However, good news! The medical director called me and the occ. health doc. I saw was going by an old standard which has since changed. You are allowed to wear glasses now and still pass the physical. I wish he would have shared that earlier with the doc that did my physical and before I tried to do the whole contact lens thing. Oh, well. Water under the bridge, because now I'm cleared and have already started riding.
I did my first ride along last weekend. We took the ambulance and were on standby at a community event. It was a blast. I got to ride in the ambulance to the event (yes I'm new enough that I still get a kick out of this!).
We didn't do a whole lot. Checked an elderly gentleman's blood sugar who felt pretty woozy (it was fine at 112). He smelled like he'd been drinking, which of course he denied. He didn't appear inebriated and was fully oriented. He hadn't eaten in 7 hours, it was very warm outside, and he was wearing a coat. Go figure. I'd be woozy too. He refused transport to the hospital so we had him sign a refusal form. We advised him to have something to drink (WATER!), keep his coat off, and get some food in him. His wife said she would make sure he did. We really thought we'd see him again before the night was over (we didn't).
The only other care we gave was a bandaid to a child with a scrape. Another child had a splinter. That's about it.
The event was packed with people of all ages. At the end of the evening there was a fireworks display. No one else needed care and were not needed to transport anyone so we just hung out with the firefighters next to our fire engines and got to have a front row seat of the fireworks.
No medical fireworks for my first ride along, just the real kind of fireworks. I do my next event tomorrow night. I will be staffing an aide tent at a large community fair.
Tonight starts my new class, Advanced Pathophysiology. It ought to be pretty interesting. We will eventually be working with cadavers and studying how disease processes affect body organs.
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And my BIG, BIG news: I've got an interview next week for my dream position. ED Fellowship Program at a Level 1 Trauma Center. They only take 10 applicants and they are interviewing now for a position in October. I've been told the competition is fierce, as this is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the immediate vicinity. I've been out of nursing for a while, but I'm hoping that my EMT certification, training, and all the classes I've taken over the last year will help me land it. I'm also taking an RN refresher course this summer. And I did my EMT clinicals in thier Level 1 ED. So, I'm hoping that will weigh heavily in my favor. We shall see. I'm going to give it my best shot. Stay tuned on that front.......
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Last but not least. My daughter's scoloisis surgery is on for June. We took a tour last night of the unit she will be on. The nurse who gave the tour was wonderful!!! She comes in on her days off to give them and she is very passsionate about it. Eleven years ago she went through the same thing at the same hospital, same doctor, with her own daughter. She went over what to expect each day of hospitalization. She also gave us a notebook that she put together with the help of staff and a former young patient that had gone through this two yrs ago at this same hospital. Needless to say my husband & I were very impressed as was my daughter. I'm so glad we went. I think it made her feel better knowing where she will be and much more about the process.
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If you're intersted in medical blogs head over to Parallel Universes - Grand Rounds are up over at Dr. Emer's site. Check it out!
