Go To Your Room!

Growing up one of the main punishments in our family was being sent to our room, usually missing out on TV time.  For my siblings this was the end of the world, for me this was actually a reward because I could read all of my books.

Eventually my parents figured out that I would happily go to my room for just about any reason and started having me bring all my books out before my punishment started.  Of course after a while this got impractical as all my allowance money went to books (and coffee) so my punishment started to be that I was banned from my room :-)  Still a joke in my family today, best way to punish me is take away my reading material.

32YOF Reads EMS Book By NREMT-P

I was going to write this post like I write my patient reports...but then I remembered people might actually want to read this at some point :-)  The reason for this burst of medical creativity is I just finished reading a book called A Paramedic's Story: Life, Death and Everything in Between by Steven "Kelly" Grayson.  This book is not one that lends itself to synopsis, so I will just jump right into rambling about it.

I originally picked this book up for EMS week, and the author regularly posts on EMS1.com and I have enjoyed those.  The book is pretty much a look at the authors EMS life through quick little stories about calls he has run through out his career.  Not a whole lot I can say about the actual content other then it is exactly that, a few pages on each call he chose to wrote about.  I enjoyed reading about the calls in this Louisiana parish that the author worked in for many years.  It was interesting to see how they handle calls, what rules they have that we don't and vice versa, the resources they may or may not have, and different issues they may be concerned about. The structure was a bit rough for me.  I felt like he kept referring to events that we should know about, but had never been discussed.  A lot of times the story would just end, with no resolution to what happened, for example the last sentence in one story is how he and a Dr. were named as primary defendants in a malpractice suite...and that was it, it was never mentioned again.  I would have liked to at least know the outcome of that case as it would be a good teaching moment.  I also wanted to know more about the author personally, he would give us tantalizing tidbits, but rarely any linear cohesiveness...if that makes any sense. I also wanted just a touch more background on the stories, I was never sure where he was at for most of the calls.  My overall impression of the book is that I was intrigued, but I wanted more of everything.  In some ways I think the telling of "calls" works best in person.  Our favorite past time at the station is all gathering around, the table, the grill, the alarm room, the rigs, whatever and share stories over and over again.  This is how we pass stuff on to the new recruits, how we brag, how we bond and as well written as these calls are, it loses something in being read and not told.  I love reading the authors blog, and would love to actually meet him in person and hear his stories.  I give this book a 6 out of 10 lights and sirens.
Do you like to read books that relate to your work?  What are some of the oral vs written story issues?  Do you ever feel like trying to write down your crazy work experiances?

Spoiled!

Had a fabulous weekend.  Started with an excellent work out session in beautiful weather with the Hubbin, followed by dinner and fun with my bestie L.  Got my lazy bum out of bed early Sunday to run rehab and EMS for live burns, which is essentially where I get to set a building on fire multiple times and tell my firefighters to put it out.  It was a ton of fun and I learned a lot.  The part that may have been the best is when my awesome, amazing Hubbin came home with this!

Book pillows

I got the awesome open Alice in Wonderland one, that is not only super cool to look at...but pretty darn comfy as well.

ThinkGeek

This is what the other side looks like.  There are two more, Treasure Island and Sherlock Holmes which I eventually want to get, but they are not "open" so they are not quite as cool as my Alice one.  How lucky am I to have such an amazing Hubbin who knows me so well to get me the perfect gift to lift my spirits.  It is now sitting on my reading chair, the perfect comfy addition to my book time.