I should have known… I should have figured out, 30 minutes into my shift yesterday that it was something going on… not only was it Labor day but it was also full moon. It was set up for a crazy shift and it turned out to be a true shit show (excuse the language). From the get go at 7 am we were dispatched one call after another and everyone wanted to go to Tyler. And those we took to Quitman had to wait for a bed because they were as crazy full as well.
Three times we came back to the station and parked but we never even made it in the door before the next call dropped. We ran in to get the supply we needed so we could even run more calls. We asked dispatched if we could get half an hour break to eat. That was around 17:00 and got that request denied. We had to let them know that we had to fuel up, we were below a quarter of tank and while we did that they dropped another priority one call. Not all calls that were dropped on us should have been ours. There was closer trucks that should have had it, don’t ask me why they didn’t get it. But we were totally slaughtered.

What’s on this picture is just what could fit on the screen, we ran in total 17 calls in 24 hours. That is insane. When you run that many calls you get burned out. There is no reason for a 24 hour truck to run that hard. I left the station wondering if I was going to be able to make it home. It is not often that I am close to tears from exhaustion but this morning I truly was.

Had to make some errands on my way home. A friend needed some encouragement so I wanted to give her a little surprise and had to get the items for it. She works for Christus EMS at the Wills Point station so I stopped by there on my way home with the little gift.

They were not there when I got there, which was almost disappointing but it was kind of fun to knock on their door in UT uniform. (They are competitors for those of you who are not from the area). I felt like a spy or an intruder. Well, thankfully they have a little lobby where I left the surprise and then I texted her that there was something there for her when she got back.
I like giving small surprises when people least expect it but most needs it. It was a good start of my day too!

Came home and took the dogs for a walk. Went to discover a gravel road that I haven’t been on before. Well, I have been on part of it but it is belonging to some kind of private club or organization and I knew it lead to a little lake. Figured I wanted to see what it really was. After 0.8 miles of my walk my clumsiness showed off again and I stumbled on some unevenness in the road and sprained my right ankle. Glad no one understood Swedish right there and then. But I continued to walk to see if I could walk the pain off, not knowing how far away this lake was. Well, I came to the lake but couldn’t figure out the purpose of it, if it is just some kind of private park maybe… Anyway, Twix and BamBam liked it!

There is no stop in this dog. I am so glad I had the phone out so I could capture him taking a swim! Well, it more looked like he thought he could walk on the water and realized that was not happening. It was so funny. But then he went down again so he has no fear of water. He likes to swim! BamBam on the other hand… naaah, he prefers the dry land.

My foot was quite painful when I got home. Decided to take two ice packs to cool it down. But I didn’t want to take my shoe of because I still intended to walk my 5 mile walk!

I did this kind of things all the time when I was a teenager. Even though that is quite some years ago my brain remembers the pain and can ignore it well. Sitting there contemplating with myself if I should go the walk or not I decided to actually do it. I was in a so good routine to walk now and I didn’t want to break that chain. As well, it could be that I could walk out the pain some as well?

There was no rush today, that’s for sure, yet I actually was able to make a pace below 15:00 min/mile which was better than I expected. The first 2 miles was a little rough. Of course my brain focused on the foot. But then it eased up more and more. As long as the road was somewhat even it went pretty decent. I was proud of myself when I got back! I think I have done enough walking for today with a total of 7.9 miles, whereas 7.1 of those on a sprained ankle!

Well, then it was time to take care of that little foot. It didn’t look very bad actually, and at this point the pain was down to a 2 on a 1-10 pain scale. I knew that it wasn’t broken but this will for sure take some time to heal because it is both on the inside and outside of the foot. If you’re gonna do it, do it right, right?

Finally decided that I’ve had enough for a while. Took Twix and BamBam with me for a nap. I had now been on my feet for 30+ hours with no sleep. I was done. Twix is learning this thing with naps. In the beginning he thought it was playtime but now he actually naps with me and Bam. We got about 1.5 hours of sleep before the thunder decided to wake us up. Should have thought about wrapping my foot in a heating pad but I didn’t… it was stiff. But the more I walk on it the better it gets so I will just have to bring out my old muscle treatments with tigerbalm, cooling pads and heating pads and then just be as normal as possible. I have encountered worse pain so it will just be a little annoying for a while!