I haven’t long got back from the resus course and I have to say I found it really interesting and worthwhile. Last night (and this morning) I was really apprehensive about going because I doubted I’d be able to do it, it’s such a big course and covers a lot of ground and there were going to be quite a few people there who had already done the course, but were updating their certificate. But I did go, and I’m glad I did.
A lot of the morning was based around CPR and additional equiptment we can use. This introduced us to the BVM (bag, valve, mask) which assists when it comes to breathing, so instead of giving mouth to mouth we ‘bag them’ and have the option of attaching oxygen to the valve. A little biology lesson now… when we breath in normal air we breath in 21% oxygen and breath out 16%, so we only use 5% of it… so when we give mouth to mouth we are breathing our exhaled air into the other persons lungs so that’s only 16%. If oxygen is used when giving CPR if used properly can provide 100% which is really helpful when it comes to CPR and attempting to keep the body going.
We were told about LUCAS, a machanical machine that does the chest compressions for ya (and while it’s at it am sure it breaks every single rib! Look at it!) We don’t use this, but some NHS ambulance services do.
In the afternoon we learnt about oxygen therapy, giving oxygen to casualties who are basically having trouble breathing for whatever reason and how to establish an airway by sticking something down the casualties throat! Oh, and suction… one of the trainers volunteered to allow people to use suction in his mouth and I used the suction machine on him and it was pretty daunting.
Then we learnt about monitoring equiptment such as pulse oximeter which measures the oxygen saturation in the blood and also the pulse rate. Well my pulse was 110 but my oxygen saturation was 99% which was good… then we were introduced to the blood pressure monitor and my BP was 159/96 which is really high! Normal should be around 120/80.
Anyway it was an interesting course and got to play with some new toys, also one step further to getting on the ambulances! I think I need two more courses before taking the IHCD exam and hopefully I’ll be on the ambulances by April. Woot!! I know it’s not the NHS but the Red Cross do follow the NHS and their aim is to qualify ambulance crew to a level similar to that of the NHS so that if there’s a casualty needing proper care they don’t need to wait until the NHS ambulance gets there to recieve good care, there can be more to first aid than plasters and bandages.
Yesterday I booked my car in for a winter checkup. Here’s a link to the leaflet. I use my car a lot these days, work, red cross, general driving around, she last had an MOT in April which is a good few months ago and thought it would be good to check her over see if she’s ok, also getting the winter kit which is a few quid itself!
I had to drive to the pet shop today. Gerbils. Lovely cute little things aren’t they? They are little bastards that bite through anything. When I bought them I didn’t realise I’d need to kit out the cage every few weeks. Haha They have chewed through the plastic on one of the tubes, attachment to the food bowl, attachment to their vitamin tablet thingy, their bed. Oh, and me. My poor fingers. I buy them wooden toys so they can bite them for their teeth, but they still bite bite bite. The white one is using the exercise wheel at the moment, good too considering the chocolate dad gives them!
I got my one months notice through the post today, the other woman is taking the job full time… see what happens there.
Anyway, I have a headache. Got the resus support course tomorrow, hope I feel more enthusiastic tomorrow.
Posted by flummoxed1 on Nov 19, 2008 in life, work
Well, I’m back in work tomorrow, I’ve had a few days off and I wish I had a few more days off… it’s like school. The longer you have off school the less ‘enthusiastic’ you are about going back. I was rarely enthusiastic about going to school but I have been about going to work. Usually I enjoy it, the people I work with, tenants we look after etc, but I go through times where I find it such an effort being in work. My colleague usually notices when I’m like this and asks what’s wrong, sometimes I tell her I’m feeling a bit ‘blehish’ and don’t say anymore, othertimes I say “I’m fine”, crack a smile, and that’s the end of that. So ya I’m back to the afternoon shift tomorrow, but hey, on the “bright” side, it is payday, woot!! I wonder if that’ll give me a reason to smile? *rolleyes* Sigh, I’ll probably be ok once I get there.
Anyhoo, my poor baby car sounded a bit ill this morning, maybe she was cold or something, I dunno (hey, cars have feeling too!). Ironically enough I got a letter through the post about a winter vehicle check, £25 (£10 off, woot!). They check the lights/electrics, brakes, clutch, engine, mirrors, fluid levels, steering, wheels.. everything, and the coolant levels/brake fluid/screen wash/engine oil get topped up too and I think it’s a good bargin. Oh, and ya get a free winter care kit.
Speaking of cars I swear like a mad man when I’m driving. You should hear me… or not. When I’m going to this particular place I ALWAYS take the WRONG exit which ends up putting an extra 15 mins or so on my journey as I have to carry on going and go another way around. I was saying, I bet I take the wrong *beeping* exit. I always take the wrong *beeping* exit. Oh for *beeps* sake I’m in the wrong lane again. Oh *beep*, let me ouuut let me ouuut (ie, let me get in the lane!!). Wow I actually took the right *beeping* exit for a change. I rarely swear outside the car, it just drives me crazy! Oh and other drivers do too.
I installed this earlier and so far it works a treat. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/ I can’t update wordpress or vbulletin and always bug a good friend to do it for me, so with the auto update for wordpress that’s one less ‘burden’ off his shoulders (he’s so going to virtually slap me for that).
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