the doctors out, but i know something!

It's coming!!! Halloween is almost here and now that I'm a legal, responsible, college student I'm going to go way over board! This year I am going to be a post apocalypse medic. I'm slowly piecing together my costume. It will be awesome though. I got the goggles and respirator from an Etsy store called ZHOS WORLD . He's based out of the Ukraine and has some extremely cool gear! I'll just shamelessly show off what I got... These are the stock pictures, mine actually got blue lenses. I have to say, I do look like a bug... but in a bad ass sort of way? It will look better as I get more of the components together. Attempted to take a picture with the jacket but it didn't work very well.

So for this upcoming semester I am going to use only Google drive to take notes, write papers, and make presentations. Luckily my school uses Google apps for students! I get a free drive with 30Mg and I'm hoping faculty is more Google friendly.  For this semester I have: A&P 1 With Lab College Algebra Intro to Literature Intro to Psych Freshman Interest Groups ~ EMS I'm excited to start a full college load. I know I'll have to figure out what works best for me for studying luckily I have a great campus to study on. This blog is going to become (hopefully) a frequent update on school work and EMS adventures. 

Finally! I have in my hands my NREMT certification and my Maine EMS license! Thank you mail man! My pretty little certification Some swag! I don't know what I'm going to put it on. I might get a spring coat and put it on that. Last but not lease my NREMT card!  I'm also signed up for my Paramedic class in September which is good. It will be interesting to try and manage work, school, and life but i'm excited for the challenge. I would be interested to hear some poor medic student stories if People have them.

     Challenging the NREMT this weekend was both nerve racking and extremely exciting. I went down to Concord, NH for testing. I took a day long prep class on Saturday from Kat and she was amazing. She was extremely through and an awesome instructor. I learned things that I had no idea about that very much explained why I failed my first attempt at the exam! I was incredibly frustrated with the quality of the equipment at my home exam after seeing what these people use.      I took my exam through Becker Training Associates  and it was amazing how well it was put together. Everyone was extremely professional. The people testing you are well trained and do this every month so they know exactly what to look for. Talking to my class instructor after he said that he always suggest people go there if they fail the first time and he has never once heard bad things from people coming back. I wish my local training centers and testing sites would learn a thi...

So I just passed my AEMT class which is good. It was far more intense then my EMT class. I failed my first attempt on my practical exam because I wasn't as prepared as much as I should have been and nervous. (it's 0.4mg of Narcan... NOT 4mg.)   So now I will be driving for 4 hours to go to the nearest ALS practical on 7/21. I have until then to perfect my technique and get my knowledge base up to par. I feel I'm almost there, I just need to fine tune my skills. So here are the things I need to perfect. Medical assessment /medical medications. I can go through the steps. I have to think more about my secondary review (and make sure I use the right Epi dose -.-) Supine immobilization   I'll be bringing my own spider straps to immobilize with. I personally can not make a Pt "flip proof" with 3 straps. IV medication bolus  I spaced on Narcan... never again though. Never. Again. I know every dose I can use as an AEMT. Pedi I/O  I still don't know . I...

Play. That should be the end of this post but I'll elaborate. Ingress is extremely addicting and extremely fun. It's surprisingly satisfying to watch a Buster blow away someones defenses and claim it for the good guys *cough enlightened cough* Here's what I've done for my home town from 01/02 to 01/06. Ingress is a lot of things and has a lot of strategies. Not only are you actively moving to these portals which can be difficult in Maine winters but you have to think ahead about placing links and fields, It's like triangular Tetris. It would be more fun to play in a more portal heavy town like Boston, Paris, or London. I like holding my ground though. I've got 14 portals in my area to hack and link to my hearts content. This winter I'll be driving and running shortly through snow, but when Ingess goes into an open Beta, (I'm guessing this summer) I'll be actually jogging from portal to portal. It's going to be a great way to get ou...

So I've decided I'm not meant to work a 1000-2200 shift. They just end badly. The first one I went off road in a truck, the second I had a close encounter with lice, the third I spent almost 3 hours in the ER when my medic closed AND LATCHED the side ambulance door on her finger... Nether of us could figure out how her finger actually got in the door. I got pictures of the stitches after but not before for her sake. She broke off the joint capsule of her right index (luckily she's left handed) and needed 9 stitches!