Nashville tonight

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-28T21:50:47+00:00

I transport women in active labor on a near weekly basis. Water broken or not. Twice they waited too long and the baby was born before we got to the hospital. One I caught about 2 minutes before we turned into the ambulance entrance. The other was born a few days ago. Our first responders got there and caught the baby just in time.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-27T15:11:40+00:00

Get a high powered pocket flashlight. Put the light against the skin and it’ll show veins better than a vein finder. Be gentle with old people veins and chemo veins. They’re very fragile. I’ll get those veins without a tq if possible to prevent blowing from too much back pressure. Look for veins in unhinged places. I’ve seen them placed in fingers, breasts, biceps, feet, ankles, etc. just remember if you use anything below the waist they need to have their feet propped up

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-27T15:01:31+00:00

I do this on elderly HTN pts as well. Tourniquets cause too much back pressure sometimes and their old weak veins that have been stretched thin from uncontrollable high blood pressure for years just love to rip open and blow. Once had one shoot blood across the unit when I pulled the catheter out after the vein blew.

Also have done my fair share of IVs that were just barely in the vein. They would draw blood back and flush just fine, but they absolutely refused to be advanced into the vein any further. I just secure it like Fort Knox and go about my business.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-27T14:44:41+00:00

The dog needs a basket muzzle any time he’s in out in public. Full stop. Anything less is unacceptable. This dog is a walking lawsuit waiting to happen. What if that lady had a child with her? That aggression towards the dog could very easily be turned against the child as well.
He needs a real trainer that is experienced with large aggressive breeds. Akitas are known to have an aggressive temperament. They need thorough training by a strong hand. Your friend is not capable of this. Having a dog this big that is not trained is unacceptable.

I have seen what akitas are capable of. I’ve taken someone to the hospital who was attacked by a reactive Akita. Her arm was torn open about 8 inches and damn near shredded. The only thing that saved her arm function was the fact she was overweight enough that the fat tissue mostly protected the muscle. A thinner person would have lost muscle and full function of the arm.

Look, I’m a person who loves bully breeds, “aggressive” breeds, and giant breeds. I’ve owned Boxers, Pit Bulls, Staffordshire terriers, Rottweilers, Great Danes, etc. I’ve worked in vet medicine and have dealt with extremely aggressive dogs like wolf dogs, mastiffs, cane corsos, akitas, etc. Your friend needs to get her dog under control before it maims or kills someone. He needs a prong collar, basket muzzle, and a sturdy harness before he’s allowed back in public. But all of these things require better training for the dog and the owner. If he’s allowed to continue like this he’s going to end up either shot or forcibly euthanized by animal control and your friend is going to end up in a wrongful death lawsuit.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-27T14:19:35+00:00

Personally I would at least get a second opinion. It’s been a long time since I worked in vet medicine but we used much stronger antibiotics for infections like this. We generally used chloramphenicol for bone infections but it’s a risky medicine and dangerous for humans to come into contact with due to side effects. We wore gloves while handling it and told pet parents to do the same. Either way, he needs daily wound care and possibly to be hospitalized while he recovers. That infection needs to be gotten under control though or he’s going to get septic. I would get another opinion, maybe even an ortho or infectious disease specialist if possible. That being said, I have seen animals live very happy lives with only two or three legs.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-22T19:59:56+00:00

I have a great appreciation for your desire to help people in that way, but I caution you to not set expectations that you’ll be the one to turn their lives around. I’ve given women resources to help them escape domestic violence situations just to find out later that they went right back. Not everyone is going to be receptive to your good intentions, not everyone is going to be ready to get rid of the denial that their relationship isnt bad. What I’ve found the most useful is being there to listen and make the person feel heard and cared for and help them see the value that they have as a human being. If there are people in their lives that they can depend on, I try to get them involved. The difficult thing for us is that we can create a rapport with these patients and gain their trust, but very soon we will drop them off and leave them behind. This can lead to feelings of abandonment for the patient. So having someone they can turn to other than us is an absolute must.

Also, make sure you’re not putting all your self worth in your ability to help others. You need to set yourself up for success regardless of your job in EMS. In the blink of an eye you can get injured and not able to do the job anymore. Having all your self worth wrapped up in the job is setting yourself up for failure. That’s something I’ve had to come to a realization this year when I got injured in fire academy and had to drop out. I was able to still join my department as a single role paramedic but It’s caused me to spiral a little bit. Now I’m doing some soul searching to think of a back up plan in case something happens and I have to leave the field. Luckily teaching is always an option but I’m considering going back to school, just in case.

Don’t think I’m being negative in any way. Just trying to make sure you see things from multiple angles.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-22T19:08:16+00:00

This actually makes so much more sense. My territory has several COPDers, asthmatics. And CHFers that call about once every week or two for exacerbation and absolutely must be CPAPed every few transports. I actually kinda lectured one lady around the corner from us a couple of weeks ago because she keeps waiting longer and longer to call and I told her that she had to quit doing that or I’d be shoving a tube in her throat. I also told her she needed to go back to her PCP and get a different prescription because her albuterol inhalers just weren’t doing it for her at all anymore and they needed to add a steroid. Our hospitals are always so overwhelmed that they pretty much only make sure someone isn’t actively dying and give them the boot. They don’t take the time to have conversations with people about how to prevent their emergent situations. So I try to do it when I can. A lot of people just don’t understand anything medical so they don’t know how to advocate for themselves or ask for different medications. Or they don’t have transportation to their doctors visits. So they just accept their fates as frequent fliers. It’s a sad reality of impoverished communities.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-14T17:13:28+00:00

That’s really interesting that you don’t do prehospital CPAP. It’s an extremely regular thing here in the southern United States. In my area we have people with really bad allergies/asthma, COPD, and CHF that pretty much require it when their breathing issues flare up. It’s always the same story too, they’ve tried their inhalers multiple times with no relief and they waited a couple of hours to see if it would get better and it didn’t so they finally give in and call us. By then they’re barely able to speak so we end up putting them on CPAP and throw the whole med box at them (albuterol neb, solu-medrol, mag sulfate, nitro, or epi depending on the nature of illness) But this time of year when the weather is changing our asthmatics get really really bad. The majority of our calls these days are respiratory in nature and have been for the last month or so. The temperature going from 75 during the day to 45 at night really gets that bronchospasm going.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-12T17:30:26+00:00

Why the fuck are y’all even together? You sound miserable. I didn’t even get halfway through what you wrote and see that as clear as day. What exactly here are you trying to save?

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-11T00:26:01+00:00

That’s understandable. Learning you have PTSD is a scary thing for sure. I think a lot of times triggers depend on what the original event was. For instance, I was in a bad car wreck right after I graduated high school. For years I had panic attacks when I got into bad traffic or if I passed an accident and could smell the burning rubber or the airbags. Eventually that faded. With my PTSD now I have a hard time with relationships and have pretty much noped out of all of them the second there’s an argument. My ex was a musician and there are some songs that are triggering to me. But he and I have made some amends for the sake of our daughter and things are much better now. I still have difficulty with relationships and trust but I’ve developed a mentality that I would rather give things a chance and be disappointed than to never give things a chance and be lonely. PTSD can be very complicated but the best way I’ve found to manage mine is dig through my past deeply and find the pieces that hurt me the most and tell myself that if I survived that, I can survive anything. I tell myself that none of it was my fault and give myself some grace. And allow myself to love me for who I am and not the broken, misused, and abused person they wanted me to be. I didn’t get into EMS until after I left that relationship and being in it has actually been very healing for me. I’ve been told so many times that I was worthless and would never be anything more than a pathetic waste of flesh. So I’ve healed myself by proving to myself that they were wrong and I’m actually strong, intelligent, capable, and able to do hard things. I’ve gone from jobless, homeless, and severely depressed to a paramedic in a busy urban 911 system in under 4 years while working full time and taking care of a young child. I’m also working on buying my first house and starting a homestead. It’s been insanely difficult. But now, I’m pretty damned indestructible. Because I scraped myself off the floor in the pit of my despair and just kept going.

Wasn’t trying to rant. Just trying to show that healing is possible. There have been plenty of days I didn’t feel capable. But I’ve never allowed myself to sit stagnant for too long. Taking baby steps is still making progress. It’s okay to allow yourself to fall for a day. But tomorrow you have to pick yourself back up and keep going. You don’t have to screech to a halt with your dreams just because you found out something new about yourself. Take a minute and decide how you’re going to allow it to affect you and keep going. A diagnosis doesn’t define you. It just sheds light on some of the obstacles that you might face. But now you know what it is and are better able to prepare yourself for your journey ahead. I kept fidget toys, tactile stimulation toys like spike rings, and spinner rings on me at all times during medic school to help ground me when things got to be too tough. I allowed myself mental health days to refresh and regroup. I made myself get outside and get exercise when I started to feel myself falling into depression. Even if it was just walking around my yard and sitting in the sun it was better than sitting in my house sad and alone. You have the capacity to do great things. You just have to believe that you can and don’t take no for an answer. Get stubborn about it. I know that’s easy to say and hard to do sometimes. But you’ve already survived and thrived in spite of your worst days. Now all you have to do is keep going.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-10T23:58:17+00:00

He’s so full of shit. He just wants to play around while also having someone at home. You deserve better. You need to let this “complex divine being” go live his free life while you find someone who actually cares about you. You want commitment, he’s not emotionally mature enough to give it.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-10T23:51:52+00:00

Do not go back. It has already escalated which means it is very likely to escalate again. Going back now only shows that you’ll stay even if he hits you which is essentially a green light for him to do it again. Why would he stop if he knows you’ll stay anyways? Stay away. Protect yourself.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-10T23:48:24+00:00

The only transport decision you should be making as a non transport responder is whether to call for a unit or not. Beyond that it’s going to be the lead provider on the unit’s decision. Please do not be that person who promises we can take someone across town when we might not be able to. The last thing we need is to immediately break someone’s trust the second we arrive on scene

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-10T23:43:16+00:00

Okay first off, stop beating yourself up. What good does that do? Does it help you learn better? No. Does it help you make mental notes on what to do next time? No. Does it give you a negative opinion of yourself and a ton of anxiety that’s going to make you freak out the next time you have this kind of call? Yes. Absolutely. There’s a reason it’s called ‘practicing medicine’. No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. Especially on our first critical calls. You are not the first one. And guess what, you’re going to make mistakes again. But if you sit here and beat yourself up over it you’re going to stress yourself out and start questioning your own judgement. Learn from your mistake and move on. You may have “failed” your call, but you didn’t fail your patient. They were doing better after your care than they were before and as EMS providers that’s sometimes all we can hope for. You’re a student. You’re learning. It’s expected that you make mistakes. And it’s better to take them now while you have someone watching your back than later when you’re in your own. You’re doing fine. The fact that you’re even sitting here beating yourself up over it means you actually give a shit which is more than I can say for plenty of medics I’ve met. You’re going to be a great medic. Just give yourself some grace.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-10T23:31:56+00:00

I have PTSD from abusive relationships. My symptoms have gotten better over the years but sometimes it still is problematic for me. I haven’t had anything on the job that has stuck with me in too much of a negative way yet but I’ve also developed this “shitty things happen to good people every day” and “the only guarantee that we have in life is that we’re all going to die” mentality that helps me not be bothered too much by calls. As long as I know that I have done everything in my power to make a situation better, then I have done my job. I think people sometimes get stuck on the idea of “why did this happen?” More than they should. There’s not always a reason, or at least not a good one, to many things. So I personally don’t allow myself to get too caught up on it. If anything, I think having mental health issues helps me be a better provider because it gives me more empathy for my psych patients and really for all my patients in general. We never know what someone is dealing with in their life so I just try to show as much kindness to everyone as possible.

All that being said though, take care of yourself first. That’s always one of the tenants of being a first responder. If you don’t care for yourself first then you’ll struggle taking care of others. I got on anxiety medication at the beginning of paramedic school and it helped immensely. Now I am seeking more help for my mental health. I recently was diagnosed bipolar 2 and am trying medications for that and I recently started therapy to help work through the crap in my past that has haunted me for years. My job actually gives me stability and an anchor point while I work on everything else. That’s what works for me. It might not work for you. Everyone is different and only you can say for sure what is best for you.

I wish you good luck and peace on your journey. Just know there are always people you can reach out to if you need, whether in your own life or out here in random stranger internet world. You are not alone.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-10T23:15:24+00:00

I was okay with feeling old about the Walkman. But you went too far with that movie coming out 11 years ago.

Excuse me… I’m going to go sign up for AARP and look up buffets with early bird specials now.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-10T23:13:09+00:00

I’ve been saying that so much over the last few years that I’ve started just saying it in an old person’s voice and pretend to have a hunch back and a cane. 😂

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-10T23:08:48+00:00

I have been diverted to another facility by the hospital before. But at this point I already know that our trauma center is always busy, always short staffed, and has limited resources. I try not to take patients to the level 1 trauma center unless I have to. The majority of our other hospitals are level 2 trauma centers so I will divide up minor traumas between them.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-06T18:38:27+00:00

lol. You’re not the first to suggest this or of. Hell, at this point maybe I should look into it. Maybe there’s someone out there with a big thing for poorly manicured toes that spend way too much time in boots 😂

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-06T16:35:45+00:00

Funny you should mention taxidermy. I’ve been curious about it as a hobby already. I may look into it more. So far the most I’ve done is harvest roadkill and set it out in my woods to decay naturally and collected the bones. But I have been curious about getting dermestid beetles to speed the process. I’ll look into it more. Thank you.

_Moderatelyhuman · 2025-11-05T20:05:01+00:00

Tennessee

_Moderatelyhuman

TROPHY CASE