One of Those Shifts

So yesterday was just one of those shifts - you know the one I'm talking about. You're on duty for 24 hours, and you run two or three calls in the first 18 hours. The day drags on, you're bored out of your mind...you can't stay awake if you sit down in the day room, but you know that as soon as you make your bunk up and unzip your boots, tones are gonna drop.

You've got to admit that those of us in EMS are a superstitious lot...you don't say the "Q" word while you're on duty, you never say ANYTHING about how long it's been since your last cardiac arrest at the nursing home, and if you ever find a student third-rider that's a White Cloud, you make sure they do every clinical ride along in the back of your truck.

My truck is usually pretty darn busy - our company prints out stats for every truck each month, and last month, our truck outran every other one by 40 calls. We have by far the largest territory, and usually when a call comes out, it's going to be something good. We run our share of BS calls - we've got 5 nursing homes in our zone - but we also land the most helicopters for major trauma and CVAs. It's nothing for us to run 7-10 calls a shift...my personal best was 13.

Getting back to the whole superstition thing...it's rare for my truck to not run more than 4 calls before bedtime. We dread those days, because we KNOW we're going to be busting our butts all night. We've actually jumped another truck's calls around dinner time to up our numbers, just so we can get some sleep. Crazy? You betcha. :) But it always seems to work.

Not the case yesterday - everyone was slow. And don't you know it...right about time the bunk room chit-chat quieted down (think The Waltons, only with crude humor and ping pong balls being flung around the room) and we got all warm and comfy in our beds...dispatch with "Units, stand by for a call."

GRR!! Get up, get dressed, somebody hit the button so the friggin' encoder will stop beeping, grab your radio, get in the truck, grab some gum so you don't have Refusal Breath, and flip on the lights and sirens.

Run your call, clean the back of the ambulance, finish up your PCR. Chat with your favorite nurses, who tell you to go back to station and not to bring them any more patients.

Back in service, back into the bay, back in the bunk room. Boots off, uniform shirt hanging beside the bed. Slip under the covers, find that perfect spot...

"Units, stand by for a call."