Story of the Day 4/ 5/ 2013

My son, Aaron, the very tall one who has not managed to move out of our basement, is trying to move out of our basement, or , at least, trying to not have to ask us every time he needs $1 for the vending machine.

He is enrolled at one of the local colleges in an EMT (Emergency Medical technician) training program.
This is the second program he has enrolled in.
The first was last summer, he enrolled to start classes in October, just after the Jewish holidays ended.

He was very excited when he found that program. It was the only one he found, last fall, that he would not automatically fail.
You see, in order to pass the course, you cannot be absent more than a specific number of days or you will miss the required number of hours of training. And, being Jewish and religious, missing classes for the Jewish holidays in the fall automatically put him over the limit for all the other programs.
But, my son found this program in Southport, just one city south of Indianapolis, that started after the last holiday.

He was excited.
He ordered the text book from the internet and started reading it in advance.
And the Friday before classes started, he clicked on the class link and found out that they had just added two mandatory practice sessions. On Saturdays.
He quickly shot off an email to the teacher. Was there any way to do those on another day?
"No," came the response, "And they are required."
So, the morning of the first day of the class, my son dropped it.

This semester, he found a course at one college that he would need to miss two classes for Passover, but , because of the schedule, only two classes; and that was just inside the limit to not be failed. As a result , he signed up and started class, and if he gets the flu, he will just have to go in and share it with everyone.
He already had his textbook, and he had been working on getting his stethoscope.
Which has been an ordeal.
Normally, you order a stethoscope. There are several which are totally fine for the generic EMT. The priciest of those is about $45.
But my son is not generic.
He is deaf.
There are two stethoscopes hat he can use. Both show a digital display of the information- no hearing required.
The least expensive is more than $500.
It has been ordered and will be here , soon.
He also needs navy pants.
He has one pair.
And black shoes, which required a trip to the store.
And, last month, he spent 8 hours in a hospital emergency room observing.
Except, there were no emergencies, on that day, so he ate a banana and drank some milk.


And , this morning, he headed off to the Fire Department to ride along on the ambulance for another 8 hours of observation.

Today, unlike his experience in the Emergency Room, was a busy one.
Before he had been there 4 hours, they had been called out for two "runs".
Aaron was riding in the back. Facing sideways.
He thought he was doing okay on the way out, but on the way back ........things weren't as good.
After that trip, they sat around the station for a while. He had a chance to recover.
Then , it was another trip out, and on the way back, Aaron sat in the back facing backwards.
His instructor, a woman, may have noticed something was wrong, even before he threw up on her shoes.

Okay, I added that.
He managed to not throw up on her shoes, which, if you have Meniere's disease, as Aaron does, which comes with some vertigo and a definite tendency towards motion sickness, you know how impressive his not throwing up on her shoes was.
Aaron is usually fine in cars.
As long as he doesn't' bring along a novel to read.
So, it had never occurred to us that facing sideways and backwards and reading all of the instruments would be...a problem.

He said to the woman who was supervising him, "And I ordered a really expensive stethoscope!"

She told him not too be too downhearted.
After all, he could always work as an EMT in the Emergency Room.