5150

First a little back ground about the 5150 hold. Section 5150 of the California's Welfare and Institutions Code allows people to be placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold to be evaluated at a mental institution. A 5150 hold is placed on people for different reasons:

1.      Danger to self: The person must be an immediate threat to themselves, usually by being suicidal.

2.     Danger to others: The person must be an immediate threat to someone else.

 

5150 calls are common calls for us at NORCAL. Our job is to take these patients from an ER to the Psychiatric hospital where they will be evaluated. You never know what you are going to get on a call like this. Sometimes they are totally cooperative and calm and other times they are combative and require restraints to be transported. Also, depending on the patient there may or may not be an actual need to go to a psych hospital. For a homeless person to get a free meal and a place to sleep for 3 days all they have to say are 5 magic words: "I want to kill myself." This is why we wind up taking the same people over and over and over again. There are those people though who really do need psychiatric help. There are people who hear voices in their heads because of schizophrenia, people who struggle with deep depression who are having suicidal thoughts and then those patients who we tend to say are "just crazy."

 

We get dispatched for a 5150 coming out of San Leandro Hospital going to John George Psychiatric Hospital about a mile away. I go into the room and see a bigger African-American man laying on the hospital bed in 2 point restraints. This means that both his wrists are basically “tied” to the bed. I get all my necessary paperwork and get the story from the nurse. He has no real medical history except for struggling from alcohol abuse for some time. The story of why he was placed on the 5150 hold today was this: he had been drinking early that morning and in his drunken state began “relieving himself”…on other passengers on public transit. Ok, great I say and walk into the room to introduce myself. We get him loaded into the ambulance and I start asking him about why he is in the hospital, if he’s in any pain, if he’s ever been to John George before etc etc. He answers that he has a headache and he has never been to JG. He then proceeds to tell me about 5 times over that he had about 5 beers this morning and a bunch of sake…but its ok because he shared with some homeless guys. We get to JG and wheel him into the triage area where they all look at him and call him by his first name. Never been there before, riiiiight. I tell the nurse the story about why he’s on the hold while the patient listens. He hears that he was urinating on people and he gets really embarrassed and keeps saying “did I really?!” He gets of the gurney and I walk out thinking how glad I am that I wasn’t on his train.

Intro

Since I started my job I have thought about keeping a journal with the notes and stories about the different calls and experiences I've had as an EMT. My mom for one has been telling me I should do this for the last few months and although I thought it was a great idea, I never started. I have finally decided to try to write as much as possible about the interesting, good, or just plain stupid calls. This is mostly for me but I thought I would post here too, just for the heck of it! :)

**Some of the names and details of the following stories have been changed so I don't get in trouble by HIPPA!**

Oh, and if my grammar, sentence structure, and spelling are horrible I apologize...I just got off a 48 hour shift this morning and am not all with it right now!

too long...

It has been way too long since I have posted. I just read my last post and I said that I had been at NORCAL for 8 weeks...3 and a half weeks ago I reached the 6 month mark. In some ways it seems like a lot has happened since my last post and in other ways it seems like I have been doing the same old things for the last 5 months. I'm not really sure where to start and I'm not sure that you all will really want to read this but for some reason I just feel like writing. :)

I guess I'll start with talking about school. I graduated from Las Positas with my AA in May but still had to take Organic Chem which is my last Nursing pre-req class. I am also taking Biopsychology "for fun." :) Yeah, thats me, I am the weird one who takes classes for fun. I am actually in that class with 2 of my close friends so that makes it a little more interesting. O-chem on the other hand isn't so great. I am doing well in the class and understand it for the most part I just don't like going...esp when it starts at 8am after working a night shift at work that goes until about 5am. Honestly, I can not wait to be done with school. The more I work and get involved with the medical field the more I want to just be done and start my career. Unfortunately, I still have a few years ahead of me. It seems like my career path keeps changing over the last few months. There are so many things that I would love to do but I just don't know if there is time to do all of it. This is the most recent plan that I have (of course I know that God has the ultimate plan but this is where I feel He is leading me for now): Lord willing in April of 2009 I will be going with 3 of my friends from work to Paramedic school. I am really looking forward to being able to expand on the knowledge that I am gaining now and further my ambulance career. The paramedic program is about 7 months then I have to do about 3 months of clinicals in a hospital and another 3-4 months in a field intership on an ambulance. I think I have a very unique opportunity to be able to do my field internship down in LA with the LA City Fire Department. This is a great chance for me and would really challenge me in so many different ways. Assuming I pass all of these different steps and actually become a Medic I would like to work for awhile and then sometime after that go to Nursing school. I'm not sure how long I'll work as a Nurse but I would love to get my masters and then become either a Nurse Practitioner or a Physicians Assistant. I still am not sure which one. I really need to do some more research to decide which one would be best for me. I want to work in the ER so I think that I'll wind up going to PA school but we'll see! So basically, I have many years of school ahead of me! Enough about school, on to work!

Work is going great! I actually just got a promotion a couple weeks ago to being a Field Training Officer. An FTO gets to train all the new people coming in and is over all the other employees so I have to set an example. ha! ;) Oh, it also includes a pay raise! Now since I'm 21 I have been driver trained. Driving the ambulance is actually a lot of fun and not near as difficult as I thought it would be. We have been extremely busy lately and have been getting some really good calls. I don't think that they would be very interesting to most of you so I won't go into details. I have been working a rediculous amount of hours...last week from Friday to the following Saturday afternoon I had logged a total of 94.5 hrs. Thats just straight at work time, not including commuting or anything like that. And I was going to school at the same time. Lets just say that I didn't get much sleep and still feel like I'm recovering.

Well, that is pretty much all I've been up to! I am really looking forward to having some time off and being able to just relax for a while but I'm not sure when that will be! I am going to try to post more often...maybe about calls that I get or interesting patients...I'll try not to make the stories "too graphic" for those of you who don't like that stuff. Anyway, it is now 10pm and I am completely exhaused so I think I am going to hit the hay. Have a great week! :)

For Jill...

It has been brought to my attention that it has been 2 months since my last post. I'm supposed to be studying for my Microbiology final that is at 7:30am tomorrow but I really hate that class, am tired of studying and am pretty much just over school for the semester so I thought why not take a break and update!

Life has been pretty crazy lately. I started my job about 8 weeks ago and am totally loving it. Its a good thing too because I am working 40-50+ hours a week. I work a night shift during the week, an all day Friday shift, and a 24 hr shift on Saturdays that goes over until Sundays. This is my "real" schedule but I have been picking up other shifts during the week if they need coverage. I love my job because I get to meet some of the neatest and nicest patients but also some of the most grouchy and crazy patients! And when I say crazy, I really mean crazy...a lot of the patients I deal with are psych patients who are schizophrenic or bi-polar etc. etc. The down side to my job is the lack of sleep that I have been getting. Since I've been in school and working this much that really doesn't leave a lot of time for sleep. I'm looking forward to being out of school and just being able to work and then sleep in after getting after an all-nighter. Another good thing that has come out of my job is that I've realized more and more what I want to do. I've wanted to be a nurse for most of my life and this job has just made it more and more clear that being a nurse is NOT what I want to do! I have come to realize that I would like to do a whole lot more than be a nurse. I will probably be going to Paramedic school in January and then working as a medic for a while. Eventually I am hoping to go to Davis' Physicians Assistant program. This is scary but exciting at the same time. I love working on the ambulance and am looking forward to running more trauma based calls as a medic.

In other news, I am getting ready to leave for Europe on Saturday! I am really looking forward to this trip and am so excited to finally get a break and relax. I will try to post when I am over there but not sure what the internet situation will be.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Exciting!

I got a job with NorCal ambulance! I am so excited because this is something that I have been working towards and wanted for a long time. I just had the interview last Friday but I wasn't sure how it went because this was my first "real" interview that I've had. There were 3 different tests that I had to take as well as the oral interview and I wasn't sure how they all went. I was trying to tell myself that I wasn't going to get the job so I wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't get it but there was still part of me that was really hoping. They told me that they would call by Monday (today). The way I found out was kind of funny...

This morning at 7:28AM my phone, which was on vibrate on my bed, goes off. I look at it and see that I got a new text message. I have no idea who it could be from so I open my phone and see that it's from my friend Eric, who just got hired with NorCal last week. I was like "Why is he texting me at 7:28AM on the first day of spring break?!" I open the text and read...

Eric: "John (one of my friends who works for NorCal) told me the results of your interview"
Me: "No way?! Really??? Ah!" (not sure if I really want to know what he's going to say)
Eric: "Wanna know the situation?" (uh-oh doesn't sounds good...)
Me: "Yeah......"
Eric: "You got the job!"
Me: "AAAAHHHHH!!!!"
Eric: "Did I freak you out?"
Me: "Wait, are you just trying to mess with me???"
Eric: "No lol"
Me: "So I really got the job????"
Eric: "Yep, you should be getting a call later today!"

Haha....so I was pretty excited and couldn't go back to sleep after that! I knew that he was telling me the truth but I didn't really want to tell anyone until the people from NorCal actually called. Finally about 10:45AM they called and offered me the job. I have to go to orientation on April 2nd and 4th and then start after that. I cannot wait! I'll be working out of Castro Valley and Oakland...and to all you who worry about me working out of Oakland...I'll be fine and be as safe as I can! ;-)

In other news:

School isn't going so well this semester so I'm glad to be on spring break this week! I'm enjoying just not having to really do anything. Today I FINALLY cleaned out and washed my disgusting car. I haven't cleaned it out in the longest time so spring break was the perfect time to do it! I'm going to try to get caught up with some studying and homework this week but also want to take some time to just relax. On Friday I'm going to the George Straight concert in Oakland with some friends. He's a country music singer for those of you who don't know. :) Tonight (or tomorrow, I should say) at 3AM the A's are playing the first game of the season against the Boston Red Sox, in Japan! Don't ask me why they are in Japan but of course, I'm going to stay up and watch the game! haha yeah, I'm crazy!

Well, I think that is all I have to say...hope you guys are having a great week and enjoying this great weather!

Cute Pics!

I took these after church the other day...thought they turned out kind of cute!

Finally...

Here is the long awaited update! Sorry I didn't do this sooner but life has been busy!

School started a couple weeks ago and it's been kind of crazy trying to get used to my new schedule and everything that comes with it. It's not too bad yet. I keep telling myself that anyway just because I know it is going to get so much worse! I am taking Microbiology, Organic Chemistry and Social and Cultual Anthropology. Oh, and Pilates! ;-) Since I'm taking Micro and Chem that means that I have 4 labs a week! Monday and Wednesday I have 3 hrs of Chem and Tuesday and Thursday I have 4.5 hrs of Micro. Thats each day...not the days combined! So needless to say I have hours of homework for these 2 classes not to mention the hours of reading that I have for Anthropology each week. I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining, I'm really not. For the most part I actually like what I'm taking and have some good teachers...it's just a lot of work. One thing I discovered this semester is that I actually like Chemistry! This is a huge deal for me because I HATED Chem before. I'm finding that organic chem is a lot more fun and I really like my teacher. He has this Irish accent and is so fun to listen to even at 9pm!

I started teaching the First Responder class again on Thursday nights and am also a skills instructor in the EMT class which is all day Saturdays. I love teaching this stuff! It helps me remember everything and also is just really fun...although some of the students are already being "difficult." :) I'm going to start tutoring Stats again next week. I'm not going to have as many hours this semester as I did last semester...only 9 hrs this semester compared to 18-20 last semester. This is because I'm trying to get on an ambulance right now. I'm getting ready to turn in my application to AMR (American Medical Response) but I have to have my ambulance drivers license first. Hopefully, I'll get to go take that test on Monday or Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to getting a job but scared out of my mind on the other hand! I guess that goes with every new experience. I know quite a people who work for the company so I'm hoping that I'll get hired on pretty fast.

Last Tuesday afternoon I started teaching a 4 week course on Pride and Prejudice to Meredith and Kirsten. It should be pretty fun. After all it is one of my favorite books and now I just get to sit and discuss it! I have to admit it is a little weird leading the discussion...I'm not used to that.

It's funny...I NEVER wanted to be a teacher or even teach anyone anything but here I am teaching Sunday School, teaching in 2 classes at school, teaching Mer and Kirsten, and tutoring! The weird thing is that I'm loving every minute of it. It's not like I've found a new calling in life or anything but I would love to teach the EMT program or in a nursing school or something like that. I guess we'll just have to see what the future holds!

I'm sure all of you knew most, if not all, of what I wrote but this is my way of putting off reading about different shaped bacteria and drawing the chemical structure hydrocarbons! :) So, sorry this is so long...good night!