Busy week

Ok, so as you can see from the photos above, we've been very busy. Since my last post, i've had an interesting time with some of the training. I will talk you through the photos above so you can understand what's been happening this week.

We finally finished our drivers training after a cruise through the woods while wearing night vision goggles. Yes, it was a blast - no, it didn't last as long as I wanted it to. I was lucky enough to jump into the lead vehicle, which meant I actually had to navigate the course as opposed to just "following" the vehicle in front of me. During a stop, to wait on the rest of the convoy, I lifted the goggles to see just what road looked like without the help of my fancy military gear. I couldn't believe how dark it was and how well those little guys worked. In essence it was kind of like a boy-hood dream come true to drive with those things on...awesome!!

Now that we were done with driving we dove straight into our combat life savers course. This training was summed up by one instructor as "meatball medicine," where our job was to get someone from the point of injury to a helicopter with a heartbeat. To be honest, there were a lot of decisions that we learned about during triage that I hope I never have to make. We also learned about some pretty gruesome injuries and how to deal with them. Another part of this training consisted of patient transport on a number of different litters or carriers. One photo above was taken while I was being strapped to a litter.

Probably the most dreaded portion of the CLS training was the fact that we learned how to administer fluids intravenously. To show our proficiency with this new-found skill, we had to actually give IVs to one another. I can say hands down that the most nervous point wasn't getting poked but giving the poke to someone else. My poor partner ended up as my personal pincushion taking three sticks before I achieved success. I was much more fortunate receiving only one poke. After drinking in the entire bag of fluids, I felt hydrated and ready to do it again. I'm not sure my partner shared in my enthusiasm.

I am constantly impressed by the experiences of those who instruct us here at Ft Dix. From treating hundreds of casualties, to being blown up, losing battle buddies, getting stabbed, and in general surviving their lengthy tours, we are getting some world-class knowledge from some pretty tough soldiers. I look forward to each piece of information that might save my life or help me save someone else. An even bigger kudos goes out to many of the instructors who volunteered to be here sharing their knowledge - I appreciate your sacrifice.