Ammonia

Worked eight hours in the city today. Another medic needed a partner so they let my preceptee and me work as a two man crew. We got permission to let him tech calls in the back without me driving (provided I had a good comfort level with the call.) We did five "jobs" as he calls them. Nothing too exciting, a pseudoseizure, a chest pain, a man down, who turned out to be a drunk who got up and walked away, a man with suicidal thoughts, and a nursing home infection call that cleared my sinuses out like someone had shoved two ammonia inhalants up my nose. My boots were sticky on the floor. The guy must have spilled his urinal several hours earlier. He had pissed and shit himself or his makeshift diaper which was loose, and he was three hundred plus pounds and his feet were full of blistering yellow pussy sores, and he was sort of a surly guy to go along with it. I drove to the hospital with the windows down.

I was thinking afterwards, it must be hell to work in a nursing home. I deal with this guy ten minutes and can't breath, and admitedly was sort of grossed out by him. Then I drop him off, and I'm done with him, other than the lingering amonia scent in the nares of my nose. But if you work in the nursing home, this is a guy you are going to have to deal with everyday you work for maybe a year, maybe twenty years if he lives that long and you work there that long.

We talked to the chief paramedic today and he is going to ride with my preceptee the week after next. He done well, but he hasn't really been tested yet. Some preceptorships are like that. The day they are cut loose, they start getting horrendous calls. He's smart though and knows more than I did when I started.