- Jan 7, 2002
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Disclaimer: Speaking with women has always been easier for me, go figure. I posted this exact message a few nights ago on my veteran's website and the feedback I got was unbelievable, we truly are brothers. The problem is, it is almost a month before I go in for treatment and I'm feeling a bit (crappy, can I say that here?) and wanted to talk a bit with somebody if possible. 
What more can I say, it's always easier to speak with women then men so that's what the request for women is about. Those of you that have been around for a while know that I am honest in my requests and nothing more is wanted right now, just some honest support and conversation. (that's it, seriously, if you think this is cyber-whaterver you can go elsewhere) OK, serious talk only... PM me and I will give you my phone # or I will call you if you give me your phone number. Last post, I am not looking for a "cyberdate" and I am not looking for any other strange "cyber thingy", just somebody to talk to, and in the past women listen better than men. (sorry guys, the women are right and we listen like crap)
My post to my veteran buddies:
I have been a medic for many years, and nearly a year before finding the 1st Veteran's Battalion I suffered an injury to my knee that ended that career. Being a medic wasn't a job for me and obviously I wasn't in it for the money. Working as a medic is more of a calling and something that came very naturally for me once I realized that is what I should be doing. I could show up to some of the most distressing or grotesque scenes and make sense out of them, and if the patient was conscious and aware, give them some sense of relief as well. I don't know what it is about me and my care but that's how it worked and patients thanked me often and co-workers wondered how I did it. (so did I, it just seemed to happen for me)
Some calls that really stand out are as follows...
A young boy was run over at a garage sale and was stuck under the car on our arrival. He was screaming and so was everybody at the scene. I went to the boy and looked at him in the eye and simply said "Hi, what's your name?" He stopped crying and told me his name. We talked and I told him everything would be OK, and he talked to me in a clear voice and stoped crying.
We got a call for a shooting at a housing project in a very bad part of town in SF. Upon arrival we gathered our equipment and walked through the projects to comments of "if we were white you would have been here sooner" and the like. That really didn't seem to bother me too much because I knew why I was there, and the 12 year old boy's mother thanked me all the way to the trauma center.
A man got struck on the side of his car by a bus, that crushed his car against his hip and lower leg. The car was deformed pinning his lower extemities in the wreckage, and the man was screaming at the top of his lungs because of a crushed hip and left leg. During the extrication it was up to me to talk to him, start an IV, and get him extricated for transport to the trauma center.
Common calls are from tourists showing up and calling us for a spouse that has passed away in the middle of the night. This is usually from people that are in town for a 50th anniversary and one of the mornings they wake up and find their spouse, either husband or wife, dead in bed next to them. It's my job to talk to them and comfort them until the crisis counselors arrive, not that it's a job for me but it does take it's toll after a while.
Any major respiratory emergency. You show up on scene and the patent is in very bad shape, but they always look you in the eye with that unbelievable scared look and "please help me" expression.
Man hangs himself in bedroom with wife and three children in the next room. This one really hurt, we had to render care and try to explain to the children what we were doing for his father and it wasn't their fault. We did save him after a few shocks and lots of medicine, but that is only the begining for his family.
Elderly gentleman attempts suicide with handgun. He shot himself with a handgun under his chin, but it only destroyed his oral cavity, nose, and exited his forhead. This is one of those calls you never forget, and the poor guy never cried out once because he even failed at suicide. Very sad call and nothing you can do about it, even saving him was hard.
Those are just a few of the calls that stick in my mind. I actually wrote over 70 pages of calls down before only to lose them to a HDD crash. I could go on for days about calls with anybody in the medical profession because that's what we tend to talk about, I'll spare you most of the details.
Hrere's one of the few letters I received from a patient I treated. I never thought she would survive her accident even with our treatment. (This was on a few years back and the patient was trapped in her car after a really bad head-on. It was snowing lightly that night so we couldn't call life flight so we had to transport ourselves, about 25 miles, to the trauma center. I was the treating paramedic and my partner was driving, the letter explains the rest.)
I was the first medic on scene and in charge of her care throughout transport and until we turned her over to the trauma cener. (normally she would have been airlifted but it was snowing and they were grounded)
To make a long story longer, It's time to admint to myself and to the rest of you that I have had a major drinking problem for the last few years. I don't blame my drinking on things that happened on the job, in fact if my knee allowed me to work I'd be the happiest guy in the world. (but the addiction personality is still there, I'm not trying to avoid that) For the last few years I have been trying to deal with this on my own but it's obvious now that it's not working and I need some professional help. In the very near future I will be checking into a treatment center for PTSD and alcohol abuse, there aren't any alternatives. (it's a 30 day inpatient thing in Malabu, maybe I will meet Uma Thurman or something )
This is one of the hardest things I have had to admit, I'm not one to admit to personal weakness, so please go easy on me. I'm going to be around in the Bn for a long while so get used to it, but there will be a little gap when I'm schmoozing with Uma. :razz:
Seriously, this is hard for me to say but I know we have all been through things in our lives that have been hard, in fact our brothers that are deployed are going through more than I care to imagine as we speak. This is one of those things in life we have to deal with and I'm about to do just that.
P.S. Hardest thing to admit ever, but after what my veteran brothers have said in response to this post I wish I said it sooner. The only thing I have to add is if you have this problem is to talk to a friend about it, you may be surprised (like I am) what they have to say about it.
David.
P.S. Skype name is GardenTub if you just want to call.
What more can I say, it's always easier to speak with women then men so that's what the request for women is about. Those of you that have been around for a while know that I am honest in my requests and nothing more is wanted right now, just some honest support and conversation. (that's it, seriously, if you think this is cyber-whaterver you can go elsewhere) OK, serious talk only... PM me and I will give you my phone # or I will call you if you give me your phone number. Last post, I am not looking for a "cyberdate" and I am not looking for any other strange "cyber thingy", just somebody to talk to, and in the past women listen better than men. (sorry guys, the women are right and we listen like crap)My post to my veteran buddies:
I have been a medic for many years, and nearly a year before finding the 1st Veteran's Battalion I suffered an injury to my knee that ended that career. Being a medic wasn't a job for me and obviously I wasn't in it for the money. Working as a medic is more of a calling and something that came very naturally for me once I realized that is what I should be doing. I could show up to some of the most distressing or grotesque scenes and make sense out of them, and if the patient was conscious and aware, give them some sense of relief as well. I don't know what it is about me and my care but that's how it worked and patients thanked me often and co-workers wondered how I did it. (so did I, it just seemed to happen for me)
Some calls that really stand out are as follows...
A young boy was run over at a garage sale and was stuck under the car on our arrival. He was screaming and so was everybody at the scene. I went to the boy and looked at him in the eye and simply said "Hi, what's your name?" He stopped crying and told me his name. We talked and I told him everything would be OK, and he talked to me in a clear voice and stoped crying.
We got a call for a shooting at a housing project in a very bad part of town in SF. Upon arrival we gathered our equipment and walked through the projects to comments of "if we were white you would have been here sooner" and the like. That really didn't seem to bother me too much because I knew why I was there, and the 12 year old boy's mother thanked me all the way to the trauma center.
A man got struck on the side of his car by a bus, that crushed his car against his hip and lower leg. The car was deformed pinning his lower extemities in the wreckage, and the man was screaming at the top of his lungs because of a crushed hip and left leg. During the extrication it was up to me to talk to him, start an IV, and get him extricated for transport to the trauma center.
Common calls are from tourists showing up and calling us for a spouse that has passed away in the middle of the night. This is usually from people that are in town for a 50th anniversary and one of the mornings they wake up and find their spouse, either husband or wife, dead in bed next to them. It's my job to talk to them and comfort them until the crisis counselors arrive, not that it's a job for me but it does take it's toll after a while.
Any major respiratory emergency. You show up on scene and the patent is in very bad shape, but they always look you in the eye with that unbelievable scared look and "please help me" expression.
Man hangs himself in bedroom with wife and three children in the next room. This one really hurt, we had to render care and try to explain to the children what we were doing for his father and it wasn't their fault. We did save him after a few shocks and lots of medicine, but that is only the begining for his family.
Elderly gentleman attempts suicide with handgun. He shot himself with a handgun under his chin, but it only destroyed his oral cavity, nose, and exited his forhead. This is one of those calls you never forget, and the poor guy never cried out once because he even failed at suicide. Very sad call and nothing you can do about it, even saving him was hard.
Those are just a few of the calls that stick in my mind. I actually wrote over 70 pages of calls down before only to lose them to a HDD crash. I could go on for days about calls with anybody in the medical profession because that's what we tend to talk about, I'll spare you most of the details.
Hrere's one of the few letters I received from a patient I treated. I never thought she would survive her accident even with our treatment. (This was on a few years back and the patient was trapped in her car after a really bad head-on. It was snowing lightly that night so we couldn't call life flight so we had to transport ourselves, about 25 miles, to the trauma center. I was the treating paramedic and my partner was driving, the letter explains the rest.)
I was the first medic on scene and in charge of her care throughout transport and until we turned her over to the trauma cener. (normally she would have been airlifted but it was snowing and they were grounded)
To make a long story longer, It's time to admint to myself and to the rest of you that I have had a major drinking problem for the last few years. I don't blame my drinking on things that happened on the job, in fact if my knee allowed me to work I'd be the happiest guy in the world. (but the addiction personality is still there, I'm not trying to avoid that) For the last few years I have been trying to deal with this on my own but it's obvious now that it's not working and I need some professional help. In the very near future I will be checking into a treatment center for PTSD and alcohol abuse, there aren't any alternatives. (it's a 30 day inpatient thing in Malabu, maybe I will meet Uma Thurman or something
)This is one of the hardest things I have had to admit, I'm not one to admit to personal weakness, so please go easy on me. I'm going to be around in the Bn for a long while so get used to it, but there will be a little gap when I'm schmoozing with Uma. :razz:
Seriously, this is hard for me to say but I know we have all been through things in our lives that have been hard, in fact our brothers that are deployed are going through more than I care to imagine as we speak. This is one of those things in life we have to deal with and I'm about to do just that.
P.S. Hardest thing to admit ever, but after what my veteran brothers have said in response to this post I wish I said it sooner. The only thing I have to add is if you have this problem is to talk to a friend about it, you may be surprised (like I am) what they have to say about it.
David.
P.S. Skype name is GardenTub if you just want to call.
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