Fun and Games with the fire guys: more public service.

I hope that  you may not end up on a first name basis with your friendly local EMT's.
 I am.  This is not through any real wish to be on my part.  The Footless Man has periodic episodes of Insulin shock. They seem to be worse at the season changes and when he is ill or going through too much stress. Over the years I have gotten very familiar with the way this works.
  EMT's show up  in a sort of come as you are Chinese fire drill and they usually end up seeing people in embarrassing clothing  or lack therof, in embarrassing places at strange times with no real explanation except that it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Whatever it is that they walk into is not going to seem strange to them, they have seen it all.
In spite of all that, you may not want them to see it all in your house.
Moving things you don't want them to see to a quieter or more discreet location is a fine idea. Nobody needs to know the size and color of your underthings so getting them off the floor into a laundry basket is a good move.
Most of the fire guys ( Guy's come in both male and female.) are EMT's too, and in my neck of the woods you end up with both when you call one.
You get the huge honking fire truck plus the huge honking ambulance parked in front of your house to entertain the neighbors with speculations.  In talking to the EMT's, I find that part of the reason they send both is so that if they need extra muscle they have it.  The Footless Man is fairly slender but in the throes of shock he can be a lot to handle.   Having a couple extra guys around to sit on him has been useful on occasion.  It also helps when they have to muscle someone onto a gurney, or down a flight of stairs.

Anyway, if you have to have their help, it is good to remember that you will have four or five large and buff guys  (both male and female) standing about in your house and (oddly enough) more likely than not in your bathroom.

They tell me that due to the nature of bathrooms, People tend to have emergencys there  because it is very bad manners to disturb someone meditating in the bathroom.  Uncle Charly goes off to use the facilities before supper and is discovered there, pants round the ankles forty five minutes later deep in insulin shock.  The Guys are not embarrassed. You don't need to be either. 
  You get two sorts of emergency guys.  The majority of them are very nice people.  They show up  and help all sorts in all weathers at any time of the day or night.  Once they get your measure they tend to listen to what you have to say.  (The guys at the local station know the Footless Man and me.  They know not to slam him with a full ampule of glucose and that he has to go in to the ER because Medicare won't pay for the trip over unless he does.) 
You run into problems when you get a strange crew and the lead is an Arrogant Prick.
The Arrogant Prick is generally new and hasn't figured out that the people in the house tend to be experts on  the reason the ambulance guys are there.  I may not have  general experience on diabetic insulin shock but I have twenty plus years with my particular diabetic and if I say he is in shock I don't want some jerk asking me why I think that.
You can defuse some of the AP's power trip by having a basic facts and information printout ready when they come ramping in the door and head for  the trouble.  This saves a lot of time and confusion.  It also helps you because you don't have to answer a bunch of what may seem like irrelevant questions when you are too anxious to think.
  On it you have the name, age, basic problems, past history, med list, last blood sugar if thats part of it,  and a space for the latest history of what happened before they got there and what you have done already( like if you administered Glucagon and how many glucose tabs or gel you got down him first and how long ago that might have been.)   Mine also has some useful tips for dealing pleasantly with the Footless Man.
I have my med history as a word doc and after the nice conversation with the  911dispatch, I go and print it out. 
Then the lowest guy on the totem pole doesn't have to sit around with you  and miss out on all the action.  I mean, they made the trip, they want to be there while  whatever it is  goes on. 
This particular attitude sometimes leaves you with the impression of finding the answer to the question;
How many big guys can you fit into a bathroom the size of a refrigerator carton?  
Seven seems to be about it the last time I counted, and two of them had to stand in the tub.
This brings up a good point.  Once the guys get there, find another room to be in.  You can ask them to put a layer between the sheets and the IV so that you don't have to get blood off the bed clothes, and then just get out of the way.
I usually busy myself making a bag lunch that the Footless Man is likely to eat once he is up and running again, locating the items he will want while waiting in the ER and being available if needed to answer questions.
Be aware that the job here is to get the emergency stable enough to transport  it to better fascilities. that means that the next time I will talk about  the transport process.