Yet Another EMS Blog...

I've been reading EMS blogs since before I started EMT school, when the idea of zooming around in an ambulance and saving lives was just a tickle in my head. Someone sent me a link to Kelly Grayson's
A Day In The Life of an Ambulance Driver" site, which became a daily read for me (sometimes more often, when he's feeling prolific). It snagged me - hook, line, and cursor.

I started visiting folks on his blog roll, bookmarking sites while I laughed, cried, and even learned how to be a better medic. I read stories of crappy shifts, crappy patients (sometimes quite literally) , and crappy partners. I cheered Epijunky on while she bravely fought her way through Medic school, shed tears with Michael Morse as he rides the rescue...there are so many EMS blogs out here in cyberspace, each and every one valuable for the knowledge, camaraderie, and  enjoyment they impart!

I'm not really sure what's made me think I might write something that someone else wants to read, but I'm going to give it a shot. I'm still pretty new to this whole EMS thing, and sometimes stuff happens on the truck that I just want to talk about with people who might understand what I'm feeling, and what's running around in my head. There are those calls that make great stories - "You aren't gonna BELIEVE what this patient just asked me to do!!" and there are those that, no matter what you do, how you try to rationalize or compartmentalize, you can't get out of your head. That patient is going to be there when you finally make it back to the bunk room and hit the bed - you're going to run that call over and over, critiquing every move you made, every intervention, every decision...You can't forget the look on his wife's face when she looks through the pass-through and sees you doing compressions on her husband's chest, the medic getting his intubation kit out. I don't think we're supposed to forget, and I don't think we should be able to just...get over it.

I want to be the best EMT I can be, and I think that every one of these calls - what I take away from them - makes me stronger, smarter, and better.