ER's & Bars

It has been a week. I managed to finish my last exam free and clear on the first try. I am now officially done the classroom portion of my paramedical training. At least for now. I am sure that in the future there will be some sort of classroom-ing involved, but that is a ways away. For now, I am anxiously awaiting my first of 12 shifts on the ambulance, to put in to practice all that I have learned. I spent last night at the emergency room of Royal Columbian hospital, practicing some of my skills there, but there will be something different about practicing on an ambulance as opposed to in the hospital, where there is all sorts of help ready on a moments notice.

There were some cool things we (3 classmates were there with me) saw last night, and it was interesting to see some actual presentations of conditions that we had learned about in our textbooks for 3 months. On the other hand, it was very sad to see one patient in particular, who got brought in by the flight paramedic team after being struck by a vehicle while walking.

It's a strange balance, between the strange excitement of seeing the trauma team do their job, and learning how we will be a part of it, and knowing that this person is very sick and will likely not ever have the same life again (if any at all).

I also officially have a job. I have a feeling that I will be battling with EI to get them to cover me for the whole 4 weeks that I was job free though. They have issue with the fact that I was in school M-F during the day, and "not available" for full time work. I kindly explained that for two and a half months I was in fact in school, and not only available for full time work, but actually working full time. It's a restaurant business that I am in, and they often deal in evenings and weekends. We'll soon see if EI understands that or not. You would think that after 17 years of full time employment, it wouldn't be a big deal to cover a couple weeks that I wasn't working.

Time for a bike ride with the kids before suiting up for an evening behind the bar of the finest Tuscan Grill in Langley...Coza!