Tour 1

Tuesday Day Shift (0730-1730):
- get there 45 minutes early because my supervisor told me to, just in case shift change happens early, & end up walking in on one night-shift medic sleeping in the medic's room and told to "get the hell out!" :P what a wonderful way to start my practicum, lol
- meet my two preceptors (who are both really nice)
- got ONE call the entire day... what a slow, slow day, lol. My preceptors were happy and I was bored. :P The call was pretty much just a transport case... nothing to do for the patient as it wasn't even an emergency but her nurse (in the group home) wanted her to go to the hospital...
- So, we went shopping for landscaping stuff instead, lol... shopping while on shift as a medic... never thought that was possible, lol


My Rig: Medic 23!

Wednesday Day Shift (0730-1730):
- on pace for one call per shift again until 3 hours before shift ends... and then end up with 3 in the day and having to work an hour overtime. Would be nice if I got paid overtime... actually, it would probably be nice if I got paid at all!! lol. My preceptors start saying I'm good luck cause they've had 2 very nice and relaxing days now, lol. One pulmonary edema (fluid in lungs), one hip injury and one SOB (shortness of breath).
- was at RGH and was invited to watch a doc take out eyeballs... lol... that was pretty sweet. The patient was complaining of chest pain and they took out his eyeballs! No, actually... it was an organ donor. But that was pretty sweet, lol. The optic nerve is a LOT bigger then I thought it would be!!


Medic 23!

Thursday Night Shift (1730-0730):
- quicker start to the shift... 2 calls right after one another... the first one had CPS (Calgary police service) on scene, lol, for an abdominal pain and the other was a pediatric one where a 2 year old had burnt himself with hot tea... very sad to see...
- 6 hours into my shift and it's close to midnight... and I realize that I still have another 8 hours before my shift even ENDS! sigh... it's going to be a LONG LONG night!
- 3 more calls the rest of the night... so I get about 2 hours of nap time.
- 1 of them was just some dude that was intoxicated which the police took care of. Another one was a patient with cerebral palsy that had a fall and possibly dislocated her knee. The last one was a very strange one: Some guy was assaulted at his home and knocked out in Edmonton and woke up in a Calgary park... very strange indeed!
- I get to hear about some strange homicide/suicide calls that other medics had... including the one in the Hamptons... basically 100 feet from my backyard... and another call that is too strange for me to even try to write out! lol


The cabin of Medic 23! Where the action takes place! :P

Friday Night Shift (1730-0730):
- slower start to this shift... a couple calls that required us (as medics) to sit by at building fires incase there are people that require treatment... and when I mean building fires... I mean... somebody smelled something strange and called fire...
- 5 calls tonight + 2 building fires and 3 canceled calls.
- 1 call was someone being investigated by Calgary police that was trying to use medical 'illnesses' to get out of being arrested. 1 call was a schizo patient who was having times of paranoia. Another call was a fall that really didn't even need to be called in. We had an extremely intoxicated patient that fell face first into the ground that required hospitalization. And finally a rollover on Deerfoot with spinal injuries.
- Overall, only about an hour of nap time this shift. The firefighters in my hall got yet another night where they got to sleep pretty much the entire night... again... maybe I should go into firefighting instead!
- So, a relatively simple first tour. Nothing too hard or drastic. But I do need to get out of my 'in-class scenario' type mentality... cause the way they teach you in class over and over again until it's drilled into your head is NOT the way you do it in real life in most cases, lol. So, I need to work on my confidence in switching things up depending on the situation and the patient better for next tour.
- A classmate of mine had a terrible first tour... 3 codes (clinically dead - unconscious, unresponsive, not breathing, no pulse) in 3 days. Including an 8 month old kid that did not survive... Man... that's got to be insane! I'm glad I didn't have to be on that call! That would be INSANE!


Station 23: Fire and EMS! Pump 23, Medic 23, Medic 223 and Medic 323

Summertime... is supposed to be relaxing...

So, I finished my CPR instructor course today... so far so good. I passed all the training aspects of the class and I have all the resources I need to teach. But, all I need to do now is to teach a class while being monitored by an experienced instructor in order to become fully registered as a CPR instructor. But, I probably won't be teaching a course till July at the earliest cause of my busy busy June. But I will have to start looking over all the planning required to teach so that I become really knowledgable about my subject so that it will be easier to plan and teach a CPR course!

Tuesday... I start my Ambulance Practicum. Extremely nervous... really scared. But, it should be all good. Just need to get the first few shifts out of the way and then I'll probably wish my practicum never ends! :P I'm really hoping my preceptors are good and nice though... every year... at least 5 people get preceptors that are just horrible, so... here's hoping I get good ones! But because of the shift that I'm on... I'll be missing quite a bit of church in the month of June. But oh well... might as well get used to it!

Next Monday... not tomorrow... I start my job at the Childrens Hospital! lol. 48 hours per week on my practicum, and for the first 2 weeks of June... 16 and 24 hours each week at the Childrens as well. :P Going to be so tired... but it should be really good. I need to get busy again. I've been so unmotivated since... since... forever!

I've started passing the torch over to Tanya to lead VBS now that I've got them started in the right direction, and so far... I have not been disappointed. They all seem to be stepping up and slowly getting things done. They are all learning and a BIT more willingness to learn would be nice, hehe... but they're learning. Hopefully, now that I've found additional mentors for each one of them... they should be able to gain additional experience and ideas from them and incase they can't find me during June, they'll at least have people to help them through it all! So, thank God that all seems to be fitting together right now! Now, to hope I start sleeping WELL again and that I will have enough energy and strength to make it through June (at the very least... won't even worry about July and August yet!).

Time to go and make a difference! :P Through saving lives... teaching others how to save lives... and training the youth to become future leaders!! All without killing myself in the progress! Fun Fun!!

SENSational!

The Ottawa Senators are now ONE game away from SWEEPING the Buffalo Sabres and advancing to the Stanley Cup Final! SENSational!

I picked up my CPR instructor course materials today and it's a HUGE thick binder... a lot more then I expected for just teaching CPR. Oh well... I have a week and a half to finish studying it in time for my class. Should be good.

I also picked up my EMT Practicum placement today... and I'm down in the SE at Station 23! So, my day shifts will be 10 hours, 7:30am - 5:30pm. And my night shifts will be 14 hours, 5:30pm - 7:30am. But it is a 24-hour car and apparently in an area that gets a lot of calls (I'm right by Deerfoot and close enough to help support calls from Downtown!) Should be great!

I also got an interview today at the Childrens Hospital and ended up getting a job as well, lol. What an awesome day! I got a casual based job, which was what I was looking for... AND they took my availbility list that I made to work VBS into consideration as well. So, I should now be able to work both at the Childrens and STILL be at VBS for majority of the time to help observe and train the leaders! I'll be working mostly as a porter, but I'll be flexed over to Food Services as well to get more hours! Should be awesome!!

What a sensational day! PTL!!

Shark Fin Soup

Well, the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs are over and one of the teams that I chose to make it to the finals is OUT! San Jose lost to Detroit. But at least my other team is still in and going strong... go OTTAWA!

Ottawa over Buffalo. I believe Ottawa won the season series against Buffalo this year, and Ottawa seems to be stronger team in the playoffs right now as well. Though... Saprykin winning the cup would be a sad sad thing, lol.

Anahiem and Detroit. I don't know who to cheer for. I don't like either team that much. I don't hate either team either. I think I'm leaning more towards Anahiem in this one...

Update on my life: not much. lol

Still waiting for my ambulance practicum to start. It starts May 29th. So... I have a month to wait around and review things and slowly get hyped up about it. :P

I will be dropping off my application form for a CPR instructor course on Thursday. That class will be May 25-27th. So, that allows me to have a very flexible and casual based job on the side for... probably the rest of my life as long as I teach 2 classes a YEAR! lol.

I'm still applying for a position at the Alberta Childrens Hospital as a porter. My mom dropped off my cover letter and resume there today on her way to work. I also printed off an availability sheet during the summer should I get an interview. And hopefully everything works out. My availbility sheet has me open for 6 shifts at the hospital a week and still lets me moniter VBS as closely as possible as well! So, lets hope it all works out!

And sound... positive thing... both Sarah Ng and Ada have shown GREAT interest in learning and are VERY VERY dedicated to learning. So, I think by summer time... I'll no longer have to do sound on a Friday night ever again! Negative thing... it's going to be a LONG time before any of them (including Calvin) will be ready to set up sound for camp, lol... which means... I'll have to do it again... and that means going up early and coming back early... missing the bus rides... missing all that fellowship again. So many years of going up early and coming back early wears on you... lol. But I'll probably end up doing it...