were a mere 30 seconds from the ER. It was just a weird day, just wondering what you guys had to say about it.


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## Wingnut (Jun 27, 2005)

I've never had to help anyone I know/work with (unless you count pets) but I have a problem with my own heart rate and have had to "treat" myself while my husband gets me to the dr. It's kinda of like having 2 personalities, Half my brain is freaking out and the other half is telling me to calm down and assessing my situation.

No wonder my husband thinks I'm nuts. :blink:


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## Firechic (Jun 28, 2005)

Medical people are the worst patients in some ways and the best in others. 
I know - I speak from experience!


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## CodeSurfer (Jun 28, 2005)

You know I am BLS now... I read medical as Medi-Cal (the insurance all of my not sick pt's have)


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## usafmedic45 (Jun 28, 2005)

I got to cardiovert my partner who had paroxysmal atrial fib with rapid ventricular response one time.  The ER doc was like, "Here, you do it.  It'll be a great way to teach him to respect your authority." *Hands me the pads* (I was the EMT-I and he was a Basic)  :lol:


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## vtemti (Jun 28, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Firechic_@Jun 28 2005, 02:41 AM
> * Medical people are the worst patients in some ways and the best in others.
> I know - I speak from experience!   *


I agree.

I have never had a situation where I needed to work on a partner, but my wife says I am a d#*k head when I am sick. Is this because, as "Medi-Cal" people we think we can handle the situation or are we afraid because we actually know the kind of disfunctional people that will come to our aid?


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## Stevo (Jun 28, 2005)

i broke my fibula chasing a chicken once, took the er forever to convince me it was _really _broken because i could stand on it.....

and the chicken....well....it's _unavailable_ for comment...


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## TTLWHKR (Jun 28, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Stevo_@Jun 28 2005, 06:57 PM
> * i broke my fibula chasing a chicken once, took the er forever to convince me it was really broken because i could stand on it.....
> 
> and the chicken....well....it's unavailable for comment...  *


 Well, I hope you ate it!


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## TTLWHKR (Jun 28, 2005)

> _Originally posted by vtemti+Jun 28 2005, 05:39 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>*QUOTE* (vtemti @ Jun 28 2005, 05:39 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Firechic_@Jun 28 2005, 02:41 AM
> * Medical people are the worst patients in some ways and the best in others.
> I know - I speak from experience!   *


I agree.

I have never had a situation where I needed to work on a partner, but my wife says I am a d#*k head when I am sick. Is this because, as "Medi-Cal" people we think we can handle the situation or are we afraid because we actually know the kind of disfunctional people that will come to our aid? [/b][/quote]
 In my mind, I think that I can fix anything that is wrong with me.. Weather I can or I cannot. I hate being the patient, I don't like to be poked at. 

I have a book called "Where there is no Doctor"..

Good thing to have. All ya need is alcohol, boric acid, iodine, ice, tiny needles and black thread... and bandaids...... lots of bandaids. 

and alka seltzer...
 :wacko:


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## MedicPrincess (Jun 29, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Stevo_@Jun 28 2005, 06:57 PM
> * i broke my fibula chasing a chicken once, took the er forever to convince me it was really broken because i could stand on it.....
> 
> and the chicken....well....it's unavailable for comment...  *


 WOW..SteveO, thats not the first Chicken reference...

Would you care to tell us all about your "special friendship" with the chickens?  Are you the big cock of the hen house or what?   :lol:     :lol:


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## rescuecpt (Jun 29, 2005)

I have runs of tachycardia sometimes... the other night I got scolded for not saying anything to my medic when it was going on... he figured it out because I had (+) JVD....    Oops, I got caught.


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## Ridryder911 (Jun 29, 2005)

It is a scarry thing.. being on both ends.  When I was younger & tring to work... 3 EMS jobs (typical EMT).. I became caffeine toxic.(go figure) .. I too had SVT.. & was about to be cardio-verted .. when the Valium kicked in & dropped my rate.... defnitely a scarry feeling.

I have had to treat many members of my family, crew & ER staff.. in fact,one of my best friend (ER nurse) was ejected from her auto/mva & was killed last Friday. Times like that, is when you awake & realize we are not immuned....

Be safe,
Ridryder 911


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## Wingnut (Jun 29, 2005)

Not to get off the point of the post, (but I will) ... It's nice to know some of you have gone through the same thing. I went to 2 cardiologists when that started and they blew me off. Just nice to know I'm not a big hypochondriac (well not totally at least)


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## vtemti (Jun 29, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Wingnut_@Jun 29 2005, 11:30 AM
> * Not to get off the point of the post, (but I will) ... It's nice to know some of you have gone through the same thing. I went to 2 cardiologists when that started and they blew me off. Just nice to know I'm not a big hypochondriac (well not totally at least)   *


 I have always wondered if this should be considered Hypo (a depressionary mind state) or Hyper (an over active mind set)?


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## Stevo (Jun 29, 2005)

> *Would you care to tell us all about your "special friendship" with the chickens? Are you the big cock of the hen house or what?*








oh, i gotta few chicken stories....


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## vtemti (Jun 29, 2005)

> _Originally posted by EMTPrincess+Jun 29 2005, 10:08 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>*QUOTE* (EMTPrincess @ Jun 29 2005, 10:08 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Stevo_@Jun 28 2005, 06:57 PM
> * i broke my fibula chasing a chicken once, took the er forever to convince me it was really broken because i could stand on it.....
> 
> and the chicken....well....it's unavailable for comment...  *


WOW..SteveO, thats not the first Chicken reference...

Would you care to tell us all about your "special friendship" with the chickens?  Are you the big cock of the hen house or what?   :lol:     :lol:    [/b][/quote]
 Steve burned, or I mean steve's chicken coup burned, a few years ago. 

Suspicious for the following reasons:

1) Hungry at the time (alot of bbq chicken).

2) Needed money (insurance reasons).

3) Likes to hear himself on the radio (actual transmission: Heeeeeeelp, this is C43, its my chicken coup).

4) Needed a good reason to use all of the animated chicken clip art and pics collected over the years (self explainatory).

and last but not least,

5) Needed reasurance and sympathy (no comment).


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## vtemti (Jun 29, 2005)

PS   I forgot to mention, Steve is a licensed electrician. Guess the origin of the fire.
Could it have been electrical?????? :lol:


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## Wingnut (Jun 30, 2005)

> _Originally posted by vtemti_@Jun 29 2005, 07:01 PM
> * (actual transmission: Heeeeeeelp, this is C43, its my chicken coup).
> 
> *


 ROFLMFAO :lol:  :lol:  :lol:


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## TTLWHKR (Jun 30, 2005)

When I lived back home, we discovered that insurance doesn't cover "self performed electrical work". We lived on, what is known in Pennsylvania, as a Century Farm. Just means that my family ran it for over 100 years. We had an old barn, that was much smaller than the large equipment barns, that was set to be demolished - but my parents gave it to us as a club house. So my brother decided it needed modern plumbing and electric.  :huh:  Why? I don't know. But to make a long story short, he wired from the barn the 280VAC that was meant for a corn chopper battery charger. The wood in the "shed" was 140 some years old, when he was done, we left it for the night. My grandfather went into the barn, and plugged the chopper in, turning the switch on. Something must have been wire wrong, about 2 hours later a lady came into our drive way beeping her horn asking us to call the fire department. She said there was a brush fire in the woods behind our house. We had a John Deere gator w/ a tank and pump that we used to water plants where the irriagtion tubes didn't reach, so we wasted time filling that, and by the time we got on the fields behind the farm, our "shed" was burned to the ground. There was prolly 1/2 acre of field and woods on fire too. State police fire marshall investigation couldn't prove anything, other than it had "old, possibly faulty wiring, and was stored full of off road fuel aka 'tractor gas', paint and farming chemicals". Oops.  :blink:


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## asys007 (Jul 7, 2005)

Many times, my coworkers have become my patients...
For everything from simple injuries to stupid injuries to legitimate medical problems. By now, we know each other so well that we know when something's going on before the 'patient' admits they aren't well...


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## AJemt (Aug 6, 2005)

i have to be feeling pretty bad before i'll admit it to my partner....actually had one offer to take me into the ER but i flat out refused him....my blood pressure was kinda high and i had a headache and was a little bit dizzy and probably had an electrolyte imbalance  <_<  but there was no way i was going into the ER....was sick last week but worked through it, wouldn't drive though (was on a bls txpt truck and we did 4 txpts i made my partner drive and i wrote them all), stomach ache really really bad to where i called the boss and asked if i could go home if i didn't start feeling better - he said yes but i pushed myself to stay.  haven't had to treat my partners yet but i'm sure it will happen eventually....
ems providers make the worst pts....


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## Jon (Aug 6, 2005)

Yeah... I had to leave work early yesterday... some kind of stomach bug. I'm over it now, but even working the VERY boring convention, where I'm in a first aid station with a bathroom, all my myself, was a little too much. I had originally tried to tough it out and just not do the second standby of the day... and evening concert. But I had to leave early.... Luckly my boss was REALLY cool...

Jon


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## MMiz (Aug 7, 2005)

Someone at my company had the same thing happen to them, partner ran him into the ER.

Recently someone at the company was hypoglycemic and became non-responsive on the way to a call.  She was combative, broke a few things in the ambulance, and ripped a few shirts.  It made a great story


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## daemonicusxx (Aug 8, 2005)

Believe it or not, i actually got a call yesterday for "back pain"

Guess who. Same partner, i recognized her neighborhood. she was sittin right at 170 for the entire TXP. i think theres an underlying reason. she did admit some stuff in the back that i had to report, hope im not passin the hippa line in here.


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