Back To it Tomorrow (Maybe)

After a couple of days off, I am back at it tomorrow, that is if I can get to work. The power steering pump seized up on my truck today, and Sherry's van is in the shop as well. Man oh man. Kinda hard to write about EMS when I haven't done it for a couple days. I could have worked tonight's shift at Enosburgh (EAS). The director, Robert, called me today to see if I could. EAS runs just 1 ambulance during nights and weekends, and one and a half during weekdays. Well, its not really one and a half, I mean you can't have half an ambulance, now can you? They have 3 EMTs on duty during weekdays and on the odd chance that there are 2 calls at the same time during the day, they only need to find one other member to fill the spot for the call. Call volumes are comparitively low at EAS, so it's rarely a problem. There are about 20 members and someone usually hears the tone for an additional member to respond to quarters if we get a "Unit 2" call. Anyway, because of the vehicle problems my wife and I are having, I had to pass on the extra shift. In hindsight it's a good thing. I usually end up signing up for extra or open shifts without thinking about how it will impact my family and I if the shift is a busy one. It's a no-brainer sometimes to grab a day's pay simply for being available if needed, but if you end up running a couple of middle-of-the-night calls, your ass is draggin the next day. EAS calls are generally much more time consuming than AmCare calls, simply because AmCare is based about 2 miles from the hospital and EAS is about 20 miles out. A call at EAS usually lasts about 2 hours. Then if the next day is busy too, you can get pretty out of whack in a hurry. OK, gonna wrap this up for today.

Posted: 22h20, February 22, 2007