The Stalker Zone.....

Sooo.... I struck out, AGAIN. This is starting to remind me of "The Twilight Zone." A dream come true turns into day after day of watching everyone else fly but me. Friday I told my partner that I wanted a GSW to the head. Gruesome, yes, but its been a while and that would be one hell of a flight. So when I got in Sunday morning I find out that not only did they do 3 patient flights (and a kick ass pr event with food, music, 400 people and 2 other aircraft) thay also did a dual scene with another helicopter for..Dum DA DUM.... a GSW to the head! What the FUCK is that all about?!?!?!?? I was a bit irritated. So we did nothing all day, but I said (very openly) that now I want a big 'ol house fire. If they get one on today's shift I'm going to buy a trailer, hang a shingle out front and start doing 'ESPN' full time. This is re-GOD-DAMN-diculous!

We have a little "friend" living across the hall from our new quarters as well. There is a ground ambulance company renting the rooms/offices there. People are ALWAYS coming and going and they are loud as shit. Its been getting old. Super squirrel stalker works for this company as a paramedic and he desperately wants to fly. (trust me, I know where you are coming from) He seems nice, but it is starting to get a bit creepy. He walks right into our dayroom to talk, listens to phone calls, follows us when we go up to the ER to visit.... he even has his own helmet (those things are $1200 a pop). He has a couple of the crew's personal cell numbers and has been known to call upwards of 3 times a day. He is doing everything he can to get a flight job but just doesn't have the experience he needs yet. I've tried not to let him "latch on" to me like he has with others. I'm getting a creepy crawly feeling about him that I just can't place.

So while my crew was flying their asses off Saturday, I played princess in the ED. I had an inmate with HIV and a gangrenous toe (yummy), a diva trauma 17 year old who wrecked her BMW and wasn't wearing a seatbelt because "it was hurting my new Tiffany necklace." There was this year's Oscar winner for "Best Performance by a Drug Seeker in an Abdominal Pain Role" and 300+ lb "Grandmammy" who had been given twice the normal dose of insulin by her family, came in with sugars of 33 but was perfectly capable of hollering for me to roll off her (substantial) booty to reveal 1 bedsore and what appeared to be the top to a bottled drink, 1/2 a bag of Funions and a pen (not mine!). Mammy wanted a soda ("not diet") Diva wanted her mom's Pepsi so she could "take my damn birth control pills you stupid bitch" (this was directed at her mom, not me... I'd have kicked her white ass out on the street naked for talking to me like that) and the inmate wanted "2 meals, 2 drinks and some ice cream."

Its nice to see that nothing has changed. It was even nicer to tell the clinical coordinator "no, I can't stay past midnight, I have to fly in the morning." :)

The South Pole

I think I have regressed to penguin mode again. All the other crews seem to be flying their butts off.... and I stay at the base, cook gourmet dinners for the crew and push paper for our CAMTS inspection. (CAMTS=JCAHO in flight world) One of the crews even got to work a trauma code following an MVC.... as soon as fire pulled him out of the car he coded, he was talking the entire time he was in the car (thats always a bit freaky). So they tubed him, darted both sides of his chest, drilled both legs with IO (iv's in the bone) and did CPR. They even did a pericardio, which my partner so eloquently said "I'd give my left nut to do one of those."

Am trying to stay positive.I even picked up a princess shift in the ED tonight. Maybe I can get a little action in there. It is July... so there has to be a resident out there determined to kill someone!!!

Sizzling....

I didn't get to mention the high point of my time at the busy base. Over all the cities that we could be near, there is one... the big one that you can't "just fly over." You have to be cleared by homeland security and tracked within an inch of your lives by air traffic control (ATC). The only way to get through the limitations is to scud run (under 200 feet) over the most powerful city in the US, avoiding the airports, military aircraft and not flying over monuments in the process. 3 days before the 4th I had this privilege..... and I will never forget the view that I had. A view that a handful in the world are allowed. I have such a cool job!


The pace has picked up. We have been flying...its like a microwave oven up there. I feel bad for the patients until we get the AC rolling. The heat index today is going to be 105 degrees....I think I'm gonna smell like fried chicken by the time this summer is over!!!!! Theres been quite a bit of trauma to go around. I'm the only one who has not gotten an intubation this month. I have a feeling my time is coming as people have been sick as shit. We are working on permanent partners, and my medic has assured me that the next airway intubation or cric) is all mine. He is the photographer of the crew, so if there are good pictures I will post them.

Ironic?

I apologize for not posting more. I trained this morning and did a 60 minute spin class this evening. I am WIPED OUT! I also picked up an 8 hour shift flying tomorrow. OT will be nice! Hope to get caught up on patient crap on here but in the meantime, here is one of our helicopters in front of the MetLife Blimp (aka the giant windsock). You may have to zoom in to get the joke!

My Next 30 Years

"I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my age

The ending of an era and the turning of a page

Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here

Lord have mercy on my next thirty years "

My goal when I graduated nursing school was to be a flight nurse by the time I turned 30. I started as a new grad in a Level 1 ED, the first new grad they hired in over 20 years. I switched to the ICU when I really didn't want to, just because I knew I HAD to. Our base sits on the water, so last night I sat on the skids, looked over at the water and thought about just how lucky I am that I achieved my goal. Its hard to know where to go from here (as the song says), but I know I'm happy.

So today I am doing a spa day.... seaweed, mud, massage... the works. We're doing dinner at my favorite restaurant and then a movie. It looks like a good day to me!!!