School

Makes me want to die at times. Had midterms and skills testing for EMT this week, with another round of skills testing next week. I managed a 90% on the midterm and got through the skills testing this week well; it was Trauma Assessment, FBAO to CPR, and Airway Management; next week is Medical Assessment and CPR/AED Skills. I've also managed to keep a 90% in the class period, which means I got to sign up for clinical rotations early; which would have been great if I didn't forget to fill out my info packet, which emant that I couldn't do Good Sam Hospital on the day I requested, or that the SCF didn't accept my request of rotating on Thanksgiving. Both bummers, but neither insurmountable ones. So now I am signing up about the same time as everyone else is.

At least I wasn't one of the 7 people who got dropped after the midterm (you have to score at least a 75% to continue in class) from out class of about 30, or one of the 17 or so that got dropped from my friend Mallory's class. Or one of the two guys who failed on two skills tests on Thursday, and were consequently, dropped from the class. So I'm still in, at least for a few more weeks until we have the final in December. Have to score at least an 80% on that one, and the class is about to get alot ahrder. Fortunately there wasn't any questions really about the 7 or so different forms of shock; I didn't study those very well.

At any rate, I can't even begin to describe how nice it would be to not have to work and go to school at the same time. My brain is very tired, and aside from the artsy-fartsy part of my brain, I don't have to think (but probably should) much at work. I just think about MT skills all day long. And what will I be doing once I am EMT certified? I don't know, but I probably won't be doing anything EMT related; I doubt I will change jobs. Dana's is a good place to work, and, importantly, it pays enough to get us through our bills. Maybe I'll get a job as an ER tech; supposedly they make enough money to survive on. The typical EMT (who works for an ambulance company) gets paid about 10 an hour. No bueno. ER tech basically means I would be emptying bed pans and getting coughed on, but it's related and looks better on a resume than 'Cabinet Finisher". But at least I can say that I work with machinery.