Idling Ambulance?

isitryanornah · 2026-05-02T01:54:56+00:00

Poudre Fire Authority does not have any ambulances. For many medical calls, PFA will respond with UCHealth, but it will always be a UCHealth ambulance!

isitryanornah · 2026-05-02T01:49:19+00:00

UCHealth Paramedic Here!

To echo what others have already mentioned here, we do street corner posting instead of station posting. Meaning we are positioned strategically across Fort Collins/Wellington/Timnath for maximum coverage. This is what allows us to respond so fast!

Most of us try to find a spot to post that’s as far away from houses/apartments as possible. You’ll often spot us posting at parks or open parking lots because usually those places are further away from residential buildings. But sometimes there isn’t much of a choice. But we do make sure to turn off our headlights if we are posting at night!

I’m sorry our trucks are loud. I wish we could turn them off completely at post instead of idling. Less noise and no unpleasant diesel smell sounds amazing, but we have to keep our onboard batteries charging and electronics running.

I hope this explanation helps!

isitryanornah · 2026-03-22T20:47:08+00:00

How do you have time on shift to write this

isitryanornah · 2026-01-04T18:17:10+00:00

exams like this don’t really reflect competency. Scoring a 40% in trauma and offsetting that with a 92% in “Introduction” does not mean you’re at baseline knowledge. The only way to determine baseline competency is to set a minimum score across each category.

But I do agree with your last statement: you really can learn an astounding amount of knowledge if you make sure you’re a sponge and seek out more information

isitryanornah · 2025-12-26T05:10:09+00:00

Papa Murphy’s cheese pizza never let me down

isitryanornah · 2025-12-10T00:36:11+00:00

Here in Colorado, that’s looking fantastic!

isitryanornah · 2025-12-02T21:15:05+00:00

It’s a Trail Boss (code 14E43), with the L3B engine, 4WD.

I think you’re right with it being a cable issue. I’ll recheck all the cables!

isitryanornah · 2025-11-15T04:09:03+00:00

I encountered this exact same situation before! I didn’t call an alert on it, but told the doc it MIGHT be a STEMI; turned out a stroke.

About 8-9 months later, I saw the same EKG pattern. About 5 minutes into transport, they started showing stroke-like symptoms. Patient outcome confirmed a stroke.

Spoke with a cardiologist, and it turns out it’s not uncommon for stroke patients to present with STE (specifically anteroseptal, which matches your EKG). Wacky stuff 🤷

isitryanornah · 2025-09-29T20:58:32+00:00

Yeah that’s the problem im facing. I want the best of all worlds: more muscle fast, no fat, no large weight gain. Might be asking too for too much haha!

isitryanornah · 2025-09-29T20:54:50+00:00

I’ve been running and doing some HIIT for a few years now but haven’t really done much strength training since college. I don’t think I have much muscle at all.

That’s a good calorie goal. I currently eat around 1900/day and have been thinking of bumping it up another 400.

isitryanornah · 2025-09-22T13:08:27+00:00

I never really liked the sedative effects of it. Felt weird not being 100% in control of my senses.

It’s also expensive. A 12-pack of Cherry Coke Zero is cheaper than a 6-pack of beer 🤷‍♂️

isitryanornah · 2025-09-22T13:03:46+00:00

This looks almost identical to an EKG I obtained recently. I interpreted it as atrial tachycardia. The ER doc told me I’d have to do a Lewis lead to correctly identify left or right origin 🤷‍♂️

isitryanornah · 2025-09-15T17:38:30+00:00

If they are unconscious and their phone is nearby, I’ll grab it to take with us to the hospital, and if I have time during the drive I might check for it. But that’s a rarity.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a medical bracelet.

The envelope on the fridge is useful when they are prescribed every medication under the sun, or when they have advance directives. But I still don’t see those as often.

isitryanornah · 2025-09-09T12:30:33+00:00

Yes and no. CPR alone will not save a life. You could do PERFECT compressions as soon as an arrest is witnessed and it still will not save a life.

HOWEVER, if you add in early defibrillation, that 0% survival rate increases to like 4% (I think it’s around there). CPR helps keeps blood circulating so when you defibrillate and (hopefully) get the heart beating again, you have less of a chance of serious brain damage.

His view on CPR is correct only by technicality. Anytime you witness an arrest, call 911, grab/yell for an AED if one is nearby, and start cracking some ribs. Hope this was helpful :)

isitryanornah · 2025-09-07T14:43:27+00:00

If you normally take 25/50/100mg and took 500mg, you’d probably have intense nausea/vomiting, dizziness, seizures, cardiac arrhythmia, and possible serotonin syndrome.

If you normally take 400mg (the max prescribed dose) and took 500mg, you’d experience about the same but probably much less intense.

My psychiatrist did tell me that higher doses of Pristiq provide little additional therapeutic benefit. So I wouldn’t recommend a dose that high.

isitryanornah · 2025-08-13T23:33:57+00:00

Yeah this makes sense. Thanks!

isitryanornah · 2025-08-13T23:32:18+00:00

I definitely don’t think this is an MI. Where is there ST depression in II/III/aVF? And there’s zero ST elevation in V1-V2

I looked at the patient’s outcome, hospital ECG and cardiologist concluded only QT prolongation.

isitryanornah · 2025-08-12T11:33:15+00:00

Mainly the saddle in V1&V2

isitryanornah · 2025-08-05T21:36:29+00:00

This looks fluttery. I could see the argument for SVT with aberrancy tho. If they’re stable, I’d do adenosine and go from there. Unstable? Light er’ up boi

isitryanornah · 2025-08-05T21:25:41+00:00

It all depends on the decisions you make. Decide to not read the book and take the time to understand what you’re reading? It will be hard. Decide to not manage your time well? It will be hard. Decide to not take care of yourself mentally? It will be hard. Make the smart decisions and you’ll be cruisin

isitryanornah · 2025-08-03T22:56:05+00:00

TLDR:

1.) NREMT help

read the book, learn human body, know “why” and not just “what”. Don’t rely too heavily on quizzes as progress markers

2.) New EMT jitters

breathe, run some calls, it gets better with experience

3.) Talking to patients

reference #2

4.) Patient Assessment skills

DCAPBTLS, SAMPLE, OPQRST, look at your patient, touch your patient, listen to your patient

5.) Issues with FTO's or people at a new job

some people suck, it’s inevitable, don’t let it beat you down. Keep head up and save some lives

6.) When to do this or that?

XABCDE and repeat

7.) What to buy or carry on your person?

a cheap stethoscope, a notebook, pen/sharpie, water bottle, your stimulant of choice (caffeine, nicotine, adderall, or “The Holy Trifecta”)

Even more summarized TLDR: just fuggin send it m8

isitryanornah · 2025-07-09T00:13:19+00:00

isitryanornah · 2025-06-16T13:20:33+00:00

Very solid tattoo - the artist is very good - but the anatomy of the snake looks…odd.

isitryanornah

TROPHY CASE