White Clouds and Goat Meat

Had the nurse paramedic student riding with me today. The poor girl. This is the third time in a row she has ridden and we have done nothing for the eight hours she has been with me. Not a call. This on Thursday which is usually my busiest day. She was off for several weeks, busy, busy, busy. She shows, up nothing. She leaves, the buzzer sounds.

Some are known as dark clouds for bringing death and destruction to their shifts, she is a white cloud.

But all streaks change.

I know one medic, couldn't buy a call when he was precepting, day he gets cuts loose, the shit hits the fan, as they say, code, code, major trauma, major trauma, another code.

Her day will come.

She'll be back in two weeks.

I don't mind that it is quiet when she is here, but I do feel like a bad host.

***

The one call we did do after she left was for a nursing home train wreck. A train wreck is someone with everything wrong -- insulin dependent diabetes, renal dialysis, dementia, multiple infections, amputee, etc. The man is shouting "Gooooat Meat. Goooooat Meat!" The nurse explains he wants goat meat, but it is not on the menu at the home. They called us because one of the aides thought he had stopped breathing for a brief period, but he seems fine now. He is satting at 100%, his pulse is 72, his skin warm and dry. The head nurse says she spoke with the doctor, and since they hadn't been able to get any lab samples from him in the last week, they decided to send him in to get evaluated even though he seems fine now.

We take him in. As we leave he is shouting "Goooat Meat! Goooat Meat!"

They don't have goat meat at the hospital either.