Following are the text messages between myself and Jenn during the Ambulance ride-along that I completed as a requirement for my EMT-Basic certification. I have deleted any names of people, places, and other identifying information in order to protect the patients and people that I worked with. Thank you for the opportunity, I had an amazing experience with the professionals I worked with, and please contact me directly with any concerns or questions.
Jenn: hope you're able to stay awake :-)
19:18 me: Hehe. Stayed up till 5am last night, then slept to 3pm. I hope so too
19:19 Jenn: whoa
19:20 me: We were just at a tbone car accident, guy was fine but complaining of hip pain. Hit an icy patch. Car door w a 6 in indent
19:21 Now we're going to a nursing home. Possible GI bleed
| 23 minutes |
19:45 Jenn: whoa
crazy night
how are you liking it so far?
| 19 minutes |
20:04 me: Ya, interesting
Tons of protocols tho
20:05 Jenn: yeah i bet there's a BUNCH of stuff you're not allowed to do
| 5 minutes |
20:11 me: Oh yea
Lots of paperwork. They're doing the care report on a heavyduty ipad looking thing
20:12 We've been on the move ever since we started bc of the icy roads tonightI love the camaraderie too
20:13 Jenn: ah that makes sense
the other guys are cool?
| 13 minutes |
20:26 me: One guy paramedic, one lady paramedic
They're fun
Make fun of each other a lot
20:28 Jenn: haha fun
20:31 me: I'm going to keep msging you all shift if that's ok, mostly just to document :)
You can read it in the morning
| 5 minutes |
20:36 Jenn: haha ok
| 9 minutes |
| 17 minutes |
21:03 me: Could def see myself doing this. I like the movement
21:06 Jenn: nice
what's the work week like?
| 8 minutes |
21:14 Jenn: did you know in-state tuition for the med school at ucsf is $0?!?!?!?
i may or may not be looking at med school rankings...
21:15 i've been thinking that i'd like some book recommendations (books that are readable and interesting to me) so i can be conversant with you while you're in the med school process
| 13 minutes |
21:28 Jenn: holy shit
21:29 all of the UC medical schools are zero tuition for in-state residents
dude you should totally do that
| 10 minutes |
21:39 Jenn: oOoh but there's like 30k in required fees...?
weird
| 51 minutes |
22:30 me: Yea that is weird and I did not know that!
22:31 I would love to get in to a UC med school
All of them are some of the best in the country
22:34 We just did a patient transfer
Jenn: there's so much hierarchy in medicine
| 5 minutes |
22:47 me: I know dude. Its my biggest problem with it
And one of the biggest factors in considering NOT doing medicine
| 13 minutes |
23:01 me: We just dropped off the nurse back at his hospital. He was finishing a 16 hr shift
| 7 minutes |
23:08 me: I want to be a healer. I want to treat people, not just patients. I want to not wipe my hands clean of the situation when dropping the patient off at the ER. I want to understand, and I want to cure, not just triage with all my time. I didn't like that about the [ ] model either. It sometimes felt superficial, and like triage: who's the best and let me spend most of my time with them, instead of setting down roots. That's why I'm much more attracted to public health
| 10 minutes |
23:19 Jenn: yeah
do you think you'd get that from being a doctor?
although a huge complaint from doctors (and patients) is that they don't spend enough time with each other
23:20 me: Yes and no, depending on what I do
Jenn: if you were an ER doc, no
me: Depending on where you work
Jenn: yeah
23:22 me: Also, that's why I'm looking into md/mph programs, then maybe work for the WHO or UN or county or state, or open my own practice/clinic
And DO
23:23 There's a really cool integrative care model in seattle that I went to once while I lived there. I'm forgetting the name right now.
Most models are based on doctors meeting w dozens of patients a day, some are not
23:24 Jenn: yeah
phew big decisions comin up
23:27 me: I know dude..
Welcome to my life, and partially why its taken me this long to start applying in the first place
23:28 Jenn: yeah
23:30 me: Chillin in the firefighter clubhouse right now :)
23:32 Jenn: cool!!!
is it weird that you keep texting on your phone....? i wouldn't want you to get a negative review from the current EMTs
23:34 me: Nah, they're on their on phones too, or diriving, etc
| 8 minutes |
14:59 me: It was incredibly interesting
15:00 Stopped msging you bc they were on their phones less
Altho now sleeping all day I kinda wish id kept it up, this off sleep schedule sucks
15:02 Let's see we had a few more calls
15:03 One was a fire standby just in case anyone got hurt, which no one did, and it was fun listening to the firefighter radio chatter
15:04 Our final call was a possible stroke, probably TIA if you're interested in looking it up, had woken up at 5am not being able to find his nose and with diminished movement in the left side of his body, slurred speech, this came and went.
15:06 When we got him to the hospital, they had new protocol where the doc did a preliminary diagnosis in the hall and they sent him directly to the CT brain scanner from the ambulance gurney
| 7 minutes |
15:14 me: We also got a call from a patients father, his daughter was staying at [ hotel ] which the hospital had paid for after holding her in psych for the past three weeks. She had had a seizure and called him. She didn't want to come to the hospital so the cop that was there put her under POH- Police Officer Hold, which is usually used for suicide threats, bc there was some discrepancy about how many of her pills she had actually taken (which there were a ton of bottle from various dates all around the room). It took 3 firefighters to help her walk down the stairs in her postseizure daze (post-ictal phase). In the ambulance she told us she'd been kicked out of her house by her husband and kids bc they didn't know what to do with her, she had a tumor the size of a fist right in the lower center of her brain and some behavioral/emotional thing called [ ].
15:19 Jenn: Dude I bet you learned so much
And learned how much you still don't know
15:20 That poor woman with the brain tumor
Sounds so sad. How are you emotionally after all that?
| 6 minutes |
15:27 me: I'm ok. Tho probably still digesting
Thanks
15:28 For askin
I'm stoked for my ER rotation tonight
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