Caduceus

When you have a major operation like that, you are not yourself. A lot of my family has had operations and they feel like never doing anything again. Give yourself time to HEAL. Pick up a hobby, do something you have always wanted to do and never had time for. The time will come when you'll be healed and you can make the decision to go back or not. I wish you luck and I grant you a free art request! Just tell me what you want drawn and I will draw it for you! I'm pretty good so choose anything you like! I hope you get back on your feet again soon.

So I am looking for advice from adults on a non-EMS subject. If you're not interested don't bother posting no biggie. Just looking for some outside opinions. This last Halloween my friend and I decided to go out on the town together. We live in a fairly small town so a couple people in our little group wanted to go to the nearby city. I said cool okay. Well my best friend told me that she couldn't go. She hadn't asked her parents, just assumed she couldn't. I told her that was cool, I'd hang with her in our town and we'd have a blast while the others went to the city. I turned down their invites to go with them so I could hang with my friend and she wouldn't be alone. Then right as the other guys were about to split up and leave my friend called her mom and asked if she could go with them. Mom said yeah, but I told my friend that I still couldn't go. Well I caved and called my mom. The answer was no because we hadn't gotten any solid plans for when we'd be back or who was driving us. My mom didn't even know the driver so that was a safety thing. Well I told my friend, "I still can't go. If you had told me about this before hand, and had we planned on it, then I could've gone." And then my friend proceeded to make a very poor decision. She said, "Oh, well, okay. Bye." And she loaded up in the car with the rest of my group, leaving me ALONE on a dark street late at night, on the wrong side of town. What is upsetting to me is that I sacrificed a lot for her. I waited for her for an hour and a half when she was late coming to our meeting place. I sacrificed by saying no to my other friends that I couldn't come to town so I could hang with my best friend. And then she totally disregarded all that, completely ignored the plans we'd made to go TOGETHER, and left me ALONE. I am so angry because I trusted her to have my back. You never, EVER leave another girl alone. My friend's an airhead and maybe she doesn't get this. But basically I just need some help especially from other women and girls on here. How do I deal with this? I want to tell my friend exactly why I am upset. I will. I've been friends with this girl for ten years, and I never expected this of her. What do I do?

Well I went to the party and nothing much came of it. I talked to my mentor that lives on my street and he was dressed as Batman XD We joked around a bit. But I have had a really crappy night considering my best friend ditched me so I was all alone. . .It really sucked and I'm mad.

Wow, that is a shame. I'm sorry Capt that's rough.

I will definitely go and ask this Friday, just heard from my friend that that's when the next game is. I'd really like to do it and like you said it's good experience in a controlled environment. I know an EMT who lives on my street and hey tomorrow is Halloween and I'm checking out the station's party (hey, guess what I'm dressing as: AN EMT!) So I can talk with the guys there Anyway to get experience I am happy with, I don't care if I sweep the ambulance bay or wash the fire engine. I just want to be in the station or with a crew. . .It sounds weird but I feel really happy when I am around these people. None of you sound crass or obnoxious. Honestly you are all like aunts and uncles to me XD I understand the liability issues and the last thing I want is for someone to get their ass chewed because of something I did. I appreciate everyone making it clear to me the severity of the consequences that can come around from things that seem like no big deal. And I will doubtlessly bring more questions to the table, more so than give answers anyway.

You can also use red bean jelly. It's got a ton of sugar, it's firm so it's not too messy, and it's got like 10% of daily carbs so. . .I donno if that sounds good to you but if you can find it it might work. Hey does your wife post pics of her cakes? My mom was super into cake decorating a while back, she used melted chocolates to make pictures it was really beautiful.

@clutzyEMT Okay, wow, that was the best post I have read on any forum. It is a big responsibility to have someone's life in my hands. It's something that I don't think I'm completely ready for--but I trust myself to do what I need to in an emergency should the time come that I have to step in and help or if I am the only one who can do anything. That was a really great post but I am met with two issues on this front. One, the town I live in is the only town in a very small fire district, and the station is unmanned. So it may be hard to contact anyone to actually do a ride along; I was thinking I could try and do one in a neighboring city. By the way, congratulate your son for being officially cooler than me. Sometimes I wonder about the choices I have made in the past about medical emergencies I have witnessed. I lament my inability to have done ANYTHING during those instances. And as you said, I might get in over my head. . .and I wonder what will happen if I do? The last thing I want is to become a burden to the crew. Again I thank you for your post and I will definitely be asking you for advice in the future. @uglyEMT The football games are a really great idea, however as I mentioned before, I can't help out around our local station that often because it is unmanned. And the local fire department isn't the one that stands by at football games, it's city guys, so how should I go about asking if I can help them? Should I go to the city fire station one day and drop by to talk to them, or should I call? Email is not the best idea, I think. @Capt Wowza, that's a great idea, Capt. I'll bring that up when I get around to asking. But I'd really like more training first after all this talk, more experience ya know? I don't wanna be a complete rookie; I know I'm not gonna impress anybody with first aid/CPR, but what the hell. And you're right, you guys only know me through these posts but I appreciate that you have faith in me at least. I'm definitely good at doing what I'm told and staying out of the way. Hey! That's also a good idea and I feel like I could learn a lot from that. In order to become a career paramedic in my county, you also have to be a firefighter, so something like that with the fire engines too would be a really good idea. All in all, I hope this post doesn't sound angry or rude, it's not meant to. It should sound respectful to everyone but if I'm not on top of my game tonight I may have said something rude by mistake. I want to thank everyone for the welcome and for offering all their help and advice. You guys are the best!

This last summer, my little brother and I were in the neighboring city getting lunch at a Subway. I had been thinking about taking a tour of a fire station, but didn't know whether we had to schedule one or if we could just walk in. Lucky for me, right in front of us in line was a fireman. I asked him and he said to drop by; if anyone was there they'd show us around, he said. So after lunch we dropped by the station, but were turned down because everyone was on scene of a house fire. So we tried the next day. It was mid-morning, and the secretary paged the Lieutenant, who gladly showed us around the station, ambulance, and fire truck. At the end of the tour as we were leaving, my little brother pointed to a little cabinet that looked slightly unusual and he asked what it was. "Oh, that's just a cabinet, for storage." The lieutenant replied, "But there's a guy who works here who's short and kind of annoying, so we call it his 'office.'" We left the station and enjoyed the rest of our summer, until fall came around. I was at a high school football game and I noticed the paramedics attending were getting something to eat. I recognized one of them to be the fireman I'd spoken to in Subway. He was eating so I went to ask his short partner a question. When I got up to him and he answered me, it was like a little light bulb came on in my head. The man I was talking to was short. I could kind of see how he could be annoying. He was the fireman with the cabinet office that the lieutenant had told us about.

Ah! Best idea yet! And yes. . .I may be a bit young. We will have to see and if I get to go I'll post me experience here

Ah thanks. I googled it and learned a lot! Oh and got it Today I was at my dad's work ( a male penitentiary) at a big event for the officers and their families. I heard someone ask. "Do we have a first aid kit?" Um, I'm sorry, but in a place with its own EMS response, I would sure as hell hope they had a first aid kit and that the employees knew where it was. -_-"

Wow Mari. That's really scary. Good thinking on your part though to just get her to the hospital ASAP. I commend you! Those are all pretty scary situations; knowing and recognizing something is key to treatment and reaction. Good job! In my area, we are twenty miles away from ANY hospital, so I would have to call 911 if someone was as close as that. Worst case scenario, my brother or I gets hurt and my folks are in town; if I didn' t call for EMS then it'd be 1+ hours before we could get medical help. It's scary being so far out sometimes. Thank god for volunteer EMTs~

Ugh hey look I'm sorry. That was a stupid question; I'd just gotten off work and dealing with stupid people when I asked that. Thanks for putting up with my stupidity! I'll google it. So, my grandpa just got diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The cancer is already in his blood stream; he is undergoing blood transfusions regularly. If he had an open fracture, should I treat it like normal? His bones are very brittle because of it and it might be easy (if the bone punctured the skin) to break it more. . . Add one more thing to my self air list: I was working at the library and I dropped a book on my face. Right in the eye! Some water and a cold paper towel anyone?

Okay, got it. Next time I see him I'll ask to see his records/have him add any misc. stuff that for some ungodly reason isn't on them. Everything should be there, but he's seventy two. Who knows? By the way, I've been wondering; if someone is having a heart attack but is still conscious/can swallow and maintain an airway, but are allergic to aspirin, will non-aspirin work? Or is there a suitable sub that will work in place of it? Other than calling an ambulance.

@Capt You could put in apple sauce, dried fruit of any sort, jerkey would also work well because it has sugar and a ton of protein too. Certain lunch meats are high in sugar and have other things to keep your levels even, but it doesn't keep that well. Can't remember if you said you had a drink in your kit. You can put in a bottle of orange juice or a sports drink. . . As for the med sheets, my grandfather was on Reglin for a really long time. This gave him really bad side affect; hallucinations, tremors. He has also had is esophagus removed and his stomach is now in his chest. Are these details EMS should know, say, should he have a heart attack? Or are they redundant? Pretty cool the hospital updates things like that so easily, I knew that at some point but not working in the medical field yet I had forgotten.

Okay! That's pretty easy and really useful on trips away from home, as well as when I'm up there with him by myself. I'll be sure to do this next time we get into a grocery store or Walmart. The medical sheet is the best idea I've heard all day. I will do this for both my grandpas since they're both on so many medications I don't even know all of them. If either of them had a stroke or heart attack (God forbid) I'd definitely need that for the EMS crew. I trust myself not to do something stupid in an emergency but as you said I wouldn't be able to remember all their meds in that kind of situation. It does, thanks a bunch! You're a huge help >///<

Yeah I read about that program a couple days ago actually. It's a pretty neat one but like you said even in one country is gonna be a challenge. They'll get there eventually, though, and in the long term this may be more effective a cause than Doctors Without Borders.

Well in the countries you speak of they don't have enough ambulances to go around to begin with. Most of the time they don't even have a centralized emergency call system like 911, and in more rural and isolated areas the entire EMS system is based off of random volunteers trained in first aid that are pulled of the street. Because of that, I'm certain that there are certainly times when they just leave a patient without any worries of getting in legal trouble.

Ah okay! I'm just kind of hoping that we don't have to have this problem. . .preferably ever. He is pretty good about eating when he needs to. But he works a lot outside so his liquids can get pretty low sometimes. At least it's not as bad in the winter.

@Scuba Thanks for the explanation. In regards to my grandfather, he doesn't keep orange juice around so would some other powdered, sugary drink work? Like lemonade? The guy is super stubborn and doesn't carry his pills, and I don't know where they are, so I'll have to improvise any traditional treatments. There's usually peanut butter/some kind of choco in the house tho somewhere. What about ice cream? They have that. @Capt Hey thanks for the walk through! Interesting. Yeah I can see them not wanting transport makes sense. Hey that's smart about the bug out bags. Medical conditions make prepping a helluva lot more difficult. And no kidding about never being too safe; plus it's smart to teach your kids how to take care of dear ol' dad. I can't think of something more scary than knowing my dad was sick and not being able to take care of him. If you're like me for a while after you grabbed the wrong thing you probably compulsively checked that you gave yourself the right kind, eh? What kind of public health nurse walks into a first aid class and says, "I have a cold, so it's gonna give your immune systems a work out." There was a baby. A BABY!

Hah. Who needs resuscitation? Just inject them with the T-virus!

Sorry! My instructor told me no choco/peanut butter but obviously you got this down. . Sorry for acting like I knew something more! After scuba's explanation makes way way more sense. I'm certainly not a doc I just feel like I have nothing to contribute here. . . I'm going to remember this for future ref since apparently the instructor didn't know what she was talking about. Thanks for the correction.

Uh. . .I'd like to say I've had the chance to kill the d-bags who tried to robbed me, but all I could do was call 911. -_-" But I can say that I shaved a couple years off their lives. The looks on their faces when I got them. . .XD

Oh. . .my grandfather is diabetic and he used to get hypoglycemia so bad he'd actually go to sleep in the middle of conversations. I don't mean to nitpick here, but your food choice probably wasn't the best. Chocolate and peanut butter have a lot of fiber so it takes longer for them to metabolize and to get the sugar in your blood stream. Diabetics kind of trap themselves by not having many sugary foods in the house, I notice with my grandpa, so when they get too low, they don't have something they can just eat. My grandpa has the glucose pills, but doesn't carry them. I was thinking the other day if he got too low, I'd probably like to give him so hard candy. The only hard candy in the house is sugar free.

So I started this topic so people could post their injuries and the self aid that they've done on themselves. Here are a few of mine: 18 months ago; electrocution. Had just started as the groundskeeper at our library. We use an electric lawnmower and the last groundskeeper had mowed over the extension cord we use to power it. Well, the first time I was mowing, the broken cord (which had been mended with duct tape) actually pulled all the way apart. I received a bit of a secondary shock; on top of the heat exhaustion I already had, I'd been electrocuted so I just signed out and went home for the day. Not much aid in that one. -_-" 12 months ago; type three choking. I was home alone eating a peanut butter sandwich when I started choking. Type three, too. Couldn't even cough. By the time I got into the kitchen (this was before first aid was a thing for me) to get some water and dislodge the gooey sludge blocking my airway, my vision had tunneled and I couldn't see. Gulped down some water and--Presto!--I could breathe. 6 months ago; gash? Was running through the house to answer the door and my foot caught on a carpet nail about an inch out of the doorway. The ball of my foot caught on the head of the nail and I tripped. I stumbled a little bit but didn't feel anything really. Then my foot kinda started to hurt. I looked behind me and there was a trail of blood, a lot of it, behind me. Looking at my foot, I realized there was a gash about a centimeter deep torn out of my foot, just flapping there. . .I went in the bathroom and washed out the dirt. It was really painful to pull the flap back out of my foot to clean it I tore out the carpet nails soon after. . . 3 months ago; cat bite. Stupid frickin' sick kitten wouldn't let me hold her and bit my hand *A* The amount of isopropanol I poured on that puncture wound was enough to make anyone cry. . . Well that's it! Please tell me if what I did was stupid. A lot of there are really old. . .But I wanna hear your self aid stories too!

To hell with it all! You guys just love victimizing--er, no I mean helping people, don't you?