My email alert from NEMSMS was delayed, so most of you have likely heard.
→ 2 CommentsCategories: LODD
I really want to take the CCEMTP course. We’re trying to get one put on at work so that we can all do it(and make it required) plus make it cheaper.
→ 2 CommentsCategories: Uncategorized
Headed to the doc soon for the weekly checkup. Hoping baby is coming soon! The Mrs is getting mighty uncomfortable–I still can’t imagine how you women folk do that!!!!!!
→ 1 CommentCategories: baby
This weekend I’m teaching 2 sections of our refresher.
→ Leave a CommentCategories: FirstTime
I was off yesterday and today. Somehow I ended up at work last night for 12 hours.
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Life
Found a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house in my hometown. Signed the lease this weekend, move March 1. Here is the catch… The color is similar to this…
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Celiac Disease · Changes
No–the baby hasn’t come… YET! But I have started another BLOG… I know, you’re thinking… “He can’t even keep this one updated!”… Well… You’re write. But I’m going to get better. I have worked more in the last month than I care to admit, so I will have many posts to follow here soon.
I have a new post up over at www.glutenfreedad.net so please check it out!
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Thursday morning we went to the perinatologist for a follow up ultrasound and a second opinion concerning the size of baby’s left kidney. The issue is 100% repairable, but will require at minimum a follow up ultrasound after birth and possibly a 250 mile trip to see a pediatric urologist as there isn’t one close.
Essentially baby’s kidney is dilated to 14mm where it should be <7mm. This could be a blockage distal to the kidney or post bladder, likely post kidney as the other kidney is fine and post bladder would effect both.
I was working a 24 Thursday and had to have someone cover for me for a few hours while we were at the doc’s office. Soon after getting back I was sent to take a patient to the very hospital we might be headed to soon, for an 11 yo African American female in renal failure. Upon arrival at my pickup facility I found a young girl, drowsy in bed with mom in the corner and kids piling out of the room. Mom didn’t give her a hug, ride with, or really seem to care. She had to stop at home before she could drive up, and no one wanted to ride along with my oh-so-young patient.
It wasn’t a good way to end my day.
→ 1 CommentCategories: Coping · baby
Baby M3 is coming…
Soon…
We had a checkup today, with ultrasound—concerning the size of baby’s kidneys per the last two ultrasounds. The left Kidney is still measuring a few millimeters(seriously, millimeters!?!?!) too big and thus the OB/GYN has recommended a visit to the perineonatologist(try saying that 1234 times fast. Or 1).
We are to go Thursday morning—hoping I can get a few hours off from work to be able to make it to this appointment.
Possible results could be a few simple procedures after delivery, or an in-utero procedure. Early induction of labor could be a possibility too. There is a pretty good chance they won’t do anything at all and I will just get closer to the deductible that much sooner!
Further, we attended a Breastfeeding class tonight. While it wasn’t information heavy on things I could possible understand—it did teach me that my wife is amazing—well, more amazing that I already knew!
I will let you know when we have more info!
→ 3 CommentsCategories: Home · Kids · Life
The day after Thanksgiving in 2007 my grandfather—my mother’s father—passed away after a battle with COPD, emphysema, and a myriad of other medical complications.
My grandpa was a good man. He had a heart of gold and loved seeing his grandkids—and great grandkids. He had a wicked sense of humor(just like grandma) and loved smiling and laughing. He could scowl and holler with the best of them, too.
He hated the cold. In the summer he would run the heat if you would let him. He wore long underwear whenever he could.
He had a love for chocolate covered cherries and Coca-Cola. Things I knew he’d never give up.
The horrors of working in EMS make it so that we often understand the reality of a loved one’s condition before the rest of our family does. Often times we are dealt the hand of explaining it.
An obstacle I hadn’t foreseen crossed my path this last week though… Last week during a transport of a Hospice Patient back to his home after his family decided to DC aggressive care and switch to palliative care, I knew I recognized the room number on my run sheet.
Right there, in the middle of the page, below Name, DOB and medical needs, it said “Pulmonary Unit room 2242”.
I couldn’t figure out where I knew that room from. I thought about it the entire drive to the hospital. Maybe it was from my clinical times, or a previous tx.
As we got off on 2nd floor, heading for the pulmonary unit something started to click. I walked past the hallway where my Aunt Angie told me my grandpa had died—before we made it back.
As I rounded the last corner I passed the room where the doctors discussed palliative care with my Grandma and the rest of the family.
I passed a nurses station I knew all to well. I passed an ice machine where I got my grandpa Ice chips and I passed the waiting room where my family gathered together during the end of my Grandfather’s long journey.
Finally it clicked. My patient was in my grandpa’s room. I spent a lot of time in that little room over the course of just a few days. I KNEW that room. I KNEW that room in ways I wish I didn’t. As I saw his wife sitting in the chair, waiting, I got just a preview of the horror she was going through.
I guess I just hadn’t realized how much my life in EMS and my family life were going to intertwine. And NOW I work and soon live in the small town where I grew up—where my parents, and my friends parents, and tons of people I know live.
What did I get myself in to?
I miss you Grandpa. Godspeed.
→ 6 CommentsCategories: Uncategorized
