Thursday

Today was sort of a preparation day. I rested up for the long weekend coming up. I am doing a 24 hour shift with A, then I have a kayak race on Sunday and another 24 hour shift with A on Monday. I had kayak practice with the team and I did some "community service" and drove a friend's mom to the airport in Manchester. 

Night Call

(written at 0:05(12:05), but the internet shuts off at 0:00(12:00) so I was unable to post until now)

I just got back from a call. I am not sure how much is considered confidential so I will be a little vague on the details. The call came at 21:45(9:45) to the house of an elderly woman complaining of chest pain. She described it as feeling "like somebody had tied a rope around her middle and was pulling on it." She rated it as a 10, but she appeared to handle it very well. She reported to have taken some Codine (left over from a surgery in January), but this did not seem to make her feel better. She did not have any alergies. She had last eaten at 19:00 (7:00). We loaded her on to a stair chair and then to  a stretcher. Transport to FRH went very smoothly and her vitals stayed constant. I am very glad that I do not have a shift starting at 6:45 tomorrow!

Wednesday

Today I got to see the other side of rescue work today. I was not scheduled to work a shift at Franklin today so I trained some gates for kayaking and ran a river with the team in the afternoon. We ran the Winnipesaukee ("Winny") River, which runs right through Franklin. It was a nice class III-IV run. We avoided the "Room of Doom", an old mill foundation that had water pouring into it and would trap you inside, and made it through the monster holes. However, Ali's boat went through a nasty one that ripped her out of her boat. The fast water sent her boat speeding downstream. Luckily she got safely out of the water, with only some scratches and a pair of bruised knees to show for it. Her boat sped down under the railroad bridge and right over the mill dam. A man working at the mill reported that he had seen "a red boat crash through the dam in about 20 pieces." We scouted the river for fragments of Ali's boat and finally found it in a strainer down by the fire department. We waded down to retrieve it and found it in one piece...but very torn up. When we reached the street we found that we had drawn quite an audience. The rescue truck, ambulance and rescue boat (as well as a few cop cars) were all waiting  and ready to pull people out of the dam. I can imagine how it would seem from their prospective. Seven kayakers, mill dam, people in the water, broken boats. Luckily everyone came out of it OK with only a slight subluxation of Ali's shoulder (but it is a very common injury for her). Still alive.

Tuesday (12 hours)

Jake's was not open for my morning caffeine, but I had some quality coffee with the guys at Franklin. I think with it being my first day I put a jinx on the shift. We had one whole call and it was about power lines that were down. I just tell myself that it's a good thing because it means everybody is OK. I did get to go to FRH with Steve to replace some of the meds on Engine 1. This week is also "Student Government Week" so some kids from the high school came over to see what it's like to be a firefighter. We set up a ladder next to the tower and practiced climbing up and repelling down. I attempted to learn the "Aussie" way (repelling upside-down). Afterwards, we took out all 8 ladders and scrubbed them down. My first day involved lots of cleaning. After dinner we did "station chores." I stuck around a little after 7 hoping that something would happen. Not so much. Friday will be good. 

Monday

Day 1 of Senior Project 2008!! The schedule that I worked out with Dept. Chief Smith did not start me until tomorrow so I did some preparation for my project. I worked on planning out my schedule and spent the afternoon washing the East Andover ambulance with Diane. I am looking forward to my first day tomorrow! I got all of my gear from Phil and I've already tried on my stellar "uniform". I have a 12 hour shift with D tomorrow starting at 6:45 am. I hope Jakes is open early so I can stock up on coffee and Red Bull :)