As many of my readers already have understood I am slightly obsessed with volunteering in ambulances, as described in an earlier post this is not necessarily for the action but for the atmosphere there is in the ambulance. However, these last few weeks have been really intense and I've learnt so much more than I thought I would be able to. After finishing my EMT course I was headed back to the station I knew so well from before but this time with the eagerness of doing more than I've been able to do before, just to see that all I needed was the push to do more challenging things in the ambulance and even dare to go on the MICU. After a few shifts I felt that I was starting to get the hang of it. By "it" I mean carrying a bag much heavier than the one in the normal ambulance (with all medication in), not being the only one to treat the patient in the back and preparing needles, saline and other things for other people. By going on the MICU I thought I was going to get to see so many more interesting calls and the action that was missing in my life would definitely come back but I was wrong. The action that we had in the MICU most of the time were things that weren't that much more exciting than in the normal ambulance. I still had to hold the vomit bag, carry the equipment and stand on the sideline of people saving lives. But as a swedish saying "One who is waiting for something good, never waits too long", my day came too when I got to use my new skills of putting in IV in a patient. All I had to do was ask. As weird as it sounds, putting a needle into the man's arm was the most satisfying feeling I've had in a long time. Not because I enjoy seeing people in pain, I don't, but because I felt that I was making progress in my life and as a person saving lives. In the jungle of new things I had no idea how to do, there was something I could do that I had learnt this year and no one could change that feeling of learning a new thing. For me, this was like a kid who learns to ride the bike. After seeing so many other people doing it, I was now one of them.
But to be honest, between these few calls when I felt that I actually saved lives there were also the occasional calls with someone with headache, drunk people in the street and hypochondriacs thinking they need an ambulance when in fact the only thing they need is a psychiatrist or someone to explain to them that an ambulance isn't a taxi but I didn't mind them anymore because I realised that these calls gave me a chance to sit back and relax for a bit. No one can handle drama all the time and if every shift was filled with action I would be too exhausted to be able to work everyday. These calls also gave me a chance to ask my questions, try out new things and work on my technique in checking blood pressure quickly and filling out forms in hebrew. I learnt to see every call a chance to develop as an EMT, not because I need to but because I want to. I think that is what defines volunteering.
Tomorrow I'm starting my instructors course. I hope this course is going to help me develop even more in many different ways. The course is going to give me a chance to educate other people how to save lives because after all that is what I've been doing. Sometimes it might feel like I've been pretending and most of the time people would probably have survived without my help or anyones help for that matter but there have also been occasions when me and my team have actually saved someone and that feeling is impossible to describe. Every summer when I come here I make progress and I feel that I still have so much to learn.
Even though I sometimes sit on the station and do nothing or sometimes even sit in the ambulance watching the paramedic inject medication into a patient I know my time will come. I've seen it before and I've got my chances so I don't stop believing that I will have them again. It turns out I have the braveness in me, all I needed was a little push and now when I've got it I don't want to stop. This summer has been the most exciting summer that I can remember and I know that if I continue to be keen on learning and trying to expand my knowledge the summer never has to end and I can keep on getting new kicks in life because even when the kid has learnt to ride a bike he still needs to learn how to do all the tricks.
But to be honest, between these few calls when I felt that I actually saved lives there were also the occasional calls with someone with headache, drunk people in the street and hypochondriacs thinking they need an ambulance when in fact the only thing they need is a psychiatrist or someone to explain to them that an ambulance isn't a taxi but I didn't mind them anymore because I realised that these calls gave me a chance to sit back and relax for a bit. No one can handle drama all the time and if every shift was filled with action I would be too exhausted to be able to work everyday. These calls also gave me a chance to ask my questions, try out new things and work on my technique in checking blood pressure quickly and filling out forms in hebrew. I learnt to see every call a chance to develop as an EMT, not because I need to but because I want to. I think that is what defines volunteering.
Tomorrow I'm starting my instructors course. I hope this course is going to help me develop even more in many different ways. The course is going to give me a chance to educate other people how to save lives because after all that is what I've been doing. Sometimes it might feel like I've been pretending and most of the time people would probably have survived without my help or anyones help for that matter but there have also been occasions when me and my team have actually saved someone and that feeling is impossible to describe. Every summer when I come here I make progress and I feel that I still have so much to learn.
Even though I sometimes sit on the station and do nothing or sometimes even sit in the ambulance watching the paramedic inject medication into a patient I know my time will come. I've seen it before and I've got my chances so I don't stop believing that I will have them again. It turns out I have the braveness in me, all I needed was a little push and now when I've got it I don't want to stop. This summer has been the most exciting summer that I can remember and I know that if I continue to be keen on learning and trying to expand my knowledge the summer never has to end and I can keep on getting new kicks in life because even when the kid has learnt to ride a bike he still needs to learn how to do all the tricks.
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