Not Your Usual Presentation Topic

To end the second week of my WEMT course our instructors broke us up into 3 groups of 2 and assigned us topics on a number of different ailments that we were to present to the class. Our instructions were to make it as creative and fun as possible. Our grade depended on it. The topics that my partner Jon and I received were Hemroids and Constipation. Ummm....yeah....

We had 40 minutes of preparation to somehow make and present these topics in a creative way. This is what we came up with.

Ballad of the Constipated Pacifist

So after several trips -- just pees
I seized the pose -- I grabbed my knees
It was my last chance to poop for peace
I would mediate a vast release!

So there I sat, and there I squatted
As I struggled to get my guts unknotted
To move forward and advance that dream
Of peace support out of my seam

And then I felt within me movement
For peace I would show my approvement
Though the rabbit has the faster pace
It was that turtle did win the race...

But what came out -- I'm ashamed to say --
Was not solid on this blessed day
For on this day of global release
My body chose to blow off peace!

__________________________________

Click Here to watch the video we showed
__________________________________

To say the least, our instructors had tears streaming down their faces and were rolling on the floor from laughter. Our fellow classmates also chuckled under their breath as their faces turned slightly red. Our instructors said that they will be using our poem and video in every class they teach from now on. Can you say A+ for us? :o)

Invasive

Warning: For those of you who get queasy by reading about anything having to do with blood or needles, think twice. For those of you who get queasy by looking at pictures of the like, take some thought. But for those of you who can't handle either, thanks for visiting. Please come again soon!

Today in my WEMT class we learned about Injections and IV's. We also had the opportunity to experience each of these from both ends of the needle. The injections were a piece of cake; squeeze the skin and go in at an angle. No big deal. The IV's were another story.

The instructor was very thorough in explaining, teaching, and demonstrating how to properly put an IV into somebody. We were all a bit nervous when it came to our turn to demonstrate our inexperienced ability of putting in an IV into somebody. I don't think it was so much of the fact of putting in an IV that scared me the most...it was trusting one of my classmates to put one in me that brought my heart rate up a little bit. With the several unpleasant experiences of almost fainting while trained phlebotomists incorrectly stuck me with a needle, my trust or confidence level wasn't too high with completely inexperienced and untrained individuals.

Before we began stabbing each other with needles the instructor demonstrated putting in an IV on one of my classmates who volunteered himself. He slowly showed us each step and fully explained the process. Afterwards he showed us what was happening with the needle on the inside of the vein by using a plastic wrapper to simulate the vein. While watching this unreal demonstration I began to get a bit queasy. At first I was in denial because I had just watched him do it on a human. I couldn't believe I was getting queasy watching him stick this needle into a plastic wrapper! What's up with that!?! I could feel my body temperature begin to drop but my body start to sweat at the same time. Light headedness set in. That's when I grabbed the nearest chair and sat down. Slowly but surely everything returned back to normal, for the most part. Phew!

When one of my instructors asked who didn't want to go first, my hand shot up (and was the only hand raised in the air). I needed some extra time to get myself prepared for a highly probable near-fainting experience. I know from past times the trigger points where I begin to lose it: when they miss the vein and begin digging/looking for it OR when they take the needle in and out several times. Nicht gut!

When my partner's and my turn came around (we were the very last group to go) I volunteered to stick my partner first. I didn't want to take the risk of sticking my partner while being nauseous or in a near-fainting state. To be honest, I had some anxiety with sticking my partner with a needle, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I did everything fast, smooth, and completely correct. My instructors were very impressed. When the tables turned and I was now on the opposite side of the needle my anxiety kicked in a little more. After my partner preped my arm and was getting ready to insert the needle I turned my head as a preventative of fainting, but boy did that needle hurt going in!! She inserted it very slowly which makes it so much more painful. After she got it into my arm and the climax of the pain from the insertion subsided a little bit the instructor watching and assisting said she had missed my vein and needed to pull the needle out and stick me again. (Heart rate rising).

Still looking away, my partner pulled it out and again slowly inserted the needle into my arm. It was just as painful as it was the first time. And yet again, she managed to miss my vein once more. My body began to sweat and my temperature began to drop. If something didn't happen fast I was a going to be a gonner. My instructor asked how I was feeling and after telling him he immediately stopped everything, had my partner take out the needle and put a guaze over my two bleeding puncture wounds. He did not want to take the risk of me fainting. I was grateful because I did not want to go through all the different phases that lead up to fainting - not a pleasant experience!















Left: My partner preping my arm before inserting the needle. Right: My partner's first attempt of insert the needle into my arm.















Left: Complete IV insertion done on my instructor by my partner after she tried twice on me. Right: Two small puncture wounds from needle. (The indent on the far right is a scar, the two puncture wounds are directly left of that - the two little red spots).

Again, I apologize for the sketchy pictures. They were taken on my phone camera because I still have been unable to find my real camera...

That was the excitement for the day in my WEMT course! At the end of class we had a full on scenario where we applied everything we have learned up to this point to this one scenario. I was the lead rescuer and as such felt quite a bit of adrenaline and pressure. But after going from a semi-unstable patient to one with no blood pressure, pulse, or breathing we were able to keep this patient alive and effectively evacuate him. It was the best our 6-person rescue team has ever worked together. It wasn't perfect, but it was well done. It was just awesome to walk away from the scene knowing that we have learned a lot of life-saving skills and can actually apply them effectively.

Photo of the Day

Taste the Rainbow

After a day of down pouring rain in Washington yesterday a beautiful and clear double rainbow was created. After getting out of my WEMT class and as I turned onto the on ramp to get onto the freeway this came into view. I immediately pulled over onto the shoulder and after tearing up my truck looking for my camera I had to resort to using my cell phone camera to get this picture. Amazing, nonetheless.

As I entered the freeway I could actually see the rainbow ending just on the other side of the freeway. It was kind of an optical illusion because I could see through the rainbow which made it seem like it wasn't really there. Kinda trippy. It was pretty awesome to see the rainbow almost all the way home. A manifestation of another one of God's beautiful creations!

Date: March 2, 2009
Taken by: Rachel Gillmore

Wilderness Intense!

Many of you may remember from my 'Where Two Roads Diverged' posting I mentioned that I signed up for a Wilderness EMT course located in Washington state. Well, yesterday was the completion of my first week of this month long course and I wanted to give a quick update on my experience thus far. I think one of my main reasons for wanting to post about it, besides giving an update, is because of my excitement already from taking this course.

My day begins early each morning around 5:30am when I arise to get ready for the day ahead of me by putting on at least three layers of clothing and making sure I eat a hearty breakfast and pack a nutritious lunch. After battling through Tacoma traffic I arrive on Fort Lewis Army Base where I meet up with 6 of my other classmates and my two instructors. We begin class at 8am by taking a classmate's vital signs, which include, blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, pulse oximeter level (oxygen level), pupil reaction, and lung sounds.

The rest of the day is filled with lectures, hands-on experience to become familiar with the many fun tools an EMT-Basic gets to use, and then scenarios in which we are able to apply everything we have learned. The day typically ends around 5pm, but then we are given homework/reading assignments that consume the rest of the evening.

We have covered a TON of information already this week but realistically it is only the tip of the iceberg. Luckily for me, the majority of it is review from my Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course - and a good review it has been since it's been a couple of years since I've taken that course.

As you can probably already tell, this WEMT course is really intense! To give you an idea, a WFR course is typically taught over a 10-day period, which is pretty intense in itself. This past week - 5 days - we have already covered the vast majority of that WFR course as well as a ton of additional EMT-B level training. To give you another perspective, taking this course through BYU-Idaho would have taken me 4 months to complete. I will receive the same certification in 20 days. To get a general idea of what we learn and study on a day to day basis, you can check out this course's tentative schedule.

I am absolutely enjoying this class! Even though it is really intense and I come home each day feeling like my brain is drowning in an ocean of information, I love how it is based on experiential education - hands on experience. That is my style of learning. Throughout the day we have little practice sessions to become familiar with what we have just learned in the lecture, but the true and bulk of the learning, for me, comes at the end of the day when we spend the last couple hours playing in the woods acting out possible real scenarios of what we might come across as urban or wilderness EMTs. One can sit in a classroom all day and learn this stuff, but they can't save a life or treat an injury if not applied outside the classroom.

One day this past week, as we were doing scenarios, I volunteered to be the Primary Rescuer (the rescuer in charge), which does the majority of the assessment, gathers the information, and makes the decisions. We came upon an unconscious injured male who was inverted on the side of a steep slope, face down in the mud, with possible spine injury. I was kind of bewildered as to what to do first - stabilize the spine, try to check the airway, or somehow move the patient. We ended up having to begin this scenario over 3 times in order for us to understand and perform the best care this patient needed in a quick manner. I was really grateful that we started over until we got it right because it gave us the experience to learn what we needed to do and why. You can't learn that in a classroom. My instructor was a little bit surprised at my positive attitude of having to start over so many times and that I wasn't frustrated or upset. My dad's words came into the back of my mind, "If you do it right the first time, you don't have to do it again." The learning comes when we correct our mistakes. Even though I had to start over 3 times I walked away from class that day excited and pumped because of that learning experience.

One week down, three more to go, and a lot more fun to be had! We are allowed to take pictures and I hope to be able to get some to post on here. It's slips my mind as the adrenaline starts kicking in when we are doing the scenarios. All in all, I am thoroughly loving my class, learning a ton, and enjoying being in my old stomping grounds again.

Unexpected Challenges

I struggled a lot with what my February challenge would be, but as the month progressed it almost seemed as though the challenge to learn something new presented itself to me. I actually learned how to do two new things this month, both of which were awesome because both learning experiences were something that I found to be thoroughly enjoyable.

During the winter months I spend a lot of time indoors because I strongly dislike being cold! I'd take 115 degrees over being cold any day! But slowly over the last two winter seasons I have been exploring some winter sports, which I have really enjoyed despite the freezing temperatures (i.e., snowboarding, snowshoeing). This month, for the first time I went cross country skiing. I found cross country skiing a bit similar to snow shoeing, but with a little bit more coordination.


The above picture of me is my triumph of finally getting back up after falling with my XC skis on. It was a toss up between the difficulty of putting my XC skis back on (which I could never do without help) to get up or to get up with my XC skis on. I usually chose the battle of getting up without taking my XC skis off. That was a challenge all in itself, but got better and better after each fall (which occurred a bit more frequently than preferred).

The trip to go XC skiing began in the late afternoon, which didn't leave us much daylight and so consequently our location was closer than originally planned - Mesa Falls. It was absolutely gorgeous! Thinking about it, I don't know if our original destination would have been much different. It was SO peaceful to be skiing through the stillness of a beautiful forest - there was no sound other than the sounds of nature; the calm breeze through the trees, an occasional rushing of water from the river far below, the sweet chirps of birds as they flew overhead. It really was a bit of heaven! Without the distractions of the world to interrupt us or the responsibilities and stresses of life interfering, everything was perfect. I wish I had discovered my great liking of XC skiing earlier in the month so I would have been able to go multiple times, but I hope to have a few more opportunities to go again upon returning to Idaho.

With being a perfectionist, certain things take a lot longer for me to complete. For several years now I have wanted to learn how to make a leather journal. In my mind, this was buying a journal from the store and then making a leather covering for it. Never did I think I would learn how to do the whole process from start to finish, but I have successfully learned how! Going back to the whole perfectionist thing, it took me a long time to figure out how I wanted my leather journal to look. Once I figured that out I was ready to begin. I soon learned that even though each step is pretty easy to do, it took a lot of time and a lot of patience! But each step was well worth the final product!

The basic design of this leather journal was what I had in mind in the beginning, but a couple of things were design ideas that came during the process of its creation, for example, the leather strap page markers with beads on the ends, and the acorn as a closing mechanism. It turned out beautiful - better than I had expected!

I have learned a TON and have changed A LOT since my experience began at Anasazi. And even though as I move forward with my life I find myself continually looking back and drawing from the experiences, ceremonies, steppings, sittings, stories, and all else that is incorporated into the Anasazi Way.

In my truck I have my Rememberance Pouch hanging from my review mirror. It is something that I always look at whenever I am in my truck. It helps me remember my walking and something that I am trying to live up to. Recently I have had the desire to make a new Rememberance Pouch. I have never completely made one before, since the ones supplied at Anasazi are all pre-made. The process of making the Rememberance Pouches (pictured below) has brought so many new awakenings into my life and a new perspective that I have needed to grasp.

In the process and completion of making these Rememberance Pouches I have decided that it was time to take down my Rememberance Pouch and put a new one in its place. I am walking a new journey now with many goals ahead that I desire so greatly to reach. This Rememberance Pouch is now my constant reminder to me of all of those things in my walking right now that I am trying to accomplish. This journey is not an easy one; there will be an unspoken amount of trying, testing, stretching, and sacrificing but it is a walking that will lead to the greatest Final D there is with the richest blessings unimaginable. This journey is the Path of WE.

I am grateful for my unexpected challenges this month. I have discovered not only new activities that I would like to continue and develop, but I was also able to discover things about myself and receive awakenings that have began to help me turn towards a greater Light in my life.

February Challenge: A humble success

Nearing the end, but it's only the Beginning

Over the last year I have discovered a developing love I have of taking pictures. I love the challenge I give myself of trying to capture unique, beautiful, creative, and stunning pictures. After signing up for a 4-week continuing ed Digital Photography class I decided I would make this my January challenge. I am not highly knowledgeable in photography, nonetheless in digital photography. Taking a film photography class in high school is the extent of my knowledge, but I've want to learn more, even to an amateur professional level.

There have already been two digital photography class sessions and each time I realize there is SO much to learn; we have only barley skimmed the surface of the vast information there is to know, especially if I am hoping to get to a point where my photographs are worthy enough to sell. But I have already learned some key points which have opened up new doors for me to explore and try on my own.

At the end of the first day of class my instructor asked us to pick 6 photographs that we have taken and email them to him. We were going to go through the photographs that were submitted on our second day of class, but we didn't have time to even touch them. Since there is only one more day of month left and I am sure all of you are sitting on the edge of your seats wondering and waiting for my January challenge post, I thought I'd put you all at ease and show you the 6 photographs I submitted to my instructor.

I have tons and tons of pictures, but these are among my top favorites. I don't know what the opinions of others are or the critiques these would receive, but for my present skill level I find these photographs to be well captured. There has been no modifications, adjustments, or editing done to these photographs; they are in their raw image.

In addition to enhancing my photography skills, I also hope to learn and use Photoshop proficiently in order to make my pictures come alive and catch the eye where needed, but keeping it as organic as possible.

This challenge is an on-going challenge as I will continue to learn all I can over the following months and years. In other words, this will not be the last time I will blog about this challenge, but hope to some degree take you with me on this journey of learning the digital photography world.

January challenge: Work in progress

*Recently my cousin, Heidi Hydrick, has published her stunning photographs to the internet and are currently for sale. To view her photographs, click here.