EMT- What does it stand for?

Sure. Everyone knows that EMT is short for "Emergency Medical Technician".

It's funny how you can use those same letters to describe in three short words what EMTs may go through on a typical day on the job. Emotions, Mental Exhaustion, Trauma. Sounds cheesy, I know.

But that's what I do, so I can vouch for the fact that working in one of the Southeastern US's busiest hospitals is tolling- mentally, emotionally, and physically; particularly when you're in a Pediatric Emergency setting.

I'll be 23 soon, but have the back problems of a 65 year old. I've stared death in the face more times than you can imagine. I've been stuck by dirty needles, hit by combative patients, loved by appreciative parents, entertained by the innocence of children (it never ceases to amaze me how quickly that innocence is dissolved- even moreso nowadays). I've laughed, I've cried, I've felt anger greater than I've ever felt before. I've saved lives, so that (as a very special person pointed out to me) they can continue on their journey to learn more about themselves and the world they live in. Most days you forget the impact you're having on these patients, the job becomes "just another job". However, if you take a moment to step back and look at things objectively, you realize that you actually make a difference in people's lives. Then all those tears, all that frustration, and the exhaustion you take home with you everyday sort of falls into the background, and the intrinsic rewards supersede them.

Today was what I'd label closest to your "typical, as-seen-on-tv" day in the emergency room as I've seen in a while. At least there was no death to deal with today, and for that I'm grateful.
I'll focus on four specific cases today to tell a little bit of my story.

I began the day on a sour note. We received a 4 year old child via Fire Rescue who had been extricated from a burning home. Miraculously, he had no burns on his body; but alot of people don't realize that the most hazardous, life-threatening thing about fires isn't actually being burned, but smoke inhalation. It can cause your lungs to collapse, and kill within a matter of minutes. Had that child been left in that home just a couple more minutes, he would not have made it. I'm used to seeing children with all kinds of tubes and wires coming from every possible place, but today, I had to step out of the room as tears were welling up in my eyes. The smell coming from the child was like nothing I've ever experienced. It was as though he was being barbecued. It smelled like a smoke pit all over his body. It was one of the most traumatizing things for me in the 4 years I've worked there.

I then went to check on a patient we had yesterday, a little tiny baby who somehow caught bacterial meningitis. I was expecting to hear some good news, but only got the opposite. I don't know if she'll make it or not. I always wonder what these little souls' purposes here are, those that don't even make it to their first birthday. Why don't they get a chance at life like the rest of us fortunate ones do? And why, knowing how precious life is, do some of us still sit around and waste it, or wait for it to happen? One of the things that this job has reinforced in me is the belief that everyone should live life to the fullest everyday. Keep the future in mind, just in case you make it to that point, but don't count on each coming minute. Nothing is promised.

Next, there was an adorable little girl who'd gotten quite a deep gash on her eyebrow from a fall. Relatively minor injury, if I do say so myself. It just required a few stitches, and she was out the door almost as quickly as she came in, which is a rarity in an emergency room. It's always fun to take care of those patients, since they're in their usual spirits- other than an occasional pang of fear (which is to be expected from a 3 year old child). I gave her a coloring book and a butterfly sticker, and she reacted as though I'd just given her the world. It's amazing how easily satisfied we are as children, how unscathed we are. Our smiles were more genuine when we'd just entered the world. If only there was a way to maintain that innocence. There are those who never get to see that on a day to day basis, but I am glad to say that there are constant reminders of the beauty of simplicity in my workplace. Sometimes you have to rake through the muck to find it (in the form of bureaucratic bullshit, coworker incomptence and laziness, etc.), but it's always there.

Finally, there are some patients and families who make you laugh hysterically. Sometimes it's intentional, other times it's just the way parents and their children interact with one another. A teenage boy came in for nephratic syndrome (which causes alot of edema, or swelling), accompanied by his father. The boy was rather... ummm... large. I was attempting to find a good vein to start an IV on, and I wasn't having much luck getting them to pop up (even with a tourniquet on). All of a sudden the father says "just show him a hamburger... those veins will come RUNNING OUT AFTER IT... then you'll have some veins to work with". I just about died. It was such a random, hilarious comment coming from his father. The poor boy kept saying "daddy please... the lady's tryin to get her work done... let her work". As I continued on my search for the golden vein, the father continued with the silly jokes. "Y'know, he was at the Last Supper y'know... He ate all the food before Jesus could get to it. He was there, he was."
The way the father and the son were going back and forth might not have been as funny as I'm making it out to be, but I think the reason it was so hilarious at the time was that I felt as though I was invisible. Like that was the sort joking conversation they would have in the comfort of their own home, or in the car... Not in front of a nurse/EMT that they've never met in their entire lives. Some folks don't care WHO'S in their presence. They'll act just as uninhibited and unreserved as if no one was watching. It's these patients that crack me up. It's these patients that will eclipse (if just for a fleeting moment) one of those other, more intensely emotional moments of the day. It's like a breath of fresh air.