A Bargeload of Stuff

Finally, I have a day off and a few minutes to sit down and catch up. It's been a hectic month, as I knew it would be, between the nursing program during the week and EMT-IV training on the weekends.

The IV training has gone well, but my hands did, indeed, get all beat up. I've got some pictures, but haven't gotten to them as yet. I hope to do so today, if I get that far down my to-do list, but it's about item 30, so odds aren't good. I'll get to it eventually, though, since next Saturday is the State test and then class is done. That'll give me my weekends back, and I should be able to get caught up a little.

The nurisng program's been going apace. The whole Care Plan and Cover Sheet thing is a bit overwhelming this term, since we typically get our patient information on Wednesday afternoon (by going to the hospital and checking the sheet), then have to spend about 6-8 hours of research doing care planning, lab values, pathophysiology, etc., so that everything is ready to turn in at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday when clinical rotations start. This week, however, I'm headed to a kidney dialysis unit tomorrow, so no patient data is needed (yay!), giving me today off. Bad news is, after my dialysis rotation, I have to pick up patient data for Friday, and spend all Thursday after clinicals doing the CP. *sigh* It's like trading a full day off today for a full 16-hour day of work tomorrow. Dunno if that's good or bad.

Lastly, I got toned out Saturday night to a structure fire up in the hills. The house was fully involved when we pulled up (E-24 was first in, which was kind of a fluke), and my partner I were first to throw water on it. Being first in means we got blocked in by the multitude of other apparatus that parked behind up (it was a long, winding, muddy driveway), so we were one of the last out. We were on scene from about 8pm to 1am, then had to clean up the engine and gear, do some paperwork, etc., when we got back to the station. I was totally beat by the time I got to sleep around 3:30am, and could barely crawl out of bed at 7 when my alarm went off for the EMT-IV class. Top that off with ill-fitting boots that put massive blisters on both feet, and I was a bit uncomfortable the next day, sticking IVs into people on a moving ambulance!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not whining; but I don't think I recover quite as fast these days as I did when I was 25. :)

Anyway, The Daily News carried a couple blurbs about the fire, if anyone cares:

Firefighters find body inside engulfed mobile home in Kelso

Victim in fatal house fire Saturday identified as Rocky Parsons of Kelso