5.4.25
Yesterday was a rather strange day, a somewhat special one, yet strange. I say special because it was the day of our annual Monument Volunteer Ambulance May Day fundraising dinner, an event we EMT’s have been hosting for years and years on the first Saturday in May. Strange, because I was not there to lend a hand and join our crew serving the many folks who came to eat delicious food and support our fundraising endeavour. It was an odd feeling.
I cannot even recall how many years we EMT’s have been putting on this annual event. It began back when we had a crew comprised of most of us who took our basic training together back in 1998. Of that original crew only Carrie Jewell and myself are left. As the years passed, many of our classmates left the ranks due to family and other commitments on their time, some moved away from the area or left due to health reasons. Yet through the years we have been joined by others who had the calling to become EMT’s. Every one of them has become a welcome and special member of our crew. Right now, there are five of us serving as volunteers on our ambulance, Carrie Jewell, Teawna Jewell, Julie Erickson and our latest recruit, Sam Gilbert. Oh, and me!
Although we function under the auspices of Blue Mountain Hospital District in John Day, we really are an entity unto ourselves in many respects. As a non-profit organization we own our ambulance and much of the equipment on it. Years ago, we began a Public Access Defibrillator program in our community, supplying local establishments and the school with AED’s long before it was a common thing to do. We meet and train monthly to keep up on our skills and continuing education needs and upgrade our training equipment when necessary to help meet those requirements. On call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, our little volunteer crew will drop everything to respond when that pager goers off.
That is why yesterday was so strange and these last few months so hard for me. I have not been able to be there for my crew. With the unpredictability of my blood pressure which can suddenly drop to frighteningly low levels, the last thing I want to do is keel over on a patient right when I am about to start an IV! As such, until this dicky heart of mine is fixed, I have pulled myself off from responding on the ambulance. With these precipitous drops in blood pressure, the cardiac electrophysiologist lowered the dosage on my heart medication. Unfortunately, that has not stopped my bouts of the wobblies and now my arrhythmia is breaking through the medication! By mid-afternoon as my heart starts having a party in my chest, I find myself out of energy and often weak as kitten. Hence, my wonderful teammates insisted I not worry about helping with the dinner preparations and encouraged me to stay home and take care of myself yesterday.
Sitting here this morning sipping my tea, I cannot help but think about our little ambulance crew and the dedication they have. Yesterday afternoon saw an outpouring of support from folks near and far. Some drove for miles to attend the dinner or bid on items graciously donated to the silent auction. Although I may not have been there in person, helping to serve up the meal, I was there in spirit. I feel so blessed to be part of this amazing group of people, and hopefully soon I will be back on the team.
In late July I will be going in for an ablation procedure which with luck will fix my dicky heart. The type of arrythmia I have, unlike the more common atrial fibrillation, can apparently be tricky to fix. However, I have faith I will be back running on all 8 cylinders again soon. In the meanwhile, my stellar ambulance crew pals are manning the fort, ready to respond when that pager tones out day or night. Bless their big hearts!
