My laptop bit the dust. I just got a new one though, so now I can begin sharing my thoughts again. I could have blogged from my phone...but it's a pain in the ass....I know...lazy. Lots of stuff has happened. I've lost a few friends...to terrible illnesses which were fast thankfully. Lots of things going on with the homefront. Parenting has become way more challenging in the last few months. I've learned that I need to keep a much tighter leash on the boy. I've started reading again. For pleasure. I've been reading Atul Gawande. The first book I read of his is called Being Mortal-Medicine And What Matters In the End. I think that this book should be required reading for all healthcare professionals. It seems that we have become far to driven with attempting to cure rather than attempting to maintain quality of life as health care professionals. This book has made me realize just how lacking our culture is in palliative health care. I started a 2nd book of his called Complications. I so wish that I could go further in healthcare. I love being a paramedic, but reading these books and certain calls make me wish that I could do more for people. I ran a call recently. 58 y/o woman who's family called us out because they thought that she had a seizure. They thought that she was postictal. They noticed her behavior in the morning and called us about 6 hours after they noticed that something was wrong. She had a hx of alcoholism and hadn't had anything to drink that day, so understandably the family thought she was having withdrawal symptoms. She was also a methadone patient (for pain) so enters the possibility of narcotic overdose. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten, and was very emaciated, which brings up the possibility of hypoglycemia. We quickly ruled out seizure and fixed her hypoglycemia with no change in her condition. Her symptoms didn't fit narcotic overdose. She passed our stroke screen which just meant that she most likely wasn't having a stroke right now. Her vital signs were mostly ok, except for her ETC02. It was very low. So she's acidotic. I so wish that I could have gotten a set of labs on her. She also began to get bradycardic with frequent pvcs throughout transport. She would stay in this rhythm for a minute or two, then convert back to sinus tach. She did this several times while in my care. There were so many possibilities I just hate not being able to have all the tools that I need to diagnose. But alas, that's not my job. I got her to the hospital alive. And gave the Dr all of the information that I had. That is my job. I wasn't familiar with any of her nurses and it was a new Dr. So I will probably never figure out what all was wrong with her. I love patients like her though. I love trying to solve their mysteries. I just wish I could go further.
Ok, well I need to get myself in gear and get my day off chores done. I will be back as soon as I can though!
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