Flying and Flinging

My first shift back flying was actually a pretty good one. The medic is known for being slightly on the anal/obnoxious side but he was leaving for vacation at the ass crack of dawn so he was in a pretty good mood. We sat in a painfully long staff meeting.... (in the ER staff meetings are at 7am so day and night shift can be there. Usually they follow the kind of night that makes you want to run like hell outta that place. Nights will stay until we fall asleep, or until the bullshit gets too deep to stay! There are enough people there to make a covert exit.) since a flight base is pretty small, 3 medics, 4 nurses, pilots and mechanic you HAVE to be there and must have a damn good excuse to leave. So we sat, and sat and sat. 6 hours later we were just settling down when we got a flight. ICU/ICU transfer of a young guy (32) who had end stage renal due to uncontrolled hypertension and now had started to poop out the ticker too. For 32 let me tell you.... this guy looked like SHIT!!! So we got everything ready and just when we were gonna pop him on the stretcher and roll....."I gotta make a boo boo."

First, I seriously don't understand an adult male calling a BM "boo boo." There are so many other ways to put it.... BM, crap, shit, dump, "go to the boys room" (thats the cop for ya!). So we/me had to get buddy up onto the bedside commode and sit there while he did his "boo boo." I mistakenly though my "boo boo" days were over after the ICU! I was actually worried that his vitals were going to take a shit (haha) and that we were going to be working the famous toilet bowl code. Buddy actually made it off the commode in about 10 minutes and we pack up and were on our way. No issues and one hell of a pretty flight.

Later that night we got a call to do an organ flight. With those we will fly to the receiving hospital (where the organs are going) pick up their appropriate transplant/recovery team and fly them to the donor hospital. The transplant teams usually arise from teaching hospitals which are pretty scattered out here. So after a 35 minute flight we pick up the two HUGE cardiac recovery guys and fly them back. The heart guys are cool because they get in first, grab the heart and get out pretty fast (we waiting a little over an hour) The poor liver and kidney guys have to wait around til the heart guys are done. So we flew a heart back with us. I was dying to look in the cooler and see it, but that would probably be bad form to do so! Our total flight time for this was about 4 hours... so I was fucking tired when we touched down at 7am.

So last night, to blow off some steam the cop and I went to a friend's house way out in the country. She lives in a nice neighborhood with some land so we can have a bonfire, live music and lots of food and people. It was so much fun to see everyone. The cop and I took the jeep since it was such a pretty day, and left the top off which was even better. When we went to leave we noticed that the faceplate from his radio was missing. On closer look it was the faceplate, 4 CD's (2 Buffett, Jason Aldeen and Kenny Chesney) about 14 dollars out of the glove box and (?!?!?!) half a bag of gummy bears that we were snacking on during the drive. The cop had the sheriff's department take a report so insurance will cover the radio. Who the hell steals that stuff? Its of very little value and, I'm sorry, but the folks out there weren't really country/buffett fans. So we had an unfortunate ending to a pretty good Spring Fling day.

I will mention that I am being sent to another base for the month of June. The idea is that I will get more flights and up my experience lever there. Where we do 1, maybe 2 flights a day this base can do between 4-7 and June is their busiest month. I hope to have lots of good stories during June!!!