Medic School II

So much for my 2010 resolution to blog more; I've decided that I'm going to focus my time on passing Paramedic school before I worry too much about anything else. I'm currently about 3 months into my "Didactic" portion of Paramedic school and I'm still loving almost every minute of it.

Recently I had the option of doing my Labor and Delivery clinical rotation at Valley Med, I was able to assist in the delivery of 4 babies and scrub in for a C-Section surgery. Valley Med is a learning hospital, (If you don't want to read about my L and D experiences, Feel free to scroll down to the next paragraph) So; here is what I learned. Babies don't wait until morning to come, I went in for my rotation from 11 PM to 7:30 AM, I figured I'd have trouble staying awake but that wasn't really the case as every room had somebody in it for most of the night. I had the opportunity to apply pressure while several patients babies were delivered and then to clean, weigh, and evaluate the babies. A few of the babies needed to have their lungs suctioned and as we were wrapping them up we would rub the babies skin and watch the skin color change to a natural shade of pink. Standing in for the C-section was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life to date; I stood near the Dr's as they cut open their patient who was in for her 4th C-section, As they performed their jobs they were able to explain to me exactly what they were doing and what organs I was looking at; I had NO idea what kind of force it took to pull a baby out of the uterus, My eyes must have looked like gumballs as I watched the Dr put her arm almost up to her elbow inside this womans abdomen and fish around until she had a comfortable grip on the baby, Then she pulled it out clutching him like a football. The baby was taken into another room, evaluated and brought back in to meet Mom then taken to the Nursery, I chose to stay in the OR and finish watching the surgery, This woman had chosen to have her tubes tied, and watching the Dr's sew up the incisions as they again explained what I was looking at was indeed a very memorable experience. On my way home I stopped to buy my wife a boquet of flowers because as of 7 months ago that day She'd given birth to my first Daughter Brooklynn via C-section, Again: I had No idea what she'd just gone through; No wonder she was in so much pain for a while!

IV's is a skill that we are all still trying to master, I've always thought it funny how a good vein can seem to dissapear as soon as we get ready to poke it. A small piece of background for anyone who doesn't know how an IV works, We have a needle with a plastic catheter over the needle, We use the needle's bevel to pierce the skin and vein the advance it just a bit further and then advance the catheter and remove the needle, The plastic tube is left in place and hooked up to the IV tubing for medication administration. We have a rule where if you poke someone you get poked in return, My turn to get poked quickly came and I wasn't at all reluctant to give up my arm; That is until the person poking me didn't advance the needle far enough to advance the catheter so I felt the catheter pop my vein and then it proceeded to fold over on itself inside my vein completely occluding any bleeding and causing a small embolism, (As shown below after being pulled out) All I could do was say wow and laugh. I let him try again on my other arm and the 2nd shot was no less than perfection.


Apparently Every now and again, Our program director pops in to remind us all that we don't know crap yet and we have a long long way to go before we earn that "P-Card" We've recently been learning several of our ALS (Advanced Life Support) skills such as Airway intubation, and IV Drug Therapy. We were tested on Airway and IV skills, I managed to pass them with a degree of confidence only because I've spent my time practicing and memorizing.. Airway intubation really isn't the toughest Paramedic skill that we are learning but it is one of the most important as keeping an airway - (Even if it's a Basic Life Support Airway)is the most important thing we can do for any patient. I've included a video at the bottom of this post that we were shown during our airway lecture on endotracheal intubation, Its quite fascinating.