Hi all. I’m still on the holiday break, and rather than frolicking in a winter wonderland, I’ve been fighting a miserable cold since the first week of December. As I mentioned in some past posts, my wife has taken a new job in the southern part of the country while I finish school in Seattle and work on selling our house. I’m actually down south with my sweetie now, and have been for the past week. I can already tell I’m going to really like living here a lot. The people are nice, the weather is great, the cost of living is significantly less than the PNW and frankly, I’m tired of living in the perpetual gray that is Seattle.
As the year is quickly coming to an end, I wanted to thank each of you who’ve read my blog and commented on my posts. Medic School continues on Jan 4th, and this quarter is going to be even busier with clinicals and classes. It looks like I won’t have a free day until mid February. I’ll keep you updated with what’s going on. This quarter, I’ll be taking more of a “lead medic” role on ALS calls and I expect to really learn a lot.
I’ve also started to compile a list of things that I want to accomplish over the next year. Not really New Year’s resolutions, more so a list I can refer back to and check off as I get things done.
In 2010, I want to:
- Attend a comprehensive difficult airway class.
- Remove fast food and soda from my diet totally.
- Clean out the garage and sell all of the junk
- Make it a priority to work out once a day.
- Lose some more weight.
- Make sure I tell my wife I love her, every day.
- Remind myself why I decided to become a paramedic whenever I have doubts.
Sounds easy… but doing it every day might prove to be difficult, but I’ll work on it.
Friends, I hope you all have a great 2010 and keep checking back… I promise to get back on the posting track very soon.
Get well soon! Have fun being the lead on ALS calls.
What is an ALS call considered to be where you are doing your field internship? After you’ve moved will you please write up some rants about King County EMS?
Thanks Timothy. In my field rotations, an ALS call is any call were we provide service above BLS. Sounds simple, right? For example, A simple fracture would be a BLS call, unless I start a line and give pain meds. Then it becomes ALS. If I have a call with chest pain and I run a 12 lead, it’s counted as an ALS call, even if it’s NOT a cardiac call. Any “paramedic level” interventions make it an ALS call. Of course, the service I am riding with doesn’t bill, so we tend to run just about everything at the ALS level. The exception is, “I hurt my elbow 6 years ago and want to go to Swedish!”
And I don’t think I’m going to say too much about King County EMS. There’s some serious shortfalls there, and everyone who’s involved knows what they are.
Good call on the fast food and soda. I’ve been able to cut that out, but I still do diet soda sometimes. Like right now…
My resolution is to only eat out once a week. We’ll see how that goes!
When it comes to the comprehensive airway courses, I recommend SLAM. I’ve taught with them as an adjunct instructor a few times, and it’s a great course.
Yeah AD, I’ve heard SLAM is great. I’ll have to see where and when they’ll hold one near me. It would be nice if there was a class in Baltimore this spring.
I’m with AD – SLAM is worth it. I took it in 2006.
And Happy New Year to you. Definitely looking forward to reading more about the experience you’re having. So far, it looks like you’re having a good one. And I like what you have in mind for 2010. For the record, I’m working on a couple of the same things. Especially some of the little things. They’re important.