lived through a rough week

I am now on the tail end of a 110 hour work week. Next week is more. So I am going to enjoy my day off tomorrow. Harrison and I going to "splashtown" a water park.

Everyone pray. I only have 2 weeks left and my 10-10-10-10 is not quite were I want it to be. I have 11 medical, so that is done. I am at 7 trauma and 7 cardiac but I only have 4 respiratory. Getting a little nervous. I'm sure it will be fine, it's all in Gods good timing. But it wouldn't hurt to pray! I still have not seen anything critical yet. I havn't intubated or ran a code. 5k+ and the worst I've seen is a guy with CHF :( Oh well, it's morbid to hope someone gets maimed or killed right? I better run...time is premium these days.

Kemah Boardwalk, TX

What an exciting day! I came off a 24 hr shift and Harrison and Scott came over and we made breakfast, then took off for Kemah. Another adventure. Not that shift isn't an adventure but I had wonderfully boring calls (like a nosebleed!) and actually slept 5 hours during the night. So we made it to Kemah, which was about 60 miles away, but traffic going there was pretty bad, not to mention trying to navigate. It was so HOT! and no where could we get wet, unless we wanted to play with the kids in the waterfountain in the square. (water randomly squirts out of the pavement) We walked around, got dehydrated (water was $3 a bottle) and had a great time. We wandered around a Thomas Kincaide gallery. Scott and Harrison both had their first time on a roller coaster called the Boardwalk Bullet. What a hoot. The picture is atroscious! Harrison has his eyes squeezed shut tight, Scotts face is frozen in terror and his arm is pulling my shirt down so far that my whole left side of my bra is revealed. Lovely.
The train was more Scotts style and I couldn't believe I wasted $5 to ride it. After that we were all over the heat, which was at least 150 degrees. We raced back to Conroe to meet Connie, our Paramedic Training Coordinator for dinner at the Olive Garden. YUM! We were there for 3 hours!
I got some good news today. I recieved my schedule for the second half and my last shift will be Aug 7, which means I'm changing my ticket to Aug 8. I get to come home a week early! Yahoo! But I'll be working a lot more in the next 3 weeks! Oh well, If I stay any longer, I'll just spend more money! I do still need to go to a honkey tonk bar and get into some water somewhere! ...I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Found a church

God is so good. He reminded me that my steps are ordered by the Lord. I rode on medic2, which is a 12 hour truck. I was riding with a man named David and he invited me to his church for Wed eve bible study. I went and boy was it exactly what I needed! From the first five minutes I felt better and was praising God that he led me to meet David. I probably won't ride with him again, but it was providential.
Things in the paramedic realm have been pretty good as well. Still bouncing around stations. I did meet my preceptor, Christy. It went well. She reminded me a lot of Sandy.
Harrison and I went on an adventure driving through Houston looking for University of Texas and Baylor Medical Center for a bookstore called Majors. I was so proud we finaly found it, thank God for Google map driving directions! I have never seen so many highways in one place! They tell me it's called the 'spagetti bowel'! And it was a big bowel of hwy noodles. Success! We also went and had dinner at Red Lobster! Very delicious! I ate left overs for 2 days!
Scott is here now, so we will be adding another entity to our adventures. Maybe Galveston is next!

A pretty boring two days. Yesterday I only had 2 calls in 12 hours. I was lead on one which was a trauma. A woman had ran into a tree while on her horse. She hit hard enough that it knocked her boots off. She was scraped up pretty good, but short of broken ribs, (we don't have x-ray on the ambulance) she'll be ok.
I'm terribly bored and lonely on my days off. I thought going to the mall today would help, but shopping in general sucks, let alone shopping alone! My fish-belly white legs didn't help me to feel comfortable either :) I did get to wander around (alone) in a Thomas Kinkaide store. I have a new favorite painting. It's titled "Persistance". Well tomorrow is another day. Doing 24 at what I hope is a busy station(83). Another new preceptor. Good times.

4th of July

My second shift went much better. It was the 4th of July and I took lead on two ALS calls. One was a cardiac and the other was respiratory. I learned a lot, especially on the respiratory. I was surprised I didn't get any fireworks trauma, like drunk people with their fingers blown off. That would have been interesting. :) I have blisters on my hands from operating the stretcher. Good times! Tomorrow I only work a 12 with the same person I was with yesterday. That's good. I really liked her, she was very easy to work with.
I talked to Todd late last night and he said Evan had just caught a 90 lb. halibut! He said he thought he was stuck on the bottom! Of course, they didn't have a camera. Just another reason to miss me!
Thanks everyone for your prayers, I miss you all.
Loves, Tam

My first shift

My first shift wasn't spectacular. I did ok, very much out of my element. I had one patient I couldn't even talk to because he didn't speak english. I wasn't as aggressive as I would normally have been but I will hopefully do better tomorrow. Harrison and I hooked up on our day off today. We went driving all over the place looking for the different stations. We got stuck in a gated community and it was a grand adventure. Having him here was a little like being home. IT was a BLAST!

Gonna be busy

Well, I got my schedule today. I'm gonna be busy. 216 hours in three weeks. By July 20 I will be almost half way done with my hours. Let's pray I get the good calls I need! For those of you who don't know...10 cardiac, 10 respiratory, 10 trauma, 10 medical, all with me as Lead. Man it'll be good! Pray for me! I'll try to keep posting...thanks everyone!