Posts Categorized: Coping
The Mendoza Line
Do you ever feel like we're playing a losing game?
The other day I went through my cardiac arrest statistics. Dispatched to 91 cardiac arrests since I became a medic. ~30/year. I have worked approximately 50% of those. I have EXACTLY 1 cardiac arrest …
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Miss You, grandpa.
As we near on the anniversary of 9/11, the memories of my grandfathers final days are turning pretty deep.
I'd started a post, and maybe I'll get back to it... but then I just read my short post from a year ago.
I can't stop the tears.
I miss …
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Night Shift Blues
For the past 11 weeks I've been back on nights. I've spent 50% of the last 3 months away from my family, missing them more than I can describe. The hardest part has been saying "goodnight" to my son over the phone. When we started, it was particularly ha…
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Sincerity
If you are just trying to be dramatic and get attention, downing a bottle of tylenol is a really crappy way to do it.
Because you'll probably die. Not might. You will most likely die, if you take 100 Tylenol capsules. I'm sorry, but I didn't do it to …
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Unnatural Fear
Everyone who works in EMS knows the reality of death and dying. We make a living on the simple fact that people get sick, hurt, and die. Peoples stupidity, misfortune, and bad luck are my job security.
What makes that knowledge hard to swallow is not …
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Timing
When we got in the cab after loading a particularly odoriferous and rotund body the irony couldn't have been any stronger...
Apparently I had left the radio on the oldies station, as "Stairway to Heaven" was blaring away...
I'd be lying if I said t…
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Dirt Bags…
While perusing the blog front I was reminded of a few calls... While one I am writing now, the other I will just let Kelly Grayson tell for me....
Often times during those calls, while showing my stern and focused face behind swollen eyes ready to bur…
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Why it Hurts
The staff at these facilities leave something to be desired and the patients usually are fine. This has to be an overreaction, doesn't it?
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Clarity
Well I did it. My doctor agreed with me that my symptoms seem very much like Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. She prescribed be Strattera
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Focus
Obviously I have been absent from posting here at medicthree.com. Part of this has been due to my efforts over at rootmedic.net, but mostly it has been due to a gamut of things... For a long time I have suffered from anxiety and some depressive tendencies. I have tried various PPI's over the years with limited help. Mostly I suffered from the side effects rather than benefited from them.
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The Drive Home
In EMS there are a few tools we use as coping mechanisms. CISM(Critical Incident Stress Management) is the most common, despite many organizations not having active CISM systems. While I find CISM to be useful, it is rarely deployed for run of the mill EMS calls. Death and Dying is our business, and if we had a CISM meeting(which includes everyone from first responders to ED doctors and Medical Directors) for every death in the field, we would spend more time in meetings that in our trucks.
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Uninspired.
For months I have struggled to keep this blog alive. I have posts inside me. I have posts started. I just can't muster them out. This is really the way a big chunk of my life is going. I am incredibly happy with my wife and son, but something is amiss.
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Being an EMS Dad
I've been a paramedic for about 19 months. Not very long, really. My first year was spent working for two teeny tiny services with teeny tiny call volumes. The last seven months with a service that runs right around 10,000 calls a year with 3 trucks covering. Needless to say, I have experienced a lot more in the last 7 months than I did in the year prior to this.
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On Behalf of a Greatful Nation
At 0846 AM Eastern Time on 09/11/2001 American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north side of Tower One of the World Trade Center Complex. This was the beginning of one of the worst days in American History.
Before this day "hijackings" were about money …
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