{"id":40207,"date":"2016-11-21T16:18:53","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T23:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/?p=40207"},"modified":"2016-11-21T16:20:05","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T23:20:05","slug":"the-positive-paramedic-project-episode-111-joys-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/2016\/11\/the-positive-paramedic-project-episode-111-joys-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The Positive Paramedic Project Episode #111 | Joy’s time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"201611joy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Time is an essential part of life in EMS.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Counting out the seconds in your head while taking stock of a patient\u2019s pulse.<\/p>\n

Watching the chest rise and fall and keeping track of the number of breaths per minute.<\/p>\n

Performing compressions while keeping time to Stayin\u2019 Alive looping in your head.<\/p>\n

I remember the first time I met Joy.<\/p>\n

My office was at the end of the hall in The EMS House.<\/p>\n

A straight-line shot from the expanse of the front porch to my cramped chaotic office with its collection of clinical guides, select works of fiction and more than a few choice vinyl LPs, i.e., Lou Reed\u2019s Transformer, Led Zeppelin\u2019s Houses of the Holy, and Bruce Springsteen\u2019s Born to Run. No turntable in sight but I had the soundtrack at the ready should one have ever materialized.<\/p>\n

I remember the day she applied to be a medic. Seemingly impossibly young – she sat in the chair next to my desk and I reviewed the form she had completed in the hopes of becoming part of our medic training program. She was an outstanding candidate.<\/p>\n

When I got to the part about \u2018Emergency Contact\u2019 info, I paused. Her mom\u2019s name was listed. I couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry. I don\u2019t think you can be a medic here,\u201d I said with a smile. I didn\u2019t give her time to react. \u201cI grew up with your mom \u2013 and well \u2013 we can\u2019t be old enough to have children old enough to be street medics\u2026 You\u2019re in, Joy. Welcome aboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

True enough. I had gone to elementary school with her mom, Heidi.<\/p>\n

I asked Heidi if she remembered when Joy applied to join Cote Saint-Luc EMS.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo my reaction at first was \u2013 ha-ha \u2013 you were too shy to go for a tour at the station \u2013 and now you want to work there? In reality, I knew right away she would be amazing because she always wanted to be on the front line and since she was little liked to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shyness wore off quickly. Joy was a ball of positive energy \u2013 passionate about providing emergency care and compassionate with those on the receiving end of her care.<\/p>\n

Her mom isn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoy was delicious and a wonderful child. Structured from day one. Caring, loving and shy \u2013 and yet nothing stood in her way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nothing at all. Not even cancer.<\/p>\n

Last April \u2013 in the midst of balancing life as a mom, a first aid coordinator for an elementary school, and as a medic for Cote Sant-Luc EMS, Joy was diagnosed with aggressive invasive ductal carcinoma. Breast cancer.<\/p>\n

I visited Joy somewhere in the middle of her course of chemotherapy treatments. I was worried. I hoped I didn\u2019t show it. Something had told me it was time to tuck in a visit and so after a quick call to ensure it was all right, I was there ringing the doorbell.<\/p>\n

No hugs allowed. Her immune system was severely compromised. Her morale was battered and yet \u2013 with the support of her husband and children and family and extended family \u2013 Joy wasn\u2019t in surrender mode.<\/p>\n

Her long blonde hair was gone \u2013 along with her eyebrows \u2013 and she was wearing a bandana that gave her a bit of the wild child medic edge I had grown very fond of over the years. My concerns were allayed by the spark of fire in her eyes.<\/p>\n

At the end of October, after 24 weeks and 16 treatments, Joy became a chemotherapy graduate. She allowed herself the luxury of working a couple of Sunday evening shifts with her beloved partners at CSL EMS and together with her family, they tucked cancer into a dark corner and they focused on living life well.<\/p>\n

On Thursday \u2013 this coming Thursday \u2013 Joy will undergo surgery. The double mastectomy will be performed with the goal of ridding her of any traces of the cancer she has been doing battle with for the past several months.<\/p>\n

It will be tough for Joy to allow herself to become a patient again. However, she\u2019s determined to complete the process she set out upon immediately after learning she had cancer. \u00a0She\u2019s working hard towards normal \u2013 when smoochfests with her children won\u2019t be associated with the end of a round of chemo.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is an amazing mom which is the most important. Cares for her family. Her determination and commitment is beyond anything. I could go on but I won\u2019t. I am proud of the woman she has become but she will always be my little girl,\u201d said her mom.<\/p>\n

The little girl who became part of my fabric of time as a paramedic. I was there when she was cleared to work as part of the crew for the first time. And then \u2013 14 years later \u2013 I worked one of my last shifts as a medic with Joy \u2013 who after kicking cancer\u2019s ass – will pass the torch to someone else and continue the cycle of practicing big medicine.<\/p>\n

Be well.<\/p>\n

Hal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time is an essential part of life in EMS. Counting out the seconds in your head while taking stock of a patient\u2019s pulse. Watching the chest rise and fall and keeping track of the number of breaths per minute. Performing compressions while keeping time to Stayin\u2019 Alive looping in your head. I remember the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[411,17711,21726,15350],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40207"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40207"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40212,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40207\/revisions\/40212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigmedicine.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}