Ambulance Chaser

One day while visiting my father I noticed a device sitting on the floor next to where he sat on the couch. I had seen it there before on numerous occasions. My father had a ham radio operator's license and I had always assumed it to be a walkie talkie or some sort of hand-held ham radio gadget. Then one day, I held it. The clouds parted, a brilliant light shone down from the sky, and I think I heard harp music somewhere in the background. As I turned the volume switch on, my father who had decided that my career in the medical field was at last, something he could be proud of me for, brightened when he informed me, "I have the ambulance programmed in there." And so began my relationship with his scanner.
When my fathers health worsened and he could no longer remain at home, the scanner went everywhere with me. I think he got a kick out of it, inquiring if I had heard anything interesting on the ambulance channel that day when I would go to visit him. When he passed on, the scanner became part of my inheritance.
Since that time I have modified the channels, deleting the ham radio frequencies, adding fire and of course, all of the med channels, flight channels and ambulance dispatch channels. I now know of incoming traumas before the OR does.
Very few people know that I own a scanner. There seems to be a sort of cheesy, busybody, Jerry Springerish stereotype associated with scanner owners. I'm careful not to call the OR and ask, "Is that GSW coming down?" or, "Is there anything surgical coming down from that ped vs. auto?" because that would be cheesy. I still have to wait to be invited to the trauma-rama, but when I am on trauma call it gives me a heads up and I can get the animals and myself all set to go so when the call does come to me, I am ready to roll. There have been a few occasions when I "just happened" to be in the vicinity of the trauma center when the OR called.
Now if I can just get them to give me a trauma pager........