recap informal
verb |rēˈkap| ( -capped , -capping ) [ trans. ]
state again as a summary; recapitulate : a way of recapping the story so far | [ intrans. ] to recap, at the end of the Persian Gulf War, he lost control of the northern third of his country.
noun |ˈrēˌkap| |ˈriˈkøp|
a summary of what has been said; a recapitulation : a quick recap of the idea and its main advantages.
ORIGIN 1950s: abbreviation.

If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what does

The following events happened between 5:00pm 11 Apr 2008 and 1:00am 12 Apr 2008.

Work was the same as always. I got off early for my big EMT class.

The following events happened between 5:30am 12 Apr 2008 and 3:24pm 12 Apr 2008

I woke up extremely early so that I could get ready for my EMT test. The funny thing is that I woke up like a minute before my alarm did. I guess that I was just really anxious. Usually it takes more than just my alarm clock to wake me up after just three and a half hours of sleep. I got up, took a shower, made some pancakes and waited for my ride. The test was in a town called Murray, a good 45 minute drive from where I was at in Provo. I started to tense up a little bit as 7:00am rolled on by. That was supposed to be the time we met up, or I guess more correctly put, she was supposed to pick me up. I was rusty, I don’t even know what I was thinking, this dame was supposed to be picking me up and here I was without even her number. She had a least two others in the car, but I didn’t have their numbers either. I guess if push came to shove I could always take the car. It wasn’t my car, but it could have been my car to take. That would have left me with some unhappy roommates though and unhappy roommates are the worst roommates. Before I could even picture anything more, the phone rang. You know the scene where the guy just stares at the phone after it starts ringing? A little hesitant to pick it up? That was not me, that phone was loud and like I said unhappy roommates are the worst roommates. She had just showed up so I walked outside to get in the car. It was a blue car. I think a hybrid, but I’m not sure. I have never been one for the details. I guess I missed the memo, but there was a little bit of segregation going on. Girls in the front and guys in the back. I guess looking back on it now the girl riding shotgun was pregnant. That is excusable. The chump in the back (I say chump in such a way that displays nothing but kindness to what he really is) is munching away on some Wendy’s while the girls in the front argue over directions. This was going to be a great ride I thought to myself. I had half the mind to ask if the Wendy’s was the reason for the lateness in departure, but I decided that would go nowhere fast. Deciding that the only way to drown out the mindless chomping of food and the bickering squeals of our pilots was to listen to the sound of my own voice I pulled out my EMT binder. The binder is basically our Bible. Contained within it’s wonderful pages were the answers to any basic medical problem. It was like a cliff note version of our 700 page textbook. I decided that I could get everyone else to stop making such useless noise by quizzing them. It was going great, getting the 6 rights down, contraindications for nitro and where to administer occlusive bandages. It was going great at least until my comrade next to me decided to answer a question with a mouth full of hash browns.

*RANT*ALERT*RANT*ALERT*RANT*ALERT*RANT*ALERT*RANT*ALERT*

I can’t stand it when people talk with their mouths full or chew with their mouths open. I think that it is just one of the grossest things that you can possible do.

*And now, back to the story*

That made me quickly stop the question asking and start the silent note taking. We finally arrived at the center after some confusing turn taking. Outside was a guy from our class. He was sitting there squatting down with an orange, peeling it. I guess it wasn’t that weird now that I think of it, it would have been really weird if he ate the orange without peeling it. He was all by himself though and was just kind of like…Gollum. Kind of weird. I sat down next to a man that I had sat down next to many times during the course of the past year. We began to talk and I filled out my little survey thing. There were a lot more people there than I thought there would be. There was this group of hooligans sitting in front of me and I have not heard so much swearing for quite a long time actually. It was kind of strange. We got our numbers and I was number 92. I practiced for quite some time and then it hit me. They called for the first class to start their practical test. they were from Richfield, Utah! I spent six weeks of my mission there. It was really a nice lovely place. The nervous craps. I really dislike those guys and they always come out at the worst moments. I mean, there is pretty much no defense against those guys. I ran to the bathroom with this tremendous fear that I would miss my turn, the incident at dance sport still vivid in my mind. It turns out that I did not miss my number. I began to go slowly crazy as I crammed my mind with all of the last minute facts that I could. I was all prepped for a trauma. In my class final I easily handled the medical but, the trauma didn’t go as well. I think that I finally got it down though as I was practicing on everyone that would let me. I actually talked to some of the people in my class for the first time as well. It was kind of an interesting experience. I wish that I had stopped to talk with them more during the class. Someone brought out a frisbee and we played outside for a while. It was really windy and cold and one guy was really good… too good. It really hurt to catch his frisbee throws. When we went back inside the first person from out group had entered the testing area. I thought to myself,

“Oh crap! Were we out there for that long?”

It turns out that the group before us, their teacher was one of the test givers so they couldn’t test with him. So they had to grab one person from our group every time. We took this huge group photo because it was basically just our group left in the waiting area. Then someone had a stroke of genius. Pictionary. Of course we played pictionary with EMS terms and that got really funny. Every so often one of us would be called in to take the test and we would all cheer and yell. I think that we got the other group jealous because they were not into the whole camaraderie thing. The funniest picture drawn was my a guy that we pretty much had to force to get up there. He drew a really angry woman on the board and just pointed to it. Of course the first guesses were pregnancy related. I was just joking and yelled out PMS. I was right, but it isn’t that kind of PMS. In EMS it stands for Pulse and Motor Senses. Anyways, it was funny. My time finally came, or so I thought. I am really glad for that pictionary game, it really loosened me up. Calm-age. I was placed in front of a door that had two pieces of paper taped to the side of it. The way the practical testing worked was that they gave us a scenario where we had to find out what the problem was and treat it using a full patient assessment. We were given a 9 minute time limit on that. We had a 4 minute timed skill test afterwards where we had to demonstrate one skill. The skill could range from putting on a pulse oximeter (that was the one we were all hoping to get) to treating for hypothermia. After reading my scenario I knew that I was going to be dealing with an allergic reaction. My skill test it said was on administering nitroglycerine. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I realized that this test was going to be a piece of cake. I still had quite a bit of waiting in the hallway before it was finally my turn. I walked into the room, looked at my equipment (they gave me two minutes to do so) and started with those infamous last words,

“BSI, is my scene safe?”

After that it was like clock work. No need for c-spine precautions, no major bleeding, put him on oxygen, made the transport decision, called for ALS backup, allergic to peanuts, guy ate peanuts, SAMPLE history,
had an epi-pen, administered the epi-pen, put it in the sharps container and there we were. I did forget to document the time that I administered the epi-pen though. My bad. The skill test went just as easily. I did forget the sixth right, but it was right medication and I had the right medication, so technically speaking I had that one covered as well. All the way home we talked about the tests, and I think that I did really well in comparison. It made me really happy especially since the driver was a jerk and tried to rub it in my face constantly that she knew more than me and that I was never doing anything right. I got home and collapsed.

Our teacher told us that we should expect a response in about 2 weeks or we would get it a lot sooner if we failed. I got my response within 4 days. Yeah, I know. It said that I passed my practical and my skill test though. That made my day. I was one happy dude. I scheduled my written test and took it the following Wednesday. I had to pay 8 dollars in cash, but I didn’t have that because (this is a really random at funny story) I was at work that Tuesday night, right before my test and I was talking to this new girl that worked there. I was just asking about her last name to see if it was spanish (it was italian actually)
when this mexican dude just popped his head over the western style swinging doors that we have leading into the back and exlaimed,

“Que onda vato!”

This took me completely by surprise. I didn’t know what to say, but I started to talk with him anyways. He said that he was selling tamales and that he was wondering if I wanted to buy some. I said OK, so I gave him all of my cash (about $8) and bought some tamales. It was really random and I think that I weirded out the new girl by just taking off into the parking lot with this short mexican dude. Anyways, I didn’t have any cash for my test. I had to scrummage up all of my change and I barely had enough. The guy at the testing center was not too happy with me. It was on a computer, so I guess that it wasn’t really written. The test was going really well when disaster struck. I unplugged my mouse. It was just in such an awkward position so I kept pulling it and eventually it unplugged. Oops. I used my highly useful technical support training and plugged it back in though. This test gave instant feedback. I clicked the submit button and found out that I passed. I am officially an EMT-B now. Hooray. I want to take my national registry but, I am still trying to figure it out. It is weird.

I flew home and things happened. Yay! Another post coming soon!

I will save your life
When your out and down
I will clear all the lights
To comfort your eyes
You will do the same
You will do it all for me
Anytime lifeline
You saved my life
When you tied me down
And if I cry
Tell me that I would do the same
If ever it were you
The next time lifeline

- Kent