Emergency Laughter

My dad had a great sense of humor. He showed me many times the value of being able to laugh at yourself and the world around you. When he was diagnosed with late stage prostate cancer, one of the first procedures he had was a bilateral orchiectomy. I'll save you from looking it up, it's the surgical removal of both testicles. (because it feeds the cancer) I was there when they wheeled my Dad out of the operating room after the procedure. He gave me a dopey, post general anesthesia grin and asked the surgical nurse, "Was it a boy or a girl?" She laughed and said, "You had twins, honey." He chuckled, "Yea, I bet they l looked a lot alike." Now this is a man who didn't smoke...anything...never took anything stronger than an aspirin, didn't drink heavily, and minutes after having his first general anesthetic, he has the presence of mind to fire off a primo joke about just having his nuts lopped off. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what's called, a sense of humor. I miss you Dad.

Gratitude and "thank you's" come in many forms.

To emtdennis, sorry for the delay in answering your question. You don't need a kindle, they have free apps so you can read it right on your PC. Just look for "free reading apps."

Dear Paramedic Mike, You're not sure if I was trying to be funny??? What, you think I actually looked up those numbers? I thought my blatant mockery was evident. But, maybe not. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I’ll have to kick my derision up a notch. I hesitate to ask, but, how did you translate the numbers that I made up? And just for the record, weather, hit n run, tour of duty and whatever else you put, was not the words I was thinking about when I made it all up. There’s only four 10-codes worth using anyway- 10-7 on scene, 10-9 10-1 in service-returning to quarters and 10-4 OKEE DOKEE. Oh maybe one more, commonly expressed as "What's your 20?" which most often meant, "Where the f#** are you?" OKEE DOKEE

To Paramedic Mike: WHAT? No more 10 codes? You gotta be 10-13ing me? Are you 10-57’d up in the head? What 10-42 made that 10-28ing decision? That’s just 10-89ing wrong man. What’s the 10-77ing world come to? 10-9 10-1, Mike-The Big 10-4

It's pretty rare that a screwy situation is the result of a single error. It's usually a succession of things that hop on the back of each other. Like if you tell 10 people "epistaxis" by the time it gets through the tenth person, it's a rhinocerus loose in the backyard and there's blood everywhere. First you have the caller, they got a hospice patient, someone they love is dying and like you said, that's really stressful for the family and all involved. At some point in the conversation someone says, "Yea, he's unresponsive," So being an old dispatcher myself, "unresponsive" was always a key word that I zero'd in on, thinking, "Hmm, well that's not a good thing." Bottom line is what's everyone all worked up about, a few gallons of gas? Your super told you to keep rolling on it, sounds like a good plan to me since it's all about the patient anyway. You can never go wrong with too many people with the right resources offering assistance to someone in need. If it blew up in everyone's face, at least you'd still have a unit heading in the right direction. Plus, nobody ever REALLY knows what's going on until you walk through the door. It could have been a rhinocerus on spice, who knows? It kind of sounds like the other supervisor who was having a cow needs a transrectalencephalectomy. As far as you guys in the rigs, unfortunately you gotta do what the radio tells you to do. Can't let it get to you. You have enough stressors on the job, discard the little ones so they don't become big ugly ones. The patient always comes first. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Mike

Hi Lola, Nice to see you here. I've worked rural areas before, those longer transport times with the patient can present its own set of challenges, complications and rewards huh? Just thinking, is it true that there aren't any speed limits-outside of city / towns? So if you're running code 3-with no speed limits-do people blast past you? Mike

I hate those damn number things. I was devistated as a kid when they told me I couldn't get a pilots license. So what does it say? I think I see maybe a 3 and maybe a weird looking 5....What is it?

Hey Dwayne, Whoa now...my morals and values are just as corrupt and debauched as any man half my age, that's right...don't ask what I mean....cause I'm not really sure myself! I've learned to step lightly with the whole book thing. I got the boot on a nurses site just after I first published it. I didn't care, because I didn't want to be there in the first place. The obvious difference is, I want to be here, I like being here. It's nice to be back around people who "get it." I was reading this site for quite a while before joining. I like the reciprocal help and support that I see here. And the occasional slap-downs are most entertaining. Something I was hesitant to do, because I thought it would put me in the dog house, (and you're a good person to ask being a moderator) If I'm interacting with a fellow EMT or Medic, and they express interest in it, I'll usually just offer them a free copy, especially volunteers or students, or if I know they have...oh, what are they called...incredibly expensive little minature things that run around and poop and break things and eat and grow...what is it, OH yea, Kids. The book certainly isn't making me millions, (if it was, sorry, but I wouldn't be here. I'd be skydiving over some place warm with a drink in my hand) but it's paid my rent for the last three months!! (picture a Linebacker doing an endzone dance) I'll say it again, if there's any EMS writers here, let's talk. I've learned a lot about the book business in the last two years and it can be daunting. Makes running a code seem like childsplay. Anyway, enough of that. To 1C, "Look, my ass glows" That made me laugh so hard last night...look, my ass glows! Cracks me up. emtdennis, paramedicmike,ruralKSEMS and DwayneEMTP...thank you for the greetings! LOOK, MY ASS GLOWS!!

Dude, you have to settle down. First stop with the feeling sorry for yourself crap. It's a waste of time, it's a waste of energy. Time and energy you can use more constructively. No one learns A&P in a couple months. Embrace your fear, embrace the challenge. Turn your fear into thirst, a thirst for learning. Talk to your instructor, make some flash cards for yourself, start a study group, see if you can get in on a couple of autopsies. I guarantee you won't forget the anatomy.Why? Because it's fascinating. Everyone was scared at some point in their early days. Worried, scared, sweating bullets. I'd be more worried about you if you DIDN"T feet that way. Re-read the advice given above. It's good advice! Slow down, focus. Keep us advised.

Hey DFIB, Arctickat, I was trying to be polite with the whole experience next gen thing. I thought of a bunch of newbie tags, but I thought, "No, I can't say that. Not on the howdy doodie first couple of posts page." Hell it took me twenty minutes to think of the polite version. There's no better teacher than experience. But I remember feeling dumb and in the ditch way bac....no, that was yesterday. Never mind. All the places you see on Deadliest Catch, that was our stomping grounds. The Coast Guard up there...big respect! Bar none, some of the best in the world. Semper Paratus. Nice to be here Gentlemen, thank you for the warm welcome. See you around town. Mike

Hi everyone, I've been having fun here in the city. Nice to see experience interacting with the next generation. I started in EMS in 1980. We used an early, early manual prototype version of the GPS called the Thomas Map Book. "Recalculating." I spent over 20 years having a blast on ambulances, 8 years Medic on a ship in Alaska's Bering Sea, worked trauma surgery as a Surgical Technologist, harvested organs, skin, bone from beating heart cadavers, (Organ donors save lives!) BLS instructor, also taught maritime emergency medicine, CERT & Medical Reserve Corps volunteer and last year I published the EMS/Medical humor ebook, "Emergency Laughter." Check it out if you get a chance. If you've read it and was offended....You're taking life way too seriously. Any writers out there trying to get published, give me a shout. Thanks everyone, it's an honor to be amongst highly trained, skilled, slightly crazy, medical professionals. Mike Cyra

Hey Richard, Oh yea, you're right. People just don't know how crazy it is. When we say truth is stranger than fiction, it's no joke. You can't make this stuff up!

First of all, Congratulations Richard B for getting your writing out there and published! I have a little experience being published too. All my stories are EMS or trauma surgery related and focus primarily on the humorous side of emergency medicine. I'll list where I've been published to hopefully give anyone here, who's writing articles or stories and looking to be published, idea's on places to submit their work. I started seriously submitting stories in 2008. Since then I've had a dozen stories published in the Placebo Journal (no longer in print but is an E-zine now) It was the MAD magazine of medicine. I've also had stories published in Our USA Magazine, Parenting Humor, HumorPress, 614 Magazine, one story in a British book-"Final Chapters: Writing About The End of Life." I also have three stories being published in a medical humor anthology called "My Funny Major Medical" coming out the end of this month on amazon. Last year I published my first eBook titled, Emergency Laughter: It Wasn't Funny When It Happened, But it is Now! on Amazon.com US & UK, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and KOBO. I'm amazed that it's spent time as the #1 bestselling EMS ebook in the U.S. and UK. I've been interviewed, and the book has been reviewed or mentioned on EMS World and EMSWorld.com/reading room, Medical Author Chat with Greg Freise, Greg's other site EverydayEMSTips.com, FireGeezer.com and the Midwest Book Review. My second EMS humor ebook will be coming out the end of this month. I would be more than happy to talk with anyone here at EMT City about the in's and out's of publishing an ebook, writing in general, how to get your name out there and start building your platform as a writer. If I can help other EMS writers in any way, just give me a shout. medicalhumor@earthlink.net If anyone here has purchased and read any of my stories, THANK YOU so much. Keep writing and submitting! Mike Cyra

Kyle, First, you handled your friends dog being euthanized well. I think you were looking at the situation clinically and that's why you weren't very emotional. If that was the case, then you experienced what we experience a lot of the time. You helped your friend tremendously by being there. Remember, you don't have to say much, words are often inadequate anyway. Just being there for them, that's the ticket. Your questions: 1.How do you guys deal with deaths on the job? You do your job. Death is a part of that job. You do what you are trained to do. Seeing a lot of death can and will change you profoundly though. You think about it, talk about it, reason and rationalize, form your own opinions and beliefs, develop your own personal way of dealing with it, and then you pack it away in a nice safe place...because here comes another one. Personally, how I deal with death? I drink 7 or 8 big bottles of booze, spike my hair with grease and run naked across the field in sports stadiums filled with people. I've found that trying to outrun 10 or 20 cops is a good physical outlet for my stress. And...BONUS...when they taze you, you sober right up and there's no hangover. But hey, that's just me, Everyone needs to find their own ways of dealing. (Now, of course I'm kidding, I never go anywhere naked. But it's EMS lesson #42. You cannot take yourself, or life, too seriously. You gotta have a sense of humor. If you don't, nobody will want to work with you and you won't be around long. 2.Do you cry on scene if someone dies? Maybe a young kid. NO. I usually waited until late at night, when I'm all alone. Oh, and it has to be dark, because I make some really stupid weird faces when I cry. You have to let your emotions out. 3.Have you cried on scene? NO. If I ever started choking up, I shut it down hard and fast. If you're thinking so much about what's going on that it's making you want to cry...then you're not busy enough, you're not doing your job, not focused on patient care enough, staying 20 steps ahead of everyone else. Like my Dad used to say, "I'll give you something to cry about!" 4.Are you allowed to cry or tear up anyways... on scene or in the back of the ambulance when dealing with patients? Allowed? If your partners and people you work with don't understand that having leaky eyes is natural, it's healthy and at some point everyone needs to let it out, then there's something wrong with them. Don't get me wrong, if someone is sobbing and blubbering all over 3 or 4 times a week, then, yea, I think they need to wee wee wee themselves all the way into another profession. Good questions Kyle. Thank you for asking. Death and taxes Kyle, death and taxes.