On Monday morning I arrive at the fire station about 0.4 miles from our loft. I was following Capt. Thompson. His job is to jump in his pickup truck when there is a code or a large fire. Basically anything fun and exciting he goes. But he told me anytime bells and whistles went off I could jump in which ever truck was going. The station has a engine truck, ladder truck and ambulance. They all trade off between the trucks and ambulance meaning they are all EMS and fire trained. There was really nothing going on until about noon and they were all loving that I was there as I was supposedly the "white cloud." At noon the engine check light went off with the loud horn and whistle. The firemen truly keep their boots inside their pants outside the truck and have to be ready in the truck in 90 seconds. This means I had 90 seconds to get to the truck, open the door, jump in and buckle up. The door to the truck is so high, I actually have to jump to reach the handle. Thank goodness when I opened the door the stairs rolled out. And thank goodness I didn't have a miniskirt on as I would never have gotten in (don't worry I would have never worn a mini skirt to the fire station, just saying so high I did the splits getting in)!! I quickly strapped in and put my headset on. Off we go lights, sirens, and lots of honking! My heart was racing as we were flying through downtown weaving in and out of cars! I quickly identified stupid drivers, drivers who have their music too loud, and drivers who just don't pay any attention at all. My heart was racing!!! I was going to my first fire!!! I was worried about my role... do I get to hold the hose? Will I have to try to rescue people? Do I have to stay in the truck? We arrived in front of the library downtown. Everyone jumped out of the truck and so did I. My instict was to start sniffing...but I couldn't smell any smoke...where was the fire? We looked all around and found some construction workers putting water on some dirt, but they were only keeping the dust down. Finally, to my right was a small plant in the flowerpot smoking. Looked as if a cigarette was "still burning." They took this tiny water can and put it out. Basically peeing on it! All this hipe, fast firetruck, lights and siren, heart pounding and all we got to do was put out a ciagarette. I could not believe it. A man comes running out of the SS office to say he would have put the fire out but he can't leave his station or he will get fired. The fireman asked, "sir you just left your station." The man ran back. I knew that people call EMS for dumb stuff and they transport them. People come into the ED for dumb stuff...but a smoking plant? Really? No worries, another plant saved, it remains green today.
We all piled back into the truck and started heading away from saving the day and rescuing the plant!! But right before our eyes down the road was a large area of smoke coming from what looked like to be the freeway area. And this time I smelt smoke!!! Is this the real thing? The captain (the man who sits shotgun) called into dispatch and asked if it was a fire along the freeway. Dispatch responded back and said that there was a large three mile fire on the west side of the freeway. The captain shouted," we are on our way."!! And in a split second we were hauling ass down Jefferson Street lights and sirens quickly getting on the on-ramp for the freeway. I think I yelled out a little WOOT WOOT! Now flying in a helicopter does get my heart pounding and gives me a great adrenaline high. But I think going 60 mph in a firetruck might beat that!!! We arrived on first area where there was fire. The right side of the freeway was engulfed in smoke. Cars were flying by on the left hand side so we jumped out the right-side door. "Stay close to the truck Nurse Woman," they yelled! The four fireman grabbed the hose, shovel, and watering cans and quickly start putting out the fire. They were all working so hard. I stood by the truck planning my escape route if the fire got too close! So much smoke! And man did it stink!!! A fireman yells over to me "Alissa how you doing?" Waving my hand back and forth in front of my face I said, "Can you hurry and put this fire out all this smoke stinks!!!" They all started laughing... We (meaning they) spent about 20 minutes out there fighting fire and then moved on about a mile down the road and did the same thing. After about an hour the entire freeway was completely out. We definitely saved the day!! Sounds as if someone was dragging a chain along the freeway and sparks caught the freeway on fire. The best part was when the man in his tie-dyed pajamas jumped the fence and started to help fight the fire! I could see his amazing pajama pants through all the smoke! We left the scene and began driving back to the station but soon got a loud horrible noise over the headphones (its this loud large honk that will send anyone off their seat). This means we get another call!!! WOOT WOOT. I am no longer the white cloud. Dispatch reports that there is a large fire in the Wells Fargo building in downtown Roanoke. I was completely nervous as this building is right next to my loft and it is the largest building in Roanoke. I was already thinking bad thoughts of a mass causality disaster from the fire. I quickly texted Mat and told him that the Wells Fargo was on fire!! He ran to the nearby bridge to watch. We were the first engine to arrive and on scene and again jumped out and went sprinting into the parking garage. The security guard motioned "over here over here." Of course I was expecting a large fire and flames pouring out the building! But in fact it was a rubber piece the size of an eraser smoking!! That's it!! I couldn't believe it!! Once again they spritzed it with the watering can and told the other 12 firetrucks that showed up everything is okay and the smoke is put out!! We leave the scene and start heading back to the station when Capt. Thompson and his little pick up truck stopped in the middle of the intersection and motions me into his truck. In the middle of the intersection I jump out of the large fire truck and go sprinting through traffic and jump into his truck. I was eating up all this excitement and didn't even shut the fire truck door! We take off going mach 20 through town again to a carbon monoxide leak in the lady's house. Turns out there was no rotten egg smell and everything was going to be okay!!! I think you have to have a good nose to be a firefighter. After a very quiet morning and incredibly amazing firefighting afternoon I got to go home! Can't believe I get paid to ride fast in the fire truck!!
Tuesday I was at a different station across town. It was the "white trash," part of town. Nothing exciting all day. Rode the ambulance to a lady who said she got bit by a dog but had no puncture or sign of a bite. Weird!! Another couple other calls that were about as exciting as the dog-bite.
Wednesday I went back to the fire station near our loft. It became feeling like home as I got to know everyone! Turns out Mat works with one and his boss is the cousin of another. They took extra good care of me!! I got to go grocery shopping in the ladder truck with the fireman (check and check off my bucket list) and then played on the firetruck the rest of the day. They took me to an empty parking lot to see how far the ladder can extend. There is no way I could climb strait into the air for 100feet. NO WAY. They wanted me to climb to the top and take a picture looking strait down. I got sweaty palms just thinking about it!! No way!! The ladder truck is soooo cool! The truck is 1.2 million dollars. Amazing!! Got to see the jaws of life and play with them (they are the only truck to carry them). They are 55 pounds. I couldn't hold it up too long! Got to see all the crazy tools to stabalize the car before they retrieve patients. All this stuff I had no idea went on in the field. I got to learn how to fill the firetruck up at the fire hydrant, and lots of other cool stuff that had nothing to do with ED, but was so cool! No crazy calls that day...but I had the opportunity to learn lots about the fire truck and what goes on in saving patients from fire, or car accidents. We got to go to false alarm fire in the ladder truck lights and sirens through town and once again this was amazing. The ladder truck actually moves through town better then the engine truck as they have one person who drives the back. This allows the truck to turn much sharper corners. For teaching me everything and putting up with me for so many hours I baked them a cake when we got back to fire station with homade frosting.
Friday was code after code after code day! This is whereI learned how hard it is to carry old people out of a very full house and still do CPR. They have a special device that does the CPR compressions for them. This devise works much better than the one we used to have at Deaconess and it was much smaller. I loved it. I supposedly saved an old man's life with Narcan (as the daughter and paramedic were screaming "you saved him you saved him")! And I got to go have lunch with the head Chief Fireman of Roanoke at Red Robin. His daughter is in nursing school so we had lots to talk about!!
This week I have been in the cardiac unit at Roanoke Memorial. It is just not the adrenaline rush of Lifeguard Helicopter or Firetruck and EMS. This has been a great learning opportunity to just concentrate on cardiac and EKGs (12 hours of EKG reading) but I was finding a lot of it way over my head. I think I feel like I learned a lot about EKG and feel I may be able to explain how to read them now. Not enough to compete with Danny though!! Once I understand what each lead is looking at on the heart it all started to make sense. I got to spend some time in the Cath Lab as well as watch a TEE. Don't think I could do this job everyday and their 13.5 hours shifts are way too long. But it was fun to concentrate on cardiac only for a week. Next week I get to go to ophthalmology and also on Thursday I get to pretend I am a patient at the PA school and have ulcerative collitis. I am going to be a drauma queen for sure!!!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!! I am continuing to learn lots not only about medicine but about healthcare in general. Mat is doing well with his job...spending some time at Regis Hair Salon, Motherhood Maternity, and Advanced Auto. His stories continue to crack me up. Mat and I are heading to Virginia Beach for the weekend! Hoping for warm weather so we can stick our feet in the sand! We miss you all! GO GONZAGA!!
No comments:
Post a Comment