Virgo Rising

Ever wonder who takes care of the people who get sick from years of abuse, self-abuse, ignorance, or accidents not of their own? It is the person who decided a long time ago through self-study or schooling to become a healthcare professional. There are over twenty healthcare professions that i found on google those are: respiratory therapist, medical assistant, dental hygienist, surgical technologist, nurse practitioner, athletic trainer, physician, and much more! As you can imagine each of these professions focuses on certain sections of the human body, a respiratory therapist focused only on respiratory illnesses & strengthening the lungs for a human to breather better, a physician has an overall general expertise knowledge of the human body along with diseases and recommendations to healthy improvement, and etc. These professionals all work together to optimize the health of a human being that is need of improvement and prevention of illnesses no matter the age, sex, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.

You might not know but I went to school for 6 months to be licensed as an EMT-Basic or EMT-B for short through a program called the EMS Corps in Alameda County, California. I was trained by life coaches, paramedics, and health exercise enthusiast to better prepare us to deal with ill patients, or people in medical needs. The schooling was very informative in all its facets , and after graduating my intention was to work in an ambulance company so I could drive an ambulance and take people to hospitals. As my interviews for several ambulance companies in the Bay Area were rejected, I found a position as a camp medic at YMCA in Loma Mar, CA near Half Moon Bay. My first job working as an EMT-B I couldn't wait to begin; I remember taking my heavy emergency medicine book orange book along with some laminated cards, three in total: 1. a skeleton of the human body 2. first aid wilderness and 3. a nursing card with various advice on how to ascultate for lung sounds, medications, etc. At first i was given the assignment of taking every campers medications (age ranges from 5-18) and organizing each medication into bags for morning and evening distribution during breakfast and dinner. So I organized the medications into ziplock bags and put the morning meds. in one box and nighttime meds. into another box. I did my duty there, then there was times when I had to monitor children's blood pressure, or temperature, or rashes for allergic reactions or anything out of the ordinary. Overall the 4 weeks i was there weren't any serious incidents with any campers, except one time there was a small girl who was having a anxiety or panic attack and I had to show her how to breathe deeply and slowly in order to calm her nerves/emotions down. It's part of the autonomic nervous system in which the sympathetic nervous system controls the "fight or flight response" in a person's reaction to it's environment or situation. She later calmed down while using the breathing technique.

Fast forward 1 year later while working at Horizon Services Inc. at 151 Mission Street Sobering Center in San Jose, CA. I had already worked at YMCA as camp medic and later during the summer was an EMS/ security guard at Fremont's Aqua Adventure Waterpark. Now at Mission Street I was a health technician and I was part of a team of EMT's and LVN's along with Sobering Specialist to pick up, monitor, and gather medical history on willing participants who came through the doors. Now this place was a voluntary place in which people who chose to be there had 23 hours to sober up from alcohol intoxication and then if so chose to acquire social services for housing, food, treatment, etc. This place was also a place intoxicated individuals would be brought by Sheriff's or police departments of different counties assigned to the location instead of going to jail for alcohol intoxication. Now working there for almost 3 years to date was a eye opening experience in that I saw all genders, all races, all ages (except babies or really young teenagers) to come through the doors. I realized that everyone has problems, many people are addicted to drinking because it made them forget all the responsibilities they had in the world, others would drink to numb the physical pain of some physical ailment like broken legs, or spine. Many men/women who were homeless used alcohol as a means to escape their misery, and many had built a tolerance to the drug. I remember experiencing seizures in a number of participants in which we had to call a higher level of care (paramedics, firefighters) for pick up. My job was always to perform one hour check ups on vital signs. Vital signs for anyone is always ABC's meaning airway, breathing and circulation. There's also general impression of a participant meaning how does someone look just by observing them using A&Ox4. If a person could answer the questions of who/what/where/when correctly using the day's timeframe then a person was said to be A&Ox4 meaning their mental status and orientation was in tip top shape, hardly any worries were in mind. Most people who came by were only intoxicated with alcohol until we started to accept people with other substance abuse issues (crystal meth, heroine, etc.)

As the workload and continued participants came through the doors who needed better treatment for alcohol and other drugs the stress became heavier and heavier especially during nights 11-7am. There was much needed time to rest and regroup our minds and bodies because that place could be filled with 5-6 participants all in one night and other times we would only have 1 participant or zero at a time. Each person had to carry their workload during paperwork for each person, monitor their health, provide food, blankets, clothes, help them to the bathroom or shower if needed, and provide reassurance if a person was withdrawing from alcohol or other drugs. Overall i am thankful for having the opportunity to work there as i learned a lot and will forever continue to remember the experiences the people coworkers, participants, who taught me a lot of human nature and life in general and how it is better to be compassionate for those who have less than one and to always give more because life is difficult and our jobs as humans is to help and heal other because at the end nobody makes it out alive! Thank you have a great day God bless you.