what I learned as a patient

[Guest guest]

Last night I had the pleasure of becoming a patient while on duty and I learned

alot from it.

1. It sucks, yup had to be blunt about that. Nasty case of anaphlaxsis from

Latex cannot say I enjoyed it a bit

2. For a short while I was blind du to swelling around my eyes. Even though I

knew what was going on and what the crew was doing, it wa scary. It gave me a

much greater insite to what my patients have gone through. The fear was real.

3. I had lost control and had to reply on someone else and that was hard, I can

now truly understand what my patients feel and go through when bad things happen

so let there be no doubt that I learned alot last night. In some ways it was the

best education I ever got. I know what it feels to have an IV, have yours eyes

flushed for 30 mins,( not fun ) IM injections, blood draws, waiting for lab

results, and praying that my eyes will be ok.

10 years ago I did not have this issue, has time moved on it has gotten worse.

Medicine is all I know and do not have the means to retrain a new job skill, but

I may have to. So all I can say is this, I only want to get through my shift

without ended up in the trauma room at Herman in Houston, failed that part. But

what I took from it in someays made up for it.

4. Latex allergies blow big time. Educate yourself and co workers about it and

the signs.

5. Oh and in case I forgot to mention it, anaphlaxsis sucks.

Lawrence Verrett EMT-P