Category: Random Thoughts
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The Seat Doesn’t Remember You
Thinking back on time spent at my current agency, and the replaceable nature of EMS positions and the care and effort we take to make sure we are able to move on to other jobs while the wheels keep turning behind us.
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How do you say Goodbye?
Two weeks ago, during what I thought would be a routine telepsychiatry appointment, Monalisa told me something I wasn’t prepared to hear. Our next appointment would be our last. We were reviewing how the medications were doing. A recent increase in Effexor had helped resolve a brief resurgence of depressive symptoms that had begun to…
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The Chair
On Location My first real job out of college wasn’t in medicine, or anywhere near an ambulance. It was in lighting — the kind that makes concerts glow, trade shows sparkle, and corporate galas look like the Grammys. The company was called On Location Lighting Systems, or OLLS, based out of northern Kentucky just south…
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A Mental Health Odyssey – Still Here
A follow-up on A Mental Health Odyssey, revisiting mental health themes, and exploring where I am now, and where I’m headed from here.
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A Mental Health Odyssey
The author shares his journey through major depressive disorder, anxiety, and social phobia while working as an EMS provider. Despite having effective treatment for years, he experiences a decline in mental health in late 2023, prompting medication changes and the need for a temporary leave of absence. The narrative includes personal challenges, medication adjustments, struggles…
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Out with the old…
Out with the old, and in with the new, they say, right? It’s a small thing, but the red penlight on the right has been with me for the better part of 15 years. I think it maybe was a gift when I graduated from paramedic school. It’s been in my sleeve pocket or shirt…
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I owe some of you an apology…
Throughout my EMS career, I’ve often wondered why a certain subset of people call 911 so often. Seemingly minor concerns are blown way out of proportion, and, throwing logic and reason to the wind, they demand that the patient be taken to a specialty ER for examination by a specially trained physician. Who are these…
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Musings on a decade in EMS
You know that song by Faces, Ooh La La, that has the chorus that goes “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger“? That’s how I feel about some parts of my career in EMS. I realized today that I’m about 12 years into my EMS career, and about 7…
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Siren Malfunction?
I’ve been working in EMS in one form or another for about 10 years. So, although I am new to the system I currently work in, I am not new to EMS. I had still never encountered this issue before. My partner, Bob, a true veteran of both EMS and of the system I work in,…
Ventricular Escape Beats 