Check out what I got diagnosed with today:

Yuuuck. Fortunately, I think this means I will only miss ONE softball game because we have a bye next week, so that will give me three weeks total to recoup. Also, starting some pilates-based physical therapy 2x a week for the next month which should help as well.

Oddly enough, this injury hasn’t affected my running all that much. I think it’s because I am such a slow jogger that I use mostly my hamstrings to putter along. So in the meantime I’m allowed to keep running, just no hill repeats or sprinting.

I’m just happy to know what was causing my thighs so much pain! And… now I have a legit reason WHY I couldn’t run the bases or squat down to field grounders at the softball game

Specifically, the Dr. thinks I have a vastus intermedius strain, which is a “deep” thigh injury. I met with the sport’s medicine clinic physical therapist today who showed me a bunch of quad-stretching and strengthening exercises to do twice a day every day. Combined with longer warm ups, cool downs, icing after use and the 2x a week physical therapy, hopefully I will heal up well and be back playing second base and batting “clean up” in the lineup!!

Softball, by the way, RULES and I have been having crazy fun playing on my work team. It really is a blast! I will be cheering the team on from the bleachers for the next game.

Oh- one other amusing thing- I ordered Linus a softball jersey, too! He’s going wear it while he comes to the game and “cheers.”

The sadness in the eyes of this beat-up little guy on the corgi listserve made me tear up:

Apparently Jared was involved in some sort of dog fight.

Here is the text from his bio:

Poor Jared was a puppymill production line worker. Apparently the
mill he came from was one of the worst. It was raided, Jared was
seized, and he landed in the shelter with some serious injuries.

Jared, who probably had no name at all in the mill but was given his
name at the shelter, will need surgery to repair his nose and his
eye, and I suspect they’ll need to work on his ear, too.

In addition, he has come down with kennel cough.

You can read more about Jared, and find out how to donate to help him and other corgis in need here:
Jared’s CorgiAid Page

Corgi Aid is a truly phenomenal organization. They helped Linus with some of the massive dental surgery he needed before we adopted him. For those of you interested, you can see Linus’ Petfinder Rescue Page here:

I was browsing Petfinder one evening as Earl and I lay in bed, and of course was searching corgis. I saw Auggie (now Linus) and said out loud to Earl, “he’s our guy!” I filled out the adoption application on the spot that night, rounded up our references, and after we were approved to adopt him we drove down to West Virginia from NYC to get him that very weekend. If you’re interested in the day we went and adopted Linus, you can read about it here:
The Day We Got Linus

Here is hoping Jared heals up quickly and is able to find a home with heaps of love.

A few from Lake Tahoe.

Linus by the lake:

We were done with skiing for the day and checking out Tahoe City. It was cool how you could run around by the water!

Check out Earl’s beard:

Someone was a Good Boy and got a “cookie” at the upscale pet shop in Truckee (he also got a new dog bed!)

There was some drool happening

Finally!!

We skied with our friend Dom for a few days at Squaw (myself in yellow, Andrea in the middle and Dom in red)

Dom splits his time between Truckee and SF, and knows Squaw really well. He led us down this pretty scary slope called “The Attic.” Being… not on my best ski game this year, I was just happy I made it down!

Near the top of Granite Chief, our friends Andrea and Mattius who live down the street from us near UCSF. Mattius was REALLY FAST on his snowboard. We played Chinese downhill to high camp and he creamed everyone by about … 20 seconds! His strategy was to go straight and not turn. They must breed ‘em fast in the Alps. Then again, this is the same guy who got ticketed for speeding on the autobahn, so…

And finally, here is Linus running in the snow just south of Carson Pass. We were stopped by CalTrans waiting for the pass to open that morning, so decided to have a romp!

Oh, and just so she doesn’t feel left out, here’s a little video I shot of Lucy chilling in her box:

As I’ve been researching Paramedic programs, the general EMT re-certification process and continuing education classes, I felt I was lacking a general description and/or resource of ALL the EMS “alphabet soup” certifications. What the heck do all these things stand for, anyway? There was no ONE place that described everything I needed to get done.

So I made one myself.  While a lot of the info on here only pertains to me (for example, the class cost breakdowns I’ve focused on are all around San Francisco), this might be helpful to other EMTs or those who want to become EMTs or Paramedics.

Here it is.  As I’m sure you can tell, it’s still a work in progress.  For example, I still need to find out exactly what “PPC” stands for, and what it’s needed for. Also, for best viewing ZOOM IN and click through each of the three pages. Hope someone finds this useful! Cheers

EMS Alphabet Soup

This roasted corn is quite possibly the tastiest thing ever!

There is a guy with a grill who sells it at the base of the mountain.  We all get an ear to munch while we walk to and unload our gear at the car.   It is STUPENDIOUS!  Almost (almost) takes the place of beer for first place “Best thing apres-ski.”  Even Linus has gotten in on the corn action before.

Man I am tired.  We had such a fun daytrip today!   We skied from bell to bell, after getting up to drive to Tahoe at 4:45am.  Then, after getting back to the city we headed straight to Emmy’s Spaghetti in the Mission to chow some ENORMOUS spaghetti and meatballs.  All four of us brought home to-go bags.  I think I’ve got lunch and dinner taken care of tomorrow.

According to our dog walker’s note, Linus had a fun day today, too.  She apparently took him on multiple walks and he hung around at her house all afternoon.  So funny.  She is such a nice woman.  Anyone who needs a dogwalker rec in SF, please ping me.

Sorry if this post is incoherrent I am pretty tired.  Off to snooze

-Ceej

Tomorrow I volunteered to represent my company at an event for 6th-12th grade women at Skyline College called “Expanding Your Horizons.” Basically, we’ll be showing young women what a career in Emergency Medicine is like.  We’ll be running mock calls and answering questions.  I’m really looking forward to it!  Here’s the event description from its website:

In this career conference, you will meet women who use science and math in their careers as well as women in non-traditional careers. These outstanding women are eager to share their career paths with you, to answer your questions, and to encourage you to go for it! During the workshops, you will see for yourself some of the things these women do on the job. You will also learn about promising career opportunities and the training you need to qualify for them.

After ‘Expanding Your Horizons’ girls say:

•”This conference helped me see other options for what I can do once I’m out of school.”

•”Now, I definitely know what I want to be. Thanks!”

•”It made me start to think about my future.”

Expanding Your Horizons is a conference for 6th through 12th grade young women to learn about career opportunities in math and science. Science and math careers are fun, exciting, and rewarding and so is Expanding Your Horizons. Conference participants conduct lab experiments, wire high-tech phone systems, examine microscopic creatures, and design their own computer software. Each girl attends three hands-on workshops during the all-day conference. During the day, the girls participate in a problems and puzzles contest. Contest winners recieve A Day With a Scientist. Expanding Your Horizons has been held at Skyline College annually since 1980. Over 20,000 young women have attended. Expanding Your Horizons is sponsored by the Genentech Foundation for Biomedical Sciences. During the conference, Skyline students escort participants to their sessions. A smaller concurrent program is held for interested adults. The Expanding Your Horizons Planning committee are volunteers who work in science- and math-related fields.

Looks exciting, right?  I can’t wait!

In other news, on Sunday Earl and I are heading up for a day trip to ski at Squaw, and then on Monday I have my FIRST COMPANY TEAM SOFTBALL GAME!!!!!  whooooooo   Bring it on, baby!  Very, very, very psyched for that.  Combined with the beautiful spring weather, it looks to be a fantastic couple of days.

This is going to be tough to write, because it’s pretty personal.

Yesterday I was first responder to a motorcycle vs. car crash that happened outside my apartment. I was laying on my living room floor studying when I heard the crash and the ensuing commotion. I glanced out my window, saw a man down blood everywhere, and overheard someone saying “I think his leg is broken” as they were calling 911. Crap. I’ve got to get down there! Threw on a jacket, grabbed a pair of gloves from my garbage can (leftover in my pocket from Wednesday shift) and hustled outside.

Walking up I assessed the scene and asked if he was the only one injured. Driver of the car was okay (and walking around). I introduced myself to the man, who was howling in pain. Told him I was an EMT, lived next door and could I help him? It was then I realized I had *shit* for gear.

How do you work without your toolkit? When you’ve trained and trained and trained and worked relying on your gear to be at your side and in working order. All of a sudden something happens when you’re not on duty at work and you are NAKED. It was the worst feeling and completely frustrating. I almost stalled right there, not knowing what to do without my “stuff” and even once I started helping with what I could, I definitely felt thrown off the entire time.

I took an A&O as I improvised and managed to get his jeans cut off with the knife in my keys to expose the area. Removed his shoes and socks and found bilat pedal pulses even though I couldn’t get an accurate set of vitals since I WAS NOT WEARING A WATCH! (I did have an old crappy t-shirt I was willing to sacrifice as a bulky dressing in the case of severe bleeding.)

Aggh, I can’t even get into how frustrated I felt not being able to help in my full capacity. It’s almost like our gear becomes a crutch and then when it’s not there- will you be able to improvise on your feet and get everything done that you need to do?

Ultimately I held c-spine and from my position on the ground directed a nearby construction crew to set up some cones to keep the scene safe and direct traffic around us. I talked to the patient (who was freaking out about his mangled bike, not his mangled leg!) and tried to keep him calm. I know response times of SFFD are very fast, but that time I was on scene before they showed up felt EXCRUCIATINGLY long. And as the seconds ticked by before they showed up, I felt ashamed that I didn’t have equipment on me to do everything I was trained to do.

Once the medics showed up, I gave them the best report I could (minus vitals, ARGH) and put on their c-collar. I was so impressed with the crew who took over; talk about efficiency in action. The crew worked like a perfectly orchestrated symphony. I’ve never done a ride along with a SFFD truck and haven’t had the chance to watch a 4-man team go to work on a patient. It was marvelous to witness. They are some amazing and competent professionals.

They thanked me for the help and told me that I did a good job getting the area exposed and holding c-spine. Still, I REALLY wish I had been able to give them a full report with vitals, have the guy already collared, and had there been severe bleeding it would have been nice to have some trauma dressings on hand instead of my old t-shirt.

This has been the second time I’ve been a 1st responder out of sheer happenstance on being on scene when something happened (last time was a MVC on 280 when I was driving home from work in the pouring rain) and HATED the feeling of not having gear with me. That time I didn’t even have GLOVES.

I guess I need to get better at thinking on my feet and not relying on the gear as a crutch. But, at the very least I need to buy some gloves and keep them around. Also, next time something like this happens I would NOT run outside without my watch!!

I think it’s time to throw together a very basic, personal jump kit in an old gym bag or something. This one on amazon looks perhaps a bit much, but has some great ideas to get me started. All I know is I just despise that helpless, stalled feeling I had yesterday… and it’s still bothering me.

On this gorgeous and sunny California spring morning, my friend Amy and I met at the base of Mt. Diablo to do a 7 mile hike.  It was such a fun day!  Strenuous hike but not horribly so.  We gained about 2500 in elevation (where we started, at the Park Headquarters, is already about 2k up) total.  I was huffing but Amy, as you can see in the video, handled it like a champ.

I busted out my new flip video camera (I found it during spring cleaning yesterday) that I had won at my company Christmas Party last December.  Hope you enjoy my very first video creation!

ps- there is some surprise bonus footage at the end shot by Earl when he was testing out the camera

Oh yeah, Spring Cleaning Day.

We have all the windows open and the apartment smells fresh and, although lots of dust is flying around through the air,  is on the way towards getting cleaner.

Saw a couple hummingbirds on my 6mi run through GG Park this morning.  It feels like spring is here!

ps- Linus was surprisingly brave when the Dreaded Vacuum was near him today.  Impressive!

Helloooo world

Wow it’s been a busy couple weeks. I apologize for not updating much; I certainly have been slacking on the blogging front. Here is what’s going on in my world:

• Work: Work is awesome!  I am still loving my new job and am going to be testing out of my “Probie” status anydaynow.  I’ve heard they like to spring the test on you, so I’ve been studying up NREMT style about 2-hours a day for the past few weeks and am feeling relatively prepared.  I’ve also been working LOTS.  I did a 36hr shift this week- it was cool!  Started Monday at 6am and finished Tuesday at 6pm.  I’ve never worked a 36 on my own before and though I took in lots of junk food and caffeine, it wasn’t too bad.  I wasn’t completely zonked at the end of it, though I did decline to meet E at our usual post-work gym date on Tuesday night.  I came home, took a shower, chowed down and went straight to bed.   Other than the 36-hr shift, I have a pretty great schedule this month.  I work one 24hr shift and one 12, so I’m only working two days a week (although picking up OT shifts when I can) which is pretty great.   Right now I am in the middle of SIX (six!) days off until I work again.
• School I’ve made the decision that since I love working as an EMT so much, to continue on in Emergency Medicine and get my Paramedic certification.  Right now I’m doing research on various Paramedic programs around here and beginning to prepare my applications.  It looks like I’ll be applying to three or so different programs, all of which would start this coming fall.  Really happy and excited to have made this decision; it feels very “right.”
• Career- in other exciting news, the SFFD job hire list came out, and I passed the test and made it on it!  Although so are hundreds and hundreds of other people, so I guess that means anytime in the next three years I can be pulled from the list and brought into training.  We’ll see what happens with that… though exciting to know I made the cut and am on the list.
• Skiing- We’ve been going almost every single weekend.  Last weekend we had a great time at Squaw and stayed at my friend Dom’s house in Truckee.  Gorgeous bluebird ski days and fun skiing with friends.  The weekend before that, we did a Kirkwood trip, and before that were at Dodge Ridge.  I have to say, many more ski days than planned (E morphed into quite the snowboarding enthusiast and now pushes for us to go up every moment we can) and *alllllmost* more than we can budget for but… :shrug:
• Fitness- meh.  Not so great on this front- I regressed here.  Pulled a shoulder/neck muscle last week so took about a week and a half off to nurse it.  Not getting in the mileage I’ve been planning and NOT feeling very fit right now after sitting around all week injured.  Need to ramp it up on this front!  My friend Amy and I are hiking Mt. Diablo on Sunday, so that should be a kick in the rear I need to get back on track here.
• Blogging- I am extremely behind on updating this site.  I have so many photos and adventures to write up (hiking, skiing, beach days, etc) however have really been focusing more on doing a great job at work and settling into my new career over this website.  Sometimes, I wonder what is the point of maintaining this blog at all.  I get so nervous writing about anything work-related because of HIPPA and also fear of getting Dooced.  Also, I have been developing some aversions towards braying so much of my personal life online.  I dunno… I guess I’ve been changing more towards wanting to keep things private and reserved just for me and the people I love in my life.  Believe it or not, I am leaning towards disabling my facebook account and like I mentioned, just am sort of fleshing out where I want to go with danceswithcorgis.com.  I enjoy the fact that friends and loved ones read it to catch up with me, however there certainly are some foes who I know still check out what I am up to…. which creeps me out a tad, and makes me feel adverse to sharing the really special stuff.  In the meantime, I also have courtneygreene.com which hopefully over the next few months I will build into a nice little professional portfolio with resume, certifications, volunteer experience etc.  Also (cheesily enough), E and I own earlandcourtney.com which we don’t really have any immediate plans to do anything with but thought it would be fun to have.  We should throw up something stupid on there in the meantime just to be silly.

Anyways, hope all is well with you, Dear Readers.  Please bear with me while I get my blogging groove back on.