September 1, 2009

I have NO clue what happened last nite

I know where I was at and for what purpose but can I tell you that I learned anything? Nope. Quite possibly one of the driest and worst classes to date. We're not at a college, in fact our classes are held at an elementary school the academy rents space from. The paramedic class room is 2 classrooms with the wall between them removed and it's quite a large space. If you're a person who doesn't know how to project your voice then those that are NOT in the first 2 rows will have a very hard time hearing you.

Yesterday's lecture was shock. All about shock. Cardiogenic, neurogenic, hypovolemic, anaphylactic, and septic. Let's throw in some acid/base balance and how pH is controlled and maintained. Now, I've had A&P, chemistry, and microbiology before, how the hell this person managed to make my head spin I'll never know. First she didn't know how to break down bicarbonate into it's proper form. She kept adding an extra particle and it was never consistent which really irritated me. Normal pH of the human body is 7.35-7.45 if you're curious.

I did learn *some* things, like when you start an IV using a crystalloid solution you replace at a ratio of 1cc of fluid lost:3cc of fluid replaced, if using just a colloid you only do a 1:1. NS is a crystalloid and blood is an example of a colloid. Another thing in a patient who's in cardiogenic shock, you only run fluids at a TKO (to keep open, not total knock out ;) ) rate because they're already experiencing some stage of pulmonary edema and you don't want to make it worse.

I'm still not fully understanding the buffer system as presented in our books but I do know that acidosis or alkalosis can happen quickly when the body's pH gets either above or below the its normal pH. Sounds like a good question for my science nerd sister.

On to other things, CLINICALS have begun!! We have to do a precepted rotation in the ER before we're set loose to start doing rotations on the 'bolance, dispatch, or ER so I get to do that on Thursday night and then I can start riding, SCORE!! I pass the station I'll be riding at when I do clinicals on my way home from school and I saw them rolling out totally green I wasn't on the rig :(

3 comments:

  1. Yep that sounds like sounds like Paramedic school.

    http://medicseven.blogspot.com/2009/08/medic-school.html "Describing [my] paramedic class, one student said, "Every day, I go get my head torn off and buckets of knowledge poured down my neck." Very visual, but quite descriptive of the content load."

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  2. And sometimes you just have an instructor that shouldn't be instructing. Though, some classes like this one, no matter what will be dry!

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  3. Timothy--that's exactly how I feel right now :/

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