Hannah's Scribblings

God works in mysterious ways. This I have learned very well from my 20 years of life.

Two years ago I decided to be a writer. So I wrote and volunteered around the community. Nothing big came from either endeavor, but I learned a lot about myself and I know I did some quiet good.

One year ago I decided to try EMS. So I enrolled in a course and spent a vast amount of time and energy preparing myself for it.

EMS was a good choice, but not for the reasons I first thought. For if there is one certainty in EMS it is that you will see a lot. Not just in patients and how they came about their injuries, but also you see a lot of different aspects of health care. In the past five weeks I have seen various ERs (including the University of Louisville, where I watched a helicopter take off), rehab centers, doctor’s offices, nursing homes, psych wards, etc. I have seen blood, drunks, heat exhaustion, strokes, various behavioral disorders. Of all the things I have seen and tried, the area where I really excel seems to be with behavioral disorders, especially with older people.

An idea has hatched in this brain of mine of working with people with mental problems and not just in the back of an ambulance, ferrying them from hospital to extended care facilities.

“You can’t hit a moving target”, the saying goes, but what I know is that not everybody finds their calling on the first go-round and just because something doesn’t work out the way you thought it would doesn’t make it a mistake or the wrong thing.

Let all and sundry know I am a girly-girl. Yes, I don’t mind getting dirty and yes, make-up and I are hardly on speaking terms–but don’t let that fool anyone. I love pretty stuff.

For the past few weeks, I have had my eye on some very pretty wallets at Meijer. Being on that nessecary evil called a budget, I showed great restrait and did not get myself one. . .until now. This beauty was on sale for $2.50.

This thing has more pockets and card slots than I know what to do with! One pocket is even big enough to hold my cell phone. I can combine it with a beaded chain to make a minature purse. . .

Just a same bit of poetry I’ve written. Please tell me what you think. And oh, it rhymes!

Waiting by the tide

Looking back and forwards

Why can’t I decide

What I’m waiting for?

There’s nothing to hide

I’ve nothing to lose,

There is only pride

And that’s not worth

Holding onto.

So here it is: the one month mark of me working.

So how do I like work?

It’s hard. It’s rewarding. I like most of my co-workers and I love being with my patients. The driving part of the job I do not like; in fact I have been described as “scary” when driving and was told not to worry about the driving. “Don’t worry” apparently means I hardly ever drive when there is a patient in the back.

But I am getting better, in driving as in the other parts of my job. I can take vitals quickly and accurately, patients relax around me, my paperwork is only given back to me one time out of twenty, I can lift my share of 250+ pound patient (though over 270 I still have to call for a lift assist. . .and we don’t bring the bariatric truck and it’s battery operated stretcher for anyone less than 300 pounds).

In other news, I haven’t done any prose writing in a while, but I have been writing–and completing–quite a few poems lately. Still haven’t published any yet, though. Also, I’ve decided to go back to school, this time to be a nurse.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being an EMT, but I don’t want to be in EMS for the rest of my working life. So it’s off the nursing school! This coming winter I plan to take my pre-reqs and hopefully sometime in 2011 I can get in either an RN or a LPN course. Of course, first I have to pass the pre-reqs, one of which is college algebra. . .

I just had the strangest thought: it our lives that shape us or us that shape our lives? Or is it both?

Sometimes I just don’t know what goes on in this head of mine.

Drop it hard enough for the battery/sim card thing to come out, fuss at it and about it, pick it up and put it back together. . .all the while threatening replacement. The dropping must be done by accident, of course. 
Worked like a charm.

Ah, life. That ever-changing gift from God that never quite seems to go exactly the way we expected. Be warned: a very random, possibly incoherent post follows.

Life is why there have been no blog posts lately; more precisely, my work-life and the exhaustion that accompanies me home. On the work front, I have been working a little over two weeks, received my first paycheck, and landed a full-time position. Monday I start working on the day truck–that’s a non-urgent transfer truck that runs weekdays 10 am-6 pm. So I’ll be able to spend my nights and weekends at home!

I’ve seen a lot of things in the past two weeks; some good, some bad and some disturbing, but so far I have been able to handle it all. What I really love about my job is interacting with the patients. I absolutely love being in the back of the back of the ambulance, talking and working on patients. So, I’d say I’ve been having a good work experience so far. 

I thought I was going to have a full-fledged writing mood last week. . .but I’ve been just so tired lately that I’ve only gotten a little bit of writing done. Ideas have been churning around in my brain, but they come at moments when I’m either too tired or too busy to do anything about ’em. Maybe now that my evenings will be run-free I’ll be able to translate those ideas into words.

One final note: I got contacts last week. I decided that I didn’t really like having to keep track of my glasses on the job so with my first paycheck I paid some expenses and got myself contacts. It’s really wierd to see everything so sharply without my glasses dangling from my nose!