Your Families "Confidence" in Your Training and Abilities...

[Akulahawk]

Re: Confidence is important...theirs and yours.

and intermember family politics.

You can fool strangers into thinking you jump into your pants both legs at once each AM and can raise the dead. A nice uniform and appearance help.

Your family knows you as the kid who used a can of Right Guard and a lighter to flame-thrower his Transformer and Star Wars action figures into lumps of dripping burning goo.

A parent allowing you to assume their care feels a loss of superiority.

That same family who has seen you growing up knows you're NOT superman. While a parent may feel a loss of superiority by allowing YOU to assume care for them, it shows a great deal of trust in YOU that they do allow you to assume care for them, when they need it.

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

i.e., my father just "misfired" with a preasure washer and hit his leg... he yells for me... I take a quick look at this bloody mess... go to my SAR pack to grab by Medical Kit (15 seconds)... and the second I start cleaning the area to check it out... he is trying to get up to get to the car so that he can drive himself to Prompt Care... This despite advise from me and my mother (i.e. let me clean it up, assess it, dress it, and then let mom drive him)... Rather, he grabs a paper towel and starts driving himself down the hill with a nice huge abrasion and a laceration that seemed to be filled with the water or maybe it was a hematoma (didn't get enough time to exam, but with a preasure washer, there is the strong possibilty of the laceration being down the the bone, with possible internal bleeding and skelatal involvement...)

Just got back from Doc in the Box... Nice, deep laceration with one heck of a hematoma... Had a couple sutures thrown in (no local - My dad... )... but with high presure water, who knows how bad it could initially be...

So, since I originally posted this here, I though I would give an update with a funny story...

My father had me take a look at this wound several days ago and I noted that it was looking a little necrotic. He finally went to the Doctor today, had the stitches removed, cleaned up the area, and yep… a tad necrotic and infected. Duh, didn’t I say that 3 days ago? On antibiotics for the next 14 days. Okay… no problem…

My father is working on a little tile project and has been cutting said tile to fit over the last few days… you guess it… He misfired again and sliced the hand pretty good; fairly deep, several inches long, and bleeding pretty good. Rather than try to play Doctor again and get rebuffed I took one look at I and said, “Yep, needs stitches” and walked back into the house… So he heads down the hill but Doc in the box is closed and he goes to the understaffed, overcrowded ER when he does get stitches and is told to do the normal wound care stuff and take his antibiotics. My dad’s comments to me? “I knew before I started cutting that this was a bad idea.” “Ya, dad, that would have been a good time to stop.” Okay…

So after several house in the ER he returns home and immediately starts cutting tile again. Not a smart idea considering the freshness of the cut and the location (a place where any use of your hands has the potential to open the wound back up). You guessed it… two minute latter he comes running into the house with blood streaming down his arm… I took a look, stitches are fine, but wouldn’t you believe it, constant aggravation of a deep would will cause it to bleed… Whoda Thunk It? My dad’s comments to me? “But the Doctor said I could go to work tomorrow so I figured that I could use it.” “I don’t believe the Doctor realized that you are a moron, dad.” He agreed. And yet, he wanted to finish the work and then move on to something else. My Mom FORCED him to sit down (literal herded him to the couch) and is forcing him to take the next two days off from work… which makes no sense to me as all my dad’s injury’s happen at home… GO TO WORK… IT IS SAFER…

Interestingly enough, both my Dad and brother have a long list of major injuries and ER visits stemming from stupid decisions and bad judgment; injuries ranging from teeth versus sidewalk post "I'm a dolphin in a pool" incident to 2nd degree burns post jumping on a wood burning stove to a pitch fork to the foot post "my dad would garden this way" to riding a bike into a parked car post just being stupid… I have not been to the ER since I was 4 and have never even had sutures, nor even minor surgery… what is really odd is that my father is a Postal Worker and my brother is a Cabinet Maker (and none of his injuries were construction related) and I am the guy who rappels out of helicopters, jumps into freezing Swiftwater, and perform old collapsing mine rescues… How is that possible?

 

[Theo]

I worked IT for awhile before EMS and it was my hobby before i worked (in school) I have a very extensive technical background and I'm VERY good at computers and such. It's nothing for them to call me and expect me to help them setup their wireless router over the phone, or work with some random problem they are having. I get more computer questions than I do medical, despite them all knowing what I do.

I spent 12 years working for a software company before I went back to school to become a paramedic, so this quote brought back some memories. It got so bad at one point that I had to stop taking calls from anyone out of the ordinary. Funny, I don't hear from long lost friends and second cousins anymore.

 

[dragonjbynight]

I think the simplest answer when it comes to family is not how trained you may be, or what you do, but how they view you. There are always those who see you as the nephew, niece, son or daughter and can't know all that stuff when they don't know themselves. To a stranger, you are that person who knows....just my two cents anyways.