Welcome...hope all has been well with you and yours since your last visit. We sincerely appreciate each and every one of you that arrive here to read our posts. Yes, we too, wish there was much more news about our show that we could share here, but as our partner Jesse says, "The wheels of Hollywood turn very, very closely!" We had hoped that either yesterday or today we'd have an update today. Then again, it's only 4 o'clock in L.A. as I write this. So maybe I'll be interrupted by a phone call and.....
Right...sure! LOL
More importantly, there have been some excellent conversations on Twitter this week regarding firefighter health initiatives. Those of you who read our blog and/or follow our Twitter feed at @DalmatProd, know that this is one of our prime topics. As a matter of fact, it is so important to us that it will be written in to episodes of our show, along with arson prevention, childhood arson intervention and remediation, among others.
Approximately two weeks ago the statistic that nearly 50% of LODD's are caused by preventable health issues. FIFTY PERCENT!! That is the highest level in recent years. And why? Why do so many of our brothers and sisters lost to this? Would we willingly and knowingly walk into a wall of flame without PPE? Of course not! Would we smoke a cigarette while filling up at the gas station? Don't be silly! They why-oh-why do we allow food, lack of exercise, and other external factors to rule our health?
Yesterday, after reading one of the positive remarks about rededicating ourselves to a strong health initiative, I tweeted that one of the best and easiest exercises that one can do is to use your arms to push yourself away from the table where all the food is! There was another good post that really showed that we often create our very own problems when we're on shift. How many times has the "cook" for the shift made an extra-large table of delicious eats, featuring everything that you really know deep inside, are no different than shoving a needle in your arm and inject a syringe full of trans-fat.
Sure, our job, whether we're career or volunteer, is stressful. The calls we respond to are often so sporadic that we either miss one or two meals all together or, we never get to finish when we do sit down. All of that throws our natural hunger symptoms off-track and it seems as though we're either hungry all the time or we can't satiate it.
Listen, we all know and realize that this situation didn't happen overnight and it cannot be remedied overnight. Yet, for our families, friends and the job we love so much, we have to "draw a line in the sand." We must decide to make a start. Sit down with the gang on your next shift and talk it up. Sure, someone might be pissed off, but think about it. If one of your co-workers gets pissed because you start a discussion about being healthy, then do they really care about the well-being of their co-workers? If they'll back you up on the fireground, why aren't they willing to back you up in the barn?
And that's not all. You have to go home and have the same talk with your spouse or significant other, or roommate. This has to be a team effort. Another member of the "team" has to be your doctor, whether it's the department surgeon on your own personal physician. He or she will be happy to provide direction and ideas, as well as give you realistic targets to shoot for. This is very important, for sometimes, we believe we need to do this or that, but in fact, your doctor will tell you that you're actually OK in the area and to focus on something else.
Our jobs are dangerous enough. We can't control all of the unknowns that are started in motion when we're toned out. From distracted drivers to kids running out into the street, to the person who can't hear an EM Q2B, an electronic Q and two Grover airhorns, either because the music is too loud or they have hearing problems.
But when it comes to what we put into our bodies and how much, we can indeed, exercise control. Let's do it.
Remember...Everyone Goes Home!
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