First IV

Entonox

A day in the life........

Med update

OK so we're into the thick of med phase now and it's all good. We're just doing some basic stuff right now to get the procedures to become a habit. I've done all of this before since I was lucky enough to get an advanced medical first response course. But this week we start to get into things I haven't covered before. Pain management using Entonox (laughing gas), which of course we have to understand it's effects in order to use effectively. So that means we will all be sucking back on some laughing gas and I will be sure to get some video footage of that. Also we start doing pharmacology and IV administration. I'm really looking forward to that. I've never put a needle in someone and then forced drugs directly into their bloodstream. Muuuuaaahahahha!

Also the picture below is of two guys (Geoff and Eric) while we were learning how to properly auscultate (fancy word for listen) to someones breathing. It just worked out that they were making the gayest faces ever when I took it. Add a caption and some bordering and walla! Magic.

1 month down, 10 more to go

Medical Phase

Well the start of the medical phase has begun. The regular Primary Care Paramedic course is 4 months long with another 3 months to do the practical portion in ambulances and in ER's. SAR Techs do the course in 3 months and have 10 days to do all the required practical work in the various hospitals and ams around the coast. RAD. After a lengthy period of time of since ground ops (Sunday) we show up to work on Monday and get issued a massive amount of books. That pic is the required reading for just one of us.


After that we were given an assignment due for tomorrow on top of the 3 hours of reading a night. Everyone was split into pair and had to do a presentation on a system of the body. Christian and I got the Digestive system. Zuko and his partner got the Reproductive system. The pic below is Zukes stellar vision of what the Gonads are all about.

HAI/Ground Ops

Another phase down. High Altitude Indoc in Winnipeg was pretty easy. The purpose of it was to understand how your body reacts under thin atmosphere and to recognize the signs and symptoms of hypoxia(shortage of oxygen), there are a lot of signs and people tend to have different one's which is why we all had to do it. Winnipeg sucks as far as I could tell, the only cool thing was taking limo's to and from the airport and hanging out in the executive lounge(it's good to be a SAR Tech). It's too spread out and it was just a boring phase so I imagine that had some impact. It was pretty cool though going to 30Kft (higher than Mt. Everest) in the hypobaric chamber and getting all fucked up.
After a week of that we took another plane to Edmonton, got on a private bus and drove to Jarvis Lake, the same place we did selection. We were told it would be a relaxing phase and a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun but relaxing........ hells no. The days start at 0700 and end anywhere between 2200 and 2230. And these aren't normal work days as most people would call them. SAR Tech work days differ slightly. For example, one day we spent building improvised stretchers and carrying people through swamps and bush for hours on end. Not cool, but extremely valuable training. Another day we had to search for a 17 year old boy with special needs who was also an insulin dependant diabetic. We started from the highway and worked our way in towards the lake. Once we got to the lake we received info that he was spotted on the island in the middle of the lake. Now Jarvis Lake is a high altitude, glacier fed lake and it's September, so it's effin' COLD. So we strip down and pack everything in our bivy bags and hit the water. Once on the other side we get dressed again, ruck up and continue the search. I happened to be in the front and found Johnny, a heavy mannequin. So now we have to construct a raft capable of keeping Johnny out of the water. It's kind of funny to see a group of axe wielding men on a beach with huge packs on, making a raft in their underwear. Everything worked out okay though and again it was an extremely valuable exercise. These are just a couple examples of what the week was like. Good training but it was a loooooong week and my body is feeling it now.