not all that it was supposed to be

So I wasted 12 hours yesterday sitting around hoping that something interesting would happen and that I would get to see what it's really like to ride an ambulance and be an EMT. When you only get one call in 12 hours, that's not really possible.

I got to see what staging is because we did it twice--it's moving to a more central location in the district to cover if two or more other units are responding or transporting. So when this happened in the morning, we had to drive about 15-20 minutes north to sit beside a Hardee's until we were released to go back to the station.

Our only call happened just before noon. A 47-year-old man was rear-ended as he turned left onto a road. He hit a tree (not too hard) and had lumbar pain. So we put a C-collar on him and I held C-spine while we put him on a backboard. Then we loaded him up into the back of the ambulance for transport to Erlanger. We gave him oxygen, monitored his vitals (BP, pulse, respirations and pulse-ox), and started an IV so they could give him pain meds once he reached the ER. I felt bad because he winced with each and every bump we hit on the way to the hospital. The whole run took a little over an hour.

For the rest of the afternoon, I watched TV and tried to read. It wasn't the greatest experience. Mostly, I was bored. If only I could go again... I did get the EMS half-off deal at Taco Bell. That was good.