Who is Joe Riffe?

Until recently, Joe Riffe was living a similar life to most of us in EMS. He worked as a paramedic and enjoyed his line of work. He was engaged and looking forward to getting married. He enjoyed the outdoors and was a very active person on his days off. That all changed literally in a matter of seconds. A terrible incident left him initially fighting for his life, but in the long term he faces a much bigger fight than he ever imagined.

There is simply no way that I can tell his story with any justice, so I urge you to visit his blog and start reading from the first post. It’s a very inspiring story that has honestly changed a lot of my outlook on life. I have realized all the simple, yet important things that I take for granted every day.

Many people – hell maybe most people – in this world would give up and probably never work another day in their life if they were ever placed in Joe’s position. It would turn into an excuse, rather than a challenge. So needless to say, it absolutely warms my heart to see such a dedicated person take on such a difficult challenge with as much determination as Joe has.

Here is a preview of Joe’s bio:

Howdy, I’m Joe Riffe, hopefully soon to be known as the Prosthetic Medic. I am starting this blog to chronicle my journey from a bipedal to unipedal and the struggle to prove that even on one leg I can still be a great paramedic.

Do yourself a favor and follow his story. It’s one that all of us in EMS need to read and follow. This could easily happen to any of us and it’s so important for us to realize that accidents like this don’t have to keep us down.

I’ll be placing a donate button on my blog. It’s the least I can do to help a fellow paramedic fight this battle and get back to the job that he loves. If you can drop him a little something, that would be great. It’s perfectly understandable if you can’t, but what you can do is spread the word. Let his story be heard.

http://prostheticmedic.blogspot.com/

2011 was a big and memorable year for me and my family. My wife and I started the year staying up all hours of the day and night taking care of our new beautiful baby girl. We were just returning back to work after taking a few months off to care for her. Looking back, I still don’t know how we managed. Finding reliable daycare was a challenge so we spent a good amount of time working opposite days and hardly spending any time together. We eventually came up with a system that worked us while not breaking the bank, but it certainly didn’t take the stress away.

About the same time we were tackling the challenge of raising a baby, I left my job in management and returned to the streets as a field paramedic. It was a difficult adjustment financially and logistically, but I truly feel that it worked out for the best. For once, I felt like my time was truly my own, and that allowed me to spend more quality time with my wife and kids.

I would say the highlight of 2011 was watching my youngest daughter grow. It seemed like every day she was (and still is) learning something new and becoming more mobile. As she continues to grow, she looks and acts more and more like her mom, which is a good thing! When I look at her with her bright blue eyes and beautiful smile, it reminds so much of when I met her mother and started trying to “work my magic” to convince her to date me. It also reminds me of how being persistent paid off.

One of the more notable accomplishments of 2011 was our decision to move to Texas to start a new life together. It all started with us sitting around the bedroom one night and coming up with the idea to move away from California. About a month later, we were on a plane to Fort Worth for my first job interview. This was only the start to a stressful and sometimes discouraging period of time. We traveled to Texas several times, made countless phone calls, applied to many different jobs, stressed over daycare options, worried about finances, and struggled with reciprocity issues for our professional licenses. My job search ended with a phone call and a Skype interview at a local Children’s Hospital while my wife’s ended with a job offer during our final trip to Fort Worth.

The move was bitter-sweet. Saying goodbye to friends and family was no easy task. After nearly 7 years at my job, it was hard to clock out for the last time and head off into the unknown. My wife and I started work shortly after arriving here in Texas and settled in without too much difficulty. We miss our friends, but the excitement of going back to school, buying a new house and starting a new chapter in our lives keeps us going. I got lucky and landed a gig playing drums with a popular band around here. I’m playing shows that I never thought I would do and I’m meeting people that I never imagined meeting. I’m working for 2 great places. The children’s hospital really opened my eyes to world of pediatric medicine and it made me realize how much I love working with kids. The job at rural ambulance service was a much needed change as well. Big-city EMS was getting to me in a bad way and I didn’t like the person that I had become.

I’m really excited to see what 2012 brings us. As far as my career goes, I’m starting up school again with plans for much higher education. More on that later. I have some plans for my blogs that I can only hope time allows me to accomplish. I also want to get back in shape and start getting back into the habit of eating healthy. But most importantly, I want to make it my goal this year to let nothing stand in the way of my family life. My wife and I endured a lot of stress making these changes possible, and I think it’s time that we get to enjoy the benefits that this move has to offer.

I hope y’all (that’s Texas talk right there) have a great year and are able to fulfill each and every one of your goals.

1 year ago, today, my beautiful daughter was born. After over 30 hours of painful labor, the moment we had waited 9 months for had finally arrived. My wife gave birth a beautiful little girl that weighed 7 pounds and 7 ounces, looked just like her daddy (thank you very much), had tons of hair, and started raising hell from second she exited the womb.

Now, let’s back up about 34 hours…..

I was at work, about 8 hours into a 48 hour shift, when my phone rang. My wife informed me that her doctor had decided to induce labor today. I got a little light headed and nearly passed out from excitement. I called my boss and informed him of the good news. I left work, ran home, grabbed our bags and headed over to the hospital.

My wife and I were waiting in the room for the staff to start the Pitocin drip to induce her labor. We were both full of joy and excitement…….until the Pitocin drip actually started. Little did we know, we were about to endure nearly 2 days of painful contractions, hunger, back pain and lack of sleep.

I spent the majority of the time on this little couch that converts into a bed. Of course, it doesn’t really do a good job of either. I read about every issue of Gun’s and Ammo, American Rifleman, Maximum PC, and about any other gun / tech magazine you can think of. When I wasn’t reading, pacing around the room or writing on my blog, I was snoring so loud that the nurses had to come in and assess my airway and consider intubating helping my wife out with her every need, like the good husband that I am.

At the time, I worked in the area for the local ambulance service, and my wife worked for the same hospital network as an ER nurse. Of course, we pretty much forgot about any and all medical training during the whole thing. If it wasn’t for the fact that ambulance crews and nurses were stopping in to say hi, the staff probably wouldn’t have even known that we worked in the medical field. Which is the way I usually prefer to keep it in these types of situations.

As time went on, the labor pains grew, and discomfort skyrocketed. It seemed like there was nothing my wife and I could do to make her more comfortable. This is course was followed by agitation, restlessness and creative profanity. I quickly learned that there wasn’t a whole lot I could do outside of grabbing the nurse for help or retrieving more ice chips. As this went on, I got to thinking about what we are taught in school about the “stages of labor” and how all of that is a bunch of BS. That’s when I wrote this post on the “real stages of labor”.

Fast forward about 12 hours, and we were all standing on edge. The doctor was at her side setting up and she was ready to deliver. I was pacing back and forth, not really sure what to do. My mind was going a million miles an hour and I’m pretty sure that if you would have placed an ECG monitor on me you would have seen some sort of crazy narrow complex tachycardia that warranted electrical intervention. I called my best friend to tell him that it was time. He arrived minutes later, and from what I was told by his wife, he broke enough traffic laws to land him life in prison.

When our daughter was delivered, I immediately noticed the thick brown hair and stunning resemblance of her father. The delivery didn’t go without problems, unfortunately. She never really took as big of a breath as they had hoped for, and she actually wound up spending a few days in the NICU. At the time, this was really hard for us to not be able to hold her and play with her whenever we wanted, but we knew it was for the best. After a few days of observation and tests, they finally let us take our little girl home……and we haven’t had a good nights rest since. Fast forward a year, she’s healthy, happy as can be, still raising hell and  looks just like her mom. But that’s OK, I’ll prevail next time!

Today we are gathering our family together on this beautiful Saturday afternoon in North Texas to celebrate Lilly’s first birthday.

Happy birthday Lilly!

I recently started my new job at the Children’s Hospital and I start work at the rural ambulance service in about a week. I knew that I was in for a change from big-city ambulance work, but I had no idea how big of a change that was going to be. I have never worked in a hospital setting before, so needless to say, I feel a bit overwhelmed.

Working in a single-medic ambulance setting is relatively simple. The paramedic is pretty much responsible for everything that happens to that patient from the time he / she arrives to the time the nurse signs the PCR. If something goes wrong, the higher-ups go straight to the paramedic for answers. One person handles the majority of the patient care, does all of the documentation and is responsible for giving report at the hospital. It’s a lot of work, but it makes “covering your ass” much easier.

I am beginning to see that the hospital setting is much more complex. It’s almost like a giant puzzle and everyone from housekeeping to the trauma surgeons play an important roll in making sure all the pieces go together right. My roll as a paramedic has completely changed from the pre-hospital setting that I was used to, but that’s not a bad thing. For the first time, I’m truly getting to see the long-term effects of treatment and how our interventions in the field affect the final outcome of the patient. I’m still using my skills as a paramedic but I’m no longer just treating patients for the first 15 minutes of their emergency.

I’m really fortunate to be in the position that I am. I work for a hospital that really values and respects their paramedics. I’m not in some pecking order and I’m not getting dumped on by nurses and doctors. All of the staff in the ER are very friendly, respectful and willing to help and answer questions. The mutual respect among all the healthcare providers is something I haven’t seen in a long time.

During my first few weeks I learned some valuable lessons about life inside the ER:

1. Being on your feet for 12 hours is rough. Good comfortable shoes are a must.
2. There is no acceptable explanation for long waiting times. People are just going to be mad.
3. Having a Starbucks inside the hospital is best and worst thing to have at a place of employment.
4. Heat? What heat? Air conditioning is my friend.

Several months of planning, traveling, interviewing, licensing, transferring and stressing have finally come to an end. As most of you know, I have been working very hard recently to complete my move across 3 state-lines to plant my family and I in the Lone Star State. It certainly hasn’t been easy, but the hard stuff is pretty much over and life is once again beginning to normalize.

While the labor-intensive “hard stuff” is over, the emotional “hard-stuff” is just beginning. Yes, I’m very happy here in Texas. I’m excited about my new job, educational opportunities, music opportunities and the biggest one of them all: A chance for my wife and I to start a new exciting life together in this beautiful town. What’s hard is realizing how many friends and close family I have back in California and that I can no-longer see them on a moments notice. While I’m excited and enjoying my new job, I still miss my old one. The friends and experience I gained at the big ambulance service is simply irreplaceable.

The actual process of physically getting here was quite the adventure, and one that I promised I would share with everyone. I have operated some big vehicles in my time, but nothing like the 26-foot-behemoth that I rented to literally haul everything I own. Fortunately my sister volunteered to take on driving “The Beast” with me for the 1,500-mile road trip. We met some interesting people, ate some interesting food, and saw some really cool stuff.

It took me about 18 tries to back that trailer down my street so I could load my car on the ramp. I guess that’s what happens when you have NO experience backing with a trailer. Regardless, we were all loaded up and ready to hit the open road.

Despite my excitement at the time, we were only moving 30mph climbing one of many hills on our way out of the central valley. This was one of many factors that put us way behind on my estimated travel time.

One of the first interesting things we noticed was before we even left the county. A train pulling a caboose? I can’t tell you the last time I saw that.

While not even half-way, it certainly felt like we were making progress once we crossed over the Colorado River into Arizona. This also meant no more 55mph speed limit for vehicles towing trailers. While I thought that meant I would make better time, it actually just meant that the semi-trucks would be passing me left and right. A 75mph speed limit doesn’t do much good when your vehicle isn’t capable of traveling at that speed.

Not long after crossing into Arizona, we noticed a large building shaped like a golf ball. I pulled out my handy Android tablet and read somewhere that somebody actually lives in there. Perhaps a better location for it would be on a golf course…..

We settled down for dinner at the “Roadkill Cafe” in Seligman AZ, which turned out to be a really cool old Route 66 town. Unfortunately, it was already pretty dark outside so I wasn’t able to capture any decent pictures of the town. We toughed it out until we finally hit the New Mexico state-line and crashed for the night.

We started off the next day the right way: Early and with plenty of energy drinks.

I really wanted to snap some pictures of ambulances and fire engines during our drive, but unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of opportunity. This particular engine is from the “Gallup Fire Department”. We stayed the night in Gallup, NM and learned that it is probably the worst town ever, which would probably explain why this crew was speeding away from the town at such a rapid speed…..

My sister and I quickly learned that New Mexico apparently loves explosives as much as I do.

This meant one of three things: Either we took a wrong turn somewhere, Las Vegas was relocated about an hour West of Texas, or there is literally NOTHING on highway 84 if the closest town they can reference is Las Vegas.

We made it! Well, kinda. Still had about 8 hours of driving ahead of us…..

I unfortunately figured out what happens when you drive too long without sleep……This was actually taken at Cadillac Ranch just outside Amarillo, TX. Very interesting piece of art.

Best. Steaks. Ever! Sat down for an awesome dinner in Amarillo. Home of the “free” 72 ounce steak.

Worked on my marksmanship while awaiting a table….

Nothing says “Welcome to Texas” like a country-western band that plays music at your table while you eat. Great people.

As we were rolling into the Dallas-Fort Worth area, this song came over one of the local radio stations. I found it very fitting….

It wasn’t official until I had some Texas beer in my fridge. NOW I can say I live in Texas.

Somewhat tongue in cheek as I know he has lots of reasons for wanting to move to Texas, but I found this interesting and a little bit amusing.

REGION: Stone proposes secession

First of all, my thanks goes out to TOTWTYTR for thinking of me while reading about the constant doom and gloom that surrounds my home in the “Great State” of California. The truth is, the possibility of a secession would be a long shot and wouldn’t happen without long, drawn out legal battles. However, it goes to show the frustration that many of us in California share.

People that don’t live here often look at us as an extremely liberal state, and from a legislative standpoint, they are correct. However, what people don’t realize is that “majority” of the population is more or less made up of the large metropolitan communities like LA, San Francisco and Sacramento. Geographically speaking, there are more communities that closely resemble my town and are fairly conservative in nature. The culture differences between places like my town and larger areas such as LA and San Francisco are extreme. And what is frustrating to people like me, is that since they (the 3 major cities) hold the majority population-wise, our legislator always leans towards their beliefs and caters to their wishes.

Do I think that my way of life is right, or that their way of life is wrong? No. But what I do know is that it’s completely different and I’m tired of having to live by their rules and their believes while my opinions and beliefs are completely disregarded. Obviously, a split isn’t the only solution to this problem. As long as we have the freedom to come and go as we please, then we always have the option to move to a state that better represents our interests.

Splitting the states would obviously come with it’s share of problems. For starters, debt. Yea, it would be nice to cut and run, but whether we like it or not, we also share some of the responsibility. Would cutting the state in 2 mean the south would get away without sharing some of the current debt? I don’t know. But I would imagine the north would put up a pretty good fight over that. Another problem is water. I would imagine that we would find ourselves having to buy a lot of our water from the north being that droughts are a constant problem around here. And finally, we would have to establish a state government with a very small overhead as the counties mentioned don’t have near the tax base as the larger metropolitan areas. But then again, smaller government is the goal of this proposal.

I don’t think such a thing is impossible, but I do think that the general public doesn’t really understand what goes into such a change. I for one won’t be sticking around long enough to see what happens. As mentioned in TOTWTYTR’s post, my family will be moving to “The Lone Star State” as soon as possible.

To my Wife:

I love you, and I thank you for helping me get Lilly out the door this morning. I enjoyed my days off with you and I didn’t want to go back to work today. We have a lot to look forward to these next couple months and I hope our “transition” is smooth and enjoyable.

To my Alarm Clock:

I hate you and I have nothing nice to say about you.

To the Night Shift:

Thank you for using my ambulance as a trash can. I’m happy to see that you were able to put it to good use. I’ll be sure to return the favor next time my unit breaks down and I have to use yours.

To the Bum asking for change at the gas pump:

I can’t give you change……change comes from within, my brother.

To the lady inside Jack-in-the-Box that felt it necessary to show me her foot:

Yes, I am a medical professional. No, that doesn’t mean I enjoy hearing your stories about diabetes and how your foot acquired all that lovely necrosis and fungus. All I REALLY wanted, was to get my large coffee and breakfast burrito.

To my normal partner that is on vacation in paradise:

Live it up, my friend. Because this lovely place will be waiting for you when you get back. I hope you catch plenty of fish, and if you don’t, at least catch a buzz. Oh, and while you’re at it, have a few more beers for me.

To the EMS Gods:

I’ll be making a sacrifice in your name, so take it easy on me today.