KatieC

Actually, my first mortgage was paid off. Bought the house cheap and fixed it up. No offense taken. But yeah, it's better than doing what I do now. The job I have now has no benefits....no paid time off, no vacation, no sick leave. No 401K, no health insurance (I have to buy that myself), no dental insurance, no life insurance. I've worked there for 5-1/2 years and gotten 1 raise, since I am pretty much already topped out for pay at my level. Plus, I don't like doing it. So yeah, pursuing my dream of medic school? Making a better life for me and my daughter and a chance to actually get ahead? While doing what I love? Worth it to me. And don't forget, my cost of living is not that high....my new house payment, including taxes and insurance, is only $420.20. It's cheap to live here.

I know I rarely post here, but I've been lurking for the better part of 2 years. I already PM'd Anthony about this, but anyway... I'm in the same boat. I'm interviewing on 7/23 to try to get into the top paramedic program in my state. It's a full year of full-time work, so I will also have to quit my job. I've already remortgaged my house to come up with about a year's salary (luckily I am used to being poor and living cheap!). But I need a little bit more. I currently volunteer in my hometown as an EMT-I. There is no paid EMS service here...too small of a town, too little call volume. I hope to graduate from medic school and work full time in one of the bigger cities around here. But I would still love to continue to volunteer here when I'm not working. My proposed plan was that if I signed a contract to volunteer for my town for xxx amount of years (3-5 maybe?) would they give me XXX dollars to go toward medic school? Then if I didn't fulfill my contract I'd have to pay the town back. I've already done this with my EMT-B and EMT-I classes, both of which the town paid for. I own a home here and really love the town, and don't plan on leaving. I'd be the only paramedic in about a 15-20 mile radius...I'm the only EMT-I in this area now. The company I hope to work for does not offer any kind of educational assistance. They do not hire anything less than medics, but they do utilize volunteers for reserve staffing and standby events. So I volunteer for them and my hometown. I'm filling out the FAFSA and all scholarships that I can, but the maximum amount of grant money from FAFSA is about $2000/semester, which isn't quite enough, considering I will need books/tuition and living expenses as well. Oh, and I'm a single mom. I have done the math and will make about $8000-9000 more a year than I'm making now, and I'll be doing what I love to do, so this is something I want to pursue. Anyway, if anyone would be so kind as to help me write a proposal as well, I'd be forever greatful. Feel free to PM me.

Good news...I practiced, practiced, practiced with all of your guys' advice on the mannequins. Then I went to the OR Tuesday and got my other 2 intubations! Now I just need a few more IV starts, and all my clinicals will be done for my class. Then it's time to concentrate on the written final.... Thanks again for all your help.

Thanks everyone for all the replies! The thing I think I'm having the most problems with is finding the epiglottis. I know what it looks like, it's just that when I stick that blade in there, I have no idea where to go to get to it. I think I'm usually in not far enough, or trying to look too posterior. "Real people" anatomy is so variable. On the one I've gotten so far, I got in, I saw the cords, and put the tube in. If I can find the cords, I have no trouble getting the tube in there. Asysin2leads, getting the head extended further is one of the things I've been working on. The 4-6 inches thing is good to know though. I'm tall for a girl (5'10"), but some CRNAs have been good about getting the bed up to my height for me to make it easier. I've been using a Miller 2. Tried a Miller 3 on the mannequins but that seems to get me in way too far. I have no problem intubating the mannequins at all. I tried 2 more times this past Friday and didn't get anything. There are just so few opportunities to even get anything. Those 2 attempts were during the course of an 8 hour day spent at the OR. We're competing with all the CRNA students and they get first dibs on the rooms because they're more "important" than just us EMT-I students (or so the anesthesia group thinks). The 2 I tried Friday were both difficult again, according to the doctor. One was an 80-year-old man and he had the biggest, floppiest tongue I've ever seen. I never could get it out of the way. Out of 8 people in our class, one has 3 tubes, one has 2, five of us have 1, and one person has 0. So I don't know if it's a combination of lack of opportunity or instructor methods or what. I'm going back on Tuesday so we'll see what happens then.

I'm an EMT-I student and am really liking the class so far, but intubations are killing me. I've had 8 attempts and only 1 successful intubation during clinicals. My instructor says my technique is good, and he's not sure why I'm having problems. The doctors/CRNAs that I've been working with in clinicals have given me constructive criticism and some very helpful pointers. I don't know if it's because I'm getting difficult patients during clinicals (docs have commented about how difficult several of them were, and a CRNA that took over after me placed the tube in the esophagus of one patient) or what. I think I'm also a little bit intimidated by the anatomy of a real, live person, plus being in the OR setting where it feels like I don't know what the hell I'm doing compared to everyone else there. Of course the commentaries from a few nurses don't help ("They let EMTs intubate?!? I didn't think they even let paramedics intubate anymore!"). I've viewed the youtube video that was linked on here, and I have no problems intubating mannequins in class. But we only have 2 weeks left of class and if I don't get 2 more tubes, I don't pass. I am applying to the paramedic program for January 2008, but I'm having serious second thoughts about it after taking this class. Especially if I don't get my intubations. Has anyone else had this problem, or does anyone have any tips? Thanks, Katie

Ok, so I'm computer illeterate...I have the EKG strip scanned and saved under my pictures in my computer. How do I post it here? ETA: I put them in my user pix, but don't think they are big enough in there. Help???

I'm an EMT-B for a small volunteer ambulance service, planning to start classes to become an MICT in the fall. Anyway, last night we had our monthly meeting. I was sitting there in my chair and all of a sudden I got incredibly dizzy. I felt like if I stood up, I would pass out. I usually have really low blood pressure, running about 100/60. I figured maybe it was even lower, and that was why I was dizzy. The feeling didn't go away after a few minutes and I asked our director to take my blood pressure. It was 150/86. Extremely high for me. I felt very dizzy and shaky, and kind of "floaty".....hard to describe, but kind of disconnected, and like everyone around me was floating. I had these really weird, disconnected thoughts going through my head. My friends finally convinced me to hook myself up to the monitor (our AED has a 3-lead EKG on it). So I did, and my heart rate was running about 110-125. But every minute or so, it would drop down to about 70-80. When it did, I felt even dizzier and "floatier." I also felt a little nauseous. No pain or tingling in my fingers or anything like that. No other symptoms. Finally they put me on O2 and while this made me even dizzier, it brought my heart rate below 100. I stayed hooked up to the monitor for about 1-1/2 hours, until finally my blood pressure went down to about 130 and I wasn't quite as dizzy. I've never had any kind of symptoms like this before. I didn't take any kind of unusual meds or food or do anything out of the ordinary yesterday. I will very occasionally have PVCs (although I haven't been officially diagnosed). My heart didn't really feel like it was racing, so I was surprised to see it was that fast. No medical history whatsoever, no health problems, no family history of heart problems, etc. I'm 24 years old (well, I'll be 24 Friday!!). I have, however, been under a lot of stress in the past year. I've gone through the death of my mother from cancer, a divorce, father remarried and has nothing to do with the rest of our family, grandmother died of cancer, sister moved 1000 miles away, went through a really rough breakup just a few weeks ago. So I've been slightly stressed to say the least. That's the only unusual thing I can think of. Anyway, our service has lost the 1 paramedic and several EMT-Is that we used to have, so no one is really trained to read EKGs. I would appreciate your guys' help in telling me what this says. Thanks in advance.

:shock: Oh my...in 5 out of 9 results I was killed by a drunk driver (and yes they were all different sites, I checked). One was a speeding car and another was a psycho ex-boyfriend. I think this may be a sign. I may never venture out on the roads again! :shock: