Well, folks... I know it’s been a while... here’s what I’m up to, these days.

I’m a licensed EMT-Basic, and I work as a home health aide. I’ve been finding a niche lately in getting into the more medically high-maintenance sort of consumers (where more skilled nursing is involved, and where I get to participate in patient management with the consumer’s health care team), and my license has actually been a good selling point. I actually find the consumers with more intense medical problems to be really interesting to work with.

There’s times I complain up and down about my work. There’s also moments of intense reward that are like candy-covered crack. There was the time I had to call the ambulance for one of my people, because I recognized altered mental status, and I ran through the list of questions I learned as an EMT student... and there was working with my current morning person’s nurse, who was doing his bloods, and handing her the tubes knowing they were in the correct order of draw, and having her tell me so. When I get to use something I learned in school, and see it in use, it’s exciting.

85% of the work consists of domestic stuff and getting the person dressed, washed, fed, pottied, and transferred to or from his/her chair. The other 15% (where I get to do medical stuff) is what makes the 85% worth it, and makes me inspired to transition into something where that would consist of most of my job.

If you’d’ve asked me a year ago if I ever saw myself home health care, I would’ve said no, and I thought by now I’d be on an ambulance. I had an image of my job that probably most people outside of the field have... a rather poor image, that unfortunately is shared even by many people in the medical field.

But actually my work is a lot more interesting than anything I’d be doing as an EMT-Basic, I get to jump in and do things that might even be outside of a Basic’s scope of practice, and I get more "patient contact".

As a Basic on an ambulance, I’d be spending a lot of time driving, a lot of time waiting, and a lot of time with a fairly predictable type of patient; in my county, Basics mostly do non-emergency transport. Even if I "drive like an old lady" as one person puts it, it’s still hard to see myself working ambulance after this, it would feel like a step backwards.

At the moment I’m looking into getting CNA certified this summer (a six week class), which would open me up to working in a hospital or long term care facility. Apparently once I actually renew my phlebotomy, and get CNA certified, I may be able to start pimping myself out as a Patient Care Tech or ER Tech, which is what I originally wanted to do anyway. I may have to work at a long-term care facility first, before hospitals will look at me, but that wouldn’t be so bad, either, it would be a job with benefits.

I’m starting a new position soon where I’ll be working with someone who has Parkinson’s and needs care of a feeding tube, which should be interesting, and I just interviewed for a position with someone with MD who requires a lot of respiratory management. It’s exciting when my next person has a different condition and different needs from the last; among the best parts of my work is the first two weeks when I’m learning to care for the new patient, and the 15% of the time when I’m working with the patient’s health care team or helping manage them.

Thought I’d give an update since the last time I wrote, I was either working at Barnes & Noble or Starbuck’s, depending on when you talked to me. A few months ago I made the half hearted attempt to get a state job, but lately I’m remembering why I got into this to begin with and why I got the license, and getting a clearer picture of where I want to go.

Update.

1) I don't have Celiac Disease. I have Graves' Disease. The treatment for this is kind of cool - for a few days I'll be nuclear. I'll keep you posted.

2) As soon as the state budget finally gets passed, I'll have a job with the state!

3) I actually was lucky enough to GET MY CLASSES... any of the pre-nursing classes tend to fill up fast. And they're night classes too.

Classes for this semester:

Nutrition
Medical Language

Two more classes (next semester) and then I'll qualify to get into the LVN program.

After the state budget is made, I'll probably have a state job too. So I'll work for the state and go to my pre-nursing classes at night until I get into the LVN program.

My plan is to get my LVN first and work toward my RN while working as an LVN (which a lot of nurses do).

Just posting to keep up with my friends who are on here...

As of February or March, I live in Sacramento with my lovely and our three cats and one dog :)

I'm starting school again in August, just two classes.

I have some kind of weird medical thing going on... the doctor thinks I might have Celiac Disease and I'm being tested for that.

Apart from the health thing, life has been good.

   

I spent the last few weeks comfortably nesting with Lovely, and had a couple of epiphanies. 1) Following my EMT class ending, I've felt somewhat of a letdown because of all the other classes I want to take, the wishing I could be back in the hospital environment after my volunteer stint changing drastically in scope, and knowing I won't be going on to paramedic school... so... I've decided. I sure seem to like working with sick people, so... I'm going to become a nurse. I'm going to go to do my prerequisites (starting this semester), and throw my number in the lottery for Sacramento City College's RN school. There seem to be absolutely no drawbacks to this, and apart from the fact that it may take me a few semesters to get in (which is no time wasted; I can work on my Davis Biology prereqs and put in time on the vomit van) with their lottery system, well.. it seems a better idea the more I think about it. 2) Grown up love IS different. 3) I've spent most of my time in Sac and actually I have been commuting to work. So fsck it, I'm going to just move there. Like, soon. What the hell. 4) I'm signing up for an online class at Sac City! Woo!

1) I now have my EMT-1 (or Basic) license for the State of California!

2) Things are going well with my lovely.

3) Natalie (car) needs to be serviced. Which is depressing since  I need said car to look for job. I should have put "get my car serviced" on my birthday wish list. So, anyone know where I should go for this?

I'm off the market :)

Public service announcement:

I'm taking the National Registry Exam for EMT-Basic on the 18th. Since I'm somewhat behind, I'll be putting a lot of time into studying until I take the test. So, I'll be largely unavailable in-person until after the test. Nothing personal, anyone.

 

Why Dr. Ed Friedlander is not a Postmodernist

I agree with the good doctor.

Where are you?

You are generations behind me.
You stand amid the tall spires of green, in a place where the cold sea is calmed. Yet where the sea seems calmest, it still turns red in the battle of life and death: the sleek hunters break the skin of cold, still water in a flash of black and white. This is not your land because the land does not belong to you, it cannot belong to anyone.

Where are you?

You are generations behind me.
You live behind a locked gate, and you are not allowed to leave. The only light in this room is the single candle you uncover your eyes to face:  the light of the day you keep sacred. You look into your children's eyes and know you will live on in them, no matter where you are. This is not your land, because your land was taken from you.

Ancestor, did you know that one day you would be my father?

Ancestress, did you know that one day you would be my mother?

Did either of you know that one day you would both be me?

Who will I be, one day?

What Ancestor seeks me, seeking to carry on a name?

Who will we become?

Generations from now, what will that child know of us?

~

Just some musings.

My dad is a member of the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe. I went to the annual tribal picnic yesterday, for the first time. I'm only a smidge Indian, and it was interesting to note that most people there looked like me - mostly Caucasian. But the *eyes*. We all had *the same eyes*. And many similar facial features.

A few notable things:

First off, I expected usual bad picnic food, but was treated to mass quantities of salmon, clams, and oysters - the traditional foods of my Indian ancestors. They sure knew how to eat.

Second, the location - Sequim, Washington - is one of the most devastatingly beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. You get the feeling of somehow being at the edge of the world. I could imagine the aurora borealis overhead at night (and according to my dad, the aurora does *occasionally* put on a show). Knowing that the land is almost totally unchanged between Sequim and Alaska and that my Indian ancestors were also related to the Tlingit and Kwakiutl gave me a sense, again, of being at the edge of the world.

I am happy to hear that the tribe is buying up the neighboring land, if it means that this place will remain pristine for generations to come.