Step One...

...compose first blog.  --In Progress

I never expected to be so taken by Emergency Medicine.  That's most evident in my "origin story", which I'll share since ever EMT and Medic seems to have one.

Tonight in class we heard the story of the current Paramedic teacher.  He was a cop, got his Paramedic so he could join the SWAT team as a Tactical EMT, realized he liked this better and went full time, putting in thousands of hours as a flight and ground medic.

But the reason he got into the world of emergency medicine?

He wanted a better parking space.

See, at his college the on call EMT (a student) got a parking space that was right next to the front door to the building.  And given that parking on a college campus is reason to hate the school system in and of itself, he took a class and got a better parking place.

That makes me feel a whole helluva lot better about the reasons I got into this.

I'm a nerd.  I'm a geek.  I would much rather sit inside on a beautiful sunny, summer's day playing xbox while sipping a beer and basking in the cool wind from the ultra-powerful air conditioner.  I'm a simple man.

So when I heard that the town I'm living in needed more volunteer EMT's and were offering a class, I figured, "What the hey".  I've been CPR trained before, because of a job in high school, and this seemed like an interesting next step.

And the lynch pin in my decision was that the class was being offered for free.

Well, sorta free.  You wrote out a 150 dollar check and, if you finished the class, the check would be returned to you, minus the cost of the national test.

Class is over the internet taught by an accredited school of EMS down in the biggest city in the state.  Two nights a week for four hours a night, approximately, and a couple trip down to the Big City for practical testing and then the final tests.  Figured it'd be just another arrow in the quiver of Neat Stuff.

First few classes were kinda interesting.  Legal issues and such like that.  Nothing too difficult, nothing too fascinating but it was killing time and that's what I needed.

Then we started talking about trauma.

Dude.  Trauma?  That stuff is Super Cool.

From the pictures of the first amputated finger and degloving (don't look that up) I was in.  It started to click with me.  Then I spent clinical time down in the Big City at one of the Big City Hospitals and I realized that it had become more then a hobby to me.

I wanted to Do this.  Not just as a volunteer or a couple times a week gig either, but as a career.

While this is going on, i'm getting a feel of how...restrictive the EMT-B is.  Can't do an IV, can't intubate, can't do this, can't do this.  It dawned on me that i'll never really be happy with a 'Can't do that' position.

The obvious answer being, become a paramedic.

So, this brings us up to now.  I'm 6 classes, about 3 weeks, away from taking my national registry EMT-B tests to become official and will be taking the Paramedic course (assuming I past the entry exams and interviews) come September of 2011.

And it all started because I was bored and it was free.

So the blog.

I have very little medical background, just the CPR training i mentioned earlier, and figured it'd be fun to put my thoughts up for everyone to read and/or judge.  Also, I'd like this to be an encouragement for anyone who's thinking of joining an EMT class (seriously, do it).

That's it for this guy.

Stay classy folks.  See you in the next post.