I remember hearing somewhere that in a certain state an EMT/Medic isn’t allowed to call a time of death on a person who’s head is laying less than five feet away from him.

Let me make sure I’ve made myself clear by posing this hypothetical…. You roll up on the scene, and your patient is decapitated. The head is laying two feet away from the body. If you were in this particular state of the Union you must now start CPR and call for med control.

(a quick sidenote… why am I thinking I heard this from Steve Barry? It was definitely a speaker at our last CEU conference…)

That mental image stuck with me for some reason…

So tonight Mr. EpiJunky sends me an email with the following picture attached:

And then he wonders (appropriately enough) why I’m giggling like a schoolgirl….

This post is dedicated to my Mom, who reminds me on a daily basis that “she does indeed know what she’s talking about” and that “maybe I should listen to her on occasion.”

Contrary to popular belief, not every decision I make is a good one (I know, I can hardly believe it myself). Presented below for your reading pleasure are my five favorite worst ideas.

5. “Honey, I think we should get another cat!”

My mom told me this was a bad idea from the start. We already had one cat, and she was enough trouble as it was. (Twix the cat had an eating disorder. Nothing worse than a cat who binges and purges.) Pseudo Dad had an extra kitty he couldn’t take care of… and he was SOOO cute. And I’m a sucker for a cute kitty. Besides, my logic was what would the chances of having TWO cats with emotional issues? As it turns out Bentley, that cute ball of black and white fur, liked to leave piles of crap everywhere. EVERYWHERE. In my shoe, back in the hidden corners of closets, basically everywhere but in his very clean litter box. To add insult to injury Twix decided to start eating Bentley’s food in addition to her own, resulting in even more cat vomit. It was a nightmare. We will NEVER get another cat. Mom was right.

4. “Of course I can handle my own checkbook”

I do not have a good track record with my finances. It’s not something I’m proud of, and I’m working on it to this day. My mom made it very clear that I should not be in possession of ANY check book or debit card until I can get my spending habit under control. I was doing so well. I really was. Then last December I forgot to enter a check into the register and ended up bouncing NINE checks as a result. Most of them for small purchases under ten dollars. Each bounced check cost me $42.00. Mom was right yet again.

3. “But Mom, EVERYONE is joining a sorority!”

Let me start by saying that joining a sorority in itself is not a bad idea. Joining a sorority when you’re stupid and immature and moving away to college is a bad idea. I partied a ridiculous amount and blew off school and was in general a complete idiot.
Mom was right.

2. “I’m moving to Colorado.”

Once again, this was not something I absolutely regret. (That seems to be a theme in this post, isn’t it?) I was young and in love with Air Force Academy Cadet Boy. I loved every second I spent in Colorado Springs. But I wasn’t ready to live clear across the country from my friends and family. If I had to do it all over again I would have waited.

1. “I want to go to Medic School in Ann Arbor.”

I do not regret going to Medic School. I regret going to Medic School in Ann Arbor. The drive was close to an hour each way, and with all of the clinicals involved… Well, I can’t even imagine what I spent in fuel alone. Had I just waited and gone to a more local school I’d be done by now. And I’d have two thousand dollars spent on gas in my pocket.

Okay, so now that I’ve bared my soul to you all, you might be asking what I’ve learned from my
favorite mistakes. I’ve learned that I’m a very emotional person, and I make a lot of decisions
based on that emotion a
s
opposed to mature, logical thought. I’ve known for awhile that I need to work on that, and I am.

Most importantly I’ve learned that sometimes my Mom is actually right. More often than not she is in fact. She has my best interests at heart, and I know that.

So this post is for you, Mom. You were right. And I was serious when I said that I’d have a t shirt printed that said the same. Okay, so I haven’t bought it yet, but I will eventually :)

What photograph shows you in a light we don’t often see through your blog?

Fort Jackson, SC 1996 (I’m the one on the left)

EEEEEK! That’s right, friends and neighbors, yours truly was a soldier. This picture was the ultimate in rebellion as far as we were concerned. It’s amazing what one considers “rebelling” when one is in Basic Training… Notice the head covers askew and the fact that one of us actually posessed a camera while in basic.

Drill Sergent Marshall would have had our asses if she had seen us in such a state :)

He just came to me and asked what *exactly* a Heart Attack was.

I proceeded to explain (quickly, as his attention span rivals my two year olds) arteries and veins and the importance of oxygenated blood making it to the heart muscle… He asked me the “medical term” for a heart attack…. I replied “myocardial infarction”… He got a serious case of the giggles.

“In-FART” He said.

All I can do is shake my head.

And yes, I’ve been married to him for damn near ten years.

Due to a nasty headache…

No photo of the day today. I feel a migraine coming on… Maybe I need to head to the ER for some of that… Dil-laudy stuff… I have an allergy to Tylenol and Motrin, you know.

Well, AD did it, so it must be somewhat cool :)
What Action Hero Would I be???

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Lara Croft A thrill-seeking, slightly unscrupulous, tough-as-nails archaeologist, Lara Croft travels the world in search of ancient relics perhaps better left hidden. She packs two Colt .45s and has no fear of jumping off buildings, exploring creepy tombs, or taking on evil meglomaniacs bent on world domination. Lara Croft 92% Captain Jack Sparrow 88% Maximus 83% William Wallace 75% Indiana Jones 71% Batman, the Dark Knight 67% The Amazing Spider-Man 58% The Terminator 58% James Bond, Agent 007 54% Neo, the “One” 54% El Zorro 50%

We have so much to be thankful for…

Since I’m busy waiting to see if I won that Nintendo Wii on ebay… I present you with a guest photographer for today’s Photo of the Day… Future Cardiologist.

Post Script…. I won the Wii. Don’t ask me what I spent.

Blogging is a funny thing… I’m not sure of any other place where you can post your thoughts and instantly send them out for the entire world to read with such ease.

Yesterday I posted about Megan Meier. I was emotional when I posted it. In hindsight I should have cooled off a little before hitting the enter button. I never dreamed that anything I wrote would be posted on CNN.com. In the last day I’ve gone from 35 regular-ish readers to… well… a lot. And it scares the hell out of me. It reminds me that we as bloggers need to be responsible with what we post.

In the last 24 hours I’ve given it a little more thought. Here’s what I’ve come up with.

I’m still angry as hell.

I still believe the adults behind these horrible actions should be made public.

I do not now, nor have I ever believed that there should be any retributory action taken by anyone towards the Drew’s — If there’s something to be done, let the local law enforcement handle it. (I did use the word “shun” in my previous post… I stand by that.)

Don’t be stupid, people. No one needs to beat anyone. Seriously. Let the law and karma handle things.

(I was a little emotional while writing this, but it’s something I feel pretty strongly about.
The link to the official newspaper story is at the end.)

Megan Meier was a 13-year-old girl. She loved things that a 13-year-old girl should love, she loved music, and boys, and myspace.

She wasn’t without problems, but what 13-year-old girl is? She was being treated for depression, she had recently ended a friendship with a friend from down the street, and she was trying to lose weight.

Things were looking up, however. Her braces were coming off very soon, she had managed to lose 20 pounds. She had even met a boy, on myspace.

Her mother did monitor her Myspace usage, and the messages.

What happens next in this story is enough to make me physically ill.

Megan logs into Myspace to find that the boy she liked, Josh, had started to send her some hurtful messages. The hurtful messages turned into some horrible vile things said to her and directed at her through posts in blogs, bulletins, and personal messages. He was sharing her messages to him with others, it appeared. Megan was frantic. In one message Josh sent her, he told her the world would be a better place without her.

Soon after, Megan hung herself in her closet, just before her 14th birthday.

Tragic, right?

Josh…the boy…Wasn’t a boy. Josh wasn’t even a real person. “Josh” was created by THE MOTHER of the friend Megan had the falling out with.

This crazy sick BITCH created this boy, found Megan on Myspace, and led her to believe that he liked her. That he thought she was pretty. Once she had Megan hooked, she pulled the rug out from under her.

This “Mother” (if you can even call her that — she barely qualifies as a person) knew Megan. She knew Megan had problems with depression. Megan had gone on vacations with this family. The two families were close. After Megan died (before her parents found out about the other families involvement) her parents stored a Christmas gift for the other family in their garage. They attended the other little girls birthday party…. I don’t know how this mother could have even looked at them in the face given what she did.

The newspaper in her home town wont release the name of the parent who did this (WITH her daughter’s knowledge and participation as well, keep in mind) because they want to protect the daughter.

Screw that. Her name is Lori Drew. LORI DREW. She’s an evil bitch and deserves to be outed. According to the newspaper there’s no law broken, or rather no law exists to prosecute this woman. At the very least she should be publicly outed and shunned.

Read the story here.
And CNN’s story

I found this through Detail Medic (and she found it through Monkey Girl)

Healthcare Disfunction in Cleveland ER’s

Click on the link. I’ve watched it three times and it gets better each time.

A good piece, I wish some of the local stations here would air something like this.

(Voice Over) “What’s your emergency?”

(Random 911 callers)
“I keep peeing — It’s like I have to stay on the toilet…”
“I just can’t sleep”
“I have a cold…”
“I have a boil in my armpit”

I absolutely LOVE the tone the reporter takes with some of Cleveland’s finest ER patients. Priceless.

Reporter: “Is that the cut right there?” (camera zooms in on… i’m not sure what it is, a scar or a cut not visible to the naked eye)
Patient: “I was afraid it would become life threatening”
Reporter: “I didn’t realize a little cut like that could become life threatening”

and my personal favorite…

(The voiceover tells us that this female had already been waiting ten hours in the ER to be seen for a bladder infection–keep in mind she got herself to the ER on her own)
Patient: “I was really an urgent patient and was being forced to wait. I didn’t want to wait any longer, I wanted to be seen.”
(Voice Over: So she headed home and called 911)
Reporter: “You’re at a hospital, and you go home to get an ambulance to come back to the same hospital you’ve been at for ten hours.“
Patient: (Smiling) “For ten hours.”
Reporter: “Isn’t this abuse of the EMS system?” (BINGO! WE HAVE A WINNER!)
Patient: “I think if you’re feeling that bad and you’re really in that much pain and you have a way of being seen faster… take that ride”
(Voice Over: Her strategy failed, She spent another six hours in the waiting room.)

What really just blows my mind is that these people see absolutely nothing wrong with what they’re doing. It never ceases to amaze me.

Let me rant for just a second… (please pardon the liberal use of caps and exclamation points)

JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE MEDICAID AND THUS A FREE FLIPPIN AMBULANCE RIDE DOES NOT MEAN YOU GET TO USE IT AS A FLIPPIN TAXI!!!!

JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT BEING SEEN QUICKLY ENOUGH IN THE ER DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD GO HOME AND CALL FOR A FLIPPIN AMBULANCE! Chances are the nurses are just going to sit your dumb ass in the waiting room while they treat the people are *pauses for dramatic effect* ARE ACTUALLY HAVING EMERGENCIES!!!!

Emergency Rooms are for…. EMERGENCIES!!!!! Holy cow what a concept.

I’m having a bit of a dry spell as far as EMS posts go (lack of working an actual EMS job will do that to you)… So in an effort to put something up here more than once a week, I present you with the Photo of the Day.

I have two passions in my life, working EMS and photography. It’s too bad I haven’t figured out a way to combine them, I’m working on that still :) Both of them give me the same sort of adrenaline rush (er… epi rush?). Both of them can be highly stressful. Sure, no one’s going to die if I mess up at a wedding (well, someone *could* die… ME! If you’ve ever dealt with a Bride freaking out on her wedding day you’ll agree), but the stress is still there. Getting through a tough job or run, with a positive happy ending from either job brings the same kind of exhilaration.

So without further ado… My first Photo of the Day…

Veteran’s Memorial Skyway Bridge
Toledo, OH (Epijunky)

Disclaimer:
What I know about aircraft could fit into a very tiny thimble. With room to spare.

I love things that go *ZOOOOOOM*, so here are my top five aircraft choices, for sentimental reasons only.

5) T-3 (T-67) Firefly. A training aircraft that was used up until the late 90′s for the USAF and the Air Force Academy. This was a tough choice for me, because the T-3 was responsible for 6 deaths (three cadets, three instructors) at the AFA. The reason I decided to include it was the feeling of euphoria it provided to a very good friend of mine. He worked his ass off for three years to earn the privilege of climbing in that seat. I remember him stressing over everything from his eyesight to his sitting height. I remember the countless hours he spent pouring over manuals and text books… But mostly I remember the sound of his voice when he’d call me after a flight. Joyous. It still brings a smile to my face.

4) Boeing 757. On September 11th 2002, I had to climb onto an airplane for the first time since the tragedy in New York, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon. I was traveling with my husband and young son to “The Happiest Place On Earth” for a little R and R with the Mother In Law. I cried for a majority of the two hour flight there. I was terrified. The Boeing 757 was the plane we were flying on. It got me to Tampa, and back to Detroit in one piece relatively unscathed (I’m pretty sure I was drunk by the time I got back to Detroit — Wish I would have realized I could buy alcohol on the plane for the flight down… Would have been much easier on me :)) Anyway, kudos to the Boeing 757.

3) C-130 Hercules. When I lived in Mansfield our house was about a quarter mile from the end of the runway for the Air National Guard Base (Yes, friends and neighbors, it’s a good idea to really investigate your new home when moving to an area you’re not familiar with, but that’s another blog entirely!). The majority of the aircraft at this base were C130′s. I used to LOVE watching them come in to land. I’ll never forget the first day I realized where our house was in relation to the flight path… I was driving up the road and a GIGANTIC shadow was moving across the road ahead of me. Scared the hell out of me.

2) ANY Lifeflight helicopter. Seriously. I dont know if I’ll EVER get tired of watching the “bird” land or take off. I did a buddy flight last year and it was the most amazing five minutes of my life. Lifeflight in Toledo has two models, the Agusta A109 and the Dauphin.

1) The A-10 Warthog/Thunderbolt. How can you not love this ugly thang? :) It’s ugly as hell and it packs a ridiculous punch. It’s extremely maneuverable, and it was designed for close air support of ground troops. I wouldn’t want to get in it’s way, that’s for sure :)