ITLS be gone

Since the ITLS instructor was familiar with the school and the students, he decided to make us do real life scenarios to pass (including starting IVs, etc) which were much more complex than the normal ITLS skills stations. So my 'patient' was a 75 year old man who cracked his hip and banged his head on the coffee table as he was on his way to the washroom in the middle of the night.

I had a partner who is a volunteer firefighter during his off time, so it was a really fantastic match. While I was focusing on the patient, my parter was delegating our backup crew to get a scoop instead of a backboard, etc. We got everything done in good time, with minimal pain shifted the old chap onto the stretcher and got him to the ambulance with no issue. He had CHF and was a bigger man so that maintaining his airway was difficult to manage given he was scooped and the stretcher head was not staying up, but we did the best we could. We passed and the written exam was simple.

It was painful sitting through 2 days of lecture on what took us 3 months to learn. Seems so simple now. What isn't simple is real life scenarios and undoubtedly real life emergencies. It takes a special kind of emergency nazi to take care of everything properly, delegate and take vitals.

I need to become Kali-like somehow. The extra hands would come in handy methinks.

Hannah Georgas - All I Need

Put on my old fall coat
While listening to 'Fists Up' by The Blow
Grab my toque and go
Can't forget my scarf

The air bites at my nose
The leaves do what they're told
Their colours match the tone of my skin

Oh, oh the sun peeks out to play
We all welcome her for the day
Oh, oh the sun peeks out to play
We hope she'll lengthen her stay

She said: All I need is this right now
Got the wind on my back
Got the sun standing tall
All I need is this right now

The willows have a chat with the breeze
The grass sways in time to the beat
The birds and I all sing along
Sha la la la la la la la

Oh oh the sun peeks out to play
We all welcome her for the day
Oh oh the sun peeks out to play
We hope she'll lengthen her stay

She said: All I need is this right now
Got the wind on my back
Got the sun standing tall
All I need is this right now (repeat)

ITLS

Boy, after finishing an EMT course and then having to do an ITLS course? It's boring.

Rural Hospital

Well, I found out where my hospital practicum is, right off a main highway and I'll be there February 10-12. They have an Operating Room and I was told that if I am invited to be in the OR, I should go because it is a rare occurrence and a privilege.

Today is ITLS day and after skimming the book it's a really nice review of the last 3 months and it's even nicer that it is a quick read... I actually know my stuff :)

Tom Waits - Green Grass

Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down in the green grass
Remember when you loved me

Come closer don't be shy
Stand beneath a rainy sky
The moon is over the rise
Think of me as a train goes by

Clear the thistles and brambles
Whistle 'Didn't He Ramble'
Now there's a bubble of me
And it's floating in thee

Stand in the shade of me
Things are now made of me
The weather vane will say...
It smells like rain today

God took the stars and he tossed 'em
Can't tell the birds from the blossoms
You'll never be free of me
He'll make a tree from me

Don't say good bye to me
Describe the sky to me
And if the sky falls, mark my words
We'll catch mocking birds

Lay your head where my heart used to be
Hold the earth above me
Lay down in the green grass
Remember when you loved me

No rest for the wicked

I completed the day of written exams and now the practical exams. I'm done the school version of testing. Now, I have to read another textbook before the weekend when I will take an International Trauma Life Support (ITLS) course. Friday, I learn where I will be going on praticum (one hospital and another on car).

I'm tired.

Mishka - Third Eye Vision

Whoohoohoo yeah

I heard you saying it wont' make a difference
It's only you and it's just this once yeah
It's only this time

Don't you think that it all adds up
There's a reaction for each action many drips fill the cup
Where do you draw the line

Know thyself and to thine own self be true
Any other way is gonna make you feel blue yeah
Ya gotta reason to be here

Hey maybe if we focus and we get it together
We could raise the human consciousness and make things better yeah
I know you think I'm a dreamer

But I know that you're also seeking peace of mind
Wonderin' why you feel so tired why your third eye's blind
I know that you're also trying to find your place
Somewhere out in time and somewhere out in space

Get so exhausted from all the exhaust
From living in fear , from living in a box hey
How come we always have to drive
I keep wishing corporations, and the politicians
Would make tighter restrictions on our fossil fuel emissions and meanwhile
Why don't we walk
If we all did a little then a lot would be done
We could clean up the mess and try to have some fun yeah
I'm off to plant a tree now
Cause if everybody takes and nobody gives
There'll soon be no air to breathe and no where to live
But you can't stop mother nature

But I know that you're also seeking peace of mind
Wonderin why you feel so tired why your third eye's blind
I know that you're also trying to find your place
Somewhere out in time and somewhere out in space

Did you remember to give thanks for the food
The earth air the water and everything good
The fire's still burnin'
Talk to yourself cause no one knows you better
Even take the time to write yourself a letter
To know the wheels are still turnin'
There's no better time than now to stand up straight
Take a deep breath Lord it's never too late to
Exhale your confusion
They say its all been done and there's no sense trying
But they don't really know you and they're probably lying
You got to see for yourself yeah

But I know that you're also seeking peace of mind
Wonderin why you feel so tired why your third eye's blind
I know that you're also trying to find your place
Somewhere out in time and somewhere out in space

Breathe

So, in the past few days I have started a profile on blip.fm and transferred quite a few of my last.fm tagged songs and I have been received very, very well. It makes me happy to know that someone wants me, even if it is in an internet way. Over the past 4 days I've done absolutely nothing study wise despite the final being days away. I just can't bring myself to do it (study that is). I'm finding the time to blip and drink.

Also considering contacting a guy that contacted me when I had the internet dating profile up. A British army/bobby who is stationed here for some reason. I'm very attracted to him and honestly I could use a good shag.

There are only so many hours in the day that one can sit in a public place hoping that a man might say hello. So to all you men out there? Say hello to a woman if you fancy her, you might just end up having the best sex of your life if you just would take the chance.

I mean it has been over 3 years and I was monogamous. Perhaps I was an idiot, but it is important to be faithful if in a relationship.

Now that I'm not, could some strapping young-ish lad take pity on me and shag my brains out?

Please?

Troels Abrahamsen - Pull

Try and get me up without being sucked down
Here on the bottom of the sea there is no one else around
I really need, really need to pull you down
I really need, really need to pull you down

Once you're down here once your fall has stopped
I can't ever let you down, when the only way is up
So you see that i really need, really need to pull you down
Yeah I really need, really need to pull you down

Tie a rope around your feet and then jump into the sea
Hold your breath until you reach the very bottom of me
I could hold on to you, you could bring me up
If you're not tired enough, you could bring me up
You could bring me

So I wouldn't need, wouldn't need to pull you down
So I wouldn't need, wouldn't need to pull you down
So I wouldn't need, wouldn't need to pull you down

Press here

Just finished teaching a CPR-C/HCP class. I am energised by it... happy, in fact. I love teaching and I love passing on the knowledge I have. Perhaps someone will live due to the instruction I have given at some point. It also thrills me that the passion I have for this transfers to others. People ask questions in the class - in a CPR class. I am amazed at the fact that somehow I get people to ask questions in a class that most loathe to take.

Honestly and truly I am happy. This is what makes life worth living and I feel alive, kind of like Frankenstein's monster.

Press on

With the lectures complete and less than a week to go before the written final and a week for the practical final scenarios, it is a crunch time but not insurmountable. I found in this last skills day that I was actually quite fluent and proficient in the skills (even childbirth). I did a final set of IM/SQ and IV yesterday and it feels good to know that I have mastered those necessary skills.

On the 28th I learn where I am doing my hospital and ambulance practicum, which could be anywhere in the province. The hospital is a short 3 shift stay so it won't be terribly expensive to pay for the hotels I guess. The ambulance will be anywhere between 2 weeks to 2 months... depending on the call volume. If it is in the city, it would be 2 weeks going hard and that's it. Outside the city it would be as it happens. Always a bit of anxiety when it comes to the unknown. Exciting but anxious. Not as exciting as going to a call and not knowing what you'll find.

Mumford & Sons - I Gave You All

Rip the earth in two with your mind
Seal the urge which ensues with brass wires
I never meant you any harm
But your tears feel warm as they fall on my forearm

I close my eyes for a while
And force from the world a patient smile

How can you say that your truth is better than ours?
Shoulder to shoulder, now brother, we carry no arms
The blind man sleeps in the doorway, his home
If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy I could have won

But I gave you all

I close my eyes for a while
And force from the world a patient smile

But I gave you all

And you rip it from my hands
And you swear it's all gone
And you rip out all I have
Just to say that you've won

Well now you've won

Timmy's been squished!

For some reason, during skills day this week the boy dummy made me laugh.

I baptize you, oh bloody fetus

Reading the pregnancy complications chapter of my text. I have just learned that I may need to "baptize" aborted foetuses (pregnancies that end prior to 20 weeks) if Roman Catholic parents request it. How does one baptize a clump of aborted flesh you might ask?

Well, according to the text, "You can perform this by making the sign of the cross and stating, "I baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.""

I hope I will never need to do such a thing. It feels wrong to do so and ever so hypocritical since it is not my belief system.

Feeling no pain

I think that has to be the best thing I heard in 2010. It was said by the girl I was poking with an IV in a race with another student. The other student was faster than I was, but the girl being poked didn't feel pain with my IV.

That is my victory in 2010. I am becoming someone people won't mind being poked with a needle.

To me, that is a huge thing that I am actually proud of. I feel more proud of that than I did getting a Master's degree...