School's Out for Summer...

I'm done, done, done, done and done. No more paramedic classes for me. It is really weird to say that. I know I still have ride time to do but I have no more classes. I have been working towards this for the last 4 years now and its finally over. I do still have the national registery test in August but right now I am not worried about that too much. This weekend has been fun, we have all been hanging out and just chillin. For the first time in a year I don't have to feel guilty that I'm not studying or doing something constructive. Well there is more booozin to be done....I'm out!

It's down to crunch time. I have two days before the finals begin. I think I am ready but you never know. We have three 8 hour days that have various types of testing from a comprehensive multiple choice final covering the entire year to our practical station where we get tested on our ability to run a cardiac arrest situation. I have two days left to cram whatever I think I need to have memorized into my overcrowded brain.

Yesterday was a nice break from all the studying. I worked over in Union Gap which is south of Yakima. Had a couple of good calls and got some good experience. I saw some sad situation though. There is soooo much alcohol abuse on the Indian reservation. Every one of my calls had alcohol as the cause of the accident, from a rollover where the patient was ejected and has open leg, arm and pelvic fractures to a women who was shit faced at 8 am and fell over and split her lip and broke her nose. It's just sad to me to see a culture that as a whole has been so affected by alcohol.

Today was a bit of a ho hum day, nothing too exciting to report. I have been trying to fight off a cold which I am now starting to think is my first bout with allergies. I have had this mild sore throat feeling for about 5 days now that hasn't gotten any worse or better and I don't really feel sick either. But I am treating it like a cold none the less. I slept in today to a whopping 8 and got up and had a healthy breakfast and then took the dogs for a walk.

Stu is tolerating the little one way better then I thought he would. She is a holy terror that will not leave him alone but he just kind of sits there and takes it and when he has had enough he just gives here a little growl and she backs off. She has a new trick where she just creeps up on him and starts to lick his face but then he slowly lifts up his ear flap and then barks just about as loud as she can right in his ear...Not very nice if you ask me but he just still sits there...Good boy.

On a break from my studies I made a run to the store to resupply some of my essential food items (pizza and sharp cheddar cheese) and noticed the campus police and Ellensburg pd had some sort of crackdown going on. Between the Safeway and my house, which is all of a mile, I saw 6 people pulled over. This was amazing to me because I have never been in a town that is so inept at driving. They take their stereo type of small town drivers to heart and just go with it. Example...In E-burg do not assume that anyone is going to stop for you at a cross walk. You could wait there all day looking like you are going to dart out into traffic and no one will stop. But there is one exception to that rule, if you are at a 4-way stop you're golden. This little anomaly stems from the previous example I'm sure. I think that everyone assumes that at a 4-way stop the other people aren't going to stop (see example 1) and they just try and wait until traffic is clear and then they go. I can't tell you the number of times I have been the third car to an intersection and am the first to go.

Well time to prolong the study break a bit longer and take the dog for a walk. I just have to brave the spring winds. Today there is a high wind advisory for gusts of 50-55. Its nice though because I can just toss Stu's toy up in the air and it drifts for what seems like 100 yards.

The End is Near!

I thought I would finally get around to making my first post of the new year, yeah that's right the first post of the year. Everybody keeps asking me what's new with me and I have only one stock answer....Not much. That is the honest to god truth. I go to class and I go on ride along, that's about it. I have had three days off since the beginning of April, one was just a random day and the other two were for Dman's wedding (thanks Dan for giving me an excuse to take a couple of days off). The wedding was awesome and I am glad I could make it. It was nice to see the crew again and make a couple of new friends.

I can't complain too much about school. It has been hard but fun at the same time. The last quarter has been a lot more hands on and we have been doing cool stuff like learning how to do central IV lines and surgical airways(trachyotomys). The really scary part is that we are done with classes. I have finals next week and then I am done with paramedic classes and just have to finish up my ride along this summer and the national exam is on August 12th and 13th.

There has been a bit of extracurricular stress that I could have done without though. The move was not something I planned but worked out pretty well. I am in a much better house that is a lot more relaxing. Right about the same time my 4runner crapped out on me and I had to do a quick diagnoses. It turned out to only be the water pump and an hour later it was up and running again. There was still a vacuum issue though and that took some searching to figure out and I think I just finally got it fixed, keep your fingers crossed.

Here is the best thing though...I got a letter on Monday from financial aid. It basically said sorry but we ran out of money to give out (loans included) and you will need to look elsewhere for money. I think that should work out okay though because I am already getting half of my loans from Sallie Mae anyway so I will just need to up the amount on those and it should be all good. I hope they find some more money for fall because most of my package is made up of grant...That's right, free money...woooo. I am starting to get a little excited about graduation in the fall, after this summer I will only need 3 more credits to get my BS.

I will try and be a little more diligent in the posting...

It's Been a While

Soooooo yeah.....the last time I had a chance to right anything on this was at the beginning of the quarter when I was just moving into the big yellow house and starting my first quarter of Paramedic school. Things have gone really well so far, we have had some kick-ass parties with little or no drama, everyone gets along and yes school is going great.

I am on break right now but it doesn't really feel like it. I have spent just about every day working in the hospital or riding somewhere on an ambulance. Today was a big mile stone though, I had my first IV shift and started 5 of 5 which means I am now qualified to start them in the field. Look out world they are trusting me with pointy objects. I have 2 more IV shifts in the hospital to practice and then on Thursday I get to try my hand at intubation. That will be a bit more challenging and pressure wise a lot more difficult. But with a little luck and people with big fat throats I will be checked off to do that in the field by Christmas.

Well the break hasn't been all work. I did take a day on Saturday to go hiking with the dog. We ventured out to Umptanum Creek about 20 miles outside of Eburg. The hike starts off where the creek meets the Yakima river. You have to cross on this cool suspension bridge to get over the river and I was really impressed with the mut. Many a dog is afraid of that sort of thing, being able to see through the slats in the bridge and having it bouncing and swaying, but he hung in there and I might even go so far as to say it didn't faze him. We continued on up the canyon following the creek as we went passing the beaver ponds that a family of beavers had constructed. They had been busy creating 6 separate damns all since the last time I went up there in July. Not too much farther up the trail we ran into a herd of long horn sheep about 20 yards up the hillside from us. We stood and watched each other, Stu and I at the bottom and the sheep on the hillside. That lasted about 5 minutes before the sheep decided to head on the their way and off we went as well. We hiked for about another hour or so and then headed up the side of the canyon, it was more or a scramble but was fun none the less. We got about half way up when I heard a few gun shots ring out. This was a bit disconcerting when this area really wasn't much of a hunting ground it being a marked hiking trail and all. We were just far enough up to duck behind a large outcroping and hang out for a bit. There were a few more shots but no evidence of bullets hitting anywhere around so I found a perfectly flat chair like rock to sit and have lunch. Stu of course found a ridiculously large log to keep himself occupied with and all was well. After lunch we headed back to the car and went home. It was getting to be about dinner time so we swung into Blockbuster and rented a couple of movie and went home and had dinner. All in all a relaxing day.

Back on the Eastside

Here I am back in good old Ellensburg. It's strange to think that this is going to be my home for the next year+. I lived here for about two months at the beginning of summer and went to summer school but it just felt like I was staying here taking classes and home was still on the west side. That might have something to do with the fact that I came home every other weekend but whatever. I came home last Friday and it felt like I was coming home.

We started off the school year with a welcome back party which went really well. We had about 80 people at any given time but it seemed to regulate it self. There were always new people but it never seemed too crowded or empty. The best part was having all the freshmen over, now I don't even want to know what would have happened if our party had been busted, but they were awesome. I can't tell you how many people came up to me and thanked me for their "first college party". Like I said we lucked out and the cops stayed away until they just happened to pull someone over across the street. This worked out great because it was about 1:30 and it was time for everyone to leave, someone yelled 5.0 and out everyone went. Saved a lot of hassle in the end, I am going to have to remember that one for later.

The last couple of days have been pretty chill, just been hanging out and getting to know the new roommates. We have been doing group dinners and someone new has cooked every night. It's been pretty cool, I haven't really sat down and had dinner at the table on a consistent basis since high school. It is a really good group of people and I think the year is going to go pretty well. The only real drama in the house has been and the animal level. Stu dog has had to get used to living with cats now that we have two living here. He seems to get along with the older one pretty well and I have caught them playing a couple of times when no one is looking. But the younger one has an ingrained fear of dogs or something (hmmmm wonder why?) and refuses to let her guard down around Stu. She is always hissing at him so of course Stu is not going to be shown up by a cat and canine/feline hijinx ensue. Thus far nothing has been broken in the craziness. Now I think we are off to Yakima to pick up my roommates big TV....

Welcome to the Jungle

Wow, what a welcome back to work. After taking a couple of months off for school I went back to work yesterday. The shift started off with a bang, pardon the pun. First call out of the blocks was a guy who called 911 saying that he was depressed about his girlfriend breaking up with him and was suicidal. The SWAT team surrounded his house and he would not put down the rifle he was pointing at officers. He fired it once and one of the officers returned fire right in to his stomach. I cant imagine what 4 9mm rounds to the stomach might feel like but this guy was taking it pretty well.

Just a aside I have had this theory about suicide, there has got to be nothing more depressing then when you are actually trying to kill yourself and fail. And I mean really fail, you hear every now and then about people that jump from bridges and shoot themselves in the head but live and are horribly disfigured. I think you could take one of two options after something like that, option A: wow, there is a God and he really wants me to live and I am so lucky to be alive, option B: holy crap!! I thought my life sucked before and I cant even get killing myself right. Not to mock people with true issues that they need to be dealt with but it is kinda sad if you think about it.

Alright, back to the topic at hand, my crazy shift. So things go along business as usual for the rest of the afternoon, go to some nursing homes, watch some afternoon USA movie and try and nap. Then things started to pick up, the calls were coming in left and right and then the big one hits. Starts out as a possible shooting in front of station 29 and quickly progresses to much more. Turns out there was a car in the fire station parking lot and at someone decided to unload a clip from a 9mm into the cab of the car hitting all 4 occupants. This is what the guys in the fire station discovered once they picked themselves off the floor and dawned there flack jackets. Pretty much the whole world responded to the call, fire, medics, PD, private ambulance and every other onlooker that heard the shots. It was a chaotic scene but still had that crazy efficiency that I have become accustomed to at an accident. Only 1 was DOA and last I heard the other 3 were still in critical condition up at Harborview. It is calls like that that make up for al the BS that we run.