Ten years ago today

My Thanksgiving Day

Another Thanksgiving Day has passed. Again I was forced to bear witness to the hardships experienced by those less fortunate than myself. Therefore, I am thankful.

I am thankful that I don’t have to turn tricks to supply my heroin habit, or get beaten half to death in the process.

I am thankful that I don’t weigh six hundred pounds and need a special stretcher.

I am thankful that I don’t need Coumadin and that I know how to stop a nosebleed.

I am thankful that I don’t have to fake a seizure to get my family’s attention.

I am thankful that you listened to us when we said you needed to go to the hospital.

I am thankful that I know how and when to remove pacing pads.

I am thankful I didn’t break my leg in an embarrassing fall at Gramma’s.

I am thankful my children didn’t have fevers today.

I am thankful that I didn’t find my brother dead and alone in his apartment.

I am thankful to be alive and well enough to still help.

The Twenty Five Streets

We have recently hired a few new paramedics at Worcester EMS. One of the challenges a new medic faces is street familiarization. Our medics come from all over New England and even the locals haven’t been really familiar with the city. I always joked that you only had to know 18 streets to get around Worcester. If the call wasn't on one of those streets, it was just off of one of those streets. After some careful thought, I found it was actually twenty five. Another problem was Worcester’s veteran named squares. No one calls it the intersection of Plantation and Franklin, it is called Brown Square. So I have added ten squares to my new city driver’s list of must know locations, and here they are.

The twenty five streets:
Belmont, Burncoat , Cambridge, Chandler, Grafton, Greenwood , Grove Hamilton, Highland, Lake Ave, Lincoln, Main, Massasoit, May, NE Cutoff (Mountain St), Park Ave, Plantation, Pleasant, Providence, , Salisbury Shrewsbury, Southbridge, SW Cutoff (Rt 20), Vernon,
West Boylston

The ten squares:
Kelly, Brown, Newton, Billings, Rice, Lincoln, Washington, Tatnuck, Brosnihan, Posner

The ugliest coat I have ever seen.

Our handlers have decided to force a new uniform coat on us without the input of the staff. I thought it was an option but they took $350 of my annual uniform allowance and ordered me a coat. Well, no one asked me my thoughts.

I've heard all the ANSI arguments for increased visibility. I have been on the streets and highways for the last two decades and have done fine without it.

It has new high tech waterproof fabric, yeah right. I have heard that before too.

It is repels body fluids. So does my leather coat.

It isn't even our uniform colors. We wear brown. This coat is blue and yellow. Maybe it's a harbinger of things to come. FD colors? Medstar colors?

Hmmm, a copay.

My friend Jeff approached me with an idea. If we charge a co-pay for non-emergent transports the abuse will be decreased dramatically. Hmmm, I kind of like it.

“What? A $20 co-pay for an ambulance? I could call a cab for that much money.”

Exactly.

Helping out

I stole this from Central Mass Medic's blog:

"Helping a Helper

I really like this.
Michael Morse, author of my favorite blog, Rescuing Providence, linked to this site.

Besides just being a nice thing to do for someone who clearly deserves it (I can't even begin to describe the respect I have for working Moms and Dads who manage to complete something as daunting as Paramedic school), I think the writer is addressing a real need.
With the world's credit markets still frozen like the Siberian Tundra, school loans are becoming harder and harder to come by.
A friend of mine who runs a Paramedic program told me that the company that once financed the considerable cost of an education at his school notified six members of his last class at the last minute that the money they had counted on would not be coming.Those six are having to instead wait a few more years to attend school.
I love what's being done here, and I hope some Central Mass Medics readers might be able to help out even a little.To steal a little more from Morse's last post, here's a link that might explain why this is worth it. "

Count me in. I hope it turns into one of those crazy internet phenoms.

I was quoted...

...in an article here last month about lightning. I'm no Matt Noyes but...
http://www.telegram.com/article/20090726/NEWS/907260449/1101/LOCAL


Thanks to Wormtown Taxi for pointing it out to his readers.
http://www.wormtowntaxi.com/2009/07/lightning-strikes-blogger.html