The Self-Appreciation Society

Today was the state Office of Emergency Medical Services exams in Asheville, so after staying up late watching Hard Boiled I got up early armed with directions and drove big shiny black car to A-B Tech to test for EMT-Basic in the state of North Carolina. I'd revised a few basic things for about five minutes while eating breakfast like normal pulse rates and dosage levels for the few drugs we can administer (I'm terrible at remembering numbers, one reason I'm so bad at navigating around here where most of the roads have numbers instead of names) but was generally relying on my massive brain.

There were probably over a hundred people there for the exams, mostly testing for Medical Responder or EMT-Basic but a few going for EMT-Intermediate or full Paramedic. They were milling about wearing Fire & Rescue t-shirts and baseball caps and having paunches and moustaches. We divided into groups in different classrooms by first letter of surname.

The test was just a multiple-choice thing with a bubble answer sheet, 150 questions which was generally vaguely challenging. Lots of my answers prioritised administering oxygen, I'm not sure if that's correct and like that to encourage us to do that or if my priorities are skewed. Either way I reckon I passed okay, probably didn't ace it unto destruction with my immense skillz but did well enough to be allowed on a mee-maw. I hope so, because being a certified EMT would be cool.

Then I drove home (got lost a bit on the way) and fell asleep and watched the first Leprechaun movie.