Congratulations to your husband. I reached my limit at 25. I didn't retire on a disability, but I was starting to have health problems related to stress and lack of sleep, high blood pressure etc... I knew that I had gone as far as I should and retired as soon as I could do so without a penalty. I occasionally miss being with the other guys (and gals) but have been feeling much better. It was a different job when I started... these days people call for every little thing. I was on a “big city” department, so we were constantly running 24 hours a day.
When recently I visited the station that I spent my last 5 years at... there was only one guy on duty that I knew. And he was trying to figure out how to get out before he reached his optimal retirement age. He and I both fly small planes, he was really into skydiving. My brother is an airline pilot and he wanted to know if I could put in a good word for him.
I get it. KCFD is a different department now too. Hubby was a wildfire expert and ran our counties hot shot crew when he was younger. Then when he made Captain and promoted out from that station he was still on the first strike team out to anywhere and everywhere. He’s paying for it now. His spine and knees have fallen apart and he’s totally disabled. Most people have no idea what firefighters actually do. His last station, he was there 11 years, was the second busiest in the department. Mostly medical aids.
My daughter's a CEN working at a Level 1 Trauma Center. Before that, she was a Paramedic at a Fire Station. She would probably agree with everything you said.
She enjoys Emergency Medicine more than any other field of nursing, but has told me some stories...the thing that drives her nuts are the "regulars" who treat the ER like an office visit, or who clearly don't need to be there, like the Gen-X'er who complained that her pain was a "10". Her problem? A hang nail.
One time when she was still working the Fire Station, she and three other first responders were carrying a morbidly obese woman down the stairs in a special seated carrier. My daughter was at one of the two bottom rungs of the carrier when the woman let-er-rip with her bladder.
On the other end of the spectrum, her greatest satisfaction is helping children - as long as the parents let her do her job and don't behave like they know more than the nurse! :-)