more pics

This is a picture of the Birthday cake that Bloggergirl had the other day. We had it at Fannin Lanes Bowling out here at the Rez.

This is of her getting excited about a present. Not sure what she got, but she sure seems happy.

What you talking about Daddy?

Happy Birthday

Today is BloggerGirl 1 birthday and I think we will take here to Gatti Town on Lake Harbour in Ridgeland. I am sure she will be suprised.
Yesterday I attended my grandmothers funeral and it was really a good time. I got to see family I hadn't seen in a while. It was a rough day for my brother who is a cop in New Orleans. He was very close to Granny, and the day before, a officer he was close to was gunned down during a routine traffic stop.
After we got home last night, the winds picked up and powerlines and trees were falling down all over the place. The on duty captain at the fire dept told me I run calls if I didn't mind since they were tied up waiting on the power company to come kill the power to the lines. Around midnight I ran a call for a gentleman who had high blood pressure. The ambulance that responded had my regular partner on board. After we finished the call, I asked how his day had been, (I was off because of the funeral) he said they had run 14 calls up to that point. For a crew that generally only runs 4 calls a shift, I had to just chuckle and say, "It sucks to be you."
I am sure I endeared myself to him.

Well, just thought I would jot down how the day went. Yall be careful out there.

Pictures, why not.

Just thought I would see if I could successfully put a picture on here. Well, here goes nothing. This is Bloggergirl 2.

Sorry for the silence

Have been busy this weekend. Had bloggergirls birthday party, and then Sat night, my grandmother died, so have had our hands full. All is well other than that. Keep the questions coming on the Q and A. Yall be good out there.

More Q and A

Q: What is your company policy on what you do while on 'the clock' but not on a call? Are you suppose to stay in the vehicle at all times? Are you allowed to drive about or just park it til you need it? Places that are off limits while you are on duty?
A: I will do my best to answer this. We have four trucks that are 24 hours and they have a station that they stay at most of the time when not running calls. Its just like an apartment, beds, tv kitchenettes and such. The other trucks are 12 hours. When not on a call, you usually just stay in the truck and talk or read or something to that effect. You are not required to stay in the vehicle at all times. The majority of the time when you see a unit driving around, they are "posting". They go to designated areas and wait. The more 911 calls that you have, the fewer trucks you have to respond, so they are moved to these spots that will generally give them the best chance of getting to a call faster. The more calls, the few the trucks, the closer they are moved in towards Jackson. The fewer the calls, means more trucks and they are more spread out.

Q: What level of EMT are most crews (EMT I, II, or paramedics.)
A: In our area, we run with a Paramedic and EMT on each truck. The only time that we do not do this is when the guv declares a state of emergency, in which case, two emts can be put on a truck to run non emergency trasfers i.e. taking a patient back to their nursing home or to dialysis.

911 emergency

it appears that as of midnight tonight, the company that runs 911 calls in 16 counties across the state, has gone belly up. will keep you posted.

I get to play for 34 hours

I go in to work tonight to begin a 34 hour shift. What an idiot I am.

I dont know if anyone watched the SC Dem debate last night, but I am watching it this morn. John Edwards sure came away looking like the good guy in that thing.

I want to thank everyone who checked out the q and a blog yesterday. I answered the questions by editing the blog so if you didnt see you question answered, look towards the bottom of the post.

Have a safe and blessed day.

Q and A

First off, our shift yesterday and last night was a very smooth shift. We ran seven calls and only transported one patient. So all in all, we cost the company money, I am sure lol.

Supermom asked a question in the last post, as have others in previous posts. Well, I would like to answer your questions. So on this post, please ask away and I will answer the questions the best I can.

Submitted by Supermom
Q: Are there any geographical boundries in which I run calls.
A: I can technically run calls anywhere in Hinds, Rankin and Madison counties. This is an area of over 2400 sq miles. There are times when every unit but us are on a call. In that instance, our dispatch will move us to Lakeland and I55. If we catch a call, this is the most central point to come from in the metro area. Basically we cover to Pelehatchie in the east, Edwards in the west, Utica in the south and Camden/Madison county line to the north.
Also, if a neighboring county doesnt have enough units to run a call, or in case of a disaster (i.e. train derailment), we will go assist them if they request it.

Submitted by Stacey
Q: (sorta) I want to know about people not getting out of our way.
A: Well, in the state of Mississippi, you do not have to give us the right of way. If you want to drive 15 mph in front of us while we are responding to a call, fine and dandy. About the only recourse we have is an very loud airhorn. Though, with the exception of Jackson, most people do make way for us. I was responding to one call on a narrow road in Rankin county and a minvan pull over onto what she thought was the shoulder. It was actually a ditch. She was fine and her vehicle survived, but damn, that was a funny thing to see.

Next question
Q: How are you billed when recieving services from EMS.
A: Every company is different, so I can only speak for the company I work for. If you are transported to a hospital, then you will be charged. On avg. a trip in an ambulance starts at $800 and this does not include mileage or any treatment. (This is why I recommend to everyone calling up the office, if you live in hinds,madison or rankin, and asking to be sent a membership package. for about 50 bucks a year, everyone in your household is covered in case an ambulance is needed. Anything your insurance doesnt cover, they write off.)
If for example you are diabetic and your blood sugar plummets and we treat you at your house with an IV and medicine, and you decide not to go to the hospital, you only get charged for the treatment, which is a lot less.
If we come out and just check a person out to make sure they are ok, and no one gets transported or treated, then there is no charge.
As for billing, it is done privatly and won't be on your hospital bill. (in some places where the service is owned by the hospital its a different story). It will be sent to you about 60 days after your ride.


Q: What kind of mileage do ambulances get?
A. It can vary. The weights range anywhere from 7,500lb to 14,000 lb each. As you can imagine, they eat gas and are one reasons transports are so high.
I look forward to more questions.

To cold to go to the hospital

Our first call this morning was for someone in Jackson who was robbed and beat up. He didn't have any serious injuries, but we asked if he wanted to go to the hospital. He replied, "It's to cold to go outside. I will wait till later." That is just funny.

Where to begin?

Yesterday I had a very restful shift. We got back our station from our final call at 8 pm and didn't leave until they woke us up to go home. We watched a couple of movies and life in general. All in all, it was a great night. During they day though...not so much. It wasn't that we had bad calls or anything, it was just the situation of the calls.

Our first call was someone who had rolled out of bed and needed help getting back in it. The fire dept got there before we did and took care of it for us. No big deal.

Our second call was to a quick fix clinic that is there when they need us, and where they need us. Unless of course they don't want you there and send you away. We had a patient who had the flu and the doctor felt she needed to go to the hospital by ambulance because of this. I guess he didn't feel comfortable letting her husband drive her the 3 miles to the hospital. So instead, I was the one who got to drive her the 3 miles. Only if the dr knew that it was me driving, he may have changed his mind.

Our third call was out to the Leesburg community waayyyyy up in NE Rankin county. So far out, that when responding with lights and sirens, it still takes 25 minutes to get there. Well, we got there and a gentleman was walking, talking and cutting jokes with the firefighters. He complained of a headache. Yep, a headache. "Well sir, have you taken anything for it?" I asked. Nope. "Of course not, why should you have taken tylenol or aspirin, it only would have helped the pain." I said in just pure defeat. He wanted to go to the hospital to get checked out. So we took him 30 miles to the hospital. No insurance=us not getting paid. So thats roughly 60 miles of fuel we used and two hours pay for a medic and emt for a headache. And people wonder why health care costs are going up.

On our fourth call, I was saddened. It was a nursing home call for a patient with Alzheimers. Her daughter said that her mother was having problems breathing. She asked her mother to tell us about it. This woman has not spoken a sentence of any type in the last nine months. The daughter still thinks that her mom is with us mentally. This was not the case. We hooked mom up to our monitors and found nothing wrong. She was breathing normally, but we took her to the hospital to make sure. I just wanted to hug the daughter. You could tell she didn't want to believe her mom, the woman who taught her everything, was not that same person anymore. I saw in her eyes that if he accepted the reality of the situation, it would drive her crazy.

Our final call was for someone else at a nursing home who had the flu. Instead of putting this patient in there wheelchair van and driving them across the street to the hospital, they called us.
Ahhhhhhhhhh.

Yet, I still love this job. Go figure.

All is quiet on the Rankin front.

I know I have been quiet here lately and I wish I could share tales of glory how we have saved many persons lives, and have helped many people in need. Alas, this is not the case. I am at work today and its more of the same that we have had on the last two shifts. We have had drunks who we helped pick up. We have had people who were high who just wanted to get home. We had a woman who had hot wings that didnt agree with her. I am so glad I have recieved the medical training that did so I could help these people out. Each on called 911. I'm still not sure why but they did. God love em. Have an awesome day.

A Mississippi Championship

Well, next week, the Green Bay Packers and the New York Football Giants will take on each other in the NFC Championship game. While the two players highlighted will be Hburgs Brett Favre and Ole Miss' Eli Manning, there happen to be a few players from the state on each team as well.

Packers have Donald Driver of Alcorn, Donald Lee of MSU

Giants have Kevin Dockery from MSU.

This can be a great showcase game for the products of our great state. The question is.........who do you think will win?

Southern Fried Debate

Last night, the GOP had a debate in the Palmetto state of South Carolina. The motley crew of speakers included Ron Paul this time, after being left out of the last debate. It seems they didn't sling as much mud toward their opponents this time, as they seemed to go after "liberals". It was very interesting viewing. I want them to all stay in the race so we can see more of these debates. Some of the zingers had me rolling on the floor. (or as my aol friends would say...rofl). I think last night, there was a clear winner and a clear loser. Here are my grades.

Fred Thompson-A+
Someone woke him up out of his coma in a BIG way. He came out swinging, pointing out differences between his plans and other canidates. He mesmorized the crowd, not so much with what he said, but the fact he said anything at all. After the last two debates of basically sitting there, he showed that he was serious about this whole election thing. He has his eyes on SC, and feels that Huck is the person in his way, which is true. It should be interesting come primary day. I believe there were a lot of undecideds last night who have made up their minds, and Fred is that choice. Great performance.

John McCain-A-
It was McCain v Romney all night long and Mac got the better end of the deal. He clearly stated his positions and has the records to back them up. He took dings on immigration which will be his biggest weakness. If you can overcome that, I believe he will be the nominee. He was absolutly truthfull when stating that some of the jobs that Michigan has lost will never come back. You have to be able to tell people the hard truth and not just what they want to hear. He accomplished getting his foreign policy platform out there as well.

Mitt Romney- B-
It wasn't attack Mitt night tonight, and you better believe he was very thankful for this. He was concentrating on taking on Mac for Michigan. He got his policy ideas across and was much more positive this time. I have no problem with him saying that he will fight for every job to come back to Detroit, but he needs to let people know, that not every one will come back. I think that was his biggest dent last night. You need to tell people the truth, even if it is the unpopular thing to say. Much better debate tonight.

Mike Huckabee- C
Funny, honest, staightforward on most things last night. Foreign policy is his major weakness. He needs to figure out what his platform is. This is the thing that will prevent him from getting the nomination. He won over the Christian vote, and stuck to his guns on his beliefs. That is what he needed to do in SC, but I don't think it will help him out as much on Super Tuesday.

Rudy- D
For speaking to the nation, he didn't say much, so he gets a low grade. He spent the entire night speaking to the people of Florida. He got his point across to them. That is the make or break for him.

Ron Paul - D-
First off, just because I won't be voting for Paul, does not mean I don't support any of his ideas or think that he would be a horrible canidate. Being said, last night, he was just plain awful. Every question came back to the war. He was given plenty of air time last night and didnt make the most of it. He has to convince the voters out there, that he is a viable canidate. He has failed to do this. I don't agree with Romney saying that he gets the press releases from Iran, that was a low blow, but I got his point. Saying we should let Isreal defend itself was non sense as well. What part of being an ally doesn't he understand. When half the world doesn't like the US, we shouldn't go around alienating the friends we do have.

I thought it was cute how all the Paul supporters crammed the ballot box in the Fox News "Who Won The Debate" poll. I was honestly suprised to see people thought Huckabee had a strong showing. The way things are turning out, here is what I would love to see:
Romney- Wyoming, Michigan
Huckabee-Iowa
McCain- New Hampshire,Nevada
Thompson-South Carolina
Florida-Guilianni

If the primaries fall like this, it will make super tuesday even that much more important. I would love to see us go to the convention without a canidate with the min. number of delegates. That would be incredible.

Why do people do it?

So I just finished watching Judge Judy. Want to know the great thing about that and other court shows? It's that I realize that no matter how bad it gets, I know it will never be so bad that I have to resort to going on TV and embarrasing myself. Haven't these people ever heard of small claims court? It just boggles the mind. Go figure.

Bobby the blubber boy

well, when i came in this morning, i weighed myself and came in at 303.5. Slowly but surely.

I AM PISSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

on the abc news tonight, Charlie Gibson referred to Paramedics and EMTs at ambulance drivers. Chaps my ass, I even sent an email to abcnews. AAAHHHHH

Gods Soldiers

Mike Huckabee is a Baptist preacher. He is running for President. He preached at a church last night in NH. He never once mentioned the election, that he was running for office or asked for votes. He talked about how Christians are Gods soldiers and how being a Christian in todays world is difficult. A writer from the Washington Post critized him for this, saying he shouldn't be advocating God during an election. Last time I checked, being a preacher was just not his calling, but his job as well. They wouldnt slam a congressman, lawyer, doctor or teacher for doing their job would they? Then reading the comment section on the article was very very sad. Once person compared Huck to hitler, saying that his soldiers followed orders as well. Some said he was an extremist. Whether you like him or not, all these comments are uncalled for. As a person and a Christian, it hurt seeing a fellow brother attacked like that. My two cents.

On Call

Call #1
This was a call in the city of Brandon, for a female having pregnancy problems. We arrived on scene to find a 23 y/o woman putting out her cig as we walked into her home. She said she was expierencing contractions ranging from 2 to 5 minutes apart. This was her second pregnancy with a chance of being high risk because of her smoking. Stated first child was in his room sleeping and boyfriend was still asleep and was staying there with the child.
Transported to area hospital.

Call #2
This was a call in the Reservoir area, male patient complaining of back pain. Patient was excercising when he felt a pop in his back. Patient laid down for the next two hours with weakness to his legs. We arrived at his house and patient said he tried to get in his friends car to go to hospital but was unalbe to.
Transported to area hospital.

Call #3
Recieved a call at Crossgates and I-20 for a drunk driver. BEING DRUNK IS NOT A MEDICAL CONDITION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We explained to the po-po on scene THAT BEING DRUNK IS NOT A MEDICAL CONDITION!!!!!!!!!!!!
Canceled call/police matter

Call #4
This was a call to a nursing home in the Brandon area for a person feeling upset to their stomach. What was upsetting about this call was our dispatch center asked us our location and we said where we were. It turned out to be 3 miles from the call. We passed another unit that was waiting for an emergency call, parked across the street from the nursing home. We politely called our dispatch and explained this to them, (without publicly calling the out on the radio) and they said we were still the unit to respond. We continued on (at this point the call was downgraded to non emergency, so there are no lights and sirens or response time) and when we saw the other unit, we stopped to say hello to them and asked if they thought they were closer to this call. They laughed and got on the radio and told the dispatcher that they had been across the street this entire time, and that the dispatcher should have asked them their location. They were nice enough to take the call for us.
Canceled due to closer unit.

Call #5
This was for a motor vehicle accident at Old Fannin and Hwy 25. We were canceled in route to this call.
Canceled by fire dept.

Call #6
Another MVC at the previous location. This was a two car accident involving 5 occupants. Only one person was injured and was complaining of shoulder pain from when he was hit on his drivers side door. The patient is in EMS and said he knew the procedure and would rather wait for his wife to come pick him up. We said we would allow him to do that, but we wanted to check him out just to make sure. Other than the shoulder pain that got better as we waited, there were no other complaints, and was a pleasure to talk to. We helped patient transfer his belongings from to his wifes vehicle.
Patient refusal.

Call #7
This was a call to the Ridgeland po-po department for a pregnant female complaining of pain. Patient stated that when she was arrested, the po-po pushed her up against her car stomach first and was now hurting. Stated she was due in april with her first child and just wanted to make sure everything was ok. Police released her from custody and we transported her to a the hospital to be checked out.
Transported to area hospital.

Call #8
A call to a nursing home in the Reservoir area at appx 2am for an elderly female who had fallen. When we arrived, we were told the patient had fallen 6 hours where she had been laying before she could reach a phone to call for help. She stated she was cold and was having severe hip pain. After examining her, there was no sign of a broken hip, but was bruising from where she had fallen. Along with the fire departments help, we picked her up off the floor and treated her in route to the hospital. She was very quiet on the ride in, but once we were in the ER, she started screaming about the pain she was in and wanted to pain medicine. We told the doctor this was the first time she was presented like this.

This was our day. It sucked. For the year so far, 11 calls, 5 patient transports, 6 cancelations.

The great debaters

No, I'm not talking about the new Denzel Washington movie. I am talking about tonights debates. Due to having to go out and save the city (again) I missed the majority of the GOP debate. Thought the McCain line about negative ads was great.

The dems had a great debate in my opinion. It showed that Billary can't handle negative comments about her or her husband. I believe that Edwards and Obama both came across great tonight and I have no doubt they will finish first and second in the new hampshire primaries. The has their attack plan of compliment each other and go after Clinton. I think it worked out even better than they could have expected, but I guess we really won't find out until Tuesday.

Once again, I say it loud, I say it proud....Sherriff Mac for President.

New feature

Well, tomorrow I will start my new feature and will call it "On Call". People have been saying they want to hear about the stories from work, so I will start sharing them. On the days I work, I will blog about the calls I have been on during the day. It will look something like this. This is based on when I worked Wednesday.


Call #1
Trailer Fire off of Hwy 471
Not much to this one. The firefighters managed to save the frame of the trailer. A space heater that was left on is believed to be the cause of the fire. All three dogs made it out and are doing well. No one was hurt, but a 2003 Ford Mustang perrished from being to close to the trailer. The front portion of the vehicle melted from the heat.
Standby canceled by fire dept.

Call #2
Trailer Fire in the Pisgah area
Ditto the 1st and 2nd sentence from the last call. Replace space heater with wood stove. There were three people in the house at the time, but all made it out safely. The chief of the first responding fire dept contacted Red Cross to make sure the family would be taken care of for the next few days.
Standby canceled by fire dept.

Call #3
Motor Vehicle Accident
This "accident" occured in the late afternoon in the Reservoir area. Found a car in the grass with no damage, skid marks or turned up soil from sliding across the grass. No injuries to anyone in the vehicle. Turns out that the driver had taken some sleeping pills earlier in the day and decided to go driving. The driver didnt recall the past two hours prior to the crash. The drivers 18 month old was fine.
Transported one to area hospital

This is sorta what I go through during the day. The calls will only state facts and no opinion, but if you read something about a call you want to comment on, please feel free to. An example would be Call #3....sleeping pills/18 month old.

My two cents, taxes be damned.

Well I am rooting for Huck because he has run a goverment before. I also feel that he believes what he says and doesn't say what people want to hear.

Mitt Romney has run a state as well, but when asked if he would continue with his negative ads he said yes. He also flip flops way to much (must be something in the water up there in boston). He has also said many times he didnt want his religion brought up in the race, but went after Huck for the saying in a commercial that Jesus is the reason for Christmas.

Rudy...well the fact he used goverment money to sneak around on his wife and then denied it. that speaks volumes.
Fred needs to go back to acting again. he waited way to late to get started.

Ron just needs to go ahead and drop out and announce he will either run as a Libetarian or as a 3rd party canidate. He has the money, and shouldn't be running at this time.

my two cents

Well, it begins tonight.

Well, the caucus in Iowa is tonight. Does anyone really care anymore? They should just have one single nationwide primary where the nominee is selected. Just thought I would give my predictions.

GOP
Romney 27%
Huckabee 23%
Thompson 19%
McCain 15%

Dems
Obama 24%
Edwards 22%
Clinton 20%
Richardson 8%
Dodd 6%

There is this guy named Paul, Ron Paul. He will finish with a VERY small percentage of the vote. This is not a "I think Ron Paul is a nut rant", but in the fact that Iowa has the smallest percentage of young people in the entire nation. The youngsters are the army of the Ron Paul army, and well, the troops just aren't there.

Let me know what you think.

Fired Up. Literally.

What a way to start of your first day of work in the new year. It is now 11:30 in the morning and I have just gotten back from my second mobile home fire today. The first one was in the Langford community right off hwy 471, the second was in the Lake Harbour area in northwest Rankin county.

Both fires are believed to have been caused by heaters. The first one was a space heater that apparently had loose clothing near it, while the other one had an old school wood oven heating the place. The fire depts were able to save the frames, and thats about it. Mobile homes are like clothes soak in gasoline. Once it catches on fire, it burns intensly and quickly.

I have to give props to the following fire departments:
Langford VFD
Evergreen VFD
Lake Harbour VFD
Leesburg VFD
Liberty VFD (Scott County)

Despite the freezing temps outside, they were out fighting these fires to protect the properties that surrounded them. If you live out in a rural area which is serviced by a VFD, remember them when you are giving charity donations this year. We are blessed in Rankin to have some of the best equipment around, while other counties arent as lucky. These depts rely on members of the community to support them. Be sure to help them out or at the very least, say thank you to them.

Heres hoping there are no more fires today, because my bed is calling and I want some sleep.

Gabe

I am Bobby the Blubber Boy

Well, actually, I'm not, but I am a very large person. I am 5'9" and weighed in this morning at midnight at........(drumroll please).......305.8lb. Thats not suppose to be a two in front of the zero, it's a three. I am relativly healthy for someone my size, but I have noticed I have started running out of breath much more frequently as of late. I sleep more than I have in the past and have a general malaise about things. These traits are so unlike me, and it is time I did something about it. This is not a resolution, this is a life changing, and life needed event. I want to get down to a goal I have set for myself that only I know. I know I have your prayers and well wishes, and I will be updating this quite frequently. I hope everyone is having a great New Years day.