Great message board.....

I was bored and searching through OH when I came across this message board. This is neat and glad I found it. It will be nice to talk with others that dispatch that also have had surgery. I have been dispatching since October 1985 and will be celebrating 20 years Oct 5th of this year. I love my job and started right out of high school. I am the dept TAC now and in charge of the communications center. I love the excitement. I had my surgery April 8th of this year and am down about 92 lbs. I just recently sent in new updated phots and they should post on my profile soon. I love e-mail. Anyone that wants to chat send me a line or two. Tami

Hi Tami.... Congrats on your upcoming 20 years of dispatching! I've been dispatching since 1987, so I'm a little bit short of your 20 years. It's a fun job, don't ya think? Stressful, too....but I can't imagine being in another profession. I've worked for a couple of suburban police departments and currently work for a very large communications center. Summer weather brings with it a really crazy-busy-crazy-crazy-busy-busy time for our department. I'm looking forward to cooler weather and 911 calls slowing down a bit. I haven't had WLS surgery yet, still waiting to hear from insurance company. Awesome victory for you in your 92 lbs!! Congrats! Feel free to send me an email...so we can "dish" !! Paula T

Hi Paula - Welcome to the forum. I haven't checked in here in a long time so it was ironic that you were here posting the same day as me! We just hired a dispatcher from Chicago who worked for ISP. Her name is Michelle. I haven't had a chance to talk to her a whole lot since she's been training on a different shift, but she has over 20 years in herself. Not something you see in Oregon that often - people lasting until retirement. In Oregon we are trying to get a senate bill passed that will allow dispatchers to retire at 20 years with reduced benefits. I can count on one hand how many dispatchers in the whole state that I know of who have retired. That speaks volumes. I know for me there are days where I think I need to find something new, but I hang in there. But looking at the long distance picture, holding out 7 years is a lot easier than holding out 17! Good luck on your insurance approval. Out here my insurance wouldn't pay so I went to Mexico. Couldn't be happier that I did!!! Dina

Welcome to the board! Good to see more people coming in and checking this out! I'm Dina, have been dispatching since 1987 - so it looks like a lot of us old timers (gag to think that I'm an old timer!!!????) on this board! Yeesh - I'm not quite 39 years old. What am I - middle aged? Yikes! I started off at a small PD on the Oregon coast and moved on to work for the state police after that. I have been at my current job for 13.5 years. As for my surgery, I had mine March of 2004 and since my loverly insurance wouldn't pay, I hauled my butt off to Mexico where I was very very pleased with the care I received. I have lost 130 lbs so far and want to lose another 30-40 if I can. I would be happy with another 20-25 though. Nice to meet you - hope to see you all around more here! Dina

Hey Dina, Very strange indeed to find out there are other "old timers" out there. ..I'm thinking we may very well be an oddity among our co-workers. Isn't the burnout period about 2 years for dispatchers? I dispatch for Chicago PD....very very busy there lately! We have an Extreme Heat Advisory going on right now....heat index is over 100 degrees....Extreme weather is what we deal with here, though...I swear we go from Winter right to sweltering heat around here. I've finished all of my required tests prior to seeking insurance approval...now I wait and wait....I'm pretty sure BCBS PPO will deny me the first try, but I'm ready to appeal it. Several co-workers have had WLS surgery, so I'm keeping a positive attitude. Awesome on your weight loss so far!! Congrats! Paula

That is FANTASTIC that they have paid for other co-workers to get the surgery. What that basically says to me is that your perserverance will pay off in the end! I have heard you all are having a heat wave. I can't imagine that heat with all the stifling humidity. I went to KS with my mom when I was a teen and at 99 degrees and 99 percent humidity I thought I would die. AND my grandmother didn't have air conditioning. Just a little fan on top of the TV. Ugh! As for the burnout period for dispatchers, years ago when I started, I was told that IF you were gonna burn out, it would be in 2 years. Anyone who made it past that would tend to do it for a career....maybe not all in the same place though. It was funny but I left my first job after less than 2 years but couldn't hack being out of it. I needed that stimulation. I couldn't cope with office work, so I jumped right back into it. I have a love-hate thing with my job now. I love it much of the time, but sometimes the politics and overtime get to me. Every few months I convince myself I'm going to quit....then I take a deep breath and get over my PMS and am all better! Dina