Holy flashback, batman!!

It's not often that I like to talk about what goes on at work, but yesterday morning, I got a 911 call that gave me flashbacks to an incident that my family went through in 2004. I got a call early this morning, from a young mom who's 2 year old daughter was having a febvrile seizure. For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a seizure usually involving a young child, where their fever spikes quickly, and the body's natural way to react to it, is for the brain to tell the body to shut down and begin seizing. The mom was emotional, I was able to calm her down enough to give the phone to the older daughter so she could go throw some clothes on, and eventually come back to the phone. Anyone trained in Emergency Medical Dispatch and pre-arrival instructions could have handled it appropriately. But I immediately had flashbacks to several years ago, just prior to my daughter's 2nd birthday.

I was working nights at American, and my daughter had been sick for the past day or two. I had taken a nap earlier in the morning, and had picked my daughter up from my ex-mother-in-law's in the early afternoon. My daughter had a slight fever and when we got home, she ate, I gave her some children's tylenol for her fever and we settled down on the living room couch to watch t.v. She had cooled off and fell asleep, so we both took a nap together on the couch. When my ex-wife had come home from work, my daughter and I had awoken and we started getting ready for dinner. My daughter still had a slight fever, and I had given her a popsicle to cool off. As I sat down on the couch again, she was standing in the middle of the living room between the couch and the t.v., happy as can be with her popsicle, when it happened.

It looked like an invisible person kicked her legs out from underneath her from behind, and she slammed back on the living room floor like a cinder block. She let out a scream, began crying, and started convulsing. My ex-wife now in a panic started screaming as I jumped off the couch to my daughter. Luckily, I had just finished my EMT class and was awaiting my test results, and I knew what it was. I had to scream at my ex a few times to get her to retrieve the phone for me to dial 911. Living in North Windham, I had worked at Willimantic dispatch for a short while, I knew everyone and Roddy answered the phone. I just blurted out,"two year old, fevbrile seizure, our address, and hung up.

Now working in the 911 field, I've dealt with impatient, emotional people that keep calling back, asking where the ambulance or fire department is, saying to myself,"It's been 2 minutes, give them time to get there." So, now I'm on the other end, and believe me, 2 minutes seems like and hour when you're on the other end of the 911 call. Meanwhile, the ex grabs the phone and rings her mom who is 5 minutes across town and gets her mom into a panic. So now I have two patients, my daughter, my wife, and a third on the way in her personal car...LOL I get the phone back and I call the non-emergency line to Willimantic dispatch and get the dispatching supervisor, and start the 20 questions. Sue, it's Erik, where's the paramedic? In Norwich. Was there a cover medic? No. How far out is the ambulance(paid)? They left at the time of call, they should be there shortly. Is anyone from the f.d.(volunteers) on the way? Yes. So I hang up.

Meanwhile, my daughter's lips start to pink up after having turned a grey shade of blue, the seizure eases up, but she's still shaking a bit, and she's post-dictal. Respirations become more normal, but she was still out of it. Willimantic Fire's ambulance gets there, just followed by North Windham F.D. members, and in comes the mother-in-law, freaking out. Willimantic Fire carries my daughter out of the house and rushes out to the ambulance and takes off to the hospital with the ex, and after I thank the guys from N.W.F.D., I rush off to the hospital. My daughter was ok, and we were home that night after they were done testing her. Needless to say, the call this past morning gave me flashbacks. And I used the fact that I, personally had been in this mother's situation, during pre-arrival instructions, that it was going to be okay, and there was nothing she could do other than let the seizure pass, which calmed the mother. As the fire department cleared the call, and the ambulance began transporting, the fire chief relayed a message over the radio, that the mother was extremely greatful to the dispatcher for keeping her calm, and that we did a great job. Now that's what this job is all about......

Hard to take pictures when you're doing the work!!

So, I went out and bought a digital camera, hoping to take some great pictures. You know... pics of myself, seeing that the pics I have of myself now, I dispise. I was also hoping to get some great shots of my fire department at work, looking to make a powerpoint slide show that we could present with music at our yearly holiday party. Until I realized that it's not that easy to take pictures of my fire department, when I'm always on the trucks, or in the building, or on scene doing something. Hoping that I would get some great pictures to post on my myspace account, of my sexy self(yeah...right!) taking care of business in my turnout gear, looks more like I'll have to settle with one of those holding the camera out in front of myself, girly pics that you see all to often on that website...LOL Oh well!

In the beginning...

In the beginning God covered the earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, with green, yellow and red vegetables of all kinds so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives. Then using God's bountiful gifts, Satan created Dairy Ice Cream and Magnums. And Satan said, "You want hot fudge with that? And Man said, "Yes!" And Woman said, "I'll have one too with chocolate chips". And lo, they gained 10 pounds.

And God created the healthy yogurt so that Woman might keep the figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 12 to size 14.

So God said, "Try my fresh green salad". And Satan presented Blue Cheese dressing and garlic croutons on the side. And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said, "I have sent you healthy vegetables and olive oil in which to cook them". And Satan brought forth deep fried coconut king prawns, butter-dipped lobster chunks and chicken fried steak, so big it needed its own platter. And Man's cholesterol went through the roof.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with potassium and good nutrition. Then Satan peeled off the healthy skin and sliced the starchy center Into chips and deep fried them in animal fats adding copious quantities of salt. And Man put on more pounds.

God then brought forth running shoes so that his Children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan came forth with a cable T.V. with remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering light and started wearing stretch jogging suits.

Then God gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonalds and the 99 cent double cheeseburger. Then Satan said, "You want fries with that?" and Man replied, "Yes, And super size 'em". And Satan said, "It is good." And Man and Woman went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed ........ and created quadruple by-pass surgery. And then Satan chuckled, and created the National Health Service.

>>>>THE FINAL WORD ON NUTRITION
After an exhaustive review of the research literature, here's the final word on nutrition and health:
1. Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
2. Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
3. Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
4. Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
5. Germans drink beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

>>CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

To keep you smiling!

A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon.
As she lay her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest. After a moment or two, the vet shook his head sadly and said, "I'm so sorry, your pet has passed away." The distressed owner wailed, "Are you sure? "Yes, I'm sure. The duck is dead," he replied. "How can you be so sure", she protested. "I mean, you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something."The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few moments later with a black Labrador Retriever. As the duck's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.

The vet patted the dog and took it out and returned a few moments later with a beautiful cat. The cat jumped up on the table and also sniffed the bird from its beak to its tail and back again. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly, jumped down and strolled out of the room.

The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100%certifiably, a dead duck." Then the vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys, and produced a bill (not the duck's bill obviously), which he handed to the woman. The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill. "$450!" she cried. "$450 just to tell me my duck is dead?!!"The vet shrugged. "I'm sorry. If you'd taken my word for it, the bill would have been $30. But with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it all adds up."