tree hunt

Great day yesterday, the first day I've actually felt any real twinge of enthusiasm for the Christmas holiday this year. Having some snow on the ground helped; Toronto got hit by a mini-blizzard recently...there is actually snow still on the tops of buildings as I look out of my office window! Everyone tends to have mixed feelings about snow. I'm the type who LIKES snow around Christmastime, especially since Jeff and I live in such a concrete-and-asphalt area...the snow covering helps cover up some of the dreary grey, at least until salters go by and everything turns into grey slush instead.

Gorgeous weather when went tree hunting with my sister and her family yesterday in the country...clear blue skies, icing sugar snow on the trees, Christmas card scenery. It's been an annual tradition ever since Sara was first born. The tree hunting takes more time these days, though, since Sara and Annie actually do care about what the tree looks like.



After Sara cut the tree down (it took about half an hour for her to finally saw through; I had to admire her determination), we bought some hot chocolate at the nearby hut, then went back to my sister's place for tree decorating.

I know some people prefer the designer-type trees where the style and colour of artificial branches match the carefully-chosen decorations in exquisite detail, straight from the pages of Perfect Homes and Gardens. I've always preferred the hodgepodge type, clashing colours and styles of ornaments, where practically each ornament comes with its own set of memories, and the act of decorating a tree becomes much more like flipping through a well-loved photograph album than a relatively spiritless seasonal chore.

New Year's Resolutions!

I've created a New Year's Resolutions board for those who want to be brave and post at least some of their resolutions in a public forum. Always wanted to read "War and Peace", for example, but never seem to get around to it? Post your resolution here, and then let us know when you've done it! I've already posted my resolutions, but reserve the right to tweak them before the end of the year.

Added incentive: Anyone who posts resolutions by the end of the year and manages to follow through by the end of next year will get a SUPER-SECRET EXCLUSIVELY SPECIAL BONUS BLATHERINGS PRIZE!! I have no idea what, but I'll think of something (and don't bug me about your prize until the end of the year, even if you do finish your resolution beforehand :)).



Today's Blatherpics (from yesterday):

-- Annie, yesterday.

-- Jeff, Kaarel, Annie and Sara just after Sara finishes cutting down the tree.

-- Sara and Annie gang up on Jeff in a pillow fight.

Today's Poll:

Do you already have or do you plan to have a Christmas tree (live or artificial) this year?

first aid, last day!

(Update 10:35 am: Posted a new Waiting For Frodo strip. I plan to post a bunch of these over the next week, for obvious reasons. :-) I'll also be continuing the strip through all three movies, though my posting schedule will likely slow down in the New Year until things heat up again in the summer. The next few strips, by the way, were done in collaboration with Jill Cainey, the Cute Weta Guy's girlfriend in New Zealand (Weta Digital did the special effects for the Lord of the Rings movie). More info about the Weta Letters here).

---

Completed my St. John Ambulance course yesterday. We covered secondary survey (additional assessment if medical help is going to be a while), bone and joint injuries, chest injuries, wound care, multiple casualty management, burns, poison, bites and stings, and various medical conditions (diabetes, convulsions, asthma, allergies). Lots of bandaging and splinting! We also learned about how to do triage in a multiple casualty situation. Saw more graphic videos, including sucking chest wounds (who INVENTED that term??) and various types of burns.

At the end of the day, we took our final tests, and then got our certificates. I had made a card for our instructor using the picture at the top of yesterday's Blatherings, and got the whole class to sign it. :-)



I've had friends asked if I'm grossed out by all the blood and gore descriptions; I'm normally somewhat squeamish about such things. And I do confess several moments of internal "EEUUGGGHHH!!! GET ME OUTTA HERE!" during the course when things got especially graphic (I've purposely not gotten into details in my Blatherings, but our instructor covered some really horrific scenarios).

However, I found that the squeamishness was quickly replaced by a need to know as soon as I tried imagining someone I cared about being the casualty in any particular situation. Which is, of course, the reason I'm taking this course.

I hope that I will never have to use the skills I've learned. But in the event that something bad happens to someone I care about, I want to learn what I reasonably can so I'll be able to DO something about it if possible (instead of standing by helplessly). I say "reasonably", because there has to be a balance between learning some fundamental first aid basics and taking a zillion emergency situation courses (or going to medical school :)).



Not everyone can afford to take three days off for the course I just completed. However, while investigating first aid courses I found a wide range of similar courses offered at St. John Ambulance (I'm sure the Red Cross and other organizations offer similar coursees elsewhere) which take as little as a few hours to complete. St. John Ambulance will even send instructors to your workplace or home, if you have enough friends/neighbours interested. I've even heard of some parents arranging Infant CPR parties in their homes.

For those in Toronto, here's a list of courses that St. John Ambulance offers. I highly recommend the Infant/Child CPR course for parents (I took this shortly after my niece Sara was born).

Despite my new First Aid knowledge, I realize that there's still a chance I'll panic and forget everything I've learned if an emergency situation actually arises. But at least now I figure I've a better chance of having part of my brain (the part that was conditioned by the rote exercises we went through over and over again in the course) click on and say, "Wait a second, calm down...you still remember the basic steps of what to do in any emergency situation. Now, just start at the beginning..."

Jeff let me practice on him again last night: I put him in a regular arm sling as well as a St. John tubular sling last night while we were watching episodes of The Sopranos (Scott loaned us the second season on DVD). For good measure, I also pretended he had a bad hand injury and treated him for that as well. :-)



Links:

Infant First Aid for Choking and CPR: An Illustrated Guide (for children under one years of age)

Toddler First Aid for Choking and CPR: An Illustrated Guide) (for children approx. 1-9 years of age)


Today's Blatherpics:

- My First Aid partner, Ilya, just after I practiced splinting and bandaging his arm, then supported it in a sling. I told him to look like he was injured. :-)

- Practising arms splints and slings. We improvised splints from our First Aid books rolled up and secured by bandages.

- In this exercise, we pretended that the casualty had an objected imbedded in his leg to practise using the ring bandages we had made earlier. In class, we were always told to use the term "casualty" instead of "victim". A casualty is a person who is injured or who suddenly becomes ill.

- My St. John Ambulance card.

Today's Poll: (Courtesy Sherman Dorn)

Have you ever sent food through the post (mail, to those in the U.S.)?

first aid, day 2

Another day of First Aid training, one more to go!

Yesterday, we learned:

- the difference between strokes, anginas, heart attacks, and cardiac arrests and how to recognize and what to do for each

- what to do if a baby or child chokes

- what to do if a baby or child stops breathing, but still has a pulse

- what to do if a baby's or child's heart stops

- how to do one rescuer and two rescuer CPR

The little plastic babies and mannequin heads/torsos were pretty bizarre-looking, but are apparently easier to sterilize than the old-fashioned full mannequins. One of the trainees accidentally knocked the head off her baby during CPR.

Beneath the laughter over the weird-looking baby mannequins, however, was an underlying awareness of what this all represented. It's one thing to have a silver-skinned plastic baby replica needing artificial respiration; it would be quite another having to treat a real baby who has stopped breathing for some reason.

Ironic that we were all there learning skills we hoped we'd never have to use.

Sebastian talked more about CPR, and told us about a real case where CPR was performed on someone in the wilderness for over SIX HOURS STRAIGHT, and the victim was successfully revived. Six hours, geez. I found it tiring doing it for just a few minutes (mainly tough on the knees and upper arms, while trying to focus on counting). That's when having a second person to help with CPR is a tremendous help.

Today's topics includes stuff like burns, poison, bites and stings, wound care, bone and joint injuries, medical conditions.

Jeff let me roll him into recovery position and find his pulse recently for practice. He's a good husband. :-)


Today's Blatherpics:

- Sebastian showing us the baby mannequins we'll be using to practice on in our First Aid/Basic Rescuer class yesterday.

- Baby and adult mannequins, packed away after use and ready for cleaning/sterilization before use in the next class.

- Recent photo of Alexander (Phil and Lissa's son). Love the outfit! Lissa said it was a gift from her dad.

Today's Poll: (Courtesy Sherman Dorn)

Have you taken a course in Infant/Child CPR within the past three years?

first aid, day 1

In order to get your three-year St. John's Ambulance First Aid/Basic Rescuer certificate, you need to get 70% on three written tests (one at the end of each day) as well as proving that you can do all the exercises in practical demonstration for the instructor. I've passed the first day, two more to go! I didn't even throw up during the Amputations Video, either.

Our instructor is Sebastian, an enthusiastic sort who is obviously heavily experienced in doing this sort of training. His explanations are clear and spiced up with practical examples and humour. First Aid humour can be a little gruesome, it's true, but it definitely helps us trainees from going into shock ourselves as we learn about emergency scene management, shock, unconsciousness, fainting, artificial respiration (adult), choking (adult), and severe bleeding. Today we cover infant/child rescuscitation, cardiovascular emergencies and CPR for adults.



CPR usually doesn't work, Sebastian warns us. Even if CPR is performed within the first four minutes of a person's heart ceasing to beat (after which brain damage can start to occur), there's only a 30% chance of survival. This contradicts the impression I'd gotten from watching too many shows on television where someone who knew CPR was pretty much guaranteed to revive a casualty with a few enthusiastic pushes on the chest.

We are each hooked up with a partner for the practical exercises. My partner is Ilya, a big burly guy with a sweet disposition who is planning to apply for firefighter training. The class also includes an RCMP-in-training, police officers-in-training, paramedics-in-training, and employees who have been sent by the companies to fulfill Ontario's First Aid Regulation 1101. And me. :-)

At first I wish I had a partner who is smaller, closer to my build, but then I realize that in a real-life emergency situation I will probably not have that option, so the practice will be good for me. So Ilya and I rescue each other from choking fits, treat each other for shock, check each other's breathing and pulse.



Because the course basically runs from 9 am to about 4 or 5 pm each day, I'm not getting much writing done except for these morning Blatherings. Pretty much zero e-mail since I'm offline during the day, so please forgive me if I haven't replied to your messages yet.

FYI (and I -know- you're all fascinated by this :-)), here are a few of the interesting things I've learned about choking. We also learned how to perform First Aid on choking people who were much taller, obese, in the late stages of pregnancy, and on ourselves.

- Never hit a choking adult or child over 1 years of age on the back. The impact could trigger an inhalation reflex, which would make the choking worse.

- Since the abdominal thrust (also known as the Heimlich Maneuver, I think) can be painful and cause injury, it should only be used on someone who is choking to the point where they can't talk, cough, or breathe. Sebastian told us about an enthusiastic rescuer who performed the abdominal thrust on a woman in a restaurant who seemed to be choking, but turned out to have just put her hands up to her neck because the string on her necklace had just broken. During practices, we never did the actual thrusts, but just went through the other motions.

- Don't put your head directly behind the other person's when doing First Aid for choking in case the victim's head whips back.



Links/news:

The Oxford English Dictionary is looking for science fiction citations in one of its new pilot sites intended to gather words in specialist areas.

Today's Blatherpics:

More photos from Tom's 40th birthday party on Sunday.

-- Daniel West.

-- Child's whiteboard in the West/Sagara household. Stephen King fans may recognize the word in the top left corner. :-)

-- John Chew.

-- Fridge magnet I made for Michelle and Tom about 12 years ago. The original magnet was a portrait of Tom and Michelle in wedding gear. Tom was in a tux, and Michelle in her wedding dress. Obviously, the Michelle magnet you see in the photo has been through a lot of wear and tear (it used to have arms! and two eyes!); Michelle says that Daniel used to like playing with it when he was much younger. She wouldn't tell me what had happened to the Tom magnet which had been attached.

Today's Poll: (Courtesy Sherman Dorn)

Do you have a stereo that can play vinyl albums?

bdy bash report

Photos today are from the surprise birthday party for Tom West, who turns 40 this month. I was still at the airport during the actual moment of surprise, but apparently he was, indeed, surprised.

The picture above is of Tom with one of his birthday cakes (there were two). Other people in the photo: Andy on the left, John and Mark (cake carriers), Christine playing "Happy Birthday" on the piano, Mrs. Sagara telling everyone to sing louder. :-)



Photo above is of me and Ross West. Last time I saw Ross West was when he was just a wee thing, Tom's little brother; I used to teach him flute lessons. Now he's taller than me! I confess I embarrassed myself when I first recognized Ross, openly gaping and saying, "Ross? No way. Ross?!" repeatedly. I'm sure he thought that old age had already started to eat away at my brain cells.



This is Mr. Sagara, Michelle's dad. I only see Michelle's parents at gatherings like this, maybe once or twice a year, but each time it feels as if no time has passed at all. Both have a wonderful sense of humour...but then again, they'd have to to be able to raise Michelle (sure hope Michelle isn't reading this :-D).


I clearly remember when I met Tom for the first time. Twenty years ago, first year at the University of Toronto. I was having some weird truncation problem when trying to print code in one of my computer science classes, and friends recommended that I ask the computer room advisor about it. On that day, the advisor was Tom West, also nicknamed "Mr. Tom The Advisor"; he quickly became sucked into our tightly knit group of friends (or perhaps his group of friends merged with ours).

As far as I can tell, Tom hasn't changed at all since I first met him...he looks exactly the same. Somehow I suspect he'll look exactly the same twenty years from now. He and MIchelle were the first to get married from our group. Sometimes Jeff and I try to figure out the complex map of how we all got together, the various linkings-up within the group, and where we all ended up (Jeff remembers first meeting Tom in high school, for example). John Chew has done a pretty good job at sorting out everyone and their original connections in his Poslpeople list.



Mrs. Sagara holding Megan Kesner (daughter of Jeff and Gail, born Sept. 11th), the youngest attendee at Tom's birthday bash. I got to hold her for a little bit; she is VERY cute. It was amusing to see various mothers at the party hold her and reminisce about the days when their babies just lay there quietly, not getting into trouble.

Megan and I had a very interesting conversation, at least until she got bored and started wailing.



Michelle and the Guest of Honour, amused by an issue of The Electric Penguin. Jeff and I gave Tom old issues of Poslfit News and The Electric Penguin as a birthday gift, from years ago. Yes, that's the same Electric Penguin that inspired our domain, electricpenguin.com. When we were back in university, I started up a print publication for my group of friends, continued it for years after we graduated. I keep meaning to start up an electronic version someday, but am leery about taking on too many new projects right now. :-)

Leaving for my first day on my First Aid/Rescuer course soon!

Today's Poll: (Suggest a poll question)

Have you finished your Christmas shopping?