The last two months had been eventful for Meghan. She was in physical therapy three times a week, rebuilding strength and muscle. She had been discharged from both Dr. Brant’s and Dr. Meyers’s care. She’d put on about 15 pounds, so was nicely trim and toned and no longer looking too thin. And best of all – she was back to teaching!

The EMT-Basic classes had resumed a month prior, and she was enjoying her class of 20. Fred and Meghan had conferred with their boss, Adam Beckett, and come to the decision that Meghan and Fred would co-teach both classes for the semester and then re-evaluate the teaching schedule at the end of the term. This gave Meghan the opportunity to teach as usual, but have the additional assistance she needed with the heavy lifting while she recovered.

Tonight, the topic was airway management, and Meghan was lecturing on protecting the airway. “Can anyone give an example of when we would need aggressive airway management?” she asked, leaning against the wall next to the whiteboard. A couple of hands raised. “Go ahead, Thom.”

“When doing CPR?”

“Yes, but why?” she asked, digging for the information.

“Uh, in case… in case the patient pukes,” Thom replied.

“Good. A patient puking could lead to aspiration, which could really cause problems. Anyone else?” She didn’t see any more hands going up. “Okay, here’s another example: allergic reaction. Why do we need to practice aggressive airway management in an allergic reaction?” Hands started going up. “Jen, your turn.”

Jen glanced down at her notes. “Because the trachea can swell, and it can cause edema in the lungs.”

Meghan smiled. “Right. And I happen to have a personal story to share with y’all about it.” She could see the looks of interest on their faces. She moved away from the wall and moved to stand in the middle of the tables.

“A few months ago I was a patient in the hospital and needed antibiotics. At the time, I didn’t have any allergies that we were aware of and was given IV antibiotics, a cillin. I had three or four doses of the medication without any problems, but the fifth dose brought on a sudden, severe anaphylactic reaction. I was fortunate that medical personnel were nearby. I suddenly felt extremely short of breath, broke out in hives, they could hear audible stridor, and my throat swelled shut to the point that they couldn’t insert an ET tube.” She heard a couple of gasps from her students. “My brother-in-law happens to be a doctor, and he was in my room, visiting when this happened. He performed a tracheostomy and put in a trach tube so I could breathe.”

Meghan stopped and tugged down the collar of her shirt to show off her now-closed stoma. “You can come take a closer look at the closed stoma I have if you like. I don’t mind if you touch it, but please don’t press hard.” She was soon swarmed with students, who took turns looking and occasionally feeling it quickly. As they returned to their seats, she continued. “Who knows how to oxygenate a patient with a stoma? Do you bag a patient over their mouth or the stoma?”

**********

The class had ended, and Meghan was packing up her briefcase with her papers. Fred was likewise cleaning up, glancing sidewise at her. She felt his look and stopped. “What?”

“Just thinking about you and your hospitalization a few months ago. I’m glad you decided to share about your anaphylaxis reaction with the class.”

She smiled wryly. “It drove the point home and got their attention. Plus, you don’t get a lot of opportunities to talk about alternative airway management outside of the ICU, and as EMTs, they probably won’t have much exposure there. Besides, I’d rather field questions about my stoma than be the guinea pig for the medic students doing their first IVs.” She finished putting papers in her case and latched it shut.

Fred chuckled. “You’ve got a point! But I was wondering if you’d mind sharing your experience with not only the other EMT class but also maybe doing a class module for the paramedic students. They’ll be covering airway in a couple months.”

Meghan shrugged. “Sure, I don’t have a problem with it. Just let me know for sure where it hits on the medic rotation and what you’re wanting to be covered so I can put together lesson plans.”

He nodded. “I’ll do that.” He closed his satchel and headed for the door. “See you tomorrow at 6!”

“Bye, Fred.”

**********

Meghan swung by the EMS base before heading home. She went looking for Brandi Carpenter, the district manager, but couldn’t find her in her office, so Meghan headed into the living quarters to see if she could find her.

“Hey, Squirt! What’s cooking?” Jerry came out of his bedroom for the shift and caught Meghan up in a bear hug.

“Put me down!” Meghan protested, her legs coming off the ground. He set her down and grinned. “I’m looking for Brandi. Any clue as to her whereabouts?”

“She left about 10 minutes ago to fuel the Supervisor's car,” Bill said, coming in from the bay. “She should be back soon.”

“Hey, Bill. Tell your partner to go easy on me. I’m fragile,” Meghan joked, winking.

“Nah, I don’t think you break that easy,” Jerry retorted. He walked over to the couch and plopped down. “Have a sit and tell us what’s new.”

Bill headed to the fridge, and Meghan sat down in her favorite recliner at the station. “Well, I have to clear it through Brandi, but I’ve been cleared to return to duty in 2 weeks!”

“Hey, that’s great! Here you go,” Bill handed Meghan a bottle of water, opening another for himself and plunking down in the second recliner.

“Well, it’s about time, don’t you think?” A female voice stated. They turned to look at Brandi, standing in the doorway. “Get over here, girl, and give me a hug!”

Meghan gave her friend and boss a good hug. “Long time no see!”

“You can say that again! I’m guessing you have paperwork for me?” Meghan nodded. “Let’s go into the office and do the boring stuff, get that out of the way.” Meghan followed Brandi back to her office and shut the door partway.

“So where are these papers?” Brandi asked, seating herself behind the desk and waking up her computer. Meghan pulled out a file folder and her planner from her bag, handing the folder to Brandi.

Brandi riffled through the pages inside and pulled out what she needed. She read the doctor’s notes, plus the notes from the therapists. “Are these my copies, or do you need these back?”

“Those are yours,” Meghan affirmed. Brandi pulled out Meghan’s file and tucked the papers inside. “All filed away! Now we just need to see when to get you back on rotation. I know you’re teaching again, so I might just fill you into slots we have open. The guys will be glad to not have so much mandatory overtime.” Brandi smiled as she pulled up the scheduling software. “Let’s see…”

Meghan and Brandi went over schedules for the two months and soon had a schedule in place. They agreed to sit down again after a month to plan out for the rest of the school term. Meghan would be bouncing between partners, but she was glad to see that most of her shifts would be with some of her “preferences”.

“All right! You’re all set unless there’s something else.”

“Actually,” Meghan replied, “There’s one other thing I wanted to talk to you about and try to think about scheduling.”

“Oh?” Brandi leaned back in her chair. “What are you thinking about?”

Meghan smiled. “I’m sure you know my brother-in-law, Dr. Branston, in the ER.” Brandi nodded. “Well, I’ve talked him into taking a couple of days to do ride-a-longs. I’ll need to have him call you to schedule those, but I’d like to take him out with me at least one day.”

“Pfft! No problem!” Brandi waved away the request. “He’s welcome anytime. I’ll definitely put him on with you for a day, and then let him decide when he schedules if he wants more time with you or with another medic. Maybe he can persuade some of the other ER docs to ride along. I think it’d make our job a LOT easier if they saw things from our perspective.”

Meghan nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I told him.”

Just then, the tones sounded, sending the crew out to a 3-car traffic accident. Meghan ran out to the bay and wistfully watched as Brandi hopped into the supervisor car and Jerry and Bill took off in the ambulance. She stood there for a minute, then pushed the button for the garage doors to lower. She let herself out and headed over to Mitch and Kelsey’s house.

Meghan had moved back to her apartment a month before but made a point to go back to visit about once a week. All the time spent recovering over at their home had deepened the bond between the sisters and forged a good friendship between Mitch and herself.

Meghan rang the doorbell, and Kelsey soon opened the door. “Megan!” Kelsey let Meghan in, closed the door, and gave her sister a big hug. “How are you?”

Meghan smiled. “I’m good, sis. How are you? How’s the hand?”

Kelsey led the way into the living room. “I’m doing fine, and the hand is coming along. I’m doing finger touches pretty well now.”

“Good! You’ll have to show me a little later. Where’s Mitch?” Meghan was scanning the rooms as best she could, but didn’t see him.

“He’s in his office. I’m putting some finishing touches on dinner before it goes in the oven.” Kelsey shooed Meghan towards the medical suite before heading back into the kitchen.

Meghan chuckled to herself but headed down the hall to what used to be the mother-in-law suite and knocked on the first door. She could see Mitch at his desk through the partially-open door and knew when he had heard the knock. She pushed the door the rest of the way open. “Hi, Mitch!”

He looked up and smiled. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite sister-in-law! Come in, Meghan! Have a seat.”

Meghan grinned as she sat in one of the leather office chairs. “I got some good news this week.”

“Oh? Care to share?” he asked, setting aside the journal he had been reading.

“I’m done with therapy, and I’ve been cleared to return to the ambulance in two weeks!”

“That’s wonderful! Have you told Kelsey yet?” Meghan shook her head no. “She’ll be thrilled to hear it.”

“I went by the EMS station today after class, and I have my schedule for two weeks out. And I spoke with Brandi about you.” Meghan stretched her head from side to side.

“Oh?” Mitch was bemused.

“Yeah. Remember my inviting you to do a ride-a-long? Brandi is the EMS director, and she also is the one who schedules those. She said you’re welcome any time. I can give you her number, and she’ll get you on the schedule. She’ll pair you with me for the first time, and then if you want to ride again, you can ride with me again or another medic crew, your choice.”

“That would be awesome. I’ve thought about that off and on, and depending on the experience, I might suggest it to some of the other doctors and nurses in the ER.” Mitch smiled and leaned back in his office chair. “So how are the classes coming,” he asked, changing the subject.

“Pretty good. We have one class of 20 and the other class has 25, which is our max. We started our module on airway and breathing earlier this week. I wound up talking about my experience with the class today,” Meghan explained, reaching up to touch her healed stoma.

Mitch smiled kindly. “I bet that was an interesting teaching moment.”

“Yes, it was,” Meghan agreed. “Fred asked me to have a similar discussion with the other class, and also asked me to put together a teaching module for the medic class sometime here in the next couple of months, when they reach that section of the curriculum. He’ll let me know when exactly.”

“Have you ever taught at the medic level?” Mitch asked, curious.

“No, just the EMT-Basic classes. I’ve thought a little bit about it, but it’d take me off the ambulance due to the teaching schedule, and I’m not ready for that yet.”