What kind of work do you do?

I'm curious about the people I'm reading about, or chatting with on here. Tell me about your job, What did/do you do for a living? Any fun stories, or things that stress you out about the job? Do you like your job, love it or indifferent....or loathe it?

I'm a stay at home mom now, but when I worked I was an Air Ambulance dispatcher. My Dad was a paramedic, and later an Air Ambulance supervisor/manager. I followed in his foot steps when he started his own company when I was 16. I started working for him when I was 18. I'm in Canada, but I would say 70% (maybe more) of the flights I coordinated originated in the US and of those about 80% of them ended in the US. We did world wide flights, arranged ground Ambulance and Air Ambulance. If you used a limo, Ambulance, Air Ambulance or commercial flight through insurance (especially one out of IL) our company was likely involved in some way, whether it was setting up the whole trip, or part of it. If it wasn't us, then I probably know the company who did arrange it as we probably at some point used that very same company.

I also was a non emergency ground Ambulance attendant and transferred deceased persons to funeral homes. Mostly I sat on my *kitten* answering phones, talking to people around the world and getting fatter by the day. While I miss talking to so many different people everyday, i don't generally miss it. I do miss the diversity we had though. It was very stressful at times, Like when providers we used would do something stupid, and or show up really late:mad: , OR better yet, when patients or family members didn't show up where they should have:grumble: ...yes THAT has happened hahahaha. Or when we were time limited and patients barely made commercial flights.......OMG I thought I was going to stroke out more than a few times trying to get things organized and done. One especially at Christmas time going home to Alaska from my home city and where we were located. I'll never forget that one, it was one of the last flights I set up, and probably one of the MOST stressful. Planes not showing up when they should, Ambulances sitting on their thumbs, Commercial flights holding the plane for her.......It's no wonder I'm fat, I ate all day long and sat on my but everyday, plus the stress from the job. At the same time we had some major successes, like when a few didn't have any money, but were almost crying when churches and other places got together and raised the money, oh the excitement and relief in their voices when they could call us back months later and say let's go now. I loved thos calls. Or the unconventional but brilliant ideas, like where one bought a motor home for the cost of flying across the country, took my Dad along and drove from Florida to Seattle with the patient.

I have good memories from those days though, Spoke with great people in most states. Probably made a few scratch their heads at some of my requests lol. Like the guy in a small corner store in a small town in NE US (way NE). I can still hear the confusion in his voice at me asking him to check his phone book for an Ambulance company phone number hahahahahaha. Hey we were resourceful, have to be for some of you super small middle of nowhere towns lol! and not everything can be found on the internet. That made the job interesting though. I think My mom once called a clothing store for the same request........

I think I'm indifferent to the job now, I like the idea of the job, LOATHE the hours hahaha. 24 hours 7 days a week 365 days a year and at the time = shift work, 4 main dispatchers = a LOT of working hours. Heck I wouldn't be surprised if some I once worked with/for is on this site, Since it seems majority are from the US. Between Insurance companies in the US, and Air Ambulance companies we used in the US and Patients there are a LOT of people I worked with/for, and plenty more that did trips for us, like ground Ambulances and limo drivers.

The exciting part of the work is that we did flights, to places like China, japan, Africa, Europe, South America, UK and Australia. out of those it was the UK, mostly the London area.

So, there you go, that sums up about 8 years of my working life. I only worked 9 years, I worked part time in a clothing store while pregnant with my first baby, have been a stay at home mom ever since. I have a newborn now, so will be home at least another 5 years before I venture back to part time work. that will put me out of the working scene for as long as I worked as a dispatcher lol!