I’ve had a pretty interesting week, I think. The weather has been awful- which you’d think would be good for studying, but I still seem to manage to find other ways to spend my time… he he he.
On Tuesday, my friend Nick Wu invited me to a dinner with his bible study group. They were apparently all going out for dinner in Newtown, and were allowed to bring a friend, so he invited me to go. I didn’t really know what to expect from the night- I think I assumed it would be pretty informal and relaxed. But... it turned out to be more of a recruiting session (the people there were mostly protestant), so one of the ‘friends’ there who happened to be an atheist really got a mouthful! It was an interesting night, though, and I got a good perspective on some things… but I really think that it could have been the POLAR opposite to how I spent my night yesterday.
Last night I went to my first ALL NIGHT Dance party (8pm-7:30am!)! I was volunteering with an Organization called Unimed (which I recently joined). They provide first-response first aid for large functions, parties, concerts…etc. A lot of the people who volunteer are doctors, nurses and paramedics, but there are some medical students as well. There is a big waiting list to get into the organization, but I know a couple of the 2nd year medical students, so they got me in early! So, I got to do my first event last night. It was a giant “White Party” (everyone was wearing white) and Armin Van Buuren was the DJ (apparently, he is a very popular European trance artist). The concert/party was at Olympic Park and there were over 5000 people there (who had all paid at least $85 to get in). It was a really interesting experience and I managed to stay awake without a problem… although it did ruin my day today! Since it was a fairly small event, we only had 3 paramedics, 1 nurse and 4 med students. I was paired up with one of the paramedics for most of the night which was good because I learned a lot about primary care. The nurse also taught me how to bandage knees depending on which ligaments need support (ex. ACL vs. MCL etc…). I also learned how to take blood pressure without a stethoscope since it is way too loud to hear anything in those places! I don’t have any official Unimed training yet (cause that will be in July), but I got to do a little bit because of my experience with some lifeguarding (and 1st year med) stuff.
In general though, it was apparently a pretty quiet night. There were a lot of hurt ankles, knees and toes and also a LOT of ecstasy overdoses. We had a diabetic with VERY low blood sugar who stayed with us for a few hours. (This first aid team is not like the beach where we would call for ambulances right away. We try to monitor the patients until they are better and we ONLY order an ambulance if the patient is deteriorating, or if they really need it.) We also had one really interesting patient who had overdosed on GHB. I’d never seen anyone who had overdosed on this drug before, so it was really interesting. The guy could not even walk when the boys brought him in. He was not breathing very well and had low oxygen saturation in his blood. We put him on oxygen and monitored his vitals and his airway. He kept passing out, but would wake up every 5 minutes or so, speak some polish and then try to leave, before passing out again. We also got to use the sternum rub to wake him up a few times… and it actually works!! We kept him with us for about 3-4 hours and by the time he left it was like nothing had even happened! It was so crazy. He said it was his first (and last) time ever taking GHB. (I’m not sure if I said this in my blog back in my drug and alcohol units, but GHB is the drug that is made from ink jet printer cartridges or industrial floor cleaner- which is then metabolized in your body to a naturally occurring substance found in your central nervous system- a depressant. They have a really good write up on Wikepedia about GHB, if you are interested.)
We had to wear the blue paramedic cargo-type pants (which reflective stripes on the side), a medic shirt and also those “ear-piece” radios so we could always here what was going on (since we were on the same channel as security). When we were out in the crowd, we had to wear these fluorescent yellow vests that said MEDIC on it… which really REALLY stood out in the big sea of white. We also had to walk around the venue every once and a while to make sure the people “sleeping” along the sides of the stadium could be woken up. Most of them were fine- and I assume probably some of them were just actually sleeping since they had been up ALL night!
I was the only girl working there (out of all the security and medics there), so they used me a lot to go into the girls washrooms. Really fun stuff (or not) and LOTS of drugs.
It was raining in the morning (it has been raining for a week now), but luckily one of the paramedics drove the 4 of us (med students) back to campus so that we didn’t have to take the train with all the people from the party. I ended up getting to bed at about 9:30am.
On a totally different note, I haven’t had a chance to meet up with Tom’s medical student yet- but will hopefully be able to soon! For those who don’t know, uncle Tom’s medical student this spring was a girl who is in 4th year at my school! I obviously didn’t know her, but Tom has put us in touch, so we have been trying to find a good time to go for lunch!!Dad had his hip operation a few days ago and it sounds like he is doing fairly well! We have been getting updates from Norma, but I haven’t actually been able to talk to him. I really wish I was there!
13 days till I am home!!! YAY! Miss you guys!
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