the 100% directionless thread

PotatoMedic said:
I need a good vent book. The more I use one the more I realize I have no idea what I'm doing. Might have to check that one out.
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Bauers first book is really good. I can't speak on the new one, I'm sure there is some good stuff in there. I definitely learned a lot with the first though, worth buying if you're actually going to get one.
 
Oh, is any boot more likely to protect my ankle from crush injuries in the future?
 
I ordered Bauers new book as soon as I saw the release. Pretty excited about it, I thought the first was good but ive gotten all I can out of it.
 
I know there were some earlier replies, but I wanted to add...

Akulahawk said:
While light duty is never as fun as being in the field, I suggest you at least learn whatever they have you do. If it's billing or filing or whatever, just do it. You might end up with an appreciation for the jobs that other (non-field) people do in your company.
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Not only will you learn appreciation, but you'll learn a new skill, and maybe even a new interest. As you learned in your short time in EMS, you can be injured very quickly/easily. And you'll never know when 'that' injury will take you out of service for
DragonClaw said:
I don't want to bother people and poster them for time and effort.
I don't want to be a mooch or a bother.
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Don't look at it as a bother, look at as an opportunity to learn more about your coworkers. If they are willing to give you a ride, use that time to ask about their time with the company. Ask about their family. Ask about the ambitions. In an industry that can sometimes be who you know rather than what you know, having a strong network will help.

Having a strong network and additional skills (see top of this post), you'll have a better career over time.
 
Chimpie said:
I know there were some earlier replies, but I wanted to add...


Not only will you learn appreciation, but you'll learn a new skill, and maybe even a new interest. As you learned in your short time in EMS, you can be injured very quickly/easily. And you'll never know when 'that' injury will take you out of service for

Don't look at it as a bother, look at as an opportunity to learn more about your coworkers. If they are willing to give you a ride, use that time to ask about their time with the company. Ask about their family. Ask about the ambitions. In an industry that can sometimes be who you know rather than what you know, having a strong network will help.

Having a strong network and additional skills (see top of this post), you'll have a better career over time.
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Hindsight 20/20

I keep grilling myself on this. Over and over I'm thinking on it. Why was I that dumb? Usually I limited myself at 50kg for solo.

This lady was 114.

But it never clicked. I had all the facts and it just didn't compute. I'd had like 5 hours of sleep in the 48 hours prior to that shift. I was sick. My FTO saw me come into work and said I should have called in.

But I don't call in. I don't do that. I hate being one to leave everyone short handed, but I guess in a way I have now, and I'm a liability now.

But even so. Just, I keep going back to why I didn't stop to think. I thought I had it, didn't think it would be easy, but I thought I could do it.

I think it would value me to take time to breathe before rushing in.

Maybe it's that feeling of being bulletproof you get when you're 23. I still kind of feel like I am, but the evidence doesn't add up.

I just need to think on it some more until I get it though my thick skull.

I am lucky I didn't crush my pelvis or break a femur or hit my head, or anything worse. If it slipped a slightly different way or if I'd had a second less to react, it might have. Or that the pt could have gotten hurt.

When I'm back on my feet, I'm sure my benchwarming time will have given me ample time to go through it all.

Not making this mistake again.

Edit: Maybe I haven't learned. Maybe exhausted and sick isn't any way to work. I'll think on that too.
 
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For what it’s worth, not stopping to think is what makes you a liability. Not the fact that you’re injured now. That’s just the result of your not stopping to think.

Stop and think before you ran out into traffic at a motor vehicle accident? Would you stop and think before you ran into a building that was filled with carbon monoxide? Would you stop and think before you touch the wires that might be energized?

We’d like to think yes… But your actions have shown that you don’t. When we teach EMT classes and we make our students say the magic phrase “I’m wearing BSI, is the scene safe?“ We’re not doing that for our health… We’re trying to drum it into your head that before you do anything, you need to check and see if you were going to get injured before you do it.

I hate to be blunt, but your posts have shown that you show a serious disregard for anyone giving you advice or trying to help you navigate the treacherous waters that a new EMT must swim through.

I wish you good luck in the future, but I bet dollars to donuts six months from now you’ll have a different job… Outside of EMS
 
NomadicMedic said:
For what it’s worth, not stopping to think is what makes you a liability. Not the fact that you’re injured now. That’s just the result of your not stopping to think.

Stop and think before you ran out into traffic at a motor vehicle accident? Would you stop and think before you ran into a building that was filled with carbon monoxide? Would you stop and think before you touch the wires that might be energized?

We’d like to think yes… But your actions have shown that you don’t. When we teach EMT classes and we make our students say the magic phrase “I’m wearing BSI, is the scene safe?“ We’re not doing that for our health… We’re trying to drum it into your head that before you do anything, you need to check and see if you were going to get injured before you do it.

I hate to be blunt, but your posts have shown that you show a serious disregard for anyone giving you advice or trying to help you navigate the treacherous waters that a new EMT must swim through.

I wish you good luck in the future, but I bet dollars to donuts six months from now you’ll have a different job… Outside of EMS
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I agree with that first part, I didn't think about things and I got hurt. And yeah, that is a liability. Part of it stems from family, asking for help was definitely burdensome to say the very least. Getting hurt was okay, but don't waste anyone's time.

And I'm not trying to defend my current actions or lack of thought, I'm an adult now and should know better and past issues aren't really anyone else's but mine to identify and fix.

I just have a lot of time to think about this now.

I know several of you believe I shouldn't be in EMS, or won't, and you're not the first to bet I'll be out of this job or EMS in general. But I'm not sure if my dad's opinion counts anymore anyway. I suppose it doesn't if I don't want it to.

I'm not sure if anyone here still has any belief in me, but I believe most of you are honest and experienced in this. I do take things with a grain of salt, as I cannot possibly explain everything I do, think, or feel to give a proper view across internet boards.

I'd take you up on that bet. Dollars or doughnuts. Not because "I'll show you", but I don't think I can stay away. I like IFT a lot more than I thought I did. I miss being out on a truck with the people I've been becoming friends with. Being able to be happy with what I do. Etc etc.

And if being a good team member and provider means I need to sit down and re-evaluate, read some self help books or ask for help from those I work with, I'll do it.

Either I can pretend I still think I can do things by myself or whatever and bad things continue to happen, or I fix myself.

At the end of the day, time will tell. And if it turns out I don't have the capacity, discipline, or whatever to not be a liability in EMS, then you'll be right.

No hard feeling. But I'm not going to give up that easily.
 
Some of the meanings behind what you do aren't bad traits, they're things I am personally happy to see (motivation and drive), but they are misdirected.

There isn't anything wrong with wanting to pull your weight, because we damn sure have enough people that don't. But there is a point you become a liability. I don't like having to do the job of two people on a critical patient because of something going on with my partner (and I have), much less trust my life to someone who has slept 5 hours in the last 48 on top of being sick. You aren't a help at that point. You're in the way at the very least and harmful in the worst case. **** the ankle, that level of exhaustion is what gets people killed. There have been enough people I work with or in the surrounding areas that have been buried this year alone, the most recent being just a few days ago. I don't want a reason to add to that list or to be on it.

There is a lot of "you don't know what you don't know" in your posts. That's expected when you're this new, but depending on how you handle it, it is also dangerous as you have found out.

The folks here are worth listening to, I have been for years since I was in your shoes. They get what the growing process is like in this job and what it takes to be successful. I'm sure a few of them could even give me a "in 5 years" type of talk on what I could expect having been in my shoes.
 
2 or 3 whole pages of this same thing? I feel as if it should be its own thread.

In the directionless spirit... I like beer.
 
CALEMT said:
In the directionless spirit... I like beer.
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I like beer too, but I prefer vodka.

Also, The Irishman is long AF. Good, but quite the saga. Great to see the boys back together again though.

ETA: I also enjoy a good agave. Chavo Malo has to be one of the smoothest tequilas I’ve had. The Yardhouse makes something called a “Mayan Mule”. Delish.
 
If you add salt to hand sanitizer it separates the alcohol from the gel!
 
CALEMT said:
2 or 3 whole pages of this same thing? I feel as if it should be its own thread.

In the directionless spirit... I like beer.
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I'll bite.

Moving just plain sucks. But on the bright side, my duck is on the wall and the Xbox is out.
 
Okay. Back to it. I made dinner. But none of my pictures are small enough to fit.
 
PotatoMedic said:
If you add salt to hand sanitizer it separates the alcohol from the gel!
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Oh lordie. Reminds me of some of the patients in the ER that we caught trying to fill styrofoam cups with a hand sanitizer. Their “excuse” - it was for “personal hygiene” [emoji1695]

In other news, the new season of The Expanse is coming out on the 12th. The books are good too.
 
Qulevrius said:
Oh lordie. Reminds me of some of the patients in the ER that we caught trying to fill styrofoam cups with a hand sanitizer. Their “excuse” - it was for “personal hygiene” [emoji1695]

In other news, the new season of The Expanse is coming out on the 12th. The books are good too.
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Better than the lady with poop on herself, hands, fingers, under and on her nails and she was a hugger. Or tried to be.
 
CALEMT said:
2 or 3 whole pages of this same thing? I feel as if it should be its own thread.

In the directionless spirit... I like beer.
Click to expand...
 
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