The diary of a rookie fire fighter...

So I decided I wanted to keep track of my rookie year as a firefighter somewhere.  I thought to myself, "self, I have a blog that Kasie and I set up a few years ago that we have never used.  Why not just change it up and use that?" So here I am.
     Today was my fourth day as a working firefighter/paramedic.  My very first shift I was put on the Engine as a firefighter, just to get familiar with things; that was the easy part.  Now I have been put on the ambulance and will be working on there from here on out.  The ambulance typically runs with two guys, a driver and the medic or "patient guy."  I have been designated the medic, and will most likely be that guy until my probation is over.  As the medic you are responsible for the drug box key and making sure this stays locked and kept safe at all times.  We carry some pretty potent drugs that people would love to get their hands on.  I am charged with signing off on these every day, how much we have and expiration dates, if they go missing a red flashing light starts shining over my head.  I am in charge of stocking the ambulance with supplies at the start of the day and after any calls.  I am in charge of navigation to calls, radio traffic with dispatch; and when we get a fire, I'm first in with the nozzle.  In the station: clean the bathrooms, take out the garbage, do the dishes, clean up dinner, wash dishes, be the first one out of bed, last one to sleep, first one up from the dinner table, last one to sit down and eat, never let anyone beat you to answering the phone, vacuum, laundry, first one to the rig when we get a call, never watch TV, and NEVER EVER sit on the recliners.
     It is my responsibility to bring all necessary supplies into a call, this includes: Drug box, Airway bag, Heart monitor.  I am also in charge of the patient at the scene, I call the shots.  As we enter a house, or come up to an accident I go straight to the patient.  Following me are 4-6 seasoned, hard nosed, get the job done, "A" personalities that stand over my shoulder and wait for my move.  In the fire service we are drilled down our throat seniority, and that you are the scum of the earth until you have proven yourself.  So you can imagine the stress as your Captain is standing over your shoulder watching your every move.  It is nerve racking to say the least, plus you have a patient to deal with. 
    Paramedic school was easy, your life was to learn and take tests.  I mean, honestly it was probably one of the hardest things I have accomplished in my life; but looking back it was a cake walk.  Now I have to remember all that stuff I was tested on.  Not to mention, you learn the book "cookie cutter" patient.  When you arrive on scene different story, I'm sorry but those patients are no where to be found in my paramedic book!  Add to all of that, being rudely awoken at 4 a.m. and getting your brain and memory to work...
     Today we have had a few calls.  Our first call was an accident on the freeway.  We arrived on scene to find a semi truck on the side of the road with a four door passenger car stuck sideways to the front bumper.  I was excited, I thought it was going to be my first significant trauma.  I grabbed the gear, put on the safety vest and walked to the car.  First thing is first; scene safety.  Make sure you are safe before anything else, "check."  Approached the vehicle and found a patient sitting in the driver seat, obviously shaken up by the events of their wonderful day so far.  Something seemed odd, but they looked fine.  No sideways legs or backward arms.  Their left side was shaking, not from nerves, but it was as if they had Parkinson's disease just to their left side.  Well, they denied any neck pain, denied back pain, denied any other pain.  So I asked  if we could have them get out and go to the ambulance.  The car was still in drive and the key was stuck in the ignition, the airbags had not deployed.  Because of this, we could not work in the car.  Airbags could deploy late and at any time.  If we were working in there when they went off we would become patients our self.  We got the patient out and they walked to the ambulance.  Everything was fine, the only thing was the left side issue.  Through our assessment we found they had an issue in the past which caused them to have this condition.  I don't want to go into any details of what it was because I don't want them to be identified in any way.  Needless to say, patient was fine and walked away.  Come to find out, the semi truck never knew he had a car stuck to his front bumper until he pulled over.  He thought he had blown a tire; imagine his surprise when he got out of the cab and found a car sideways, stuck to his truck.
     I was planning on going through my other calls, but it is late and I am tired.  Have a good night.

Jesus' brief stumbling while carrying the cross is a reminder as to how close to the very edge of our strength God stretches us at times. Neil A Maxwell

Would you exert yourselves to obtain wisdom and intelligence, unless you did believe that you could obtain them? Would you have ever sown, if you had not believed that you would reap? Should you have ever planted, if you had not believed that you would gather? Would you have ever asked, unless you had believed that you would receive? Would you have ever sought, unless you had believed that you would have found? Or, would you have ever knocked, unless you had believed that it would have been opened unto you? In a word, is there anything that you would have done, either physical or mental, if you had not previously believed? Are not all your exertions of every kind, dependent on your faith?

So I just found out that you can set up your blog to register with your phone and you are then able to text words and pictures and then they will be posted onto your account, how cool is that? So this post is coming from my phone as a text message! Now I can actually keep the blog up to date! We will be moving soon into my parents rental house which will be nice just to have our own place, we'll find out how the last renters treated it :)

So it really has been a while since we have posted anything on here but oh well we have been busy!!!
Tonight Kasie and I watched this thing on tv, it was dateline or something like that, the interesting shows. They were featuring this mans life, Randy Pausch. He learned he obtained pancreatic cancer and had three months to live. He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and was asked to give his last lecture, as a large measure of influential professors are asked to do when they retire or leave. Randy's last lecture was very inspiring and uplifting. He also published a book about life and lessons learned and taught. The very few bits of the lecture that we heard on this special were very inspiring and touching. They followed him around in his life for bits for the show and he talked a lot about other things which was also cool. He passed away last friday, and this was his tribute.
I really wanted to read his whole book, so i looked it up online and found the book and also video feed of his lecture. check it out, you will learn something. http://www.thelastlecture.com/index.htm

So the whole dates underneath your pages shows when the last time your blog was updated, so its neat. To have that happen you add what is called the blog list.............. you are welcome!

So I, Bryce, obtained a nasty stomach flue somewhere in between eating a juicy pork roast at my Moms' and somewhere else, i don't know. Well that leaves me sitting at home throwing up all I own; and other things......... I'm enjoying the frequent guzzle of Pepto Bismol..."Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea, hey pepto bismol!"
We have settled into our new place, finally got all of the boxes off the back patio and only have three left which are our boxes of desk items. It makes it difficult to empty those when you don't have a desk! It is very nice to have this change though! completely different! I can breathe now and feel like I am breathing air and not moldy, mildewy, 99 yr. old lady smell!
lets see, we don't have any kids, so no updates there........ and uh ya. i think i will try to post some pictures up here to see if i can do it, seeing as to how this is my second time on here.

haha, i tried to post that picture down here but it just went up there, and i couldn't move it down here. oh well. ok i figured it out.














This was on our honey moon, it was a very hard picture to obtain, i would have to set the camera on the rock perfectly not to tip over yet have a good angle and etc. while Kasie would stay in that one position, then i would run and have to spread my legs across the river without knocking her in.



We had lots of fun trying to get pictures, i don't know why this beautiful girl is laughing, but she always does, which i love!









Just a pretty shot, the red rock with the white snow! This is Kolob canyon i do believe.........