The human body does things!
I realize I haven't posted since before my EMT class started. So here's the down-low:
1. EMT Class started on September 7th.
2. Dad kindly has been driving me to class, so yay. I made stuffed peppers to thank him because really I have nothing else.
3. I paid for almost all of the class myself but only because I get paid semi-weekly and thus had to get half the last cheque from my dad. I'll pay him back ASAP though, since I am, yannow, employed and all that jazz.
4. EMT class has actually been a lot of fun. I don't feel overwhelmed by it, and in fact I feel better about it as the course progresses. Now we're getting more into the practical side, and also more into putting things we've learned together into patient assessments. We did in-depth CPR, have had several quizzes and our first exam, which I passed although not as well as I wanted. We've learned how to take vitals and we've been given a sheet to fill out - we're required to take and record 25 sets of vitals by the end of class. My friend Jason, hockey friend and lapsed paramedic, recommended I ask at local fire stations for volunteers and this has been a rousing success. We can use our classmates, but the nice thing about the local firefighters is that they're fundamentally total strangers, which is exactly who you'll be taking vitals from in the working field. So far they've been accommodating, familiar with EMS, and sometimes actually have (accurate) pointers for vital-taking. And you have to practice bedside manner, because of course, total strangers - introduce yourself, talk about what you have to do, at least act like you know what you're doing.
I stopped at the station nearest my therapist's office on Wednesday and it was so exciting, because for the first time I actually heard something when taking a blood pressure (which is what you listen for, a 'tapping' which is blood in the veins, to note systolic and diastolic pressures) and it was like - wow, this is an actual thing. Like - I know it's a thing, people do it, but it really clicked - as if one were learning a foreign language and it started to make sense. This is what it means, this is how it works, now you try and lo and behold, you get vitals, pulse, respiration, BP, and it tells you important things, you know how to understand and interpret those things. It's just so fucking cool, the human body does things. That sounds weird and I don't care.
Class requires 100% attendance and it's all day Sunday (9am - 4pm), and Monday and Tuesday evenings from 6pm - 10pm, so it's a lot compressed into a short timeframe. Tuesdays it can be hard to decompress from class because I have to get up early for work on Wednesdays, and don't have a lot of time between getting home and going to bed to clear my head from class and go into relax-and-sleep mode. That's the hardest part so far.
We get good advice from our instructors and the TAs - they all work as paramedics or EMTs, so while from the book we get the ideal situation, from the TAs and instructors we get the practical situation and also a surprising amount of humor and a less surprising degree of basic insanity.
We have this Sunday off because it's BC's homecoming (my class is held at BC) and I'm going to NYC to visit with Jason. He and his wife moved to Brooklyn in May so it'll be nice to see him again.
1. EMT Class started on September 7th.
2. Dad kindly has been driving me to class, so yay. I made stuffed peppers to thank him because really I have nothing else.
3. I paid for almost all of the class myself but only because I get paid semi-weekly and thus had to get half the last cheque from my dad. I'll pay him back ASAP though, since I am, yannow, employed and all that jazz.
4. EMT class has actually been a lot of fun. I don't feel overwhelmed by it, and in fact I feel better about it as the course progresses. Now we're getting more into the practical side, and also more into putting things we've learned together into patient assessments. We did in-depth CPR, have had several quizzes and our first exam, which I passed although not as well as I wanted. We've learned how to take vitals and we've been given a sheet to fill out - we're required to take and record 25 sets of vitals by the end of class. My friend Jason, hockey friend and lapsed paramedic, recommended I ask at local fire stations for volunteers and this has been a rousing success. We can use our classmates, but the nice thing about the local firefighters is that they're fundamentally total strangers, which is exactly who you'll be taking vitals from in the working field. So far they've been accommodating, familiar with EMS, and sometimes actually have (accurate) pointers for vital-taking. And you have to practice bedside manner, because of course, total strangers - introduce yourself, talk about what you have to do, at least act like you know what you're doing.
I stopped at the station nearest my therapist's office on Wednesday and it was so exciting, because for the first time I actually heard something when taking a blood pressure (which is what you listen for, a 'tapping' which is blood in the veins, to note systolic and diastolic pressures) and it was like - wow, this is an actual thing. Like - I know it's a thing, people do it, but it really clicked - as if one were learning a foreign language and it started to make sense. This is what it means, this is how it works, now you try and lo and behold, you get vitals, pulse, respiration, BP, and it tells you important things, you know how to understand and interpret those things. It's just so fucking cool, the human body does things. That sounds weird and I don't care.
Class requires 100% attendance and it's all day Sunday (9am - 4pm), and Monday and Tuesday evenings from 6pm - 10pm, so it's a lot compressed into a short timeframe. Tuesdays it can be hard to decompress from class because I have to get up early for work on Wednesdays, and don't have a lot of time between getting home and going to bed to clear my head from class and go into relax-and-sleep mode. That's the hardest part so far.
We get good advice from our instructors and the TAs - they all work as paramedics or EMTs, so while from the book we get the ideal situation, from the TAs and instructors we get the practical situation and also a surprising amount of humor and a less surprising degree of basic insanity.
We have this Sunday off because it's BC's homecoming (my class is held at BC) and I'm going to NYC to visit with Jason. He and his wife moved to Brooklyn in May so it'll be nice to see him again.