pictures

so i got a digital camera as a graduation gift from my aunt. i really havent started using it yet, but when i will i guess i'll post pictures up here.

another day

so i had my second shift with pittsburgh EMS last night. ran a total of 4 calls spread out enough that we didnt get to doze off at all.

my preceptor is great. he is a 30 year veteran that is very zen like on calls. the other really nice thing is that he really wants me to work and not take shortcuts. which means i will be learning a ton just riding.

when they respond to calls, they respond calmly. no running out of the station. in fact, lower priority calls often result in 5 minutes before we have even gotten in the ambulance. i guess it makes sense in a system where there is no concern abobut turning around due to the presence of 14 ALS units.

we ran 4 calls last night, 2 BLS and 2 ALS. so that was cool.

now i'm just trying to readjust myself to the day schedule so i can get stay awake during my 12 hours of class on Monday.

i spent 12 hours on thursday in UPMC Presby's ER. Its one of the 3 Level 1 trauma centers in Pittsburgh (not counting the Level 1 children's trauma center at the Children's Hospital.) The nurses are greats as were the attending docs. The residents varied. Interacting with patietns was fine for me though its weird doing assessments in the hospital environment. I guess the real fun will come when i can start giving meds and starting ivs.

but the fun during the shfit was popping over to the trauma bays when the traumas come in. there are 3 trauma bays at presby and they get some use. its like being there for an episode of Trauma: Life in the ER. the Level 1 trauma are the serious ones - i saw one where a guy was run over by a train, a guy was run over by a car, motorcycle crash victim, and a car crash victim. unfortunately for me, the level 1's draw a lot of people. some of them necessary like the surgeons, respiratory and the attending and resident docs. but there are also a lot of superflous residents and students (like me) so i jsut did a whole lot of watching on those.

the exciting ones were the level 2 trauma's. the biggest difference i observed in this characterization is that they were not needed to be rush into surgery nor was there possibility of airway complications - so no need to intubate. so all you would get for these traumas was the ER resident on truama rotation, the trauma nurses and me. so i got to do a lot of hands on stuff.

i gotta say, this is making me want to become a doctor. Dr. Dante. scary. and i'm saying this while not at home which is very good since i am free of the indian influence.

what do you think?

from the Steel City

so if you dont know already - i am now a denizen of Pittsburgh.

I am enrolled in a 9 month paramedic program at the Center for Emergency Medicine. The Center is reknowned as being the best of its kind in prehospital emergency medicine with a variety of programs. They are the ones who wrote the EMT curriculum, are doing vast amounts of research on the practices used prehospitally, and even have their own residency program which takes residents (new Mds) and gives them a wide experience in emergency medicine from hospitals to medevac helicopters to working the City of Pittsburgh EMS.

this whole adventure in Steeltown is my way of postponing the life/career decision for another year. but more importantly, its to see whether medical school and a career as Dr. Dante is what I want to do. not only will i be spending a lot of clinical time in hospitals putting into the practice the skills i will learn in the program (paramedics can do a wide variety of invasive techniques from intubation to IVs to cardioversion and defibrilliation - basically they are definitive care for a cardiac arrest meaning they can do the same things a doctor can do) but i will also have remarkable oppurtunites to interact with MDs and may even get some time to conduct some research in emergency medicine.

beyond the move to pittsburgh, i returned to Princeton last weekend to help the 3rd Dante move into Princeton. that went very well and he went off on outdoor action and reported having a great time. maybe he'll become a leader. that woudl be sweet. either way he now wants to go camping, so next summer at the latest, i guess we'll hit the trails.

when i was in princeton, i also gave my former chief a call to see whats up and got offered shifts to work. so i jumped on them. the downside of the paramedic program is that its so time intensive that even though i will have sporadic downtime, i ont have time to get a parttime job. no one is gonna hire me to work part time and allow me the ability to schedule myself. so any pay i can get, i will take. unfortunately, i calculated it costs me $130 to travel to and fro from Pittsburgh to Princeton with the whole elevated gas prices and turnpike toll. so pittsburgh is home and i dont think i'm leaving.

tomorrow i'm gonna be chilling with Dinitz watching some football. basically we're gonna enjoy his tv and cable and wireless, while i provide the beer. should be a chill afternoon. its nice seeing a familiar face in this foreign city.

now for my random link of the post, check out Bihvhar. Let me know what you think about it. And once you've seen the website, check out the facebook group in princeton and note the high number of attractive '09 girls that someone has recruited. its quite fascinating how selfless JR is :)