Stop Skipping Seasons, Missouri!!! (Unless you want to give winter a break...)

 Well, we still don't have heat at the house. They did end up moving the old unit today, so there has been progress! Good thing we now have quite collection of little heaters- the high for today is 46 degrees Farenheit! Missouri has been skipping spring for the past few years; it would appear that she has decided to start skipping over fall as well! For once it actually seems warm at work!
 Speaking of heaters, the heat at the church wasn't working yesterday. Aaaannnnnddd the blower in my car was only working half of the time, so, you guessed it, occasionally no heat in there either! I'm starting to feel like my presence makes heaters decide not to work! On the upside, Dad fixed the issue with my car and the heater at the church today, so those two are good to go!
  Last shift I worked the 12 hour truck instead of my usual truck. We had been planning on going to Silver Dollar City on Saturday, but Missouri with her fickle weather decided rain and cold was the combo for the day. We still went to Branson, we just stuck to a store called The Quilted Cow and a handful of antique stores and flea markets. All dangerous destinations for us 3 girls!!! I'll try to remember to post the name of pattern books I purchased at The Quilted Cow (don't you just love that name?!?) sometime in the near future!
  When I was working the 12 hour shift, we ran a few calls, nothing too terrible. The last one was concerning when dispatch toned it, but turned out to be all right. We hear the terrible sound of tones , followed by, "400, respond to xyz address for a 1 month old female that is having a possible allergic reaction after a bath. Pt is not breathing normally." We also get really worried whenever a child isn't breathing normally; most cardiac arrests in children, especially infants, started as respiratory distress/failure. Granted, dispatch gets it wrong all the time; we're talking about folks whose protocals force them to tell bystanders to start CPR on folks actively seizing because they aren't breathing normally. During generalized/Grand mal type seizures, people typically aren't breathing. And is common for their breathing to be rapid, deep, and/or gasping. You try putting a few days worth of exercise into a few seconds or couple of minutes and see how your breathing is after the fact! Anyhow, the gal I was working with and myself were both hoping that  this was just a new mother being overlycautious. Still a bit nerve-wracking though- an adult struggling to breath or even coding isn't that bad (I know that sounds terrible, but as long as it isn't someone I'm close to, an adult trying to, or succeeding, at dying isn't as hard to work or deal with as a child doing the same), but a kiddo is the stuff of nightmares. Of course they had to live out in the country. And of course, fire wasn't on scene to give us an update. And of course, the boy that held open the door for us couldn't tell us if the baby was breathing or not. We walk inside of a trailer. It's dark, but clean (a rarity for a large amount of our district.). I saw the lil' girl laying on a towel by the sink with a hand towel partially covering her. Towel aside, she's naked as the day she was born. It was cold inside (and out). She made it very clear that she did not appreciate strangers interrupting her bath time by crying at the top of her lungs. She had a super strong cry for a one month old- music to my ears! The poor lil thing was cold enough that her skin was starting to mottle. Her mama was beside herself with worry. She told us that she was giving the lil' one her bath with a new soap when she thinks some got in her mouth or something because she "stopped breathing" and "shook all over" like a seizure twice. Mama was still incredibly worried, despite us starting to reassure her. When we had walked inside and I first saw the mama, I knew we would be taking the lil one to the hospital for her mama's sake, if nothing else, so I launched into the whole which-hospital-would-you-like spiel. The baby's parents informed me that they had just moved to the area from a different part of MO. They said that  the baby's Dr. was through the same hospital as Local Hospital, so we opted for there.  I really wanted to get the lil one into the truck where the heater was on to warm her back up, so I scooped her up while   prepared the car seat. Apparently, a paramedic and an EMT take forever to figure out that they, do not in fact, know how to buckle a baby into a car seat. In our defense, neither of us have little ones and this car seat was weird. We could get one side or the other to buckle, but not both at the same time. Lil' One started crying again. I believe she weeped on our behalf for our ineptitude. And because she was cold. And hungry. Shoot, she could've been weeping on my behalf for both of those accounts as well!  My partneer saw the car seat as a personal challenge. I was too busy being happy that Lil' One was OK to bother having any pride whatsoever about  an inanimate object besting me so easily. I opted for Mama taking care of the car seat. Which she did. Poor gal's hands were still shaking. Fortunately, the plan was for her to ride with us (what I had hoped for) and for the husband* to drive his pickup t o the ER. He was very calm, so I wans't worried about him driving. We hurried the baby out to the ambulance, pausing briefly to let the now arriving volunteers know that it's all good, thank you very much. My partner cranked the heat up in the back of the ambulance while I focused on finding pediatric electrodes and pulse ox (oh, the joys of working out of a truck one is not used to). Turns out, the pedi bag does not have pedi electrodes in it. Go figure. It does in my usual truck, but that is because my partner and I thought it was stupid not to and put them in there. I forget that it wasn't my usual truck in the morning during truck check, so we ended up not having any. The adult electrodes dwarfed the tiny baby, but they worked, so that is all that matters! I was able to find the bulb syringe quickly at least! My parner had let me know htat there was a small amount of soap foaming up in the corner of her mouth. When I used the bulb syringe to suction it out for her, she tried to nurse from it. :) That got a smile and laugh from her mama.  Her HR was normal for her age, as were the rest of her vitals. I printed off a copy of her heartbeat as a souvenir for her mama. I alternated between asking the mom questions and attempting to calm/comfort her. Guess what? Lil' One is her first baby. I praised her for her quick action, and chattered away trying to find the right words. She held her baby's hand all the way to the hospital. I busied myself strapping the car seat to the cot as tightly as possible, finding a blanket to cover my tiny patient, and so on and so forth. I grabbed my stethoscope to listen to her breath sounds for the sake of being thorough, warning her mama that she would likely cry because it was a bit cold. Lil' One had settled in for a nap and I wanted her to stay awake just in case, so this served two purposes. Lil' One awakened easily and loudly. Still a wonderfully strong cry! It didn't take her long to settle back down for a nap. I slipped my hand under the blanket to see if tickling her foot would wake her up. I explained that I wanted her to stay awake, just as a precaution, to her mama. For the record, Lil' One's feet are not ticklish. I was now glad for the blanket's cover because I didn't want her mama watching me pinch her toes. Lil' One took a pretty hard pinch before reacting. Instead of loudly venting her anger like I expected, she simply pulled her leg up. While I was thinking that it is good that she withdraws from painful stimuli, WHAM! she kicked my hand with all the force her tiny body could muster. I definitely love that little baby!!!! I was so busy playing with the baby and admiring all of her hair, and telling her mama what a pretty baby Lil' One is, that I forgot all about calling report to the ER. Fortunately, my partner had realized that I was fully enamored with my cutest patient to date, and she switched over to the HEAR channel to remind me. With a thank you tossed over my shoulder, I called the ER and gave my report. A hop,skip, and a jump later, we were at the ER. My partner held the car seat and laptop while I hopped out the back (it is quite a bit higher in that truck- no sense in risking the baby with how clumsy I am!). I carried Lil' One in, the car seat clearing the ground by scant inches (I can't help my shortness!). We had arrived just at shift change, so there was a whole crowd of nurses, plus the Doc, crowding in to admire our tiny patient and her cuteness. We hung out at the ER longer than necessary to play with the baby some more before calling available. She was so stinkin' cute! Youns should've saw the look on her face when they took her temp- it was hilarious! She went from being all happy that the nurse had bundled her up in her diaper and clothes to, "Wait, what are you doin- HEY, that is an exit only!" It was funny. Despite my partner turning the heater up high enough to make me wonder if I was wonder going to have a heat stroke, Lil' One was still a tad cooler than we would prefer. That said, she was a huge fan of the warm blanket the nurse gave her! And that, my friends, is the tale of us transporting a 1 month old that had gagged and done the baby shudder (I don't know how else to describe it- have you ever watched a baby taste something gross? The stiffen up, lean back, and shudder.) because she got her first taste of soap. First time parents are a favorite of mine!
 I made sure to tell all of my coworkers how cute and spunky my patient was. And that I wanted to spend the 1.5 hours left in my shift at the ER playing with her. A pregnant coworker assured me that she would have a baby for me to play with in a few months. Hopefully I can wait that long to get my baby fix!
  I haven't really stitched any the past few days. Today has been busy. I walked into work a minute or so late, and our first call came in at 8:02. It was crazy this morning. One truck was being taken for repairs when the truck escorting it broke down. The escorting truck's hose had blown off. This happened twice, so our Boss had them take it down for a mechanic to look at. Its back in service, but now is making a new noise, so we'll see how long it stays in service before breaking down. In the first few hours, we went to Springfield with a "strange" abdominal pain, had 2 non-injury lift assists, and one cancelled call. The other truck w/o issues, was busy as well. Once of the lift assists came in a  couple of hours ago, interrupting my nap. Minion is off today, so I'm working with the supervisor from A shift.
 So, more about our "strange" abd pain. Tones drop and dispatch advised that there is an 81 yof at the above address c/o "strange" abdominal pain. UOA, we found her sitting in a kitchen chair. She told me that her upper stomach has been hurting for a couple for a couple of days. She denied nausea, vomiting, and fever. Said that she has had some diarrhea. Oh, and she had been seen at Local Hospital and transferred to Big City Hospital for this. She can't remember what it was and does not know where the hospital paperwork is at. Nor does she remember how long she was in the hospital or when she was released. Her go to answer for almost everything (all the helpful stuff) is "I don't know." She was not inclined to try to remember either. She offered to call her daughter for us to talk to because "she can probably answer your questions." Normally I don't mind calling family to get more information, but I didn't want to chance being on scene for a hour in case her daughter wasn't any more knowledgeable than she. Plus, it didn't look like she was dying, so there was that. We helped her walk outside after my partner found her a pair of shoes (she didn't know if she wanted any or where they would be at. My partner informed her that it was then in the 30s and that she would want some shoes on). She did inform me that I did not need to gather all of her meds because she doesn't even take them all. I told her that I would let the nurse go them with her (hey, she didn't know anything with me around- maybe a new face would bring back her memory. Plus, I was able to figure out part of her medical history from her meds. Helpful given the circumstances!) .She balked when she felt how cold it was outside, but we're pretty good at keeping people moving, especially when its cold! Normally, we would've brought the cot inside, but the way her  porch is set up would have required us to lift it 1.5-2 feet over the edge of the porch, so it wasn't worth it. We got her bundled up and seat belted in. Thanked fire for their help, jumped in, and turned on the heat. The pt wouldn't say which hospital she wanted, just the system. We chose Big City for her; if Local Hospital transferred her for this same thing, we was not going to chance creating more work for ourselves by bringing her back there. She was unable to describe or rate her pain- I wasn't surprised that she didn't/wouldn't describe it. I was, however, quite shocked that she wouldn't rate it. Most folks always make sure to rate their pain a 10 in the hopes for medication and/or sympathy. (They get neither when they feel good enough to talk my ear off and update their Facebook status. No one cares about their Facebook status when they are having 10/10 pain. They think we don't know this; they're wrong.). I told my partner I would get vitals and such on the way. I was feeling a littler sorry for her because of her abdominal pain. I get it; it hurts. With what her vitals were, I had no intentions of giving her narcotics, but she did have my sympathy. Until it came time to start the IV. The IV started easily, no fishing or anything required. With how loudly she screamed, you would have thought I was doing exploratory surgery on her without the anesthesia. After that, she no longer had my sympathy. Not because she screamed; but because my starting a small IV, with no difficulty, obviously hurt so much more than her stomach did. I get that IVs hurt- we learn how to start them on each other. But if her stomach hurt bad enough that she couldn't remember anything, the IV should've barely been a blip on her radar, if that. It was a long, boring trip to the hospital. I gave her 500 of normal saline because she was a bit tachycardic (her HR was a little fast). She hadn't eaten yet and couldn't tell me if she had been drinking fluids. Since the fluids fixed the minor tachycardia, I'm guessing that she hadn't had much for her fluid intake and was a tad dehydrated. At least I partially fixed her!
 Well, I'm going to try to get some stitching in now. Hopefully I can finish a letter too. I know, I know, so old fashioned. But there are few things that feel as good as putting a pen to paper. I'd say needles and thread sliding through fabric and the feeling of the pages of a book against my fingertips would be two things. I'm hoping that stitching will help me figure out what else to write in my letter and how to word it. I hope youns are having nicer weather! Have a great evening!
 Happy Stitching!
 Emmy

P.S. If youns don't know what some of the abbreviations I use mean, don't hesitate to ask!

* Funny story; I had thought that he was his wife's dad instead of her husband. He looked to be in his 40s  while she looked to be 19. I'm wondering if the older kids we saw were his from a previous marriage.