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3am with Ckemtp – (See Gus? I can do that too)

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(The title? My friend Gus writes the blog http://3amwithgus.blogspot.com – Occasionally I throw him a shoutout)

I don’t generally do this much anymore, but this is kind of a personal blog post.

It’s 19 degrees outside and the clock is nearing Midnight here in Illinois. About 20 minutes ago I was snuggled up with my beautiful wife in bed trying to get some sleep before I have to get up at 3am to drive to Milwaukee to catch a flight at 6am. Tomorrow brings something that I’ve been looking forward to for what seems like forever, but really has only been a month or two. Tomorrow I’m heading to Baltimore, MD to attend the JEMS conference, EMS Today 2010.

This is going to be my first big, national conference. Really, I’ve never had the incentive to go before. I’ve always wanted to, but they have always seemed to be too much of an expense and have always seemed far away from what I’ve been doing in the field. Tomorrow I get to see for myself just what the hubbub is about.

But that all seems pretty far away right now as I sit here in my fire station covering the ambulance. 25min ago (now) I was snuggled up all comfy like just in the twilight stage of my sleepy-time cycle when Mama Juggs, the night dispatcher tonight set off the vile tones a few times and sent all of the on-duty paramedics out to the various hospitals, leaving the district uncovered. She toned out for any available paramedic to come in to cover and…

Yes, the above was a horrible way to end a paragraph, (and Greg Friese recently told me I use the elipse (the “…”) too much) but I have to make this statement. Both my wife and I are firefighters and EMS people on the same volunteer/POP/POC/Takes-up-all-of-your-free-time department. We’re both dedicated as the next guy too, and she’s in paramedic school right now. So when the tones went out, I got “the elbow”. No, I didn’t go on the other calls but we had an ambulance crew at all 3 stations with an engine crew on-duty backing them up. There wasn’t a need for me to head in for the EMS calls, until they took all the medics off of the street handling them. They needed a medic to come in for the next call, and I have a Gina at home elbowing me in the ribs to head out into the 19 degree weather to go cover the district. Yes it’s now Midnight, and yes I have to be up at 3am to catch my flight.

I’ve spoken before about the responsibility I feel when I’m the only paramedic available to cover the emergency medical needs of a jurisdiction. Right now, there’s 30k people (roughly) whom for if they have an emergency medical need, I’m now the first person they want to see. If that happens (and now, one of the trucks is returning so the chances are lessening) I better be on my game when I get there.

Anyways, I’m sitting next to Mama Juggs (The Dispatcher, remember?) blogging away, and I should probably be a good conversationalist and talk to her because I haven’t gotten much of a chance to chat with her lately. So, in parting, if you are at EMS Today, come up and say Howdy! to me. If you’re not, be sure to follow me on Twitter and Facebook (the links are over there on the Right. I accept all friend requests that seem like fans.) and I’ll be sure to try and give you a first-hand look at what it’s like at a Big National Conference.

Oh, and the Biggest meetup of EMS and Fire Bloggers is happening Friday night at a pizzeria. BE THERE. If you need info, tweet me and I’ll getcha there. (Connections? I has them)

G’night all.

Posted by on March 5, 2010 • Filed under: EMS Conference, ems education, EMS ethics, ems garage, EMS Topics, EMS training

The Chronicles of EMS – Day 3?? Who knows, I’m flying

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My goodness I’ve got to get into this room! That was a long set we’ve just had. Oh yea, Mark’s in the building so I had better check the lock on the door. It’s locked… good. I shouldn’t have had so much coffee in preparation for the talk I just had. Was I nervous? A bit maybe… I feel silly about it though. After all, I was really just shooting the “breeze” with some people who have become good friends of mine over the last year or so and I honestly feel pretty comfortable being in front of the community that’s popped up around the Chronicles of EMS.  

Yes I was talking about what the Frumpydumple crowd calls the “water closet” and I had just gotten done filming Episode #1 of “Chronicles of EMS – A Seat at the Table” with an amazing panel of guests. I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed being here in San Francisco to watch this all take place, I can’t really put into words how much I have enjoyed meeting the people I’ve gotten to meet, and I just wouldn’t do the feeling of inspiration I’ve gotten any justice if I were to put it into static black and white words on this page. For you to know how I feel about this I’ll just have to use an analogy.

Picture that you’ve been laboring in a tunnel for years, digging as fast as you could every day you were down there. You’re passionate about your digging but you don’t really know if you’re ever going to get anywhere before you run out of steam. You dig and dig and dig… Then one day you feel like you can’t dig any more… not even one more shovel full of dirt… You’re tired, cold, hungry, and cranky and it feels like eons since you’ve seen the sun… Finding Herculean strength you tell yourself that this shovel full of dirt may be the one that finally counts, so you dig the shovel into the dirt and…

Break through into an underground lake that fills the tunnel with water and sweeps you away.

And just when you find you’re about to drown you start a blog and find out that there’s people out there that will throw you a lifeline. You reach out to them and find yourself at a television premier in San Francisco having the time of your life.

So um, yea. That’s how it is. See why I said that I couldn’t do it any justice?

I was here to watch the show and I’m still here writing this from my hotel room. I have to say this: We all knew that Mark and Justin were caring, competent paramedics who are fantastic at what they do. It wasn’t really a shock to me to see them portrayed in the video as just that. No camera could hide how much they care about this stuff and it wouldn’t be possible to hide how committed to the cause of furthering emergency medical care around the world as they are. I know them, they’re really, truly good people and I’ll vouch for them. What impressed me, nay, amazed me the most was the quality of the camera work and the production of the film. I was quite literally blown away by the superb quality of the production. Hats off to Chris Eldridge and Ted Setla… You guys honestly blew right past my preconceptions and delivered a product that was way beyond my expectations. I mean, I knew that it was going to be good… I just did not expect the quality to be so high. I had high expectations and you blew past them. That’s solid work guys. I know that there were many behind the scenes that I don’t know all of the names of to thank properly, but rest assured that I am thoroughly impressed by the class act that you have developed here.

So what I am saying is: Thank you. Thank you for the work you have done to further our profession and emergency medical care around the world. I am happy and downright honored to have played a small part in it and I cannot wait to see the heights that you all reach with this endeavor.

You guys rock.

So tonight, I am frankly having way too much fun here with my wife over Valentine’s day hanging out with the Chronicles Crowd to spend any more time on this computer. I’ve met a ton of great people, all of which I will dish about (Mwa Ha Ha ha!) in a later post. But tonight is about fun, and off I go.

Here’s some suggested reading:

Http://www.setlafilms.com – Ted Setla’s Production Company

Http://www.LevelZeroMovie.com – The Level Zero Movie (I have a signed copy!!)

Http://www.ChroniclesOfEMS.com – The page for #CoEMS

MsParamedic’s article on #CoEMS – Great Meeting you!

EMS1.com ‘s article on #CoEMS

David Konig’s article on #CoEMS

FireGeezer’s Article on #CoEMS – Really? Johnny and Roy?? Well, maybe…

Fire Daily’s article on #CoEMS – Bromance indeed

 

And Just to Enhance the Social Media Experience – I put out a tweet looking for posts that referenced the meetup this weekend. Here are the ones I’ve gotten so far:

- From @FirstDueMedic - http://gatesofintegrity.blogspot.com/2010/02/are-we-ready.html

- From @ssgjbroyles - http://1union801.blogspot.com/2010/02/chronicles-of-ems.html

Posted by on February 13, 2010 • Filed under: Ambulance, EMS, ems 2.0, EMS Blog, EMS blogosphere, EMS Conference, ems education, EMS ethics, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Motivation, EMS pep talk, EMS Topics, Paramedic

Changing the EMS World – The Chronicles of EMS

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Man, my arm hurts. I think I pulled something over the weekend… which is funny because it was Medic 999 who was the one handing me my hindquarters in an arm-wrestling match. In my defense, the sun was in my eyes, the gravity was especially strong on his side of the table, and um… the… (There’s gotta be another plausible excuse for losing to a limey… There’s not? Oh well)

The weekend I spent with my lovely wife Gkemtp(it) in San Francisco to go visit my buddies The Happy Medic and Medic999 could be summed up in one word: “Awesome”. I could say it was profound, I could say it was “Bitchin”, and I could also say that meeting the two biggest EMS bloggers and the other fantastic people I met changed my world view and reenergized me on this profession. The word “Awesome” just seems to fit though.

Seriously, between the time I got to spend with Justin and Mark, The Angry Captain and Justin’s wonderful family, the time I spent talking to some wonderfully dynamic people at the Tweetup, and the time I got to spend meeting Thaddeus Setla and The ‘Dridge something changed in my world view.

It’s hard to say that someone like me can become cynical to something that I love so much. I don’t know if you can tell it in my writing, but I really do love EMS as much as I say that I do here on the blog. It’s just that someone like me who really and truly wants the profession to change for the best can become disillusioned when it feels like they’re constantly and consistently hitting their head against brick walls. I had recently asked one of my coworkers if anyone actually cared about EMS anymore. Sure, I get a decent bit of traffic here from people who obviously are caring and concerned about the profession and their patients, but sometimes a guy just needs a face-to-face meeting with people who are just as committed and share the same goals.

And well, folks, I got that.

Today’s headline on the blog could read: “Ckemtp heads off to San Francisco for Chronicles of EMS: Becomes reenergized. Finds no Rice-a-Roni and no limits either. Thinks he can change the world and knows we can do it.”

I haven’t felt this energized, this positive, or this good about EMS since I was a brand new paramedic with a brand new paramedic card. I tweeted that if I could make every paramedic, EMT, and other EMS person feel the way I feel about EMS after the Tweetup, that our profession and whole society would change for the better overnight.

So hold on to your hats folks, because that’s just what I intend to do.

Justin and Mark, The Happy Medic and Medic999 respectively, are two stand-up guys who really are just who you expect them to be. Their blogs really are what the medium truly should be, a place where they communicate to their readers their true thoughts, feelings, and emotions so much so that you feel like you really know them. Meeting them face-to-face, I felt like we were friends who’d known each other for years already. Even though Mark has a nearly incomprehensible accent. (Wait, wait… no, we settled that. Per the arm-wrestling outcome I am obligated to say that his accent is perfectly fine)

Thanks guys, you’re an inspiration. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us at the tweetup and to everyone who watched live over the interwebz. All of you showed me that there really are people out there who care about EMS just as much as I do. This is fantastic. I intend to help leverage this collaboration and cooperation between us to help us change the profession together. I know we can.

So hold on to your hats folks, from here on out it’s going to get interesting. From where I sit there just aren’t any walls out there anymore that we can’t smash through. I’m truly excited and I intend to change the world. With your help, there’s no stopping us.

It’s just plain awesome.

Justin, have fun over there in England with Mark playing in their funny looking sickly lime green ambulances professional and sharp looking equipment with Mark’s ­limey coworkers. I’m figuring it’ll be a hoot! Mark, take good care of him like I know you will. I can’t wait to see what you guys turn this in to. You’ve got my full support! For what it’s worth… now that I can’t really move my right arm.

Posted by on November 18, 2009 • Filed under: blog, blogger, Emergency Medical Services, EMS, EMS Blog, EMS blogosphere, EMS Conference, EMS pep talk, EMS Topics, medicblog999

EMS Trendsetters Conference 2009

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Are you an EMS Person? Are you involved in Emergency Medicine? Are you an EMT, a Paramedic, a Nurse, a Doctor, a “something medical”? Are you interested in high quality continuing education provided in a fun and cool environment by top quality, national speakers?

You are? I thought so. See, I know my audience pretty well I’d suspect.

Here’s the catch though. I’m plugging an EMS conference that’s being put on by a friend of mine. She’s started a company that provides low-cost CE training in a cool and interesting way for regional EMS people. This is her annual big conference, and there’s a ton of good speakers and educational offerings going on this year. Y’all should come.

But… it’s located in Kenosha County, Wisconsin. If you’re local, come on up! If you’re not, then fly in. The airlines need the money and I’ll promise a beer (a cheap one) to everyone from out of the area who shows up (yes, if you’re over 21 and not afraid to drink Schlitz)

Here’s the website of the conference: http://www.emstrendsetters.org/ – This conference is personally endorsed by Yours Truly, for whatever that means.

Come on out and support one of us doing something for all of us.

This conference is located near: Northern Illinois, Southern Wisconsin, Rockford, Chicago, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Woodstock, Crystal Lake, Fox Lake, Beloit, Janesville, Madison, Wisconsin, Illinois

Posted by on September 3, 2009 • Filed under: Ambulance, EMS, EMS Conference, EMS paramedics, EMT, ER, illinois, northern illinois, southern wisconsin, wisconsin
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