Psychoblog

woooo, i passed. i am now a qualified first aider with a certificate and everything. i was extremely nervous for the exams, much more than i usually get for anything else. in the end it was really important to me to be able to do all the things to pass and i have decided that i would like to keep up this new found skill forever now. to keep the qualification you need to do a refresher course and take another exam every 3 years.

the course was really great and we had an excellent teacher. i feel a bit disappointed to be going back to normal phd stuff after that week. there is so much to do though and i’m sure people will be demanding results for things soon so i will have to work to pre-empt them. i also feel sad that i will probably never see the people i did the course with again. it was only 4 days but it was an intensive course and we spent a lot of time getting up close and personal with one another when practising our head-to-toe checks or recovery positions or bandaging. we all got on very well, but then we had to really.

i have just finished reading harrypotter. i really liked it, but it was sad. and i feel sad that i have finished it too, like with any book/film that was really good. so this weekend i just feel a bit sad, with nothing really to be sad about.

today i reached new heights of squeamishness. i spent most of my time trying not to faint and i only just managed it. all this week has been spent on a first aid course you see and i am learning a hell of a lot from a really good teacher, but perhaps i’m not the best person for someone to call upon in an emergency.

i have been fine with the rescue breathing and the chest compression stuff, but today we came onto shock and severe bleeding. i was having enough trouble with our teacher’s descriptive descriptions of what kind of bloody situations we might have to deal with, the video though nearly finished me off. squeamishness is weird. my toes start to go all wooey at any real sign of icky things and if something is really bad my fingers might start to go too. when they showed an arterial bleed on the video i found that my cheeks started tingling and by the time they got onto amputations i was feeling all weak and things were getting a bit foggy. it was then i decided that the cupboard door was much more interesting and that saved the day i think.

never mind, i can do good slings now and i know what to do if someone’s guts are falling out and lots of other things like that. whether i would actually be able to do it in real life is another matter. i guess i’ll go with the theory that when you have to do it you will be able to.

good luck to me for my exam on friday. hope i can save some more dummies lives.

don’t get pressured into anything. the day is yours and hannah’s and the only way it will be as special as it should be is if you choose things that mean the most to you. the best way to get around this i think is not to talk about your plans with anyone else and so they will only know what is happening when they get the invitations when everything is booked. i think me and carl are going to do that.

i think we’ll be able to keep from upsetting anyone. i have a small family and they all live in brum so that’s easy, and if we do get married in brum it will be closer than nottingham is for all of carl’s relatives too. i’m most concerned that university friends who are spread around the country won’t be able/willing to come.