I'm still trying to be better at this blogging stuff!!!!

Where do I begin? It’s amazing how much (and how little) can happen in a week! I’ll start with last Friday when I went to the drive-in that reopened just a few miles down the road from campus.

It was a double feature opening night, so Cliff and I went to see the new Star Trek movie and The Soloist. Both were really good movies (I still like The Soloist more even though I had already seen it), but they didn’t end until 2 AM and I’m not used to staying up that late anymore. I took a power nap during the second movie, but it got really cold and breezy outside so it was short lived. We were sitting in the jeep with the top down, so I should’ve known I was going to get cold and next time I’ll be better prepared. I had one of Cliff’s hoodies on and a blanket, but I should’ve brought a comforter!

Saturday was really nice out, so I got to bust out my shorts! Cliff, Brandon, and I went to the park (I drove the jeep-and yes the top was off!) and we threw a disc around for awhile. Once we started getting sweaty we went to Horkleys and got one of there super big/super cheap drinks! 60 cents for a 57 oz drink… what a deal. (it might be 55 oz… I don’t know for sure). This is a picture of me driving the jeep… I should’ve put my hair up!


Now for the big adventure of this week!!!
This semester I only have one class on Mon, Wed, Fri., so I usually just sit around and hang out all day after class. Well, this past Monday I was texting a friend and he asked me what I was doing all afternoon. My reply was of course NOTHING, so he asked me if I wanted to volunteer to be a patient for the paramedic student’s scenario they were running that day. After a short phone call, one of the paramedic students told me to wear clothes that could be cut up and to wear a bathing suit or something like it underneath and to meet up at the paramedic room a little before 2:00. Once I arrived, I was told to get in a car so that we could leave. I thought we were hanging out in the paramedic room all day, but the scenario was going to take place in Mesa Falls. (the waterfall place I blogged about a few weeks ago). So Stetson and I immediately got on the road, and the ambulance and the rest of the students were about 30 mins behind us. Once we got to the falls, we scoped out a good place to carry out the scenario. I was a 69 year old woman who was visiting the falls with her grandson (Stetson) and my pacemaker stopped working causing me to fall down a flight of stairs. To make the students really work, we made the fall at the bottom of all the staircases so they would have to carry me all the way back up on the backboard. It was fun to listen to everything that was going on (I was pretending to be unconscious so I couldn’t see what they were doing to me). They picked up really quick on what had happened, and got things going right away. They cut off my pants and shirt so I was left lying there in a tank top and shorts, which wouldn’t have been bad if there weren’t 10,000 mosquitoes lurking around trying to find someone to feast on. Stetson tried to keep the bugs off me, but sitting here 2 days later I’m still a little itchy. The students broke up into two groups-the guys went to the bottom and carried me to the top and the girls waited in the ambulance to take over. The guys tried to get IVs started while we were at the bottom, but someone forgot to pack alcohol swabs in the bag, so they waited until I got in the ambulance to do that. I was attached to an EKG and SPO2 monitor and had a nasal cannula put up my nose, a c-collar put on, and my head was taped down to the rock hard backboard. It was fun to see how they did everything since they have a lot more training than I do in medical emergencies. (for those of you who didn’t know I’m a certified EMT-Basic now). Anyways- I did a pretty dang good job of staying unconscious during the entire scenario, but a few things did make me crack a smile. When the guys were carrying me up all the staircases Stan and Craig were talking about how they were glad I was the patient and not the other guy that was going to volunteer because he weighs twice as much as I do. But jokingly, Craig said “yea, but she’s still heavy.” And Stan replied with “yea, lay off the cafeteria food.” After that comment I couldn’t hold in the smirk. Then Craig mentioned how beautiful the falls were and I think he asked Stetson if he liked it up there, and quickly Stetson responded, “No, I hate this place! My grandma is going to die here!” Again-couldn’t hold in the smirk. Once we got to the top, the backboard was put on a stretcher and the girls got right to work on the IVs. I let them actually try to put the IVs in to let them practice but I was kind of cold at this point because it was cold, rainy, and breezy up at the falls, so I think it was harder for them to get the stick. They missed in both arms, but at least they tried. This is what my arms look like after 12 hours.

It was fun and we stopped half way back to Rexburg to get lunch. I was glad we stopped so I didn’t have to be on the backboard anymore. We ate lunch, got back to campus; I changed my clothes and started to help teach the EMT lab. It was 6 straight hours of medical emergency fun. I really like what I’ve learned and wouldn’t mind learning even more about first aid, but I’m still not sure if I really want to go into the Paramedic program. I figure I have a year until I can apply for the program now anyways, so that gives me plenty of time to figure it out!