afteR a long and aRduous satuRday noon, I HAVE PASSED MY CPR PRACTICAL!!! =) =) =)

it was a couRse foR BCLS (Basic CaRdiac Life SuppoRt).. and we had a mass session foR the lab staff just so that we could be qualified befoRe the next audit... -_-

which means, i am now QUALIFIED to peRfoRm CPR, should any one of you collapse (*touch wood*) on the stReet... =x

it was much much moRe difficult than i thought it would be... and heaRing that AO, the most pRo peRson in the lab, took 5 attempts to pass, it definitely shatteRed ouR confidence even moRe... tRue enough.. almost the whole lab failed on the fiRst attempt... theRe was no Room foR leniency... cos it was going to be that little stRip of papeR pRinted out by the meteR that will deteRmine whetheR one will pass...

the cRiteRia was stRict.. 2 bReaths within 2 seconds, each bReath 400-600ml.. any bReath that goes into the stomach is waRRants an immediate failuRe, indicated by a '!' maRk on the stRip.. afteR 2 bReath, pulse check and landmaRk locating cannot exceed 10 seconds.. CPR commencement... wRong location waRRants immediate failuRe too, with 30 chest compRession that must be 4-5cm deep and consistent, and the cycle must be completed within 15 to 20 seconds... afteR 30 chest compRessions, pRoceed to give 2 bReaths.. the cycle is Repeated 5 times befoRe anotheR pulse check, bReathing check and theReafteR Rescue bReathing if necessaRy at a Rate of 12 bReaths peR minute foR adult and 20 peR minute foR infant...

and i can tell u, the chest compRessions aRe no joke. i am now with bRuises on both my knees fRom kneeling the whole afteRnoon on caRpeted flooR and my wRist aRe Red and bRuise still fRom all the chest compRessions... afteR one cycle oR so, one is all dRained of eneRgy and the next few cycles tend to show insufficient chest compRession.. and the ventilation paRt is so difficult!! the whole lab failed cos of that...

my fiRst pRactice stRip shows a whole Row of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.. =x taking too long, insuffient bReath, not completing each cycle with the coRRect numbeR of compRessions (one tend to lose count oR count wRongly halfway.. it's too exhausting to concentRate!!), insufficient compRession.. i had almost all the mistakes... =x afteR much much much intensive pRactice (i "kiss" the mannequin till i bit my lip and develop ulceR!), i went foR my fiRst tRy... by that time, many had failed and weRe tRying out a second time... it was alReady late beyond the stipulated ending time and eveRyone weRe despeRate to pass and get out.. my stRip was a RatheR nice one, except that i had ONE bReath that went into the stomach (!) which waRRants an immediate failuRe.. foRtunately foR me, due to despeRation of the testeRs and testees, they passed me.. =p

yeah!!!! pRoceeded with 2 man CPR testing with DX.. we have RatheR good cooRdination.. =p luckily we've alReady finished all the otheR testings.. infant CPR, infant choking, adult choking, conscious-unconsious choking foR both infant and adult... these aRe much moRe easieR stations to pass...

so yeah.. when i left, only 4 (including me) had passed the whole CPR couRse... wondeR how long they stayed till.. haha.. and luckily i managed to change shift such that i was able to join the Rest in the couRse.. cos i was actually on a late moRning duty yesteRday and night duty the next satuRday that the 2nd day of the couRse will be.. lucky me! =)

still, me and ouR colleagues weRe like, even if we do see ppl collapsing on the stReet, we would at most call 995... afteRall, we dun have a meteR to RefeR to and i wouldn't want to be killing a life instead with all the wRong bReaths and compRessions!! =x

i heaRd all the doctoRs aRe RequiRed to be BCLS ceRtified.. we weRe wondeRing how many attempts the doctoRs took to pass.... must have been quite embaRRassing foR the doctoRs duRing the CPR tRaining... haha..

ok.. enough of that....

i went down to Renew my membeRship and... yeah... postpone my dRiving test to 11/06/2008.. i can't affoRd the time (noR $$) to incRease the fRequency of lessons i'm having now to be in time foR the pReviously scheduled test on maRch.. so.. i RatheR postpone than to waste money and fail once... well.. i keep thinking of quitting leaRning altogetheR... i just can't get it Right!! it's a waste of money to make myself do things i do not like... but well... i still think having a license would help in my caReeR path should i decide to do change.. so i think i'll still beaR with it LAH.


RemembeR i said we had a bleedeR on my fiRst night? afteR taking moRe than 30+ pints of RBCs, ~17 packs of platelets, ~20 packs of FFP (FResh FRozen Plasma), the patient has passed away.. the diagnosis was gRam -ve septicemia.. felt sad foR the patient... but felt even moRe unwoRth foR all the pints of blood pRoducts wasted which we could use to save many otheR patients that could suRvive... blood bank was low on stock.. but well, we can't select which patient to save, it would have been gReat news if that patient suRvived...

doing full day next sunday (830am to 830pm).. i think i'll collapse fRom exhaustion afteR that shift... =x

ok.. shall stop heRe...