« Let’s RALLYE for Team Canada 🇨🇦 !!! »

Wear your maple leafs proud everyone!  Sarah Shaw and Kelly Thompson talk about the upcoming top-ranked EMS competition  Rallye Rejvíz, in the Czech Republic. These two women are part of a four-person, all-female paramedic team who will represent Canada and go up against the best in the world! For 24 hours they’ll face twelve different scenarios, in every environment, over a 40 km radius. That’s pretty badass.

They also talk about how to bounce back from burnout and PTSD, plus the tools they use every day to stay fresh and clear-headed.

Rallye link: https://rallye-rejviz.cz/programme/

Sarah Shaw link: https://www.instagram.com/lady250?igsh=MWV4MTB2NTV5anR1aA==

Rallye Team Canada 🇨🇦 link: https://www.instagram.com/canada.medic.1?igsh=MTdobTRzcGowaHZibA==

STAND UP! featured artist is JORDAN FRIESEN.

Jordan is a paramedic specialist for BCEHS and an accomplished musician and singer. He wrote one of my favorite songs of all time back in 2012, Last Goodbye. He plays all the instruments, sings, and mixed the song himself. You can hear the track in the last five minutes of the episode.

Music by Jordan Friesen link: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2rGVXsqkQ4sLklrM3llc7d?si=NSDzIM_bQoeooQdp8pdDbA

Contact the show here: standuppodcast@outlook.com

https://www.facebook.com/share/1NWriiensE/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Support the show! buymeacoffee.com/tawsechrisz

Thanks for listening. You can see the recorded video on YouTube. I have business page up on Facebook. Please feel free to reach out and comment, like or follow me on your favorite streaming platform. 

Have a good day. ☺️

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to Stand Up, a Pit Meadows podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

On this, the first episode of my rebranded show, you'll hear me talk to two female paramedics who are about to compete in the most fierce pre-hospital care competition in the world. You hear how the event is going to unfold, how they've dealt with accumulative trauma, and why getting a dog might be the single best thing you can do to wind down. Enjoy the show. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the podcast. I'm your host, Chris Toss, and I have not one but two guests on the show today. Both women are paramedics here in the Lower Mainland, and they are also teammates on a four-person all-female team representing Canada and the world-renowned international medical rescue competition, Rally Rabies. Saying it right, good competitive rally. Or just rally. The competition takes place May 26th to the 31st in Rabies Czech Republic, and they're gearing up and getting ready to kick some ass over there. Everyone, please welcome Sarah Shaw and Kelly Thompson. Welcome to the podcast. Oh, we're so I'm so excited to have you guys here. Um, I thought we'd go back to the beginning a little bit. Sarah, where did you grow up and how did you end up choosing emergency medicine as a career?

SPEAKER_05 1:24

Um, I grew up in Cranbrook.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

In Cranbrook.

SPEAKER_05 1:27

Um, I was planning on going to law school of all things. Oh, the law school was my goal. And uh went to college in the States and then came back and kind of applying for law schools, and then actually um Eileen Boyd taught me an OFA 3 course of something I just wanted to do to pass the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:50

And uh Eileen, my understanding, is now 61 alpha one. Um she has moved to downtown Vancouver, which is like full circle. So she's at least not here. She's in Vancouver, and uh then I realized I kind of wanted to be an ambulance driver or attendant versus an ambulance chaser.

SPEAKER_04 2:09

Right.

SPEAKER_05 2:10

So I switched, uh, decided that you know maybe law school was not where I wanted to be, and then went into TCP school and then then on from there.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 2:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

How did you end up going to this uh the school in the States?

SPEAKER_05 2:21

Um I went, well, colleges in America offer a lot more scholarship than Canadian schools. So I was um a musician growing up. I played violin and trumpet, and then I uh uh went to like band camps. You can make jokes about that. Uh and I met a lot of people down there in schools and they they really uh recruit from some of these camps, and then I went to Minnesota.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Oh, Minnesota. Oh nice.

SPEAKER_05 2:49

So I went there for four years and you know, still keep in touch with everybody down there.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:54

Um a lot of Americans are you know a little embarrassed with today's current climate. Yeah. Um, but you know, I keep in touch with everybody. Yeah. And uh then came back here and decided to go a different way and yeah, it comes back full circle.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, I'm hearing that a lot from like Canadians that are down in the States. A lot of people are like, we're sorry about everything going on. We hope it's over soon, right?

SPEAKER_05 3:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Um, Kelly, what about you? Where'd you grow up and how'd you get started with all this?

SPEAKER_05 3:21

I grew up in North Vancouver.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

You did?

SPEAKER_05 3:23

Okay. Um, I actually wanted to be a paramedic in high school. And it was the one thing I wanted to do. And I did similar to Sarah, I got a scholarship to go to university in the United States as well.

SPEAKER_04 3:35

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_05 3:35

Um I went to school in California, I was a water polo player, so I had an athletic scholarship there for a little bit. And when I came back from school, because I was just didn't like the states anymore. I uh worked for a few years and then, you know, did the usual did my EMR training, licensed, and then I uh enrolled in PCP school, and that was over a decade ago, and here we are.

SPEAKER_04 3:59

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_05 4:00

I think if I and the other team members are a lot more athletic than I am, I was in music week. Um I think uh Sarah, other Sarah plays rugby and uh Magda is definitely a volleyball player.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. She's tall.

SPEAKER_05 4:14

Yes, very athletic stuff in this competition tall. Good job from the size, you know?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Yeah, yeah. Well, that's a good segue. So let's let's get into that a bit. How how excited are you for the international competition rally uh? I'm very excited.

SPEAKER_05 4:30

I think this will be my fifth time going. That's amazing. In like um I've been as a competitor twice with Canadian teams, competitor once with the British team, combined British team. I went once as a judge, and then this year will be uh a team that I'm kind of organizing on my own and trying to get like everything that I really enjoy about the rally and everything I experienced that I thought was beneficial. I'm trying to like pass that along to other people instead of the group of people going. So um I'm excited to see people that I think are very like-minded have their first experience, and you know, I I I totally love it going and all the benefits that it's given me. I hope to give that to them.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

So tell us about the team that you've assembled.

SPEAKER_05 5:16

Yeah, so this team, um when I assembled it, I'm looking for people that are good travelers. So a lot of it is, you know, oh well, this didn't work out, this didn't work out, we have to adapt. Um, people that are a little more rigid in their travel abilities, I say, have a lot more trouble.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:35

Yeah. So flexibility is key, and you know, being comfortable, being uncomfortable. Like we gotta get on this crappy train now when we were supposed to be on this, you know, fancy plane or what have you, you know, ability to adapt is key. And like people that you can get along with outside of the call. Um, I've worked a lot with Kelly. Uh she's got pulled over to work with me in the U West, and I really like working with Kelly, so I figured it seems a good one to have on our team. And the other two ladies, um, I've worked with Magda, and she was again very adaptable and flexible. And then also Sarah can really highly recommend it. And um, everyone's traveled. I know Sarah's competed with um what's it called? World Place and Fire Games? Well, World Place and Fire Games, and she's gone for rugby, so she's also a world traveler. So all three came very highly recommended.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yeah.

unknown 6:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

So I know Magda works in North Langley, yes, Station 267, and then Sarah works at Richmond. Richmond. Okay. Yeah. And you're in the US and you're in North Vancouver. So that's cool. And then I'm in 57 and we have a rich song.

SPEAKER_05 6:42

And also with this competition, a lot of it is being able to think outside of the box. Um, so knowing your your skills and your ACP protocols, and then they'll throw things at you, and you just kind of have to adapt and think outside the box. So a lot of um experience outside of work and you know, outside of like the typical JI call that we wait for is really beneficial.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Why don't you sort of tell us a little bit about what the layout of the competition looks like? I know I was researching uh some of it, but I thought you'd probably be better off explaining kind of Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:13

So it's in its 29th year, so they've really had a time to tweak it. And it's uh every year, this seems like there's a new country onboarding. Like this year, I think you have Croatia for the first time.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Croatia, cool.

SPEAKER_05 7:25

Which will be cool. Um and how it works is you you show up with your team. If they're local to the area, they'll drive their own ambulance and compete out of their own ambulance. Uh, we clearly aren't gonna be bringing an ambulance. So I'm very impressed. No, well, wouldn't that be interesting? Um, so they give you like an old Czech ambulance with a driver that typically doesn't speak a whole lot of English, and at the beginning you go like, oh my god, how are we gonna do this? And you just you just roll it. It's a good time. So they will give you a schedule, and we're we're team one, I believe, on the list, and we registered super quick. We're team one, and uh you'll be assigned to an ambulance and a driver, and then you'll get a list of you need to respond to this sim at 0415 a.m. and this sim at you know 1620, and then they'll give you show up, they'll give you a little piece of paper with a little brief description, which I tried. It is sometimes a red herring, don't always like take it literally, about what you're gonna go into, and then you go in and you do the sim. And there's locals and there's paramedics and firefighters and police there, and they all participate, and there's makeup, there's moulage, there's injuries. A lot of these calls are what we call halo calls, so high QD, low occurrence, so the shit that you're like, oh my god, this could be you know career ending, but then you do six in a row, and it's okay because it's in a sandwich, it's in a semi-supportive environment.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

But it's really realistic, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 8:54

Because they have actors with like um you know special effects and you know, probably like you know, nailing you and bullying you and uh we had like a firearm, the weapons call it happening, oh you know. Um and then the other thing that's really interesting is our competition is happening right next to a police competition, and it's a very like tactical like SWAT type competition, and that's running alongside us and intermingle with them throughout the comp and you do at least two where they'll pull in like a TAC unit and they have to kick a door down and drag a guy out for him to treat. Oh, that sounds super fun, and then they're they're you know doing their thing, yeah, not in English, and you know, you have to make it work, and it's it's um it's a good time.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

So a lot. I was reading about it. Um, so the competition layout is like 40 square kilometers, like yeah, kind of around a side. Exactly. It's around a couple of small towns, and you do up to 12 scenarios, I think, over a 24-hour period.

SPEAKER_05 9:56

24 hour period, you have an assigned amount that you have to do with a nice schedule.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Yeah. So the start of it is when you kind of go into the ambulance and you get taken to the call and then you do the sim, and then you kind of go on to the next thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:10

And there'll be likes in between.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Yeah, there's a there's a lunch and a dinner, yeah, right? And then the night portion starts at seven at night. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:20

It all just kind of melds in each time.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

You're up for the whole time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:25

You have designated times when you nap. I don't know if I actually sleep because it you you remember being on a pager. Yeah. And so I don't know if you actually sleep. You get some downtime in there and you get some debrief time, do good calls, and you'll do bad calls, and you'll kick yourself like, oh, that thing.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

Right.

SPEAKER_05 10:44

And then, you know, the good team will like learn from what they just did and then apply and move forward.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yeah. Well, I'm sure that you having your experience is going to be great for the prep, kind of the flight over, and then just getting settled in and just kind of like letting them know what to expect. 100%.

SPEAKER_05 11:00

And competition medicine is different than real life medicine.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Right.

SPEAKER_05 11:04

You know, you not every patient will you go in and be like, I want two large four IBs.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Right.

SPEAKER_05 11:09

You know, it's overkill, unnecessary. But competition medicine, you Yeah, you're getting marked, you're getting jumped. You know, I'm telling everyone to give antibiotics, two grams of NCF for everybody, and you know, I don't.

SPEAKER_04 11:22

No.

SPEAKER_05 11:24

But uh it's and it makes you really think and dig deep into the like our treatment guidelines where normally we would maybe stop once we transport the hospital. We're doing the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Well, you're on a timer though, too, aren't you? You're on the timer.

SPEAKER_05 11:36

So you want to get it all done at that time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

So, Kelly, have you done it before? I've never done this before.

SPEAKER_05 11:43

It was one of my first shifts with Sarah, and she was like, You should come to Europe.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

I should, yes.

SPEAKER_05 11:49

Kelly's really good at at that what is it, the the Jeanist quoi, where she can think outside the box. We went to a call with um someone that required a lot of sedation. There's a lot of moving parts, and uh I was like, okay, really good at this. She stayed really calm, and like police are yelling and people are freaking out, and you know, there's some awkward access egress issues, and we made it work. I'm like, uh-huh. She she'd be good at this.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

That's cool.

unknown 12:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

And then you had the money and the availability, and ready to go, right?

SPEAKER_05 12:21

So yeah, the money we fundraising.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Oh, you did. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 12:24

We are still fundraising. So uh yeah, uh plug for our event on April 21st at the Starlight Casino in the US.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 12:31

We're having uh beer night. Burgers and beer. And there's gonna be a 50-50. Yeah, yeah. And all the So far we've had quite a few people RSKP, and you can't go or buying 5050 tickets. Yeah, and so you can remotely buy it a 50-50 ticket. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Probably have to post that because this episode's gonna come out a little bit after that date.

SPEAKER_05 12:57

But the event was a good success. We earned thousands and thousands of dollars. So thank you, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Exactly. It's an invite and a thank you for happening right now. So that's hilarious. So tell me a little about the town. I mean, like it's it's a small, cute town founded like 500 years ago or something.

SPEAKER_05 13:20

Yeah, it and um it reminds me of like small um ski town in Rosslyn.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

I haven't, but I've seen pictures of it. It's a cute town.

SPEAKER_05 13:30

It reminds me of that. Um, exactly like you land in Prague and then you get on a train. And this year I think what we'll do is we'll get on a train with the with the British. O'Kelly's gonna meet my British friends, they are an absolute hoot. Um, usually get on the train, you know, you have a couple uh beer because beer is actually cheaper than water in the Czech Republic. Um it it is, it's it's definitely a culture thing, and then you get off the train like right at the base of this little ski lodge, and you just climb up the hill and you're there. And it's um Gateau Atco type lodging, you know, it's a 1990s style with a ski lodge feel to it, and there's a cafeteria in the basement and like a little bar, and that's where the base of operations is. And as far as the town, um, it's maybe like an hour from Poland.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Okay, yeah, it's right up to the house.

SPEAKER_05 14:23

It's beautiful. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

It looks really nice from the pictures and stuff. Yeah. So what are the calls that you're gonna be going into? Uh you're gonna be going up to 12 and you've done it before. So what can you kind of explain a little bit of what each one's gonna kind of look like the scenarios you might be throwing in?

SPEAKER_05 14:37

Try and give some like overall examples. I don't want to give like too many specifics because we're gonna be running the other teammates through, and I want them to like be able to do it organically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We will always do like one cardiac arrest. Um, they'll throw in some weirdness, like maybe the cops will drag the patient out, or even there'll be a weird toxicology component.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 14:58

There's always one cardiac arrest uh that you work on, and there's always one MCI that you work on. We've been training with the 10-second triage. Uh, that's like the British model that seems to work really well for us. Uh, so like a plane crash or on bus flips or something. And then there's a variety of other things. There's some you know, skills competitions, there's some team building competitions built into it. Um an example of a really fun and interesting one we did was they uh their parachute didn't open.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Okay. And it fell from the sky.

SPEAKER_05 15:35

Yeah, but at the beginning of the sim, they're like, only three of you can go in and you have to lug up all your equipment up this hill. And you look and it's a ski jump.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 15:44

So you leave one person behind, and then the three of you pack all your gear up this hill, and you get to the top and you're winded.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:50

Right? And then they go, okay, treat the patient. But only after one person screws this tiny little light bulb into the laryngoscope, I'm like, oh my god, of course you're winded and you're shaking, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Yeah, I see now your fine motor skills are kind of shot.

SPEAKER_05 16:07

And you're, you know, and then you finally throw them the equipment and then they can treat the patient. So like stuff like that. And then there was um there's ones where you have the whole family shows up to a birthday party and you gotta find where the actual patient is in the house.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Oh, okay. That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_05 16:26

Yeah, every everyone will do it a little bit differently.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:30

And so another sidebar, when I was a judge, um, I found that was super rewarding. So I went as a judge and they had me standing in this little check house in a bathtub with a checklist. Okay. And they had an actual cop was there, and then another doctor, and we were kind of like marking. And close quarters, it's muggy, and um, we had to watch every team come in and run this cardiac arrest in the bathroom in a tight environment.

SPEAKER_04 16:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:59

And I saw so many different ways to run a code. Uh like the Greeks versus the Slovaks versus the Austrians versus the Americans, the British. Like everyone did it a little differently. And some had like phenomenal communication, and some were like, you know, and you know, the communication is definitely key, you know, cardiac arrest, but everyone did it a little differently. It was just it's kind of neat to see how you know those other ways to get the job done.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Right.

SPEAKER_05 17:28

Whereas we all work for the same provincial agency, we don't always see we're all trying to do it the same way. But so you step out and you go, Oh, there's other ways to do this that work.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Right.

SPEAKER_05 17:36

You can bring that back to BC and you know, integrated.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Can you give an example a little bit? Because it is pretty straightforward once you start going on to the compressions and you know, the airways.

SPEAKER_05 17:50

I don't know how effective it was because we had a machine that was not depth, but they would like stand on top and do CPR from from up top, and then they had they would switch and they would all rotate. And it was like, that's interesting, but it worked for that.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

So they would straddle the ball.

SPEAKER_05 18:07

Yeah, on their feet. Okay, okay. And then you had like some teams will interface. Some teams will put in an eye gel, some teams are would bring in a Lucas or a Lucas type device.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Okay, you can use that.

SPEAKER_05 18:19

You know, and some teams brought it in thinking it would be effective for them, and it didn't work so well for them.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Right.

SPEAKER_05 18:24

So yeah, it was the Swiss were really effective. I believe they had a Lucas device as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

That's cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:30

Hopefully they weren't hauling that up.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Yeah, that's true too. Yeah, I was thinking we'll be hauling up to Lucas on that mountain call, but yeah, you know, yeah. Uh who do you uh who do you think your biggest competition is gonna be?

SPEAKER_05 18:43

Um well my my Slovenian buddies aren't coming back this year. They won gold last year. They were the team to be. Um, the Swiss are always amazing.

SPEAKER_04 18:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:56

The Austrians are always incredible. Um however, they're they have a doctor in their group, so they kind of work out of a different uh set of rules.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 19:06

So they're not graded the same as us. Um, there is another Canadian team that has a doctor that is going to that I think that's the first time we've had a team with a doctor on board. So that's gonna be neat. Um, the Romanians are sending a team. Uh the Cypriots uh are sending a team. Normally they have a competition in Cyprus, so they're sending a team finally to they're good. Uh it's all pretty tight.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, it sounds like it's a good, healthy competition.

SPEAKER_05 19:36

Yeah, the Americans are sending a team, they're always a team. Like when we won silver, they won gold. They did us by, I think, like 20 points or something.

SPEAKER_04 19:44

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_05 19:44

Just a team of two from New Jersey.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

Oh wow. I love it.

SPEAKER_05 19:47

Yeah, so I don't I don't know who's coming from the states this year, so we'll find out, but it could be like our department in New York, always really, yeah, really efficient.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

Yeah. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

So the um the doctors with the Paramax is like a subgroup, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 20:02

Isn't there like one group that's just a little bit of a couple of things Yeah, there's like international competition has so many teams, yeah. And then if you have a doctor, you're graded a certain way, and you don't have the doctor graded a certain way.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Right. Okay. And then the police have their own sort of uh part of a competition as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:17

Just on the other side of the building.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:19

And they integrate at least a couple times.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Yeah. So that's so cool.

SPEAKER_05 20:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

And is it always in rabies or is it in it's always been there.

SPEAKER_05 20:27

It's always been there.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Okay, yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_05 20:29

And then the ones that you've done in Cyprus, um, yeah, there's there's competitions all over the world, right? But the one in in Rally seems to be like the top one.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:40

Cyprus, so so Rally is I'd say 80% ACP skills. That's kind of the the medicine they're pushing for. Um, there's a sprinkling of like unit chief leadership type stuff. Then there's maybe like a critical care call in there that's you know, and if you have you know critical care skills on your team, you can get extra points that way. Okay. Cypress is a little different, it's only held every two years. I say it's more medicine driven, less emergency situations, more like more critical care in scope.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Yeah, yeah. And then it seems to have a bit of a search and rescue component in there too, right?

SPEAKER_05 21:16

Cypress, yeah, they had us repelling down a cliff to get down to the guy with a TBI at the bottom of a rock face. Yeah. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Fun. Yeah. Yeah. Packaging them, roping them out. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_05 21:30

And we'll be right back after this short commercial break.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

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SPEAKER_05 22:57

And now back to the show.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

So kind of bringing the interview a little bit back now to what you do, you know, every day for your job. Um, are there any calls that kind of jump out to you? Some of your you know, best calls, some of like the as it come to mind.

SPEAKER_05 23:18

Not really. I think um I don't know, I'd say some of the the crazy best calls you do are up north when you're far from from help and you have to maybe stay with the patient for like you know 24 hours uh because there's no nursing staff available in the clinic or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Because you were up in Prince George.

SPEAKER_05 23:35

Or no, Prince Rupert. Um so up in Prince Rupert, there's a helicopter taking you to some of these remote communities and not a lot of backup. You know, your your partner is, you know, someone on the other end of the phone in in ambulance dispatch. Okay, I'm gonna intubate this patient, and this is my plan.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:57

You know, and normally you'd have a person to talk to, but you don't, you've got an LPN and a lab tech and a doctor on a stick.

SPEAKER_04 24:03

Right.

SPEAKER_05 24:04

So you're like, well, so you call, you know, someone in uh Vancouver to walk through the plan, and I'm like, yeah, that's your plan. Go ahead, God speed.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:13

And do said plan and then fly the patient out. Yeah. And someone else can take over from there. So pretty different medicine up there for sure. Yeah. And down here, uh the camaraderie has been amazing. And you know, when you do a bad call, it's it's a big group effort, and I find that there's very little you have to train the people around you up down here to do. They they know what to do already.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

No.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:45

Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Once you're in Vancouver Coast, it's like because yeah, you have so many resources, it's like, especially for me as a PCP, I just get to offload everything onto everyone else, it seems. I'm just like, she's she's a promoe, and she's definitely and she knows the scopes above uh her PCP level, so she knows what to anticipate what we're gonna do next. So don't sell yourself short.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

For sure. And then you know, we also get a lot of big calls with without AOS being on the call. Yeah, you know that. And uh like we have that out out here as our closest piece our ALS truck is at least eight minutes, yeah, ten minutes away sometimes. Yeah. So it does allow you time to move and treat and package and and get going and do meets and kind of fun things like that.

SPEAKER_04 25:34

So you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Um I like this uh question because I find we get to see like really like you know, common people doing like really kind things for for patients and family. Does anything come to mind for you for that?

SPEAKER_05 25:49

Um I don't know, I have an idea, but you got one. Yeah, like for me, working in North Van, we deal with a lot of really elderly people. Yeah. And some of the most rewarding calls, and this seems really strange, are the ones where I've had a patient who's been doing made that day. And they're doing made that day. And in the hours leading up to it, their family just hasn't been hoping, or they're in palliative care, and their family just doesn't understand what's going on. And so, like recently, this was just in the past couple months, I spent three and a half hours in someone's house with them because their loved one was very palliative end stage, and they just weren't prepared for what that was gonna look like. And yeah, it is really rewarding. Like medically, I didn't really do too much, it was a lot of social, and like I, you know, through doing like the palliative week course and all that, like you're able to help them with their palliative meds and introducing the family to how to use them and helping them make their loved one more comfortable, or yeah, for sure. Spending that 45 minutes on scene with someone the day they're doing made is just a really, really powerful to be in someone's life at that point in the focus. Yeah, yeah, and and they get stuck less. Exactly. Yeah, it's gonna suck.

SPEAKER_04 27:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:06

And being able to have that real conversation with the family, being like, I'm really sorry you're going to do this, this yeah, exactly freaking suck. And it's not easy. But someone wise once told me like you could be the perfect clinician and nail the medicine a hundred percent. But if you are an asshole, that's what they're gonna remember. It's true, you know, versus you, yeah, mediocre medicine, and you yeah, you know, oh, maybe you club up a little bit here, but if you treat them with kindness and you just treat everyone like they were your grandma, you know, they're gonna remember that and they're not gonna remember any mistakes they've made.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that was one of the best pieces of advice I got when I started was um kind of like what you said treat everyone like your grandma, except he said treat everyone you would a family member or a friend. Yeah, you know, which is so true because you wouldn't screw over a family member or a friend. You would be able to like, oh, they're not at their best today. I'm gonna just you know look past it and you know, continue treating them well and all that kind of a stuff, right? So yeah. Um can you talk a little bit about the time that you were off with the PTSD component a little bit, just because I was curious of what sort of uh signs and things you were kind of well that and also kind of the signs that you were seeing leading up to it as well.

SPEAKER_05 28:21

Yeah, so I guess to start with uh talking about how we are not normals. I call people no normals, and we are not them. Uh we've chosen this job, and I mean I do this job here overseas, you know, lots of different areas, but this is the life we've chosen, and we have our side hustles and nothing. But um, we can't expect the normals in our life to fully appreciate it and understand it because then they'd be dealing with the same trauma, right? So, you know, my family, like uh Curtis, uh Aaron, Tyler, my parents, everybody, they support me 100%, but I can't expect them to fully understand, you know. So they leave if you think nope, because it would be just not fair.

unknown 29:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:08

Then you have to find out. I do the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Yeah, you know, I don't I don't want to bring it home.

SPEAKER_05 29:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But at the same time, like you have to have, I believe, this is my anecdotal theory, that um like trauma that you experience is kind of like bad gas. And if you don't let it out, it matters.

SPEAKER_04 29:25

Right.

SPEAKER_05 29:27

That's a great analogy. It's like I've been so lucky in most of my jobs all over the place that I've had a team or a squad or a group that I could like, you know, debrief with after the call. I had an amazing boss when I was up north working in all these like tiny little places all by myself. Great boss that backed me, great teammates that backed me. Um, I have a lot of RCP friends that I've built over the years that also get it, you know, and whoops, and they uh they they experience the same shit, right? So you have that outlet in which to kind of let the gap up.

SPEAKER_04 30:05

Yeah, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:07

And what I found was that was fine for me. Like I can go to things and process it and like let it out with my core group of people. But at one point I moved to a different job and um it was a very much a boys' club. And you could tell right from the get-go that they didn't want me there. In fact, they're very open about that.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 30:26

We don't want you here.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Okay, great. Thanks for the welcome.

SPEAKER_05 30:30

So so in my mind, I was like, that's okay, I'll win them over, it'll be fine. Um, but it wasn't. And then like I found myself didn't have that outlet, didn't have any family, friends, anybody there. So I just go home and stare at a wall. That's when I didn't let the harsh shit out, and that's when it affected me, and it felt like it affected me overnight. And I found I was like hesitating, can't make a decision, not sleeping, um, just starting to go into this spiral. And then everyone remember, what is going on with me? We don't recognize you, and then like your employer doesn't support you, nobody believes you when you're saying these things, and it just keeps compounding. And then on top of all, you're still going to traumatic things at work, yeah. Just compounding and compounding, and finally got to a point where like I can't do this anymore. Yeah. And I went off. And uh then the loneliness kind of continued. It wasn't until I got out of there that like improvement began. It's been a long time to get myself back to normal. Um, I've had again like RCP counseling that's been fantastic, and then you know, move to a different location, get yourself out of that shitty situation, and it's just been getting better and better and better. And I find I'm like back to where I was before. And now I still go to horrible things and still experience horrible things, but now I have friends and teammates and a decent boss again that that I can, you know, offload things to and that understand where I'm coming from.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

It's a lot better than it was before.

SPEAKER_05 31:58

Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's all about building that team. So again, like this group of girls we're gonna go to the rally with they are kind of like what I picture people that I would offload some of my stuff to.

SPEAKER_04 32:13

Yeah. Yeah. Well you have to, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Like they're the ones that uh understand it, you know, because they do the job. And you know, we all we all kind of help each other out that way by doing the whole shop talk, you know, and the bumper talks and you know, talking about a call, unpacking it a little bit. You know.

SPEAKER_05 32:32

And there's another person really wise told me that if life keeps handing you lemons, you can make lemonade for so long until you're just drinking sour acid. Yeah, you need to change your beverage.

SPEAKER_04 32:45

Yeah. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_05 32:46

So you get over there and and make a change and yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:51

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

I um have found that the critical incident stress has been good because I was recognizing I was like waking up still thinking about a bad call one time. Yeah. And the reason why that happened was because it happened right at the end of my last night shift on the last call. So you kind of just go from a bad call to over being over. You get in your car, you go home, you shower, you go to bed. Yeah. So you had like no time to really process or talk to anyone about it, you just want to get off.

unknown 33:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Um, so then when I was realizing I was still thinking about it while I was making my breakfast, I'm like, I'm gonna call someone. Yeah, you know, and it was a lot, uh, it was it was helpful. Yeah, I just spoke to someone out of the Save on Foods parking lot, you know, like in my car, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um have you dealt with anything, Kelly, with you know how much I actually took your year off, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:48

I was off for a year as well, and I actually didn't recognize the symptoms in myself. It was my spouse who was the spouse that was, yeah. He he's a mountie, very lucky. And I came home from work one day and he said, You're not good anymore. And he was like, he pretty much told me that if I tried to go to work, he wouldn't let me because I hadn't slept for a couple days and okay, and it was just like a compounding, like a buildup of everything. I had been working so much to try and push everything down, like that it just eventually, yeah, it boiled over. And taking that kind of change of scenery, like I went from having yeah, not super great supervisor to having a mediocre supervisor, and then when I went off and I came back, I switched platoons entirely, and I came back and I had just like phenomenal leadership and support when I came back and great partners and a great boss as well. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Yeah, our manager right now on D Platoon is really good, you know, Ryan Topp. Yeah, like his name breaks. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's all about support, yeah, you know, and he wants to be there and help, and he is always mobile, you know. He'll always kind of make sure that he touches base with you and checks in and sees how you're doing and you know if you can help with anything, you know.

SPEAKER_05 35:10

That's what you want in supervisor, right? Like supervisor should it's a support role in the end. Yeah, it's it shouldn't be there to in like it's they're there for a purpose, but like it's most ish in my mind it should be a support role.

unknown 35:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

And how did you how did you take that when your husband said that? And uh, oh, okay. You were bargaining, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:35

You have to stop. He's like, You're not going to work. Stop. He's a smart dude. Yeah, listen to him. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Yeah. And then for a year or two, then how did you how did you find uh it was the right time to go back?

SPEAKER_05 35:50

Um, I was getting bored.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

You were getting bored, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:53

Just like I went from filling my days with all my appointments and all that stuff and taking care of myself and you know, just getting back to it. And then the pat last few months before I went back, I was like, I'm really bored. Like I miss it. And I went back and I had a brand new partner at work, and he him and I had worked together before I went off, like when we were both uh e-break still. And I was just so lucky to have him, and then my then he left me. Broke my heart.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

I hear you. We've all we've all been there, haven't we?

SPEAKER_05 36:22

Yeah, exactly. And then my Jess became my great partner, and I was just so fortunate. Uh and then I started working with Sarah quite frequently that summer. Like, I think we were partners pretty much all last summer. Yeah. Yeah, I had 47 like every while. Yeah, 40 47 on Sequitune is the place if you wanna work them, who cares?

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Yeah, yeah. Well, I tried that time when they were just like, no, we have to have the spots open for the mentees and stuff. Oh yeah. You know. I've worked one T Parada S car so far. Yeah, it's that was in or 49, but it's it's good.

unknown 37:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Um, because I've been told like, you know, as long as you just go in with an open mind that you want to learn, you know.

SPEAKER_05 37:08

Um it's just a different look at this. We're all going to the same calls. Yeah. Right. And it's ACP adds a layer. Um, you add a little bit more diagnostic. It you know, usually, not always, we're a little older, a little more experienced, but not always. Um, you know, you can add a little bit of experience to the call, a little bit of medicine, a little bit of pain control, but for the most part, the PCP PCPs are who are getting it done. You know.

SPEAKER_04 37:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:38

I they are sprinkle a little bit of this and that to bleed, you know, a little pentamole here and there, but without the basics being done, it's uh it doesn't get done.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yeah. I've been copying like the way you know ALS and even doctors kind of manage a room, you know. Yeah. But just sort of like really getting good at delegating, understanding kind of what you need to do and the questions you're gonna ask it kind of before you get to the patient, you know. Unless you're really worried about the airway or something, you just kind of jump on it right away. But if it's sort of like a dynamic thing, you're like, okay, you know, so I've been working with a lot of newer medics and kind of trying to teach that to people because I tend people to just kind of get right in there. And then that's a big thing that's oh for sure.

SPEAKER_05 38:24

So that's that's human nature. Yeah, right. Once that's the nervous system gets stimulated and you focus your your eye, you actually narrow your vision. Like it's proven.

SPEAKER_04 38:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:33

When you're under high, high stress, you actually don't see the big picture. So that's where you gotta be able to make yourself out of it.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Well, last time I had to do that for like an arterial, I'm kind of like you know, clamped and I'm like, okay, and then I just like ran the call with like one hand on it, and then the rest of telling people to kind of do all these things, act because the patient up, and it was a good call, you know, more psycho MBA, you know. Um so we were touching a little bit on um, you know, like kind of coping skills and and things that you know we kind of both do, um that we all do to to kind of help. Do you have anything else that you that you do to kind of help unwind?

SPEAKER_05 39:10

Um well, you know, without sounding like a broken record, you know, limiting alcohol is huge. You know, we we all go and have that beer after. Yeah, but you know, if it's more about the camaraderie, that's a good thing. Then, you know, the beer itself. If you find yourself sitting there having six, then maybe it's not around the camaraderie anymore.

SPEAKER_04 39:30

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 39:30

Right? So you limit alcohol, that's proven to you know, making for hydration, which we don't even think about it. Um and you know, eating, right? Don't go and drown your sorrows and some you know, back the McNugs, which is easy to do. Yes, right. There's all these things that they they teach us that are just you know hard to actually put into practice, but we should try. And um, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and if I could say one thing to get a dog. Get a dog, or a kitty, yeah, or animals. Yeah, animals are wearing animals.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:03

Yeah, you you roll home, you look like hell. Maybe there's some residual puke on your knee. It is the best day of their life, dude. Yeah. They're like, oh, you're back, you're back. Yeah, and they just love you no matter what. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

Well, they distract you too, and they just, you know, they make you get all squishy, ooey gooey. Yeah, exactly. You know. Uh what about you, Kelly? Any anything else that you do? Um, and travel. And travel, yes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:33

Traveling. Um, yeah, make sure you have a good support network. Everything Sarah said that's really sad. But build your team, build your team, travel, all the health things you talked about. Get a dog. Yeah, these animals. I got really big into gardening. Like a lot of like a lot of women of a certain age. We can still garden you are like when you just you just that scap that root ball with this thing. Yeah. Very therapeutic. Yeah. Let out all that back up.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

Exactly. There you go. Yeah. My friend Andrew just uh my one of my old partners, I just loved. Um, she just sent me some pictures of her garden and she's growing, like, you know, a lot of these small plants that she's gonna plant and stuff, and it's helping her out as well. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_05 41:14

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're all in the container garden going on my head.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

Well, I want to thank you for coming out. I really appreciate you coming out on this Monday. It does go by quick, doesn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:25

Oh, before we finish, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't promote my friend, Jeff Jacobs. Yes, Langley Township. Vote for this September. Vote Jeff Jacobs. You know Jeff. We love Jeff Jacobs. He's amazing. He is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Yeah. I uh actually thinking of having him on for like a future show. But yeah, just to like every people understand, Jeff Jacobs has been running to try to get on like city council, I think, twice already.

SPEAKER_05 41:54

He missed it two years ago by like two votes.

SPEAKER_02 41:59

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05 42:00

I'm like, that must be a joke. Yeah, you can't be serious. And he missed it by two votes.

SPEAKER_04 42:07

It happens. He's such a good dude.

SPEAKER_05 42:09

He's so like personable and reasonable and like level-headed. Yeah. I think like Langley right now, it just bonkers.

SPEAKER_04 42:18

Is it?

SPEAKER_05 42:19

Yeah, a little bit quite familiar with a level headed mellow fellow that you need in there.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Yeah. Well, and he's also been like really focused on it. He's not letting it get him down. He keeps trying, and he's yeah, doing a lot of volunteer work and stuff too. So yeah, I love it. Boat Jeff Jacobs is good.

SPEAKER_05 42:37

Speaking of elections, I'm gonna do a bit of shameless. Oh, yeah, we should at least.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Okay, there you go, Kelly.

SPEAKER_05 42:43

Yeah. Um, so I've been nominated for the two West region to be our regional shop steward. So I'm shelfing for votes. Okay. Already voted. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Go into the uh APBC site and uh cast your votes.

SPEAKER_05 42:58

Kelly Johnson.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

I will vote for you, Kelly. I promise. Yeah. Well, good luck to both of you um next May. I can't wait to hear about it, and we'll let everybody know that's listening of the results. And I'm excited for you. I think it's gonna be amazing. Yeah, right? Yeah, nice, awesome.

SPEAKER_05 43:19

Thanks for Peaches for tolerating us.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

My cat Peaches has been hanging out with us just flicking away, jumping on legs. Yeah, exactly. All right, awesome. Take care. And now it's time for this episode's featured artist. This is a friend and co-worker of mine for PC Emergency Health Services. He did everything on this track, and I mean everything. He sings, plays the guitar, bass guitar, piano, and the drums, plus producing and mixing the song. Here's the super talented Jordan Friesen with his song Last Guy. Check this out.

SPEAKER_06 44:22

In the spaces between where we thrive off fell, inches from being a walking cautionary tail We share with a love counts in a ribs, a wounded animal hole, water lost in fear And now you're coming back for what remains my bride You've always had your way, but I will have a safe style Yes I've been a man where you wiped your feet your life Foot up just do the wall Stood up all this I'm a between too far away too long I became the poster boat for regret I crossed that line line line I want your food but I see the love I don't want your fickle love No your love may rise Don't want your love your love they ride And now you're coming back Who I remained my price You always had your way But I will have myself It's up in the match Where you wiped your feet your life But I've dusted a whole I've stood up for this good song Love that musician That was my friend and colleague Jordan Friesen with his song Last Goodbye Want to thank Sarah Shaw and Kelly Thompson for driving out to my house and agreeing to be on the show.