Thursday, October 29, 2009

A bit of the Basics

'ello! I am a scientists/EMT in the post schooling transitional phase of my life. I am a molecular biologist by training and work in a fantastic lab. I actually have my own project (which is amazing seeing that most of the time one needs to be a Ph.D. student before they can have their own project) working on finding ways to treat complications after bone marrow transplants in kids. I love molecular biology and playing genes, but I know that the lab is not where I want to end up in life.

On a bit of a whim (and the need to find out if medicine really was what I wanted to do with my life), I took an EMT-B class at my local community college and basically fell in love. I have been a certified for almost four and a half years now, starting my Basic time at an all volunteer station in NY state before moving to my current station outside of NY state. While I have never worked a high volume ambulance, I love the time I do spend on the rig and the interactions I get with patients. Being an EMT has become so much more than just a test to see if I would enjoy the medical field.

I currently volunteer at a county fire station on the ambulance, supplementing the career staff who are absolutely amazing and dual fire/EMS certified. We are a small volunteer group of both fire and EMS but we are growing in strength and numbers! While the time I have spent being a Basic has been a decent amount, I will by no means claim to know everything about being an EMT. If anything, I am still a bit of a fledgling trying to find my wings as I am now in charge of the ambulance calls on my shifts at my new station.

If you cannot already tell, I live in two very different worlds striving to do the same thing; helping people get better. I will do my best to give more of the ups rather than the downs of lab life and my time on the ambulance, but at times there will be rants on the less than pleasant aspects. Life is both the good and the bad, what matters is what you take away from both.

I hope that you will enjoy this blog!