AndyPeckham.com

Recent Highlights:

Explore Reunion

Finals Week

Hired as an EMT

Rock Climbing

Started Summer School

My second semester at MSU Bozeman finished really well.  I even got to go to the Explore reunion and see a whole bunch of great friends that I went through the Explore program with, and then worked with as interns.  The Explore program was having its 10-year reunion over the weekend right before Finals week for me.  I didn’t want to miss it, but I was concerned about my Microbiology final, which was on that next Monday.  I started studying for that exam a week before, and was able to do my Friday biology lab on Thur.  Thur night at 10:00 I decided I had had enough of studying in the library (I’m usually there till midnight when it closes) and decided I’d drive to Bighorn that night.  I had left by 10:30 pm, and arrived at Bighorn just before 3:00 am Fri.

People from every year since the program started 10 years ago came, and it was a great time!  While everyone else was out rock climbing and rafting etc during the day, I hid away in the office and studied.  I got to hang out during meals and in the evenings, which was still awesome.  Several of us camped out at the Matrix, and we had a great time around the fire each night.  All of the interns from my year: John, Jen, Andrea, and I were there, and we spent some time catching up on what we’d been up to since we finished the internship.  I got to see my senior intern from when I was a student in 03-04, Steph, and a lot of my 04-05 Blue Team: Lindsay (Senior Intern), Jeremiah, Tim, Nathan, Elliot, Elizabeth, and Rachel.  We missed Andrew, who was in Iraq, and Tiffany.  I just got to talk to Andrew though, and he’s back from Iraq!  A few of my 05-06 Brown Team members were there: Hannah (Junior Intern), Josh, Tim, and Kerry.  We missed Sarah, Sam, Amanda, and Jordan.  I was having so much fun I decided I’d stay at Bighorn until Mon morn and then drive the 4 hours back to Bozeman in time to take my microbiology exam Mon afternoon.  It was a hard exam, as I expected, but I felt about as well-prepared as I could have been.  I got a B+ on the exam and a high A in the class, so that was a relief.  I did well on all my other exams, and was able to keep my 4.0 GPA for the year!  I thank God for that, because I know I couldn’t have done it on my own.  God has really been confirming to me that doing premed has been the right thing for me to be doing right now.

I just recently got hired by the Bozeman ambulance service, American Medical Response.  I had applied at the beginning of the year, even though they weren’t hiring at that time.  They had some spots open up and they called me up for an interview.  Afterwards I was told that they didn’t need me, but then a week later they called me and said they wanted me to start working for them.  I am excited because I have wanted to do this for a long time.  My last exam was on a Thur, and then I started training with them Fri and Sat.  Then I did my first shift from that Sun morning till Mon morning.  Then that Mon I spent some time in the emergency dispatch office, seeing how things run there.  On Tue I got to get out rock climbing with two of my friends, Tanner and Luke.  It finally stopped snowing and got really warm that week.  Then I spent a day doing a ride-along with Bozeman Fire Department to meet people there and see how they do things, because both Fire and EMS respond to all 911 calls.  Saturday I got to go out rock climbing with Aaron and two of his friends.  We ended up doing a 4-pitch 5.6 route that was really easy but still really fun.  It was great to finally get out and do a trad climb again!  After that week of “break”, I started summer session number one, taking 4 credits of organic chemistry 1 and 4 credits of physics 1 in 6 weeks, and then I’ll be doing another 4 credits of organic chemistry 2 and 4 of physics 2 in the 6 weeks immediately after that.  Then I’ll be taking the MCAT at the end of August and sending off my applications to med schools!  It’s going to be a crazy busy summer for me.  I started volunteering with Hospice recently, and am visiting with an older man once a week.  I’m also volunteering with Search & Rescue and doing training with them.  I get to do a swiftwater rescue technician training course soon.  The rivers are at flood stage right now, the highest they have been in many years.

This Fri I skipped my physics and organic chemistry classes so I could work with AMR.  The first 8 or more shifts that I do have to be with a field training officer, and there are only certain days when they are working.  Since I have class Mon-Fri, it is difficult to find a time when I can actually work until I am finished being “credentialed”.  After this week I have an O-chem exam every Fri, and a physics exam basically once a week as well.  I have 2-4 hrs of class a day, as well as a 3-4 hour lab every day except Fri.  We’re covering a whole chapter every day or two, which makes it difficult to keep up!  Thankfully, most of the physics so far is a review from high school 7 years ago.  This Fri I did a 24 hour shift with AMR, and then went straight to the hospital ER to do an 12-hour shift there.  Mostly I took patients vitals and visited with them to keep them company.  I only needed to be there until 4 pm, but then an interesting patient was taken in.  He had OD’d and needed to be intubated (tube put into his lungs) and have several other things done to him so I got to watch that and help hold him down because he was violent, even though he was only responsive to pain.  Once they paralyzed and sedated him he was fine.  I got to bag him (breathe for him by squeezing air into his lungs through the ET tube) while he was taken to get a CT scan and then taken to ICU.  So that was a lot more exciting than just taking people’s vitals.  I ended up staying there till 9 pm, so it was about 37 hours straight for me.  We got a decent amount of sleep the night before, with a call around 10 pm, and then one at 4 am.  I still have a ton to learn about working as an EMT, and sometimes it is discouraging when I feel like I really don’t know what I’m doing.  There is a huge difference between getting certified as an EMT and actually working as an EMT.  I really enjoy it, and know I am learning a lot, even though it doesn’t feel like it yet.  I’ve only worked two shifts so far, and the first one was entirely observational.

I applaud you if you actually read this far.  I know I often don’t feel like I have time to read a post this long.  I’m working on learning to leave out the unnecessary details that aren’t important, as well as writing more frequently.  Sometimes I wonder what the purpose of blogs are anyway.  Why would other people want to read the details of what I’m doing with my life?  I feel like I should be writing entertaining anecdotes, or sharing profound thoughts for people to learn from.  Sometimes it seems like people write blogs simply because it is helpful for them to sort through their thoughts and feelings by writing them out and posting them.  I have found that to be true sometimes for me, although I usually just stick to the facts, which is not what people are going to want to spend their time reading.  Hmmm….