At least it's not broken.

Ah, Thursday. I get my Girl Scout Cookies today. I can't resist Girl Scout Cookies, the Thin Mints especially. It feels like Saturday, even though my week was insanely short (I love the fact that I don't have school Thursdays and Friday's this semester, though I really need to be more disciplined about using my time wisely.)

My ambulance operations class on Tuesday went well. I didn't kill anyone (unlike last week, when I killed my manikin dead-dead-dead and would have shocked myself if I hadn't been using a trainer AED. "Clear" means clear of the cot as well, just FYI). In fact, my team was the only one to not kill our 16 month old anaphylaxis patient (what can I say, I'm terrified of anaphylaxis and I epi the tar out of it). I even led our team for an abdo pain, though I need to work on radio communications. Next time, I'll delegate it (not).

Gym however was painful, and after my Ops class ended (10 PM) my buddy and fellow EMT decided to take me to the ER. I didn't argue much.

We went out to dinner immediately after class as we were both starving and he made a comment that I was -still- limping. My reply was along the lines of "Yeah, my foot hurts. Something cracked in gym earlier." So, of course, he says let's see it. I mutter about the idea of taking my boot off at the restaurant but we're both too curious so...off it comes.

As I suspected, it was quite swollen (medial part of my arch), with the veins standing out nicely (my buddy commented on it) and bruised. We debated it back and forth for a bit, then I decided not to argue over much about seeing a real doc with letters after his name. I didn't want to drive though, since braking made me want to scream, so my buddy took me.

The official word was nothing is broken. I was vastly relieved, because I -CAN'T- miss classes. My entire income is based around school (grants, student loans and my VA stipend) so I'm really glad it isn't broken.

My only complaint is about the attitude of the nurse at the VA. Yes, I'm an EMT- that doesn't mean I can diagnose a broken bone, but it does mean I can and will work with severe pain until it is a reasonable time for me to see a doctor. Yes, I know to ice things, but when you have nearly 14hrs with only minimal breaks and the 'school nurse' closes at four, there's no where to get ice between school and the ER. And just FYI, I HATE going to the ER as a patient. I've only done it three times in the last 25 years. I know that Doc's and Nurses need to sleep at night, but 11 pm was the only time I could get there, since missing classes is not an option, period.

I understand that he was tired, that I didn't ice the foot before I came in and that I could sorta walk. But I really wanted to make sure it wasn't broken, because being able to stand is vital to my future career and I've taken too many idiotic risks already. However, it's not broken (thank God!) and ice and Tylenol work wonders.

Oh, and I now have an awareness of water rescue. I think I want to pursue actual water and ice rescue training when I can. I find I really enjoy the challenges of "rescue" work (at least the scenarios). I love the medical part of EMT/Paramedic training, but I want to go further with it I think. I'd like to get qualified in high and low angle rescue, HAZMAT (technician level, I think), Ice and Swift Water and search and rescue. I've really enjoyed the brief intro's we've gotten in my special rescues class. But I guess we'll see if I'm still interested after I get my medic patch.

Wander Woman

Led me in circles around the ER on Thanksgiving.

But you know, it was all good. She was a total sweetheart, an absolute doll. We didn't believe the medic's when they reported that she'd been skipping down the hall in her nursing home, and they transported her because she fell while doing so. However, after an hour and a half of walking (mainly because we were too kind to lock her in a room) we decided that this sweet, old woman with dementia could very well have been skipping down the halls.

The rest of the clinicals were interesting. CHF who fell off his scooter in the Walmart parking lot. Little girl who caught her hand in a bullet blender. Infected toenail removal. All in a day's work in the ER.

The BLS transport was good too. I got to watch a woman (as we transferred her from the ER to our cot to take her home) go into severe respiratory distress and get nebbed. Her SpO2 stats dropped from mid nineties to thirty in two minutes. We decided she wasn't stable enough to transport. And ran. Fast.

Had a crazy woman. She wanted to take me home, which was kinda weird. She didn't like guys so I ended up keeping her calm and distracted during the ride to the hospital. We no more than dropped her off than picked up a baby with respiratory distress and took her to the Children's Hospital. She was adorable, other than the wheezing and coughing. Very happy baby over all, which we decided was a good thing. Last two patients were non-ambulatory, which meant I got to practice lifting and moving. My preceptor was bitten- not hard, but he definitely bit her. And I learned how to move in the back of a moving ambulance. That's a slightly unnerving feeling, especially when the patient I'm trying not to bump, jar or fall on complains of the slightest movement.

Ah well. Clinicals are over, I lived. And learned a lot. It was fun.