BCSAR Accomplishment

Over the past couple months as I have been volunteering for the Bonneville County Search and Rescue (BCSAR) team I have also been participating in training to recertify BCSAR with the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA). I don't know exactly what that means, to be honest. I think it must be a required certification for all Search and Rescue units to have in order to be an established unit, but recertification only happens once every five years. There is a winter certification with specific winter skills the unit must know and pass, as well as a summer certification with different know-how skills. We have been training to pass the technical rope high angle rescue, avalanche rescue, and basic individual skills pertaining to winter gear.

I personally was on the belay line for the technical rope high angle rescue skill. To give you an idea, there are three components to this skills - the main line, the belay line, and the medics. This rescue is performed when there is an injured individual (or individuals) on some kind of high angle mountain/cliff. Our job is to set up two lines (main and belay) to send down a medic or two to treat the victim(s) and then to bring all individuals to safety by either hoisting them up or lowering them down depending on the situation/terrain. The belay line is a back up line in case the main line fails.

Everybody involved in the recertification was also trained in avalanche rescue, which we performed together in a mock scenario. I don't have a lot of the gear (yet) that is needed for avalanche rescue and so my job today was to follow a fellow team member around with a shovel and dig for possible victims in the buried snow that were located either by an avalanche beacon or by probing. Out of the three victims I dug up two of them. Knowing that one of the victims was an actual real person who was buried under the snow it was kind of an eerie job. The adrenaline is definitely running as you are hoping to dig up a live and/or treatable person but in the back of your mind you know that you could also possibly be digging up half of a person's body or an individual who might be decapitated, which was the case for one of the victims in the mock scenario.

The BCSAR team passed with flying colors in all of the tested skills. I don't think I ever felt the gravity of this recertification as many others in the unit seemed to demonstrate. We practiced, we knew our stuff, and we performed excellent. I am grateful that I was invited to be apart of the recertification group. I learned a lot of new skills, brushed up on some previously acquired skills, and was able to get to know more of the members in the unit. I am looking forward to starting the training for the summer recertification skills and continuing to learn additional skills to build upon what I have been taught.

The Call Came Through

While sitting in the Search & Rescue building going over the logistics for the upcoming Mountain Rescue Recertification event a call of action came through to the First Commander. The report: Adult male, suicidal. Vehicle found with note posted on window. Guns in vehicle missing. The room exploded into action with orders being thrown out right and left. This would be my very first search and rescue call since joining the SAR team in January. The adrenaline was pumping.

I wish I could tell you about the adventure going out on the call and finding the victim. I'll let you know as soon as I do. As I was about to head out the door after jumping into my winter gear to prepare myself for a possible long night of searching another call came through, to stand down because the victim had been found. A bittersweet call really; good that the victim was found (hopefully alive and not dead), but disappointing that it ended before it really even began for me. It was an exciting feeling to be involved in such an effort and was a small taste of what potentially the rest of my life may hold for me in my pursuit in this career field.

UPDATE: I was able to get a few details about the above call that I almost had the opportunity to go out on. The adult male who was missing and suicidal was located. The authorities that were searching for the man had a hard time locating him but from the sound of his ringing cell phone were able to find his body. He was located near the vicinity of his vehicle, dead with a tarp around or over his body. I have never seen a dead person/body and don't know if a suicidal victim from a gunshot would have been the best first time exposure, but on the other hand it would give me a real dose of the reality of this field of work.

When Breathing Becomes a Luxury

You realize life has become quite full when just stopping to catch your breath for a second is a luxury - along with eating and getting an adequate amount of sleep - thus the long absence from posting on my blog. But alas, for those who are interested, here is the old and new news of my life.

T.H.A.N.K.S.G.I.V.I.N.G.

As a last moment decision I surprised my Grandma and Grandpa for Thanksgiving. I was able to take an extra few days off of work and drive down to their house in California to spend time with them. It was enjoyable to be with my extended family on Thanksgiving, but the real highlights of my trip were the one-on-one times I was able to spend with my Grandma and Grandpa. I am the kind of person who loves adventure and being active, but I found that doing just the little things, like sitting next to my Grandma in her recliner chair she is almost confined to or taking a ride in the car with my Grandpa were the most meaningful and memorable. I was even lucky enough to get some quality time with my Uncle. We share the common interest of road biking/spinning, so he took me on a killer ride Thanksgiving morning. My uncle was great company and continued to offer encouragement to me as I struggled to keep pedaling. It's experiences like these with those I love that leave the greatest impact.

C.H.O.P.P.E.D. W.I.T.H. S.T.Y.L.E.

With my job I spend 96% of my time in my truck driving around town with my clients. My truck is my office, break room, conference room, and everything else that comes with work (minus the bathroom except for a couple clients who think it is and have used it as such, but I won't go there). Long story short, I am always in my truck. Having long hair became a problem because each time I put on or took off my seatbelt (which was a lot) my hair would get caught in the seatbelt thingamajig above the left shoulder. Ouch. To solve the problem I either had to quite putting on my seatbelt altogether or chop my hair off. Hmmm...chance my life or cut off something that would grow back. Not a hard decision. It worked in my favor that I was already tired of my long, straight hair. My only dilemma was figuring out which style I wanted my hair to be transformed to. After a lot of researching which types of hair styles looked good on my face shape I made my decision…

(Please ignore the cheesy grin on my face as this is the best picture that depicts my haircut)

I remember distinctly the feeling of no-return I felt when the cosmetologist cut my bangs. After leaving the salon I didn’t feel completely satisfied with the cut. The cosmetologist threw in a few twists of her own that I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of. So I went back. I left the second time in love with my hair.

C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S.

Christmas was a blessing! I again was able to travel down to my Grandma and Grandpa's for this holiday as well as everybody else in my family. The whole extended family on my mom's side was together for Christmas, minus the two missionaries serving in Mexico and Utah. It was a miracle that I was able to see unfold for the family to come together as well as witness miracle after miracle as we were together. It was a joyous reunion. Everybody came away with a few presents, but the greatest gift of all was being together.

K.I.C.K.I.N.G. M.Y. O.W.N. B.U.T.T.

After participating in a triathlon this past summer I fell in love with this style of competition. I caught wind of an extreme adventure race held in Moab, UT and decided that that would be my next race. It is a total of 50 miles and includes: mountain biking, running, rappelling, mountain biking, and kayaking. Check it out:

My efforts to find a teammate have been fruitless and so I will be participating in this race solo. Thus far I have done two things of many in preparation for this race - first, I got a personal trainer and second, I got a new (used) mountain bike. The tougher twin of my Jamis Road Bike.

My trainer created a Monday thru Saturday strength training/conditioning, endurance, and cardio workout schedule for me to stick to along with his killer one-hour session every Friday with me in order to be ready for this race. I still have yet to not get my butt kicked by the gym on a daily basis. So, many hours of my life after work are spent in grueling workout regimes at the gym. But all of this butt kicking has finally started to pay off.

On the first day of training with my personal trainer I had a body composition test done, which measures the body fat and lean muscle on my body. I received another body composition test six weeks after I starting training to see the progress I was making. I was quite frustrated with myself up until my second body comp test because I was not losing the weight as expected. Here are the comparisons between the two body comp tests:

Jan. 8th Feb. 12th

Body Fat %: 24.6% 21.6%

Body Fat Weight: 35.9lbs. 31.2lbs

Lean Weight: 110lbs. 113.4lbs.

Tricep Skinfold: 16.4mm 14.5mm

Hip Skinfold: 16.2mm 14.3mm

Thigh Skinfold: 33.6mm 28.0mm

Basically I dropped 3% body fat and gained 3.4lbs of muscle with slimming in my arms, waist, and legs. Since this last body comp test I have been tracking my calories and eating an approximate 1400/day calorie diet in order to get to the body fat percentage goal of 15% before my race next month and I have already shed several pounds from my healthy eating and workout regime. It is an exciting feeling to see the difference in my body and the progress in my workouts.

With the excitement of this adventure race approaching I started to think about what I would do after the race. I want to keep to the workout regime that my trainer has me on in order to continue to maintain and hopefully improve my fitness level, but what else? I discovered what awaits me after the adventure race. Four triathlons (located in Pocatello, Rigby, Idaho Falls, and Rexburg) and as a finale to the year, the LOTOJA road cycling race in September - a single-day, 206 mile race from LOgan, utah TO JAckson Hole, wyoming.

See what it is all about!

Always looking for racing buddies or support crew volunteers. Let the fun begin!

S.E.A.R.C.H. & R.E.S.C.U.E.

My job isn't what I want to spend my entire life doing. The right concept is there - helping people - but not the right focus I really want - mental health. The itch to move forward with my career dreams has become a lot stronger, but isn't something that I can entirely pursue right now. So I decided to pursue it as much as I can, even if it is just a little at a time. I am volunteering for Bonneville County Search & Rescue (BCSAR). I feel blessed to have teamed up with BCSAR because they are training to get recertified with Mountain Rescue Associate, which is something that only comes around once every five years. BCSAR will give me added experience and training to my certifications I currently have and will give opportunity to get a taste of a part of what I eventually want to do with my life - helping people in life-threatening situations. I am enjoying being apart of BCSAR and feel it is a step closer to my future.

Back to the Drawing Table

When push comes to shove and pennies start to get pinched it's back to the drawing table for me. That is...the plasma drawing table. Call it what you want; selling myself, prostitution of the blood, or, my personal favorite, saving a life. Today was my first day back donating after exactly a year of absence...and a bad experience. But sometimes a lack creates a drive to do things despite the costs to receive the benefit. There is purpose to this effort...


A year ago I bought a plane ticket to fly to Texas to spend Christmas with my family, but being asked to work the Christmas holiday I credited my ticket to use within the year. But to my dismay I discovered in order to use my credited ticket I needed to complete a trip by November 15th, pay $150 to redeem the ticket, plus the difference in the cost of the new ticket. WHAT!?! That throws going to Texas for Christmas OR Thanksgiving this year right out the window. So...doing a complete circle, we're back at the drawing table.

Guilty Until Proven Worthy of Mercy

Me: Hello Officer.
Officer: Hello. I pulled you over for speeding. Do you know how fast you were going?
Me: When I saw you and looked down at my speedometer it said 31mph.
Officer: I clocked you going at 35.
Me: I think my speedometer is off (it really is - I was previously ticketed for going 75 when my cruise control was set at 72).
Officer: Well, even if it was off 3 or 4mph you'd still be 6mph over the speed limit. I would feel comfortable pulling someone over for going 5mph over the speed limit on this street.
Me: Yes sir.
Officer: Do you have your license, insurance, and registration? ... (lingering with my information, I was hoping/praying he was just going to look at it and give me a warning). Thank you, I'll be right back.

........

Officer: Even though I clocked you going 10 over the speed limit at 35mph I only wrote you a ticket for going 34mph, which is a $75.00 ticket. (Handed me the ticket)
Me: Thank you officer.
Officer: Driving down this road at this time the sun is in your eyes and there are kids living along here. You need to slow it down a bit. Even going 25mph could cause serious injury.
Me: Yes sir.
Officer: You will need to pay this ticket by October 25th, so I am giving you a month to pay it. Do you know where the Court House is?
Me: Yep! I spent 4 hours there with one of my clients today.
Officer: Why?
Me: We were getting a restraining order filed against her boyfriend who beat her up over the weekend.
Officer: What kind of work do you do?
Me: I'm a PSR worker.
Officer: Hand me that ticket.

I grabbed the ticket from my console and handed it back to him not knowing what he was going to do with it. He held it like he was about to rip it in half, but then just folded it up a few times.

Officer: I'll take care of this for you.
Me (shocked): THANK YOU OFFICER!! THANK YOU!!
Officer: Our jobs aren't much different, except that you have to spend a lot more time with those people. You have yourself a better evening!
Me: THANK YOU!!

Having received only two tickets in my life (two too many) this is the first one that I have "gotten out of" and it was AFTER the officer had already written and given me the ticket! I could not believe it! I feel SO relieved and very blessed!

Now, to celebrate.....

Self Proclaimed Diagnosis

Patient: Rachel (aka: Iron Maiden)
Age: 26
Sex: Female
Height: 5'8''
Weight: Classified
Symptom Classification: EXTREME
Symptoms: build up of excessive energy, heightened anxiety, fidgety, day dreaming of intense outdoor activities, often squirmy, continual unsatisfied yearnings, dullness in day to day ritual activities, ticking bomb, nightmares of being in a straight jacket, falling asleep while working with clients at work, pacing, inadequate feeling of satisfaction in life, slight psychotic behavior due to extreme inexpressible cravings for adventure
Diagnoses: A.D.D. > ADVENTURE DEFICIT DISORDER

CODE RED :: CODE RED :: CODE RED :: CODE RED :: CODE RED :: CODE RED

Prescription: training by means of biking, rock climbing, swimming, weight lifting, snow boarding, running, various high-energy sports, healthy eating, sporadic activity, cross country skiing, long boarding, slack lining, canoeing, and hiking for the ADVENTURE XTREME SERIES and the STP
Follow Up: reassess patient's A.D.D. in 6 to 9 months on March 27, 2010 and July 18, 2010

Disclaimer: Although the author of this post is a certified EMT and is unable to make medical diagnoses by law, she is making this self diagnoses through self-exploration. In no way is the author of this post attempting in any form to belittle, make fun of, or disrespect the true and serious implications of A.D.D.