Turn the freaking page!

Here is the song of the day. Not really due to mood or anything, but due to the very useful message "Turn the Page"

Turn the Page
By Metallica (originally Bob Seger
If you want the lyrics, http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/metallica/garageinc.html

That is, by the way, one of my favorite songs of all time, especially Metallica's rendition of it.
So why did I choose to put this song up as the subject of my post? Well, because I forgot to turn the page today. I can see the "???" looks out there. relax, i'm getting to it. :-)

Today was the day of our Trauma Module Exam. I was kind of worried because I didn't get my planned studying done. The plan was to study while at VO on Sunday, then after my shift, then this morning.
Wellll.... Stayed up a little late Saturday night visiting some relative who were here from out of state.

Sunday, I woke up, vaguely to my alarm clocks (yes, plural) but specifically to my dad waking me. I rolled over, looked at the clock... Uh oh. 0725!!!!! My shift starts at 0800 and I usually like to be there at least 15 minutes early. Not happening today, folks. The shortest route to VO is about 20 miles, about half of which are back roads.

So I shot out of bed , threw my uniform on, poured a cup of coffee, and ran out the door. I pulled out of my driveway at 0738 and pulled into VO right at 0800. I moved right along when I could... not at stupid speeds, but definately burning fuel.

So I got there, did the chores, etc. Then we got sent on a 3.5 hour tour (one of our longer regular interfacility transfers at VO...) and by the time we got back, I was even more tired than I was when I got up in the morning.

I wound up just hanging around and talking with the people I was on shift with and getting pestered by the company prick... It was quite the crew sunday. Myself, 2 other paramedics who are pretty cool, then the Company Crab Apple, the Company Prick, and the Red-headed stepchild of the organization. It's fun, watching the antics of the C.P. and the red-headed stepchild. They can be pretty amusing. They are always antagonizing each other.

So that shift shot right by, I came home, and still couldn't study. I wasn't tired enough to go to bed, but I was tired enough that had I tried to study, it would have either not been retained at all or I would have passed out on my book.

Sooo, I did what any logical young male would do. I went to the bar. I wound up spending about 2.5 hours talking to the girl who was bartending. She's pretty cool. She is quite animated. Not my type in the dating department at all, which is fine because she's taken anyway. Cool person to talk to though. She said I was her 11th customer of the day. This was at midnight. She had been working since 1600. THAT sounds like it's about as boring as you can get.

Anyway, going to the bar kind of nixed any plans of getting up early. I rolled out of bed around 1130 this morning. Stacey (my sister, who is also in the class, if anyone didn't know) and I left around 1245 because it was snowing pretty heavily, plus we had to return the helium tank from my parents' anniversary party. We got out to the Training Center right at 2.

I got the exam, sat down, started taking it. Our Instructor lets us take breaks during exams, so i usually break it down into thirds and break after each third just to keep from getting overwhelmed. I need to work on breaking that habit though, because I don't believe we get that freedom during the state exam.

Anyway, I felt pretty good about the 1st third of the test... Then the 2nd third... then the final third. There were a few questions throughout the course of the exam that I wasn't sure of, but overall I felt pretty confident. It was especially nice because he had told us on Thursday that it was going to be 225 questions. Well, it only turned out to be 170, er, 175.

I dropped my finished exam off on his desk and by the time I had finished it was about 1645, so went to Arby's, got some grub, then came back.

I got back inside and I asked where the instructor was. One of the other guys in my class said that he was in the other room grading the exams. So I hung out in the hallway, then heard the door open. I looked over, out he comes. He looks around, looks at me, and says, "You did goooood. It's on my desk."

I went into his office, looked on his desk, and saw a beautiful "90" looking at me.
YES!!! YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!!! I needed that 90 sooooo bad. My first module average was an 88 or 86, then my second module average was only 75 or 76. Between the 90 on my Trauma/shock/burns module exam, the quiz grades of 88 and 100, this module makes me feel sooo good, especially going into Cardiology. I absolutely HAVE TO study my ass off for that.

Anyway, I was trying to figure out what questions I got wrong. Some were stupid, some weren't. Then I noticed something strange... I got 170-175 wrong. ???
So i looked a little closer... There was nothing filled in on 171-175! WTF? No... Nooo way. I didn't.... I DID! How the hell did I do that?!

So that is where "Turn the page" comes in. I forgot to check and make sure there were no questions on the back page of the test booklet. Oooohhhhhh, was I pissed at myself.
There I was, all excited because I got a 90, then I realize that it could have been a 93 or so had I answered all the damn questions... I have no idea how that slipped by me. I can gaurantee it'll never happen again though. Plus some of the questions that I had wrong were kinda BS... One, I really disagreed with, but my instructor wasn't in much of a debate mood tonite.

We had a lecture after the test at our normal class time. A respiratory doc came in and did a lecture on pulmonary diseases/disorders. Really informative lecture, it was.

Then after she was done, our instructor went over the list of meds for airway and respiration.
I have to have the following drugs, their classes, descriptions, indications, contraindications, precautions, and Dosages/routes memorized by next Thursday:
Succinylcholine, Terbutaline, Vecuronium, Pancuronium, Oxygen (that's a hard one, eh?), Methylprednisolone, Metaproterenol, Ipratropium, Racemic Epinephrine, Isoproterenol, Isoetharine, Hydrocortisone, Fentanyl, Etomidate, Diazepam, Dexamethasone, Aminophylline, and Albuterol.
I have to look and see which of those we can give in our region. I know we give Albuterol, O2, Solu-Medrol, Valium... I'm not sure which of the other ones we can. I know we are probably getting a few more of those drugs with the new protocols... We're supposed to be getting at least Etomidate and Vaponefrin, not sure what else.
Did you notice how I went from generic names to trade names there? How bad did I mess you up? :-P

So yes, that was my excitement for the evening, being a doofus and overlooking the last 5 questions on the exam.

The instructor was not a happy camper tonite. He said the scores ranged from 90's (He said that I had the highest score in the class on this one) to the 60's. I think he said 2 people flunked the exam. He was pissed. He and I were talking after class and he was saying "WTF am I doing wrong here? I'm busting my ass for everybody and this is what I get? 90's to 60's. I dont f-ckin believe it." From what I gathered chatting with my classmates, alot of the people in class scored in the 70's. I felt kind of bad for him, because it's gotta make him wonder what's going on. I think the best way to sum that up is "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." Some people tried hard and did pretty good, some people just kinda threw it away. What sucks for them is that we only get one retest. For all of our modules we have one retest and thats it.
You fail 2 modules, it's "see ya later".

I know Stacey did well on the test also. Congrats, little sister. :-)

Ok, it is officially past my bedtime. Gotta bring out the dog first.
Oh, and it's finally snowing again. :-D we got about 10 inches today, i do believe. We're supposed to get more tonite and tomorrow also. We shall see!!!