3-3-2000

                Can you believe it is march already?

This was the first "A" of the month and it's Friday... School

Today's lesson was on Drugs and Drug calculations.
Complicated and important stuff.

It's a cross between a math class and a science class, but in this class the important part of the math is the answer.

Not the equation.

I can not tell you how many times in high school I was told by my math  teacher "it's the equation that you must learn."

Even though I could usually produce the correct answer in less time with an equal if not better success rate than the rest of the class.
I was often given a failing grade because math is about rules even if they are faulty.

But as I always said:

"That's bullshit, It is really about the answer!"

Now I have proof of this. I found myself looking at the example problems and "knowing" the answer quite often,
with the exception of those calculations involving micrograms
(Which is a unit of measure that is very small.  1000 micrograms equals 1 milligram.)

Now the book states you should convert all of the other components of your equation into micrograms to figure out your dosage... but I find it much easier to convert the micrograms into milligrams by simply shifting the decimal point. so instead of converting 3 components you only convert 1 which is easily divided into the others.

I find that my brain doesn't work the same as the folks who wrote the "book" on how to figure this stuff out.

Perhaps this is because in my early childhood schooling I was taught the Metric system first.
(New York did try to convert to metric and I did not learn the U.S. system until fourth grade)
  (I still use the metric system commonly.)

After school was done burning my brain I had to go to work.

All the way there I could only think one thought...
   "not busy,not busy,not busy, not busy"
  like a mantra...I was not ready for a busy shift...
Although I had an easier time "getting it" than some of my classmates I was still fried.

I arrived at the station and it was empty... not a good sign!

Both trucks were on calls and I was scared.

Then, about forty minutes later the Monkey Bus returned from an out of town transport and I was relieved to find out it had been a very light shift.

So far...

Ken and I talked about the new things that were added to our Bus (drug security issues) and he joined me in my mantra...

We had a student rider  today from a local Paramedic class.
( I had met her once before.I found her an interesting person whom I would like to know. I think she would be ok to work with and since I have recently become employed at yet another ems service where she is also employed I am sure I will find out.)

On to the next order of the night.
Dinner .
Pizza from one of my favorit places "Sambino's"

Ken's wife(Judy) made a Rare but delightful appearance just in time for dinner , (she should stop in more often) Dawn was finishing up her work day and I got to see her for a few minutes,
Herb also stopped in and had pizza with us.

Every thing was going great and as it goes this is when we get a Call...

This was fun a 90 year old lady who suffers from some type of dementia who fell from her wheel chair an hour earlier and  was taken care of by the nursing home staff,but now they were "noticing some changes in her" and fealt she needed to go to the hospital... They did not elaborate on theses "changes" but did point out her blood pressure was higher than usual 160/80 but when I checked it it was 134/64 (normal for her), so we took her to the hospital to make sure she didn't have a broken nose(she didn't).

Did you ever give thought to age and life expectancy?

I look at it like the "manufacturer's suggested retail price"
This is what you can expect.  Sometimes it's more, Sometimes it's less

I hope that when I get older I don't go to far beyond the life expectancy because many of the people I see who are beyond this magical number are not healthy...
(And depending on who you ask I am not well as it is...)

As with every shift I hoped to sleep through the night...I didn't

and as with every "A" shift that I have school
I work the Following "B" this is no exception.

And I found myself having a pleasent day doing little to no work.
B-shift has this arrangement each medic rotates who is the driver and who is the medic.
Today I was the driver, it was mikes turn in back...

I was tired and couldnt fall to sleep. I worked till 14:30
after this loosing battle with my sleep pattern I became bitter,salty and crabby...


I was supposed to have a "Clinical" at a hospital in sandusky.

This did not happen and I will not lay blame why,
but I am now even more bitter and salty...

I 'm sure there will be hell to pay for this incident when I get back to school on friday,but I will cope.

so for now I say    

                                       good night!