My Placement According to Facebook

18th November:
"is a half naked student paramedic with nowhere to go! For placement! On Monday! Please pray!"

This was the Thursday before my placement was due to start! No trousers and nowhere to go! =S

19th November:
"And my placement is... *drum roll*"

Still nowhere...

20th November:
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!"

That's code for 'it would be nice to know where my placement is as I'm due to start in 2 days! Oh, and some trousers would be good too!'

21st November:
"starts her placement tomorrow! As a proper student! Breakfast and lunch shall become one and Jeremy Kyle shall become my friend! I hope my PPE protects against pressure sores!"

As you can tell, I decided to embrace student life and do nothing all day! Would still rather have been in an ambulance though!

22nd November:
"Well today is turning from rubbish to even worse!"

Wanted to be on placement, or at least know where I was going to be! Staying in bed all morning and not eating was a bad idea too! When your blood sugar drops, you drop!

23rd November:
"Woooo! May have some shifts this week! Yeh baby! =D"

As you can see, I got rather excited and happy about the possibility of having somewhere to go! =)

24th November:
"Woo! Got 3 shifts! =D start tomorrow morning! Watch out Oldbury!"

3 shifts! Was a start! Also meant I had to move back home to Birmingham that day!

25th November:
"Woo! First placement in an hour! I'm not a morning person so be good Yam Yams! Be good! And whose idea was it to start a shift in the middle of the night anyway?!"
"has had a well cool day on placement! =)"
"had blood coming from her lip! Think being in an ambulance with blues and twos afterward was a bit OTT though! It wasn't that much!"

There was one downside to starting my placement: mornings! Early mornings! What part of 'student' does the ambulance service not understand?!
And the blood from my lip was due to not being able to eat a sausage sandwich properly... I'm ok now though!

26th November:
"One word to describe today... Tangfastic! =D"
"loved it today! I wanna be a paramedic! =) And I got another good job! And I'm with an Incident Support Officer for the next 3 weeks! =)"

NHS staff like food such as sweets and cake! If you want a better service, Haribo will suffice! ;-)
Not saying you'll get a bad service if you don't! Just saying we like sweets!
Also, being with an ISO means you don't get sent to people with man-flu or who have stubbed their toe so it's usually a bit more exciting!

29th November:
"First day with the mentor I got for 3 weeks! Was cool! Had some interesting jobs and visits to the police station and control room!"

Said mentor was very nice and I enjoyed working with him during my placement! =)

30th November:
"Quote of the day: *while eating meal that cooks itself* "I'm a student, why have I not heard of these?""

The answer to that question was because they cost nearly £5 each! I did learn one valuable lesson that day, how to get a free meal from the HART team!

1st December:
"has been on placement with her mentor for 2 days and on both days a job we went to made the news! Let's see what trouble we cause tonight..."

It was only a local newspaper, who, by the way, didn't use a picture with me in it for one story, not that I'm upset by that! *sulk*
As far as I know, no more jobs we went to ended up in the paper!

2nd December:
"has survived her first night shift! Seen lots of police and firemen! =)"

Nights shifts aren't that bad! Preparing for them by doing not a lot and napping during the day was even better! And stuff still happened at night to keep us busy!

3rd December:
"Hold on to your hats people! We keep losing them!"

We both lost our hats during that shift! We found them again which was good, because it was a bit cold out!

6th December:
"An inanimate object at the ambulance station hit the back of my car and now it's a bit broken! =S"

I'm a woman driver, that accident couldn't possibly have been my fault!
Alright, in my defence, it was 3am! The inanimate object was fine by the way!

7th December:
"Oh no! Just realised fast is spelt with an S, not an R! No wonder I couldn't remember what the R meant in the FAST test t'other night!"

Same night I had my accident! Not a good time for me!

8th December:
"Why would you need an ambulance crew when they're about to get breakfast from McDonalds?! Twice!"

In the same morning! It's like Control knew... We did get our breakfast in the end though! The next day!

9th December:
"thinks she has a lot of grovelling and making up with her mentor to do! I've learnt my lesson though! I'm never, ever gonna do that ever again! Ever!"

Here's some advice for any noobs reading this... Never, ever say the Q word while on shift! Not even in your head! Don't even think it! Especially not 3 times in big letters on Twitter! No matter how much you want to do some work! Not everyone likes non-stop afternoons and finishing late...

10th December:
"had her PPE on t'other day, including helmet... and hurt her knee! I thought one of the Ps stood for protective! #fail"

PPE stands for Personal Protective Equipment! One thing they do not issue as part of that is knee pads! I still have a graze on my knee! =(

11th December:
"11.12.10 - the day I became scared of old ladies!"

Not all old people are nice all the time! Some can be quite scary!

14th December:
"I feel today I shall need more bandages than most of my patients! Knee is playing up and I appear to have injured my ankle at last nights gig!"
"has done the origami and tearing ECG paper without breaking the machine stuff on placement but can't find the bit in my book where someone signs them off! Any ideas?"

I think one patient ended up with more bandages than me! Also, I think it's wrong for paramedic lecturers to assume paramedic students know how to tear off paper from the ECG machine! It's hard for some people! Thank you to my mentor for providing that training! Which I passed! =)

16th December:
"is being a part timer today! Joining my mentor part way through his shift at 11ish then finish at 4!"
"Worst. Convertible. Ever!"

Was more like 12! And it was for a genuine reason! (the McDonalds on the way wasn't, but I was hungry!) Also, I did do some work!

17th December:
"has been up since 4 and the highlight of her day is finding out she is heading for a teething gel overdose! =S"
"did not OD on teething gel today! =)"

Couldn't sleep, hence "up since 4" and my tooth under my gum was hurting! Teething gel overdose is actually quite serious! You could end up in a coma apparently!

18th December:
"*memory of 1st gear deleted* *both hands on steering wheel* *panic face initiated* I love driving in the snow! =D just what I needed after today!"

I worked in a truck that day! Even had to try and push it in the snow! We had a bit of a rubbish end to the shift but the driving home in the snow was well fun and cheered me up lots!

20th December:
"has just finished her last shift! Sad times! =( It's been well fun!"

Placement was really good! I enjoyed it lots and didn't want it to finish!

21st December:
"is spending the day pretending to do uni work! I wanna go back on placement!"

If anyone wants a student to hang out with them during a shift then all you have to do is ask! ;-)


By the way, I never did get my trousers! Uni made me do a whole placement without them! But don't worry, you'll be pleased to hear that I did buy some!

Bad Day at the Office?

I've decided I'm ok with what happened that day! Bad stuff happens, everyone knows that! No one forced me to train to become a paramedic! I'm doing it because I care! I want to help people!

Unfortunately, there are some people out there that we can't help, whether by their own choice or simply because we were too late! It's sad but I know we won't always be sent out to people who we know are going to get better, or who, after a simple operation, will be running around again with their broken arm fixed! If that were true what would be the point in our work? People could make their own way to hospital!

But no, we're here for those who really need us! People who invite us into their lives when theirs are at their most vulnerable! Sometimes it's easy to forget that when we're busy rushing around to the 'boring' jobs that don't really require any of your fancy skills!

Maybe most of our job is to be there, just in case! Just in case someones child crashes their car! Just in case someones grandma collapses in the street! Just in case your partners medical condition takes a turn for the worse! Wouldn't you want to know that someone is always there, just in case?

Another blog!

I've been a student for five weeks now! I've eaten beans on toast, noodles, take aways and microwave food! Had lots of money thrown at her from Student Finance (thank you!) Stayed in bed till lunchtime! Had a few lectures! Met lots of new people! Learnt loads of new stuff! I've even found out where the library is!

So yeah, uni life is going well! Work load isn't too much at the moment but it's getting there, just lots of information to remember! If I ever start checking your pulse, shining a torch in your eye, poke or prod you, just go along with it! It's all in the name of education! Last week I also checked out Staffordshires best tourist attraction aka. Alton Towers with people from uni! I ended up sitting next to the person that screamed all the way round the ride! *guilty look* Was well fun! =)

Usually on a Thursday night you can find me at www.crossrhythms.co.uk! Where I am a sidekick on Rimmerama! This is fun! I get to talk about random stuff on the radio and meet some cool bands/artists! One day I may even learn how to open the door to the studios!

Tuesday is home group day! We tend to eat chocolate through the evening and I even got prayed for about the fact I support West Brom (we haven't lost a game since, thanks Barry!) At last weeks group we talked about worship and how we should listen to what God has to say rather than just talking or singing to Him! (Something I need to do more of) I got in my car to go home and my stereo stopped working! Who said God was distant and didn't care?!

During the course we're starting with the basics of emergency care! If you were to collapse in front of me (please don't!) I could keep you breathing, find out how bad your pain is, move you, check you still had a heart beat, find out how unconscious you actually are, all while not giving you an infection! =) Three more weeks and I get to wear a bright yellow jacket and go in an ambulance! Can't wait!

I'm sorry!

I'm gonna start this blog by apologising for the lack of bloggage recently! Truth is, I kinda had an idea for one blog and ran out of inspiration, but had lot's of perspiration, so I smell really bad now :)

But I have started three drafts so there may be stuff up soon!

In the meant time, read this, it's good. http://villa-bear.blogspot.com/2010/10/just-way-of-world.html

Even this blog was written with some help! Thanks John!
No problem, happy to help.
Once again, I am sorry! Please bare with me, normal service will resume again shortly!

The First Blog!

Welcome to my first ever blog! =)
This year has been one of lots of 'firsts' so I've decided to blog about it! I'll also use this blog to let people what I'm up to at university! I hope it's not too boring for you!

So at the beginning of this year I had an interview for university! This was my first ever uni interview! Which is a big thing for me as I used to be Miss 'I wouldn't go to uni even if you paid me'! I still don't like the fact everyone is being pushed into going to uni when they leave college! We need cleaners, fast food workers, bin men and British call centre workers in this country so what's the point in going to uni first?
It was also the first time I got rejected from a uni but God has His hand in it and did what we asked when my my uncle dropped me off and prayed that God would make it clear which uni He wanted me at! I did, however, get into another university so it's all good!

In March I took my driving theory test! Which, by the way, is a load of rubbish! I passed this and a few months later took my practical test for the first time, which I also passed! To add to this I also got my first car, who I called Gershwin! (No, I don't know why that name either!) The day after passing my test I also ran over a pigeon! Hopefully, it's the first and last time I'll be doing that!

After some hoo-har I finally got me my first adult passport! This meant I could go on an aeroplane for the first time! I went on said aeroplane to Romania - my first time there! It was bostin! I had such an awesome time and it was great to see and hear what God was doing there and in the childrens lives! No doubt this wasn't the last time I'll be in Romania!

Just before going away I worked my last shift in theatres! About a month before was the first time I ever handed in a resignation letter! I loved working there and made friends with lots of the best people ever! Thank you! I also learned loads of useful stuff that will help me in the future!

The day after, I had my first appointment with a physiotherapist! He told me I have "fantastic" hips and knees! I just have funny feet! So next month I've go and be measured for insoles! Makes me feel special! =)

This month I will be moving out of home and going to university for the first time! It's going be exciting and scary but I am looking forward to it all! It will be a new, big adventure for me!

This is my first blog of many and in them you can follow my progress as I become a parameduck! Enjoy! =)