Tag Archives: female firefighters

By United Women Firefighters – On Wednesday, September 26, 2018, an all-women staffed FDNY engine company served the City of New York for the first time in the department’s 153 year history. Female firefighters, either born female or now self-identifying as female, from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Australia, and elsewhere are being sought to participate in a ...

By: Nathalie Michaud After I received the diagnosis of my PTSD in late Summer 2014, I was partly relieved because now I knew why I felt and thought the way I did. It didn’t make it any easier to accept, but now that there was a name for it, a bit of the “ET” syndrome went away. I had choices: ...

My mission is two-fold: bring awareness to all so that sufferers are no longer afraid to talk and ask for help; and PTSD brain imagemove both Canada and the United States to recognize PTSD as a presumptive illness for firefighters. PTSD is a brain injury that happens because of all that we see and have to deal with through our jobs as firefighters and medics.

During that year, more physical issues came to the surface. Feeling tired, yet unable to sleep; feeling irritable, aggressive, and anxious; nightmares and night terrors were surfacing and night sweats were now a normal nightly routine. If only I could get some sleep...but there was much more to come.

This story is written from my perspective; it is simply my own experience. My breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent legal action combined for my “early exit”, so the “sudden end” was really not so sudden. I fully expected to retire just as many firefighters did before me had: 50-years-old, twenty years of service, healthy, and financially stable.