Seven Sisters

SkyWest Airlines, Here I Come!!!

A lot has happened since I last posted here about my flight training. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably already know most of what I’m about to tell you 😀

About a year and a half ago, I became a certified flight instructor, which just means I get to teach people how to fly airplanes now! I have loved every bit of it and it’s possible I’ve learned more than my students have, lol! There are two main events in a pilot’s quest to earn their license.

One is to “solo” which means you get to fly the airplane by yourself. Your instructor has the confidence that you know how to take an airplane up into the sky and get it back on the ground again. And your instructor must be so confident that they will sign their name and therefore their reputation into your logbook. The other event is when you go for your final test, or “checkride”. Again, your instructor must be so confident that you are ready that they will sign your logbook as proof that you think they are ready to pass that test. I have had the privilege of sending twelve people to their checkrides, and soloing eleven students <3

Alex getting some “foggle” time…simulating flying through clouds

Statton flying instrument approaches in a Cessna 150

I have also been flying a Pilatus all over the country with Ted for a local business owner. I’ve learned a lot about flying at higher altitudes, faster airplanes, and in busier airspace. O’Hare is one of my favorite places to go because it’s so busy and it challenges me all of the time. I love flying around the country, meeting new people, eating breakfast at local restaurants, and visiting places I’ve never gone before.

Somewhere in Colorado

At the beginning of this year I didn’t know whether I wanted to stay in corporate aviation or try the airlines. I joined a program called the Professional Pilot Leadership Initiative through the Ninety-Nines. It is a program designed to mentor ladies just starting in their career as a pilot, changing careers, or at a new place in their career such as upgrading to captain. By the end of the program you get to mentor another lady as she starts her own career. I am just now in the second phase of the program, but have already had so much clarity and direction. As a result of talking to my mentor, I decided to give the airlines a try. If I like it, I’m getting a start building seniority, if I don’t like it (which I doubt!), I can always jump back into flying business jets.

In March I went to the Women in Aviation conference in Long Beach, CA and talked to every regional airline there, asking them questions about their company. Just a side note: if you want to fly for the airlines, you often need to start at a “regional” and build more experience before you go to the “big” airlines such as Delta, United, American.

At the Women in Aviation conference after we had just experienced the hypoxia chamber 😀

I made a spreadsheet noting the bases, pay rate, and airplanes each regional flew. SkyWest kept standing out to me as my first choice. They have a base in Chicago O’Hare and Detroit which are both “close” to home, their pay was decent, and most importantly, every SkyWest pilot I talked to LOVED their job and I could tell that their company culture was one I wanted to be a part of. By the middle of April I applied for SkyWest Airlines, and they called me pretty quickly asking when I wanted to set up an interview. I wanted a little time to study, so I scheduled it for the beginning of June.

I also needed my multi-engine commercial license before I went for the interview. It is relatively “easy” to get compared to some of the other licenses, but also very expensive because multi-engine planes cost a lot to operate. I kept trying to save money towards it, and applied for some scholarships. But my savings weren’t growing very quickly, and I didn’t win any scholarships. One day I got a text from the owner of the flight school I teach at that said, “Call me when you get a chance.” I started wondering what was up, if I had failed to do something at the school, or if I did something wrong, etc, etc 😀 When I did call him the conversation went something like this:

John: “Hi Jessica! You’ve been flying? How’s your day been?”
Me: “Yes, I have! Going great!”
John: “Well, I just wanted to let you know that we’re not the only ones around here who appreciate you.”
Me: “Oh?!”
John: “Someone has contacted us and wants to pay for you to get your multi-engine training done.”
Me: “WHAT???!!! Ohmygoodness! WHAT?!”
John: “So get with Greg as soon as you can and get started!”
Me: “OHMYGOODNESS! I will!!! THANK YOU! Tell whoever it is that I said THANK YOU!”
John: “I will! You keep me updated on how it’s going and I’ll let them know your progress.”

One of my coffee shop study sessions…

So I studied and flew as much as I could in between teaching my own students. The checkride was scheduled for May 28, 2019. I woke up on the 28th to low clouds and bad flying weather. My checkride had to be cancelled. I tried not to stress out, but…you know I did! I needed that checkride done before I went to my interview on June 11th, and the examiner was booked solid until the middle of June. I started calling around to other examiners, and then my original examiner called that evening. He just so happened to have a cancellation for the following day, and did I want to take that spot? YES I DID! The forecast didn’t look great, but I prayed for there to be hole over Valparaiso of clear skies so that I could take the test. May 29th came and it looked like the clouds *might* lift. I opted to start the checkride, and based on my examiners comments, I don’t think he thought we were going to be able to fly. We had to do the verbal portion first, where he asked me about the systems, engines, performance of the airplane. By the time it was time to fly, THERE WAS A HOLE OVER VALPARAISO! We went up and did the flight portion and I came back down a commercially rated multi-engine pilot! I realized later that night that it was four years TO THE DAY that I had taken my very first flight lesson with Ted in the Skyhawk. I think it was God winking at me saying, “I see you! You’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, and I’m smiling at you!”.

And to my anonymous angel…whoever you are, THANK YOU. You encouraged me more than you know. I wouldn’t be where I’m at right now if it weren’t for you.

The day of my checkride!!! Notice how the skies cleared out!

I had also been studying for my interview at the same time I was studying for my multi-engine rating. I was a little nervous as this was my first formal interview. But I didn’t need to be! There were just two other guys interviewing the same time as me, and it was such a fun experience! One of the first things they had us do was the CRM or “crew resource management” exercise. Basically they want to see how well you work as a team with people you’ve never met before which is often what you are doing in the airlines. They gave us each a role…I was captain, one of the guys was the first officer, and the other was a jumpseater in the cockpit on his way to work. I had initially been a little anxious about this portion, because HOW ON EARTH do you know how well you’ll work with people you’ve never met before?! And then when they told me I was acting as captain, I was both excited AND nervous, because now I was also IN CHARGE. But ohmygoodness! That ended up being my favorite portion of the interview. We all worked together well, bounced ideas off of each other, and our interviewers only had a couple of suggestions on how we could have done it a little better. I left Salt Lake City and they told me to expect a call in 3 to 5 days.

Day of the interview!

Two days later they called offering me the job! My friend Sarah and I were on our way home from a quick trip to Niagara Falls (they let us fly OVER the Falls!!!). We had stopped at Erie, PA for fuel and to wait out some thunderstorms. I noticed I had a voicemail from SkyWest when we landed, so Sarah found me smiling and crying in the airport lobby. I had her listen to it as well and we were hugging and crying and exclaiming and the people at the front desk were wondering what on earth was going on.

Niagara Falls!

My next step was to finish getting all of the hours required to be an airline transport pilot (a.k.a. ATP). They want you to have 1500 total hours, 100 hours of night flight, 500 hours of cross country flight, etc. The biggest hurdle for me was 25 hours of time in a plane with more than one engine. All of the training flights I do are in single engine planes, and since I am not a multi-engine instructor (yet), that meant I would need to pay for 16 more hours of multi-engine time, which adds up to a few thousand dollars. I already had 9 hours from my multi-engine training.

If you’re not careful, you’ll always find a reason to worry. It was tempting to worry about how I was going to afford 16 hours of flight time when I couldn’t even afford the first 9 in the first place. BUT I knew if an anonymous person had somehow found out my goals, and learned that I needed that multi-engine training and just PAID for it, there would be a way, somehow!

If you know much about my flight story, you know it’s filled with stories like this. Every step has been less expensive, unconventional, and MORE FUN than if I would have tried to make it happen myself. I think you understand there’s a difference between putting the work in and forcing something to happen. I’m not saying you should sit on your couch and expect people to call you on the phone offering to pay for everything 😀 You must move in the direction you want to go, expecting to meet the resources and opportunities on your way.

I could have cranked out an hour a week in the Baron and asked my flight school to just take it off of my paycheck, but flying around for an hour at a time…there’s just not a lot you can do,and I wanted to GO places. Plus I couldn’t really afford for a third of my paycheck to disappear into the Baron every week, lol!

I just had this feeling I was supposed to wait a bit, that God had something in mind. One of my students who is also headed for the airlines would tease me about it, and he told me once, “Jessica, have you figured out how you’re going to get that multi-engine time yet? *I’M* starting to stress about YOUR flight time!”

Sometime in July, an FAA friend of mine (who also gave me my flight instructor checkride), texted me asking me when my class date was with SkyWest. I told him, and then on a whim, asked, “You don’t happen to have any ideas on how to get some more multi-engine time without me auctioning off my arm and leg do you?!”

He replied, “I might have something, hold on!”

And ohmygoodness! Did he ever!

Me with “One-Five-Quebec”…the Cessna 340.

He put me in touch with a friend of his who flies quarterly trips to visit clients in several states and even up into Canada. For a relatively small fee per hour to cover his liability, he has you fly left seat as pilot-in-command, and he’s also a great instructor. So I ended up flying this Cessna 340 to Ilinois, Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Wyoming, Washington state, Saskatoon Sascatchawan, Brandon Manitoba, and probably a couple other places I’m forgetting 😀 I learned a new airplane, learned about flying internationally into Canada, learned more about when and how to fly through or around weather, and I got to do it with Jim and Kim, who constantly kept me laughing!

Jim & Kim

Jim is a super instructor, and Kim’s favorite thing to do during the trip was to start chatting up the other pilot’s at the airports and drop in that I was the pilot, not him. Then he’d watch their jaw drop and have a good laugh about it later, lol! They’d also make up songs on the spot, with rhyming lyrics and everything which kept me in stiches. We found the greatest little places to eat, like the authentic Italian food at Tiramisu in Quincy, MO. Or the ribs place we stopped at in Nebraska.

I now have all of the hourly requirements for the Airline Transport Pilot certificate and I have a scheduled class date at the end of November with SkyWest Airlines!!! I’ll be in Salt Lake City for at least a couple of months, going through the ATP course, ground school, and flying the big fancy simulators to learn how to fly the CRJ (click here for pics) as a First Officer. I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS MY LIFE!!!

Flying the Chicago skyline on a night cross country

Currently I have several students who are close to being ready for their checkride, so we’re working on getting them ready before I go. The ones who won’t be ready before then will be transitioned to new instructors. And I think that instructors of Eagle Aircraft work so well together already that the transition should be a smooth one for them. This transition has always been a concern of mine…I don’t want to leave my students hanging. I KNOW I’M GONNA CRY MY LAST DAY TEACHING!!! I love my students, I love my Pilatus job, I love my flying club!

So behold…that’s all the news for now! I’ll be sure to update you when I’m officially a First Officer with SkyWest!!!!

After Nine Months…

…the whole family is back together again {for a little bit}!!

It’s getting more and more difficult for everybody to be home at the same time due to jobs, clinical rotations, boyfriends, etc etc etc 🙂 Of course, we had to get a picture to mark the occasion!!

The Day I was Pushed out of an Airplane

For 10 seconds I screamed like a little girl, not out of fear, not with thoughts of regret, just out of sheer terror of a feeling I had never felt in my entire life, and it. WAS. AWESOME!

As the twin Otter plane pushed higher and higher into the sky, some sat quietly in anticipation while others laughed and made jokes. My friend was sitting right beside me and asked if I was nervous, no, just pumped and ready to do this. We had had quite a bit of a wait time on the ground and I was ready to cross this off my bucket list, all feelings of nervousness I had felt that morning were gone.

We were the last ones off the plane, this was it, it was my turn. Strapped to each other we shuffle walked on our knees to the door, I glanced down, 13,000 feet below me lay the ground in precise squares of various colors like a patchwork quilt, a few clouds floated through the sky. Everything looked just like it always had when I’ve been up in a plane, but this time, this time was different. A strong wind blew in my face, even though when we had taken off it was a warm almost hot day, it felt like the crisp air conditioning of a building on a hot summer day.

As I took a brief moment to look down, Jeff, my tandem went over his last check and prepared us for the fall, my only thought was “Is this really happening?”

There was no 1 2 3 jump, it was just a sudden movement, I followed directions of what I was supposed to do and then suddenly he jumped and I was pushed.

For 10 seconds the world did not exist, nothingness and terror mixed with the biggest adrenaline rush of my life! Words can’t even describe what I felt in those seconds, I was simply a screaming and falling object 13,000 feet in the air forgetting everything I was told, I even forgot about Jeff.

All of the sudden I was brought back to reality when I felt a double tap on my shoulder, it was Jeff, I was now grateful for the double and triple checks he did on our harness.

Because I had forgotten everything, he directed me to put my arms out. We then did our “HAT” check. Horizon, altimeter, handle touches (aka finding the parachute cord). Then we simply free fell for the rest of our 60 seconds, continuously checking the altimeter to watch for our 5,500 mark to pull our chute.

Within seconds we were at 5,500 feet, I knew it was time to pull it but I froze for a split second.

Again, Jeff directed me.

I reached down, felt the golf ball on the end of the cord and pulled. Except nothing happened because I didn’t pull hard enough. “Crap” I thought. I can’t get it and tried pulling harder.

(Life is better with friends! 🙂 )

A sudden jolt upwards brought our free fall to a screeching halt, we transitioned from a “falling rock” to a “bird” floating through the sky and even though the ground was continuing to come at us at a rapid rate, it felt like a soft gentle decent. The wind was no longer pounding in my ears and Jeff and I could carry on a normal conversation, hearing each other perfectly. I felt the pull of my harness, not in a uncomfortable way, but just in a “I’m literally hanging thousands of feet in the air” kind of way.

Jeff steered us around pointing out my friends further away and slightly farther down than us, as well as explaining the landscape of where we were at and what we were seeing. We also did one “Red” turn/spin.

As much as I was enjoying it and did not want it to end, I was starting to feel nauseous. I put my hands back on the harness, and Jeff steered us to the landing zone with the same control as if he were driving a car down a winding road (I didn’t know you could steer a parachute with such precision). At just the right time I lifted my legs straight out and we came in for a landing. (Yes, we butt slided in.)

Like I said amazing does not even begin to describe it, I walked away with a load of life stress lifted off of my shoulders, a new appreciation for adventure and a new sense of living life in the moment!

Someone stated that I was kind of young to have a bucket list, I highly disagree! Life is short, live it now!

I’ve already bought my second jump, does that tell you anything?

~Cassia

Midwife Life

A while back Anna posted a little update on each of us and my section mentioned that I was moving out of state to continue my midwifery training. I have wanted to post something about my midwifery journey on here for a long time and never got around to it. There was always paperwork to be done which is most important thing to be done first. So I’m finally sitting down here at Starbucks to write something, and give you a “little” (or long….haha!) update on my life in Houston Texas.

I returned to clinic August 2018 after a 15 month break recovering from a car accident. I’m almost back to normal, but I definitely can’t miss my stretches and exercises every morning or my chiropractic visits every week or I’ll be in a lot more pain. I moved to Houston early November and have been busy delivering babies and doing a lot of office visits! I’m terribly homesick, but grateful for this opportunity to work in this busy practice and experience a lot more diversity than we see in Indiana. It’s a different life living near downtown having to buy my water and go to the laundromat to wash my laundry 🙂

So here is a ~~little~~ update with lots and lots of pictures. All pictures shared of babies were shared with parent’s permission. Also, some pictures are out of order and not necessarily in chronological order….so just roll with it 🙂

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The Last Few Months…

When I was little, everyone used to say that “time goes so much faster as you get older.” And yeah, they were absolutely right! You get more responsibilities and 24 hours isn’t enough time to accomplish everything!

Anyway, all this to say–we’ve obviously been super busy because we’ve abandoned this place. No, I actually forgot about it. Oopsies. 🙂

So here is little update on what each of us has been up to lately:

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My new blog!!

And here is the link to my baking blog just like I promised! I hope you enjoy reading it.

Click here to go to it.

-Charissa

Gâteau rose

It’s been a really long time since I posted a post on our blog, so I decided to post what I’ve been up too….baking. The title “Gâteau rose” is french for “pink cake” (yes I am learning french) and that’s exactly what I made, a vanilla cake covered in pink frosting with white flower sprinkles.

For my birthday I got a cake stand, and some of my sisters were trying to figure out why I was so excited about getting it. But if you’re a baker…..I’m sure you would understand it too! 🙂

As you probably already know, Leah is amazing at lettering, so she wrote on my cake stand cover “Let them eat cake.”

I got this recipe from a cook book “Sweet Bake Shop“, it’s the first recipe I made out of it but I already love the whole book!!! The lady who wrote it (Tessa Sam) has a bakery in Vancouver. I have seen pictures of her bakery but I’ve never been to it, but it is SO on my bucket list!! It’s a pretty pastel bakery with pastel sweets. you can visit her website here.

But if you love baking (especially cakes, cupcakes and cookies ) I would totally recommend buying her book!!

And speaking of blogs (were we talking about them?) I am going to set up my own blog where I’ll post about my baking!!! I’ll post the link here on our blog as soon as I get it finished!

Life is what you bake it and the secret ingredient is always love!

Charissa

2017 4-H Fair

I know that the 4-H fair was 7 months ago but I thought that you all would like to see how it went and what we did! There are now only four of us in 4-H and next year there will be three! General project judging was 2 weeks before the fair and we had some nights we stayed up late to finish up projects..okay, it was mostly me because I took 14 general projects (and 4 different species of animals!) and waited until last minute to make them! I pulled an all-nighter for making my dress and judging the next day was long! (at least for me)! I was happy to get some sleep between my projects getting judged! 🙂 Charissa and the boys were pretty good about getting their projects done in time!

We all did the fashion revue and enjoyed it! here are some pictures of each of us on awards night modeling for the public.

Isaiah with his aparon

Noah with his shirt and pants (he won reserve grand champion in his division!)

Charissa with her dress

me with my dress

I won grand champion in my category and was then able to model at the state fair!!

our awards

this year was my last and 10th year in 4-H and I was selected as one of the top 10 4-Hers out of all the 10 year members!!

The first day of the fair all the barns will compete in several games in one barn and it is called “Battle of the Barns”. This year was the first year that we did it and we had a lot of fun!! Everyone will wear the same style of shirt and will be separated by color of shirt to identify what barn you are participating for, and they used the design that I drew/made for the front of the shirts! (I won 3 different t-shirt design contests last year and they used this design– and must have liked it enough to use it again!;) )

Here is the design:

And here we have a picture of our first ice cream of the week/fair! 🙂

On Monday July 10th was the goat show:

Waiting our turn to show!

Noah and Isaiah showing their goats

Me showing my goat (this is one of my 5 that I brought!)

Tuesday July 11th was the llama show:

This is costume class (we had 4 other classes besides this one) and we don’t have a picture of Isaiah and his llama, but he did Hiccup and Toothless form how to train your dragon!

Noah and his llama Annie as a hunter and a deer

Charissa and her llama Annie (also the one Noah showed, just about everyone had a partner that they shared a llama with) as a baker and a cupcake

My llama Felicity and me as an egyptian pharaoh and queen. Costume class is definitely my favorite and I won overall in this class!!

Another view of Charissa’s and my costumes

All the 4-H llama kids in their costumes. It’s fun to see what everyone comes up with!

The four of us in our costumes

This year I got to lease a cow and show it (which was my first time) and I really REALLY enjoyed doing it! I definitely would have done it all 10 of my years if I could have! 😉 We get to name the cow we show and I named mine Luijzika! (Lu-e-zhe-ka) 🙂 I had a lot of fun working with her at the farm and then the fair!!

The dairy cow show was Thursday July 13th:

Waiting before entering the show arena

I showed her in her class (I placed 5th…or she did! 😀 ) and then also in showmanship and placed fourth! (there were 9 of us in that class).

Anna told us that if we did goat showmanship she would buy our tickets to ride the ferris wheel at night and so we all did!

(Noah was in another bucket with Jessica and a few friends)

They had a trailer you could practice target shooting in with pellet guns and we did that a few times!

Isaiah and Noah

Charissa

At the llama tent is where we spent most of our time (other than the ice cream stand! 😉 ) and one of the nights after the llamas went home a few of us brought our ukuleles and gave a little concert!

We four auctioned off milk buckets and meat ducks but I couldn’t find any pictures of it!

Friday August 4th was when we went to the Indiana state fair so I could model my dress for judging and that was REALLY fun!

After the judging we looked at our other projects that went to state fair as well!

Charissa by her dress

Noah’s red shirt and pants

Charissa’s green beans

my strawberry jam

these stickers are for the frozen preserved foods and Noah’s was for his green beans

Noah’s pretzel

Both Charissa and my needlecraft

this was after the fashion revue judging

We saw this sign when leaving the projects building 🙂

And we visited the llamas on our way out! 🙂

And of course, we had to get ice cream or the day wouldn’t be complete! 😉

And to finish off here are the ribbons we won at the county fair:

Isaiah’s (27)

Noah’s (27)

Charissa’s (16)

And mine (49)

The fair this year was definitely one of my favorites and I will miss being a 4-Her!! And I think Charissa, Noah and Isaiah had a pretty good year as well! 🙂

-Rebekah

Fluffy Snowfall

We just got back from Florida vacation (hopefully it will turn into a post!) and we got a winter weather advisory…school was canceled and I had a free morning to practice a bit of photography. I haven’t really been doing much with it lately.

I love the big fluffy flakes!

My favorite.

Isn’t it beautiful that every snowfall, each flake is different?!

Anna Christina

Cassia’s Adventures in EMS

[names and addresses changed to comply with HIPAA]

I’m in a deep sleep when I’m jerked awake by the sound of my pager “beep beep”. I attempt to lace up my boots while I’m still half asleep and listen to Dispatch “60-year-old male complaining of chest pain, 1215 Spring Street, your cross streets are Laketon and Southshore.” I roughly know where that is…

I finally manage to get my boots tied, grab my radio and head to the car. I simultaneously turn the car on and look in my rearview mirror, to make sure my hair doesn’t look like I’m related to Einstein, KLOVE starts playing on the radio. What time is it even? As I pull out I tell dispatch I’m en route to the station and glance at the clock “What? It’s only 01:15! I thought I had been sleeping for longer than that…oh well, at least this early in the morning traffic isn’t in my way.” Stopped at the stop sign I look right, I look left, I start to go and look right again Yikes!!! Where did that big trash truck come from, *slam on breaks*…wake up, Cassia! I finally make it to the station after the trash truck slowly turns (I really need to get myself a green light, it would be helpful) my partner is waiting for me in the truck.

“You know where we’re going he asks?”

“Yep,” I try to mumble directions but don’t think I was making much sense because we almost drove past Spring street. “Turn here! Turn here! Okay, the number was 1215…” I peer into the dark to try and help look for house numbers, “1008…two more blocks.” All the while I have our protocols running through my head. “Code 1 routine which translates airway, oxygen if needed, vitals. Give 324 mg baby Aspirin if no allergy to it, assist with their nitro if no contraindications, and place on the heart monitor.” …1211…1213…1215! Oh wait, I know this person.”

We’ve been given instructions from Dispatch on how to get in the house, thankfully the son showed up and unlocked things for us. “Hi there (rats, I can’t remember his name, I’m better with faces than names), what’s going on? I notice he’s having some difficulty breathing as he tries to explain how and when his pain started, he’s already taken his own nitro. I put him on some oxygen and continue to ask questions and get an idea of what’s going on, my partner gets a set of vitals and puts him on the monitor as I pull out the aspirin. We finish our assessment and as we get him loaded, my paramedics arrive on scene. “Good morning” I cheerily say to the Medic, obviously feeling more awake now. I tell her what’s going on and what I’ve done so far, we then work together to get an IV established, run a 12 lead and ask more of the never ending-questions. After we accomplish that we head to the hospital where he can continue to get the medical care he needs, and hopefully resolve the issue.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I’ve been told you guys wanted an update on where I am at in EMS. To give you a small glimpse of what I do, I started out with an actual call I’ve been on but tweaked to meet HIPPA’s rules. 🙂 Not all calls are like this and come in at 01:15 in the morning. In our small rural Volunteer EMS community, we can go several days without any calls, and then slammed one day with 4 calls in 12 hrs! (that’s busy for us!). When you are on call, you have to be ready to go at any time of the day/night regardless of what you’re doing, you could deal with anything from someone having chest pain, to an outright heart attack, small fender bender car accident or the kind where you are requesting for the medical helicopter, to caring for a small infant who just had a febrile seizure. One thing for sure, each call is unique in itself. They will all have similarities, but each will be different.

I really enjoy working with the public, and I love the medical field, so EMS is a perfect fit for me! Some have suggested that I go on to get my nursing, and while I do plan in the far future to do that after getting my paramedic certification, as of now I don’t plan on using it like I do my Medic. Because being stuck in the confines of a cement building is not appealing to me…I love being out on the road, and in and out of the hospitals. However I’ve learned to not say never, you just never know where life will take you!

Last September I made the decision to further my education and go for my Advanced EMT certification, and it is a decision I do not regret one bit! Even though the state of Indiana is making changes the end of this year to where AEMTs can not be utilized like we once were, making our certification more or less almost useless, I still do not regret my decision. I learned so much and expanded my knowledge immensely that even if I cannot use it on the truck, it has made me a better Basic EMT. 🙂

However, with this new certification does open new doors for working in other places than just on the truck. Earlier, I stated that I did not want to be a nurse because being confined to a cement building was not appealing. However, due to my current circumstances, I would be willing to do it for a period of time. Especially since the position I have applied for is phlebotomist which is a new skill I learned and absolutely love, not in a creepy way, but I just enjoy drawing blood. 🙂

I’d love to work for a local paid EMS service but as I stated earlier my current circumstances are keeping me from that. Last year I was having some back issues, to make a long story short, the doctor said I had sacroiliitis (fancy word for inflammation in the SI joint, where the spine and pelvis connect). I was given specific exercises to do and was getting better until I fell at work (grocery store I use to work at but has since closed). That jolted my SI joint majorly and was a ginormous setback. I tried multiple things and was in so much constant pain. While they helped some with my symptoms I felt that it was not taking care of the underlying problem. I have now been going to a clinic out of Chicago every month that does specialized physical therapy since March, finally found someone that understands what is going on and can actually help me with the underlying problem. While I am making progress, it is painfully slow, much to my dismay since it is holding me back from so much! But I am learning to take each moment and live it instead of waiting to arrive at a certain point in life. No, I would not have preferred this detour and setback, but life is in no way perfect and free from problems. I do however believe that we can change our outlook on our problems, and when we give them to God He can use even the bad things and turn them into good, which I have already seen Him do.

So back to the phlebotomist job, it would be a good in-between for me while I wait for my back to heal. I will have interaction with the public, I’d be all over the hospital including the ER (yay! and I love to walk), I’d be using the newly acquired skill of drawing blood, and I would continue to learn stuff that will be helpful in my medical field career. I’ve had an interview but have not heard back from them yet.

I think in a nutshell, without writing a book, that gives you a glimpse of what I’m up to, in the medical field anyways…but before I go, I must share with you a couple of the highlights from my class because it was such a positive experience! This is not going to do it any justice to show you the extent of everything that we did and learned, but it gives you at least a glimpse of some of my favorite parts.

Holding a deer heart! We cut it open, and also was ventilating the deer lungs…a cool experience to see how it works on the inside!

Learning how to give medications, here we were simulating giving nitro, only we were using breath fresher instead of the real thing.

Oh my goodness! IVs were so so much fun to learn, we often practiced on each other which definitely helped when I went to do them on patients.

One of my classmates and I decided to try starting one on our self, then our teacher had us do it with our non-dominant hand…we were both successful! 🙂

Practicing ventilating, and I’m getting an IV at the same time.

He and I both didn’t mind the needles too much, so we often practiced on each other after the lectures.

This was a fun night, extrication! We sat in the car as the firemen tore it apart so we could see what it is like for our patients.

Then we simulated taking a patient out correctly.

I went to an EMS conference with my teacher, we got to do a moulage class, this was my work. 😀

Our teacher gave us the opportunity to do a presentation for extra credit. I chose Acid/Base.

When studying looked like this, trying to make sense of it all, I questioned my choice of topic…

…But when my finished notes looked like this, it was worth all that time, effort, and brain power I put into it.

And I enjoyed presenting it to my classmates. 🙂

Clinical ride time on the ambulance, and man oh man did I do countless hours! It was a challenge to get the skills in because we were skilled based, not by the number of hours you put in. So it didn’t matter how many hours I put in if I did not get my skills in I could not complete the course. At times it was frustrating because I had the “white cloud” syndrome. I’d show up for my clinical and nothing happened, or nothing that I could get my skills in, then when I left they would start to get busy again. They liked it, I didn’t. 😀

Another challenge was our drug cards. There were around 30 of them and we had to have this list of information on each drug.

Medication name: Generic, Trade, and Official.

Classification

Mechanism of action

Pharmacokinetics

Indications

Contraindications

How supplied

Dosages

Special Considerations.

I spent several months on mine. :O But the end result was worth it!

Studying is always better when you have ice cream! 🙂

This was a common occurrence. Come home late at night from class and still got chores to do. It wasn’t my favorite, but at this point and time I was not helping out hardly at all around the house due to trying to balance work, class, clinicals and studying, so it was only fair to the family that I help. And I gotta say, they often didn’t leave me with very much. 😉 Helping with dinner dishes is one of my specific chores. When we were a few years younger, we had a rule that if someone wasn’t there for dinner, we went ahead and did their dishes. Well, as we have grown up and started to branch out, it was not uncommon for one person to be stuck with all the dishes, which in a large family after the biggest meal is just not fair to anyone. We changed the rule to no matter how late you’ve been out, either arrange to swap chores with someone or do them when you get home. 🙂

This particular night, we had been practicing IVs again, and I love my MudLove bracelet. I wear it every day because this whole detour with my back has challenged me in many ways!

This particular clinical shift, we were posting and got just a little bored. 😉

Skill testing day!!!! I was SO nervous, but we all made it through and were all smiles at the end of the day, and all breathing a little bit easier.

Here are all the classmates (minus one), with our fabulous and amazing teacher!!!

After passing our skills we have one more step: taking the written test. August 9th I took mine, I was hopeful but a little nervous and had to keep blocking out the nerves! 🙂 However, during the test (you have to go to a professional testing center), I do not sit still well due to my back issues, sitting increases my pain, so I fidget! Well during my test I was like on question #125 of #135, and because I was fidgeting, my foot hit the power button on the computer…I watched the words “system is shutting down” flash across the screen, I. Was. Horrified. Much to my relief, because it was a testing center they have everything backed up, so they were able to bring it right back to where I had left off! *huge sigh of relief*

This class was so much fun, I love love love learning how the human body all works together, it’s incredible how we are made! While it was fun, it was also challenging, but I definitely grew through those challenges and with time I will face the next challenge of Paramedic and onto nursing!

For now, I need to focus on getting my back better. But there is one thing is for sure…whatever you are facing, pursuing, and trying to achieve, but everything possible that could go wrong is going wrong…You have a calling to walk into…Don’t. Ever. Ever give up!

~Cassia

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