I Passed the Class!

This was our final week of EMT class. Tuesday was just practicing, and Thursday included both our multiple-choice final and the practical portion of the national registry, both of which I did very well on. Everyone in class passed, and all the camp people did especially well!

On the last day of class, I was also very pleased to get an e-mail that my "graduation gift" I got for myself had arrived at Wal-Mart. So after class, Eli and I swung by Wal-Mart to pick up my brand-new Nerf gun! (We've been having spontaneous battles ever since.) We also stopped by the Wendy's drive-thru so that Eli could buy us dinner. You see, I had made up a song to help me remember the steps to a medical assessment, and Eli said he'd pay me five bucks if I sang it during the practical test, not expecting that I'd actually do it. So before I took that part of the practical, I informed the test proctor that I would be singing parts, and not only did he enjoy it, but he hounded Eli the rest of the day to pay up. I agreed that dinner would be a fine replacement since he didn't have cash.

The class ended just in time; we're starting to get a lot of groups coming out with the warmer weather! Last week we had a HUGE upper elementary camp, and this weekend we had a college group. We worked in the kitchen all weekend since there were no activities, but I left after lunch yesterday because I still had one more ride-along to go on.

I had my ride-along at station 61 this time, and it was my first experience driving through Omaha. I think I could do it again if I needed to! After a couple of missed exits and wrong turns, I got Horsebeef (the van) to the station. At first, all the doors I tried were locked and I couldn't find anyone to let me in. After some waiting, I saw the firetrucks pull in. The firefighters informed me that I had just missed a really good call that involved CPR and all that good stuff. Man, I was there a half hour early and STILL missed out on the action! There were couches and a TV in the garage, and I was told to wait there until the ambulance returned. I did some reading and such for an hour, and then finally got to meet the EMS staff, Jeff and Tina. They showed me the ambulance, and then told me that I could just hang out in the garage and watch TV or whatever. (It seems like I got opposite treatment from everyone else. At Station 65, I was in the kitchen while all the other students stayed by themselves in a room. At Station 61, everyone else ended up in the kitchen except for me who was alone in the garage!) Not too long later, we got a call. As the ambulance left the station, I realized that we were driving in normal traffic and there were no lights or sirens. Apparently it was a Code Alpha, which the paramedic Jeff jokingly told me meant that I was in charge! It was a non-emergency and no interventions needed to be made, but I was able to take a blood pressure and SAMPLE history on the way to the hospital. I also realized that being a patient advocate does not always make you feel like a hero, or even like you're doing society a favor. The rest of the night was spent reading, writing, and watching some television. Although my shift was supposed to be from 4-10, Jeff came into the garage around 8:30. He told me he felt bad about the lack of calls, and that the one call we got wasn't that great, and he gave me permission to leave if I wanted to. Since I had to drive all the way back to Fremont and knew I'd start work at 7 the next day, I decided to take him up on that offer.

So now I'm officially done with the EMT class, passing with a B+. All that's left to do is take the National Registry exam, which I'm actually kind of excited for. Until then, I really think I'll have to pick up a couple new hobbies. Now that we're just working 9-5 most days and there's no studying involved, I might have quite a bit of free time on my hands!

Minnesota (or "What I Did for Valentine's Day")

The past week has been okay. It's involved lots of studying; class ends next week and we've gotta cram a bunch of tests in between now and then! I really wanted to do well on Tuesday's test, so I did a LOT of studying (okay, so I may have spent all of Sunday afternoon playing Dead Island at Eli's brothers' house, but I studied the rest of the time.... okay, I set up karaoke on Monday morning, but I was super diligent about studying the rest of the day!) But I was stressed about the testing, especially since I wouldn't have much time to study for today's test since the past week was spent studying for Tuesday's test! Even worse, I only scored an 82 on Tuesday's test, and I've really been wanting to bring my score up to at least an 85 average (I was currently at 84). But instead of committing to devoting every waking minute of my time from Tuesday evening to Thursday morning studying, I decided to do something incredibly crazy instead.

Several weeks ago, Adam said he was going to a camp job fair at Crown College in Minnesota. I had made a promotional video that would be played at the fair. Here it is: 

Honestly, ever since the day he told us he had to work the job fair, I was kind of jealous. On Tuesday afternoon, when Adam found out that his wife wouldn't be able to go with him so he invited Eli instead, I was super jealous! But somehow, by the time we got home from class, I ended up packing a bag so I could go with them too.

It was a really long drive. We left a little before 6pm, and didn't get to our hotel until about 12:30. The road trip there was pretty interesting. I mean, since almost the entire trip was in the dark, there wasn't any scenery (most of the ride looks exactly like Nebraska anyway), but I enjoyed it. We stopped at BK in Fremont for burgers, listened to an audio book, and talked, especially about EMT class. Eli had studied as much as I did and also got an 82 on the test, while on the other hand Adam had done much better than us without any studying. He claims it was because we put TOO much effort into studying. The next day, I decided it was because the test was biased, as the test covered mostly OB stuff and Eli and I are the only ones in class who haven't dealt with pregnancy/childbirth. (Although Adam argued that I should naturally be better than everyone else at this sort of thing since I'm the girl, but I tried arguing back that kids weren't exactly on the radar anytime soon!) However, we did have to try Adam's tactics since we weren't able to read/study on the ride there because it was dark, or Wednesday morning because we were at Crown, or part of Wednesday evening because we were driving in the dark again. 

Anyway, back to the road trip. At our first rest stop, I found a 3-pound bag of gummy bears for $7. Adam said he'd pay me three times the cost of the bag if I could eat it all by the time we got to the hotel, and Eli even added $5 to the deal. But, I was so full from dinner (which, coincidentally, ended up being the smallest meal I ate on the trip), that I had to pass, and no gummy bears were bought or consumed. We also spent a lot of the trip making fun of the tiny roads we were on, which were supposedly "highways". Then, while driving down one of these "highways", we suddenly experienced a big BUMP as our car flew off of the paved road onto a dirt road that was closed for construction (we eventually found the unmarked detour); that was pretty weird! A few hours later, we made it safely to our destination and squeezed in a little bit of sleep before getting up, picking up some Subway breakfast, and heading over to Crown College. 

I had heard of the college before, and it's a C&MA school, but I was really surprised at how small it was! Aside from housing, the college was just one building, and everyone fit comfortably on the one set of gym bleachers! It was fun attending their "chapel" service, meeting people, and working the booth. We got a free lunch at the cafeteria, and they were making Chipotle burritos there, which were extremely filling! We had told lots of people about camp and got some prospective summer employees, so after a job well done we headed home. We stopped at Five Guys for dinner to eat some big, delicious burgers and fries, and discovered that, although I've lived in Nebraska the least out of all three of us, I knew more random things about cows. 

We got to camp around 7:30, and, although I managed to read a chapter of the textbook in the car, there was no way I would have time to read the other three chapters that would be covered in the test. There was only time for the online quizzes and filling out the study guide. I never regret a road trip, and I didn't really WANT to study more, but I thought having more study time would have been beneficial. However, I had made the right decision to go to Minnesota; I saw a new state, studied less, and got my best test score yet: 94% Woo-hoo! That bumped me up to just over an 85%, and now I only have to deal with the final and the practical next week, and then class is over! 

So in review, I spent my Valentine's Day doing absolutely nothing romantic (although that is typical of all my Valentine's Days). That day was spent going to class, taking a test, and taking a last-minute road trip to Minnesota. However, Eli and Christina and I went shopping for junk food on Friday and I bought a big pack of cookie dough, and on Sunday, I bought a heart-shaped Papa Murphy's pizza on the way back from Omaha, so I didn't miss out on the food aspect of Valentine's Day. The pizza was a little challenging to cook, though. I had to "break the heart" in order for it to fit in my pizza oven!

Things I Made this Weekend

This weekend, I made...

...Fire!

...Peanut Butter Cookies! (Using the classic 1-1-1 recipe, but used mayo cuz we didn't have eggs)

...Maple Spice Cookies! (A modified recipe of http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegancookierecipes/r/gingermolasses.htm,  replaced molasses with syrup, mayo for egg and 1/4 c. of the margarine, and cinnamon for all of the spices.)

...Shortbread Cookies! (I just used jam instead of cherry for this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/uncle-bills-whipped-shortbread-cookies-46877)

...Molasses Candy! (A "Little House" recipe; just drop heated syrup/molasses into a pan of fresh snow.)

...The TV antennae work! (With all this junk food, I might as well watch the Superbowl!)  

Other things that I made but did not photograph include...
-Empanadas
-Nachos
-A smoothed-out sledding hill
-Blackcurrant soda
-A bruised and swollen leg (but it's less painful than it was on Friday!)

A Paramedic Tried to Break My Leg, But an EMT Student Saved My Life

Disclaimer: No, a paramedic did NOT really try to break my leg. It just made for a more interesting title. And I don't know if the EMT student actually saved my life, but he DID save me from a broken leg! Just read the story to understand...

Lots of talk around camp utilizes EMT jargon. We've come up with our own catchphrases and even vocabulary to help us remember important things, and just because it's fun. Studying with others often becomes more of a comedy hour.

The rest of the class has fun with the material as well. Just yesterday, we were learning OB, which included practicing assisting with the birth of plastic babies. Now that I am the only female in the class, this was pretty interesting. Those who have had children expressed how hard the labor process was on them, and the ones who have yet to have kids admitted that they were definitely not looking forward to their girl going through labor. Their complaining didn't seem right; I was the only one out of all of them who had the possibility of ever having to actually experience labor! Funny things were said that day about placentas, umbilical cords, and the fact that our birthing mannequin had stumps for legs.

Thursday evening after class, Jon came over to us and asked us to watch his kids while he and his wife had to go to a last-minute trip to Omaha. The three of us interns had a blast with Alyssa and Dominick. We played Gaga Ball and Hockey until it got dark outside, then we went inside and had the craziest dinner ever (I had planned for it to be pizza rolls and burritos, but we ended up stuffing tortillas with lots of things like cream cheese, mangonaro, bacon spray cheese, beef, cheddar cheese, club crackers, pizza rolls, and lettuce.) Then the kids taught us how to play Pictureka, which was actually a really fun game, and it became even more fun with all the "I'm Sorry" dances, Dominick going crazy, tickle fights, and Alyssa, Dominick, Eli and I shouting to try to distract the other players. Eventually, things got so out-of-control that we never actually finished the game. We somehow made our way to their basement to watch an episode of Gomer Pyle, just in time for their parents to come home. Then, since Eli, Jon and I are taking the EMT class, we started making jokes about "close calls" we could have gotten that evening while watching Jon's kids, and ended up practically having a study session because, of course, we talked about class and used our EMT jargon.

But even though we joked about "close calls" that could have resulted from tickling, piggyback rides, and Gaga ball, they weren't close calls at all compared to what happened today.

Today started  out pretty relaxed. It was colder today, which was fine since we spent most of the day cleaning our living space and rearranging a couple of the rooms. Then, for the last hour of work, Jeff asked us to help him push logs. The problem with the logs was that they were right next to a trail, and there was a ditch real close to them that they could have easily gone in. It was a slightly dangerous task, since it involved walking on unstable logs and throwing them into a deep ravine. I figured if any injuries were to happen today, it would be from someone falling into the ravine. We pushed the logs in that we were able to move with our own manpower, and Jeff came with the tractor so that we could move the really big ones to the paintball course to serve as barricades. One of the large logs was being brady (oops, our made-up EMT jargon right there!) and had challenges getting into the tractor bucket, even though Jordan, Eli and I were all pushing. We had gotten to a point where it was on the bucket, but would obviously fall if we let it go. I was holding it up in the middle, and Eli made sure I was able to hold up his portion before he went to talk to Jeff in the tractor about how we should do this. I knew we couldn't keep it in the bucket, but I was just waiting for us to all let it down together. Next thing I knew, Jordan was letting go of his end. I couldn't keep it up on my own, so I let go too. Since I was in the middle of the log, I went backwards to avoid it falling on me. Unfortunately, there was a stump not too far behind me, and the falling log rolled towards me and pinned my right leg against the stump. I felt terrible pain, I couldn't roll the humongous log off of my leg, and I couldn't find any other way to get out. Without so much as yelling, screaming or crying, I just said "Ow. Get it off. Get it off of me." I could see Eli next to me trying to push the large log with me, but when he realized that wouldn't work, he managed to move the stump behind me that I was pinned to so that my leg could escape.

It really was a miracle. I didn't try to do anything "right", I just reacted naturally. If I had struggled, panicked, or tried to wriggle my leg out from the log, I probably would have a fracture or crush injury right now. If I had been there much longer, things could have gotten worse as well. (To me, it seemed like I was stuck for a minute. For Eli, it seemed like three seconds. I'm guessing the actually time was somewhere in between since I was in pain and he had an adrenaline rush. I guess Jordan or Jeff would have a more accurate time estimate.) Since Jeff is one of our EMT instructors, he used this as an educational opportunity for Eli and me to examine my leg. Of course it was nothing serious, since I was still walking around on it, but he advised me to ice it after work and be careful. I continued moving the logs just fine, although my leg started to get tingly and more painful.

After work and a few minutes of icing my leg, Jordan, Eli and I went out to town. I came up with this awesome idea to numb some of the pain while we were out: Wear my leather boots, put a small bag of ice in my right boot, and wear a long skirt my boot didn't look weird. It worked out pretty well, until we got to Wal-Mart. Since snowy weather is expected late tonight, the place looked like a Shopocalypse. All the ice melted while standing in the customer service line. But the pain was temporarily forgotten when we went to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet afterwards. Now that I'm back at camp and have to look forward to a boring weekend (our group cancelled on us due to the predicted bad weather), I'm stuck sitting down and looking at this all night:

As an EMT student, here is how I'd describe my leg:

Firm and swollen lower right extremity, with contusions of various shapes and sizes all around, extra tenderness on the posterior side. Sore and especially painful under pressure, but no signs of tibial or fibular fractures. Interventions taken: ice packs and no jumping, kicking, or other strenuous activity using the right leg.

We have been very excited to tell everyone about our near-emergency experience. I have a feeling this event will somehow make its way into a discussion topic in class soon!