Monthly Archives: June 2014

Jun272014

Products I Love – Energy Fizz

Dispatchers need energy. Period. They do, honest.

OK, we all need energy. Whatever line of work you are in, we all need some extra energy to make it through the day, able to do our best.

It can be exhausting to deal with other people’s crises for 8 – 12 hours per day. You need to be thinking clearly, and able to focus. Can’t do that when you’ve had a “sugar crash” and/or are groggy from lack of sleep or not eating right.

I need my energy fizz; I can really tell a difference when I haven’t had my “fizz” for the day. Some day’s (i.e. graveyard shift) are “2 fizz” days. I just mix this into 16 oz. of water in my water bottle. It has a small amount of caffeine, and the best part is the B vitamins it pumps into my system.

I Love These! Always a boost of energy and focus.

So much better for me than Red Bull or all the other “energy” drinks. I don’t get the “crash” that you have with other products. Just sustained energy, and no jitters. Just one products that make my job (and life) easier.

Arbonne has built a worldwide reputation for health and beauty, based on three simple words: PURE, SAFE, and BENEFICIAL. Their products contain no dyes, no parabens, and no perfumes (the only exceptions to this would be the special Holiday Products that are available this time of year). Arbonne prides itself on it’s commitment to using the very best ingredients, and leaving the artificial/harmful ingredients to be used by other companies.

“High-energy fizz sticks help promote alertness and enhance cognitive performance and also help promote endurance and enhance motor performance. Contains antioxidants. Contains an adaptogenic blend combined with B vitamins and chromium to help boost energy.”

If you want to learn more, you can check out my . Or you can go directly to the Arbonne site and check them out; if you want to sign up as a Preferred Client (which I highly recommend – you get 20% off on anything and everything that you purchase from Arbonne), you can use my Consultant # of 16237841.

Jun252014

Wordless Wednesday – 6/25

Sometimes it takes a great deal of strength to say this word.

Jun202014

What I Learned at the Fire Station

As part of my job, I sometimes go on what are called “ride alongs” with some of the agencies for which we dispatch. This gives me (us) a better understanding of what a regular day is like for our first responders, and hopefully will help us in our job of dispatching for them.
This past week I had the pleasure of spending the day with the folks at Station 2. There are 10 working fire stations within this city agency, and Station 2 is located in the northern area of the city. Originally, I had been scheduled to ride with Station 3, but my brother-in-law (who is a captain at Station 2) called the training supervisor and changed my “deployment” for the day.

No, these are not the guys from Station 2. Made you look. :)

So, here are the lessons I learned at the fire station last week:

I am too short to be firefighter – well, maybe not technically. My daughters tease me about being the short one in the family. I tell them I am not short – I am fun-sized. So I really hadn’t given it much thought – until I tried to climb up into the fire engine. I am sure I looked pretty awkward, trying to grab the bar inside the cab and haul myself up into my assigned seat in the back.
Females can drive fire engines, too – and drive them very well. Our driver that day was Sara, and she is my new hero. She sent us barreling through the streets, code 3, dodging vehicles, and easily making all the corners – and I wasn’t even scared. Take that, all you female-driver-bashing troglodytes!
Firefighters like recliners – in fact, the TV room at the station is full of them. Don’t think these guys and gals are lazy, though -because they’re not. Hey, you try pulling a 24 hour shift, fighting a house fire all night, then having to come back and respond to medical calls all day, in addition to doing all the regular chores than need to be done around the station. They have earned those worn Lazy Boys, my friends!
Firefighters are great cooks – and they eat well on shift day. I have no idea how well they eat every other day of the week, but I know that when they are on shift they are eating well. OK, maybe not so much when a particular captain makes “Oregano Soup” – but I was told that was just a fluke.
Elderly women love firefighters – we had a call at a local grocery store where an elderly woman had fallen and hit her head. When the engine arrived, she was sitting in a chair that store personnel had provided for her, bleeding from the face with a big lump on her forehead. She didn’t want to go to the hospital, she just wanted someone to call her husband so she could get home and put her groceries in the refrigerator. She was about to refuse transport by the medics when a couple of the firefighters stepped in and talked her into going to the hospital to get checked out, saying that if she were their mom or grandmother they would want to make sure she was alright. She smiled sweetly, and said “Oh, all right. If you think that’s what is best.” Score one for the firefighters. Our captain volunteered to call her husband and let him know what was going on, and the store personnel agreed to put her purchases into their fridge unit until someone could come back and get the groceries.
And yes, you CAN make a delicious lasagna out of butternut squash! I just had to throw that in there for Mike!

And for more “ride along” fun, here’s a post about my police/sheriff’s department ride along: http://jrrmblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/policesheriff-ride-along-yesterday-fun-times/

Jun132014

Calling 911 – Part 2

I talked in a previous post about the first thing we want to know when you call 911 – WHERE ARE YOU?
Now we get to the next most important question -WHAT IS YOUR EMERGENCY?
And that is exactly how I will ask you the question – “What is your emergency?” I want to know if you need police, fire, or medical help. So tell me, briefly, what you need. It’s helpful for me if you “cut to the chase” – seconds count, and I am not a mind reader. Something like, “My husband has fallen, and he broke his leg.” That gives me a good idea of what you’re dealing with and the type of help you need.
Also, when I am entering the information for the medics and/or law enforcement responders, I start with what we call the “chief complaint” on the first line. They like it that way. It gives them a snapshot of the emergency. Kinda like a headline in a newspaper. Then I fill in the details as you and I continue our conversation.

I ask a lot of questions, and I ask them in a certain order, because that ‘s what is most helpful for the medics and/or law enforcement responders. We have a list of the “Six W’s” that we go through: Where, What, When, Who, Why and Weapons. And we go pretty much in that order, except that sometimes the Weapons questions gets asked right after the Who question – for officer safety reasons. More on that in a later post.

We think of it as an upside down triangle; the most important info at the top, then tapering down to the details – “painting the picture,” if you will.

I am typing while I am talking to you – dispatcher and call takers are ninja multi-taskers – so don’t think that my asking questions is slowing down the response. Often, I have the call in and dispatched as soon as I know the location and “chief complaint” – so don’t be yelling at me to hurry up and get them to your location!

Screaming at me doesn’t help

So, to repeat – don’t blather, and ramble. I know it’s difficult, but resist the urge to get every piece of information out there all at once. The best thing you can do when you call 911 is listen carefully to the questions that you are asked, and try to answer them calmly and quickly. That saves time for both of us, and gets help to you that much more quickly. And that’s a goal that both of us can agree on.

Jun122014

Calling 911 – Part 1

Over the past 6 months or so that I have been learning this job and taking calls, I have found that folks generally don’t have a real good idea of what happens when they call 911. Now, after seeing things from “the other side”, I get that. I wouldn’t have known anything about calling 911 either – you just push the buttons “9-1-1″ and somehow help magically arrives at your door. (Ok, I knew it wasn’t quite that easy. )

But there is a little more to it than that. There are ways that you can actually help the 911 dispatcher to get help there faster, and some things callers do that really slow down the whole process considerably.

So here’s a few ideas of what to do (or not do) when you call 911 – don’t worry, I’ll make it real clear which is which.

These will deal with what we need to talk about first – WHERE YOU ARE:

DO tell me your location, ASAP. Lots of folks will automatically do that, and I appreciate it. Some people start off with telling me their name – that’s nice and all, but what I need to know first off is WHERE YOU ARE. We can get around to introductions a little later in the call.
If you call from a cell phone, remember that I don’t know where you are. On my screen I see a latitude and longitude for your location, but no house number and no street. Please be clear about where you are – the more exact, the better.
Be ready to tell me your house number and street name. That’s best – again the more specific you are, the faster I can get help to you. If you don’t know the exact address of where you are, then tell me what street you are on and what is the nearest cross street. If I can get that, I can describe to the first responders how far you are from that intersection and in what direction, what side of the street you are on, etc.
When you call me, DON’T SHOUT! This is especially true when you are on a cell phone – they tend to distort when you speak louder, so try to speak in a normal voice. I know that you probably have a lot of adrenaline pumping through your veins at that moment, but try to stay as calm as possible – this allows me to better help you since I can get information from you more easily.

Right up there with where you are, I need to know what’s going on. Some people may think that’s the crucial piece of important. I say it’s in the top two – but if I had to choose between WHERE YOU ARE and WHAT’S HAPPENING, I choose to know where. Cuz if I know what’s happening, but not where – I am not much use to you – I can’t send help to an unknown location. If I know where, but not what – well, I can at least start by sending law enforcement and a medic, to “cover my bases.” I guess my thought is that it’s better to send too much help than too little right off the bat; you can always “recall” an engine or a deputy while they are en route.

Next post – how to tell me what’s going on.

Jun102014

All Set To Solo!

Well, I have been given the word that (barring any unforeseen circumstances) I will be “going solo” as of July 7th! This is what I have worked for and prayed for over the past 6 months. What a satisfying accomplishment! My training has had it’s ups and downs, but lately things have just “clicked” for me, and my trainer has really noticed that.

I have a ride-along scheduled with the fire department/paramedics for this Thursday, and then Friday I change shifts to start graveyard. That will be a big change for me, a morning person! But who knows, it might just work for me. It will be a totally new experience, whatever the outcome.

When I am solo, my shift will be swing shift. That will also be new – but I think it will allow me to have time to spend with my daughter and take care of her activities this summer. Here’s hoping. And I will try to keep up better with this blog. I know I haven’t been posting as often as I would like, or as often as I think about wanting to post something.

So this next month will be exciting -the challenge of switching shifts, and the anticipation of seeing my training come to an end. But then, if I am honest, I will probably never stop learning or training. There’s always change, and always the need to grow and adapt to that change. This past 6 months have taught me that very clearly!