Wilderness First Aid

A few weekends ago, I completed a 2-day Wilderness First Aid course with Remote Medical International. The classes were held at Discovery Park just west of Ballard by the Sound. BTW, it's a great urban park with some great vantage points for some incredible sunsets with the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountain Range as your backdrop.

Anyway, I wimped out of taking the 10-day (80-hour) course at the end of March mainly because it wasn't working with my schedule and it was still cold and rainy. So, instead, I decided to take the 2-day course on the hottest day of the year (so far) in Seattle. It was 95-degrees outside and a good chunk of that day was spent inside the visitor's center in the park which was not air-conditioned. We all looked forward to the scenarios and exercises just so we could get outside (yeah, "excuse me patient that I just met as I poke around and drop beads of sweat on you"...haha).

What did I learn - a helluva lot of acronyms. ABCDE, SAMPLE, A&O x 1-4, ack! I forgot them all (well, not really but I need to put together my cheat notes to tuck into my bag or inside my jacket so I won't panic in emergency situations). We learned how to assess situations and injuries, treatments, and what do to until real help arrived. Everything from allergic reactions, cardiac arrests, to broken bones and deep cuts. I learned what to pack in my first aid kit and what to communicate to the emergency medics. It was a great learning experience and, now, looking back, I wished I had taken the 10-day course. And, I would've been able to be a ski patrol in the winter time and wear the oh-so-cool red jackets with the white crosses (so bad-ass). Hmmmm....maybe if there is another one before ski season and if I have time. My mom laughed when I told her what I was doing. You see, growing up, she tried to convince me to go into the medical profession as a nurse or a doctor. But, just to demostrate my independent nature and (ahem, sometimes) bull-headedness, I had it in my mind to be a corporate executive. Ha! She said that I would've been a great nurse - yeah, yeah, yeah....coulda, woulda, shoulda.....foreign words I have no full understanding of. But, even if I wasn't heading into sea kayak guiding, the lessons I learned from the clinic applies to all my activities.