The Aftermath of Johnny Tremain

Most people don't know this about me, but the first time I fainted was in third grade when our class was watching Johnny Tremain after a study on the Revolutionary War. The basic summary of the movie is: in colonial Boston, a young silversmith's apprentice injures his hand, and finds himself befriended by the Sons of Liberty and caught up in events of the American Revolution. (Thank you IMDB!) Anyway, when the part came around where he was going to lose his hand near the beginning, I shut my eyes. Most of you may know this part about me--I have an INCREDIBLY overactive imagination. While the movie only showed his hand going into a pot of boiling silver, I thought it was much worse. I asked to go to the bathroom and fainted as soon as I got to the nurse's office because my imagination had been so vivid.

That was in third grade, but apparently more than thirteen years later good ol' Johnny is still haunting me. Well, I guess it's not him--it's that funny thing called an imagination that just won't go away. Usually that's a good thing, but today we had First Aid/CPR certification training. The first four+ hours of the class were First Aid. I was doing much better than I thought I would with all the blood on the videos, pictures in the book, even the fake blood we smeared on our hands to practice taking the gloves off without touching anything. Then, we broke into groups to practice splints, wraps, and epipens.

My group started at the epipens.

I have had so much experience with needles from all that hospital crap my freshman year of high school that I didn't think it would really be a problem. Alyssa told me the needles were taken out and they were just practice pens, but I was still uneasy about them. My brain kept asking me, "what if yours is the only one with a needle that was accidentally left in!?!" but I kept telling it to go away. I stabbed the leg of the lady next to me first, but I had to concentrate on my breathing and tell myself to hold my hand steady. Everything worked without a problem. Then, she took it and stabbed my leg and I felt an imaginary pain like a needle was actually entering my skin. She pulled it away, and then we practiced with the pens that have the regular charge and the syringe you can get out for a double dose, and I ended up holding both when we were finished. I kept looking at the needle-less objects in my hands, but with the caps on you wouldn't know if they had them or not! Vern (our teacher) kept telling us horror stories about people who had their hands on the wrong ends and the needle went through their finger and bone...

I thought I was doing ok, but I was feeling a little uneasy. The groups rotated and I went and stood around, listening to the wrap descriptions. As Emily (our teacher for this part) kept talking, I felt the room begin to spin and my legs start to give way. I sank down to sit on the floor and my hearing started to go away as the spinning increased with the rate of my sweat in the freezing room. I tugged on the pants leg of the lady next to me and told her I felt like I was going to faint. Then, I laid down/passed out.

I couldn't have been out for more than a few seconds because Emily was on her way over to me. She informed Vern and had me stay lying down for a bit. I kept feeling dizzy back and forth, but eventually was able to stand up and wrap arms and heads. I kept wondering what it was exactly, but my guess is the fact that I actually had to "stab" someone else with the needle. I'm completely ok with nurses doing whatever tests they need to run, yadda yadda, but I don't trust myself or anyone else with the same qualifications as myself to give a needle to someone else. The idea that I would be inflicting pain upon someone else (regardless that it would help them) was so hard for me in this situation because it was simulated. I think in real life, I wouldn't have as much of a problem because of the adrenaline rush, but I just couldn't handle it here. Vern's stories about what could happen if not administered correctly didn't help my thoughts, and down I went.

I'm fine now, and made it through the CPR training without a problem and officially passed off for both certificates. The few of us who stuck around for the three-hour CPR part went to Dairy Queen on the way back to the BCO, and I am really enjoying the family we have going on. After we got back, there were ten of us in the office, so it was fun to joke around and take prank pictures with Todd's camera for the end of the year slide show. Now, Kendall and I are finishing up in the library and off for dinner/grocery shopping along with a possible stop at a bar. (Laura told me about some fun ones earlier today so we might have to check them out!)

It's been snowing a lot in the higher elevations of the park and we had to close some roads, but we've just been getting icy hail/slush along with the rain. Hopefully it will clear up soon because Aubry and I have our 10-mile hike day planned for Saturday!