So last weekend sucked. With a capital S. I was paying back a shift trade which meant that my regular 12-14 hour shift would turn into at least 18 hours. This leaves me with about 3 hours to sleep between shifts. This wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't such a busy rotation. I'm not even sure how many calls we ran. It was hot as fried hell outside friday, and I forgot my hygiene bag. So my clothes wound up soaked with sweat before noon. Those of you who do outside work will know exactly what I'm talking about. My clothes never dried out. It was the type of day where I didn't have time to sit down and eat all day. Between calls I peeled a couple of hard boiled eggs and ate them in the truck, but didn't have time to get the shells out of the sink.
I don't mind being this busy at all. I like running calls. It would be nice to have a few minutes to sit and eat, but it happens sometimes. As I so often do, I got a late call. My partner of the day's relief and his student showed up on scene to relieve my partner of the day. Which was great, because they took the call, which meant one less report for me to write.
The late call made me late for the shift trade that I was paying back at another post. Which meant one of the day crew had to hold over and wait for me. Evidentially the night shift person that I was working with clashes with the person who held over for me. Thankfully the night captain let us go 10-6 (out of service) until we were able to get back to post, so we wouldn't get anymore calls until everyone got where they were supposed to be. Well I was driving back to post, and got off the bypass. The night medic looked at me and says "what are you doing?" I told him that this was the way that I take back to post to avoid traffic. He goes off and says "that is way farther than the way I take. It's at least a mile on this road, and a mile on another road". This is complete horseshit. But this control freak goes on and on so I finally just told him that if he really thinks it's that much further that I would get back on the bypass and get off on his road. He said it is much further, so I went his way. I told him that the traffic was lighter the way I go. He says "you don't like traffic do you? The way he said it was incredibly condescending. All the while he is texting and sending messages on the ambulance computer. He then says "you small town people". Then I told him that I just didn't like to wait when I could save time. And he says "clearly, thats why you got a ticket a few months ago". I just tuned him out from that point on. Then we get back to post and I was hurrying around getting my things gathered up, and I stopped to rinse my egg shells down the sink (because he has complained to my partner before about our lack of cleaning, etc). He sees me doing this and says "get out of here now Dawn. I'm serious". So needless to say, I'm a little irritated.
I finally make it to post #2 and we get a call shortly after I walk in. The guy I was working with now has maybe a year of experience as a medic. He took the first call. It didn't go well. There were bugs everywhere. I took our equipment outside, was picking bugs off him, and kept my feet moving (they won't crawl up your legs as easy if you keep moving). After the call, I mentioned the bugs and he went completely code orange. Told me that I needed to tell him the next time I saw bugs. You would have to be blind not to have seen them.
So he makes me take the next 2 calls, which made me late getting off. His driving was so bad that it threw me into a cabinet. So my ass knocks the cabinet door off. It was just a horrible night. I had no help making up the cot after I dropped the pt off, which is a normal common courtesy. You remake the cot while your partner is giving bedside report. So instead, I had to remake it in the back on the way back to post. Nevermind the reports that I have to do. It was just a horrible night.
For me, the actual patient care isn't the stressful part of ems. It's the politics and people. A lot of the people in EMS are very power hungry insecure little people. I don't understand why they have to be a$$holes. If I'm working with someone who is doing an 18 hour shift, I go out of my way to help them and take the late calls. I always try to be mindful of the patient and my partner in the back when it comes to driving. And I would never be condescending towards someone as far as their choice of routes. The route I was going to take back to post was 0.23 of a mile more than the way I was dictated to take. It is much shorter with traffic. But that's one of those things that just isn't worth arguing about. To me anyway.
Days like that make me very thankful for my regular partner and the other reasonable adults that I have worked with. Thanks to the EMS Gods that I got decent partners for the rest of the weekend.
I'm sure none of my irritability had to do with sleep deprivation or hanger...lol. Yea, hanger IS a thing.
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