Intro

You know when something funny or disastrous or just plain ridiculous happens and you think, 'I'll never forget this moment'? Guess what... We all forget. I don't know how many of these moments the average person has on a daily basis, but in my profession sometimes it seems like a second by second occurrence. Conveniently, the internet era has come up with a way to assist my rapidly failing memory... blogs!

I'm a paramedic and a nurse. I see people at their worst... and I see the best in people shine through in those moments. While those in my profession are frequently judged to have a morbid or "just plain disgusting" (thanks Mom), sense of humor, I think the average human can uncover some of the humor we see if they look hard enough.

I plan on this blog being an outlet of sorts and a box of memories. My name and identifying information are not available. Patient names will all be pseudonyms, with potentially identifying information changed or withheld. Sorry... the HIPPA gods would smite me otherwise. And I'd probably get fired.

So without further ado: I'm A, which may or may not be my first initial. I'm a 20-something female. I've been a nurse and an EMT for equal amounts of time (less than 10, greater than 1 year). I've only been a released medic as of fairly recently however. I live in what I'd term a large town, getting close to becoming a small city. We'll call it Zaun. (Fun fact of the day: zaun is the German root of the word town.) Zaun has a fairly small urban area, a large suburban area and is surrounded by an even larger county, where suburbia quickly fades into true rural country. In one EMS shift I can run a stabbing in the projects, someone tossed off their horse on a trail ride, an MVA on the interstate and an LOL DFO ("Little Old Lady, Done Fell Out" for those of us not up on our acronyms today) at one of the several lovely "nursing" establishments. There are two hospitals in Zaun: a large, fairly well-respected academic teaching hospital and a smaller, gorgeous community hospital. I shall refer to the academic center as "The U," and the community hospital as "BBH," which obviously stands for something I bet you can't guess. (Disclaimer: I currently am employed by The U and was formerly employed by BBBH.) I volunteer usually once a week for my local rescue squad as a medic and work at The U in one of the ICUs as a nurse for my real job.

I hope my stories entertain. Likely, the majority will be funny anecdotes. But expect poignant, touching moments; gruesome (read: awesome) injuries; and a few rants about the current state of our healthcare system. Basically, stories I want to remember. And rants. Definitely some rants.

-a