Couch Surfing Season

The WEMT class is over, and I have left the mountains and returned to the uber stimulation of cities. The conclusion of the class was filled with a lot of studying and scenarios. I led one of our group's testing scenario with an anaphylactic patient who was stung by a bee, went into anaphylaxic shock, collapsed and required CPR. The examiner was very impressed by our group, as was our instructor who was playing the patient in the scenario.
Also in the last week, we were able to learn how to stick IV's into people. Here is a picture of me sticking an IV in one of the EMT guests we had(I will insert the pic soon). After I found the vein and inserted the catheter and was removing the needle, a whole bunch of blood poured out from the site until I was able to properly occlude the vein. oops! We also were able to practice our suturing on pigs feet. I didn't know that I was going to act like such a sissy, but I felt a little feint and grossed out when I first saw all the little pink frozen piggy feet out on plates, though I sutured away anyway.

All of that feels like so long ago. I am now at NCNM, post school interview. I spent this past weekend at my friend Rebecca's house. She lives outside of Mount Vernon, Wa with 4 beautiful farm acres, two alpaca's, 3 feisty chickens, and one intelligent cat. It was sunny and we dug holes for her to plant her new fruit trees that were to be delivered on Monday. I was able to get some solitude, manual labor, outside time, a bike ride, and delicious fresh bread and pie with her and her friend who was also visiting.

I made it to Seattle on Sunday, rented a car and stayed at Addie and Justin's house for two nights and had good food, friends and yoga. I had my interview at Bastyr University which went really well, sat in on a class, had a clinic appointment, and then shadowed some student interns at their teaching clinic. At my clinic appointment, I received a craniosacral therapy treatment, which was wonderfully centering and may have helped my sacrum as well.

Ok, enough details for now, suffice to say the last few days have been a whirlwind of important and interesting moments. I am spending the day in Portland, at NCNM and then tomorrow I am in Olympia before I fly out red eye back to Philadelphia.

Fancy Photo Machine

Here are more pictures to show you how beautiful it is here. Most of my time in reality is spent in the classroom and around the premises of NCI since I am here to learn and all, it's just that the pictures of the outdoors are much more interesting. To the left is a picture of Ross Dam. There are a series of 3 dams up in the Skagit Valley that supposedly were set up far enough away from the Salmon run in the Skagit River. Ross is the last one. Addie and I hiked out there on Saturday for a few hours.


We caught the 3 hours of sunlight in the day and were blessed with this view of the North Cascades. Come to think of it, we have seen more than our fair share of sunny days.
This week we will be perfecting our patient assessments, back boarding techniques, and learning how to insert IVs. At the end of it there will be our final testing: crunch time. Coming into this experience, I did not expect to know what I want to do with this knowledge and experience, and I still don't. In the end I believe that I am gaining valuable and working knowledge about how our bodies work, ways of working with people in medical situations and a solid and basic approach to emergency medicine, especially in the back country.

Snow, or lack there of...

So apparently mother nature is going to drop another large load on Philadelphia tonight and tomorrow to add to the already present, 2 feet of snow and almost double it. Many of you might know that I am in love with snow, playing in it, shoveling it, admiring its beauty...I have told folks hear daily how much it has been snowing in Philly. Meanwhile the weather here, in the mountainous region of the rain belt of the pacific northwest, has been mostly clear, in the 40's and sunny???!!!! Last year at this time there was 4 feet of snow, this year zero. go figure. I know it's not all about me and my love of snow, it's about global climate patterns and the changes there within. It's just that...well so is life. Have fun in the copious amounts of snow!

Patterns

For the past two weeks, I have been waking up an hour before breakfast and doing yoga with Addie. I do it because it feels right to stretch and use my body and feel my strength; and I do it because I have someone else to hold me accountable to a meeting time and an activity. This strikes me as similar to how I found the discipline to train for the Broad Street Run with Rebekah. Class is a combination of sitting behind desks in a classroom, practicing skills on the floor, and going outside for scenarios, no matter the weather. Whether real or as part of the scenario, hypothermia is a big concern during these scenarios, and sleeping bags and pads are the most important and consistent pieces of equipment that we bring with us to the scene.

I've enjoyed learning a lot of emergency assessment tools for injury and sickness. It seems however that the scope of practice of an EMT, especially in an urban setting, involves giving oxygen, dressing wounds, splinting, car extractions, and little else. These are useful tools and seemed to be used by many folks as a step towards more advanced medical training. The Wilderness portion of the training along with the Medical Person In Charge certification gives us more leeway in acting and using our skills and judgment. All the more reason I'm taking this course I suppose. Tonight a lot of folks are practicing skills like putting a bag valve on someone who is not breathing on their own, backboarding folks for spinal immobilization, stripping a traction splint on a broken femur, and making splints. We have our practical skills testing next week, where all this and more will be evaluated.

I find it wonderful and simultaneously difficult to live in such an intensive and insular community. It's so easy to let the outside world slip to the back of my brain, as there is plenty of stimulation from the class, the mountains and green, and the folks here. Yet that disconnect from a world and people I am attached to and love is unsettling and is ever present even with some dissociation. I realize it's natural and normal to miss the life I left while enjoying where I am at present. I am often hard on myself for feeling disappointed, vulnerable, emotional, only to be reminded by those who love me that I'm acting like a real human. So I am reminding myself this time, and hearing the voice of Sissypants Popek telling me such things.

Currently I'm listening to my roommate Clarice play guitar. It's nice.