Jaws of Life Teaser Photo

I am writing a post about the brilliant trauma course...but in the meantime...allow me to present ABB wielding an actual jaws of life. This photo taken shorty after I cut a car door off (hence my demented appearance).

Does this jaws of life make my thighs look big??

The really hilarious part was that the firefighter handed it to me, showed me where the 'on' button was and then told me to 'work away'. 

Yeah, in Canada I would have had to take a 2 day safety course, sign release forms in triplicate, show proof of tetanus immunization, and demonstrate to a workplace hazard team my ability to handle the machine before being allowed to turn it on.

What could possibly be more enjoyable than handling a machine that crushes metal at 600lbs per square inch???

Oh 'twas a good day, so it was.

Oh right. Patients!

Just getting ready to crawl into bed after a long and harried day with the ALS crew. Oh and what a day it was. The glory of emergencies!

I mean, real ones...not the 'I saw an old guy going slowly down the street with his walker so I dialed 999' [true story that happened on my last shift].

I even managed to make myself useful and do a good thing. After a day of trailing with a kit bag it was nice to feel useful instead of useless for a moment. But that is a story for a day when I don't have to wake up again in 6 hours.

A nice reminder that I am learning applicable things! Information that is making my differentials more astute, my understanding deeper, and my realization that 'holy crap I don't actually know anything' crystal clear. It's always good to be reminded of the light at the end of the tunnel and what this is all truly about--patients! Not spotters, or papers, or OCASE's.

It is also good to realise that wow, I'd never want to work as a nurse in that hell hole of an emergency department. I thought the situation was dire in some of my previous Canadian haunts but, well, it was the Hilton in those places compared to what I saw today.

Sleep time.

EMS excitement!

Tomorrow I start my week of shifts with one of the ALS paramedic crews in town. I really enjoy spending time seeing things from another health care providers perspective. My experience is so limited to emergency departments, I find it fascinating to see what goes on in the pre-hospital setting before our worlds collide in the hospital.

Always thought I'd want to do trauma medicine (especially flight medicine when I was working up north). So this will be another exposure for future consideration. Most of the time I think my emergency stint is over, but...who knows?

Hopefully I will get some pinches to the old adrenals over the next few days to get me out of this holiday stupor!