Night Two

Pretty easy night again - got out at 9:20. Score.

I've discovered I cannot shut the hell up in class. I tried, I really did. I bit my tongue, I kept my hand pressed to my mouth, I counted backwards from eighty. But to no avail. Every time a thought, fleeting as it may be, crossed my mind in the form of a statement or a question...it burst from my mouth like an Alien from a damn chest. Yeah, top that metaphor. I dare you.

So I know I'm excited about the course material because I had constant questions. I could tell I was annoying the instructor because he started just talking over me when I tried to ask questions. So I managed to coerce myself to shut the hell up in the second half moreso than the first.

We covered EMT wellbeing - what happens if you get contaminated by a coughing patient with TB, or the fluids of someone with AIDS, etcetera. And some stuff about stress and mental stability which amuses me. I'm surprised my multiple "she's a crazy person!" diagnoses don't automatically DQ me from this job. But hey. The panic disorder is the only thing I'd forsee as a real issue. Also they're opening a station near where I live which would rock since then I can do nightshift on call. Which means I get paid $4 an hour to sit on my ass and do nothing unless there's a call. I think being "on call" sounds genius and awesome lol.

Then in the second half we touched on the medical legality stuff - DNRs, refusal of treatment/transit, etcetera. As amusing as it would be, an EMT cannot attack a random stander-by and drag them into the ambulance and practice their IV insertion. But if you do refuse an EMT's help, you have to read and sign a fancy waiver that probably says something like this:

"I've chosen to forgo medical treatment. This is because I'm a dumbass, and either I called 911 in a fit of idiocy, or I'm too stubborn to realize that the person who called it for me called for a reason. If I die of a heart attack sometime soon it's not your fault.
Love,
Patient"

Of course that's just a guess, I haven't actually read the waiver yet.

We finally get to work on vital signs in Thursday. I'm a bit excited. That and some anatomy. Also cool. I haven't done vitals since I worked for a summer at a Podiatrist's office. I had a little machine that I put on their wrist and I held their arm up, and whammo - pulse and BP. So now I get to learn how to do it for real which is something I've wanted to do for a while. The BP, not the pulse. I'm fairly sure I'm not too underqualified to count some damn heartbeats. But we all know the first time I do it I'll lose my mind and make an idiot of myself in front of everyone trying to take a pulse with my thumb on the pulse point.

This class is making me a bit healthier too... I'm going to TRY to head out at 6:30 tomorrow morning to give some swimming a try. Gotta make my new $20 suit worth it. I suspect I will be waking up at 7:40 swearing because I have to be at work at 8:00 and it takes me :30 to drive there. This is just a sneaking suspicion I have. Possibly because I've been attatched to my own lazy ass for twenty years now.

Speaking of...whatever I was just speaking of, it's bedtime for me. There's the update. I'm amazed I actually did it. Hooray! Now inundate me with adoring and appreciative comments.

Go on.

I'm shameless.