Am I to old?

[Rescue0ne]

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

Both of the previous posts...I couldn'thave said it better myself. We get into EMS originally to HELP people, not because the money is great...which it usually isn't. I personally feel that if helping others isn't your #1 reason for being in EMs...you need to find something else to do with your life. Yeah, money is a necessity...but if you're not here to help folks, drive a cab, or something.

[cdemt5710]

:tweety: Old, Schmold. 36 is YOUNG! Your skin doesn't sag, bones don't creak, not all stiff for the first ten minutes when you get out of bed. I remember 36. I was running after a 3 year old. This is easy compared to running after a 3 year old. I think 36 is a great age to start in EMS. A little bit of life under the belt. The motivation of an adult student. Maybe by now people have thrown up on you and bled all over in front of you so you know you can handle it. Still young enough to be up half the night.... I don't think anyone JUMPS into this career at 36. Certainly don't at 44... age I started. Chances are by the time someone is 36 they've done a few different things and watched tons of rescue 911 episodes.

[shadowfane]

JUST for the record, EMS doesn't ALWAYS mean running around in a tricked out vehicle with a bed in the back and between $150,000 and $300,000 worth of sexy and neat tech life saving gear in it.

You could be like me and end up at 10,500 ft in Pakistan treating SLS and sore backs for porters. I spent just under a month on an expedition last summer (ran out of O's at 10,500 and had to come home since I wasn't addapting as well as I needed to. NEXT time we'll use Diamox but that's a whole 'nother diatribe.)

Oh and for the rest of the record, wife and I got our Basic in '78 as part of a Vollie Squad (it's all that there are in that part of NY), moved to the big city and worked a LOT of other jobs while volunteering with the oldest continuous first aid corps in the country. We decided to get our Medic certs in '91 when a friend of ours was about to retire from running the Medic Program at the local Community College and the bride was working as a Basic/Dispatcher for one of hte larger local Privates.

I picked up the cert and got phased out of a job at about the same time, and so I went to work for a series of Private Ambulance Companies and then a hospital or two.

I turn 55 next week so hell no you aren't too old.

shadowfane

Oh yeah. I do it 'cause I love it.

That and that adrenaline is my fav rec.chem of choice.....

"Hi, I'm Shadowfane. My recreational chem of choice is adrenaline..."