I volunteered with this walk because I saw a listing on volunteer match for people certified in CPR to volunteer at the medical tent!
I figured since I’ve done the work to get certified, I might as well try to put it to some good use, right?
I was a wee bit nervous since I don’t usually use my CPR/first aid skills. I mainly keep my certification up to date on the off chance that something happens around me (anywhere – work, running, traveling, whatever). I want to make sure I’m able to help.
But you know how it is with things, if you don’t use them often, then your skills aren’t as strong. (Granted, it’s a wonderful thing that people aren’t getting hurt around me. Still. I like to be uber-confident in my abilities, and just taking classes doesn’t bring me to the level of confidence I’d want – though apparently I’m confident enough to raise my hand and say “I’ll do it!” when a walk is looking for medical volunteers…)
So, I brushed up the night before and morning of – going through the paperwork from my class, drilling with myself number of compressions and breaths, pantomiming what to do if someone starts choking (back blows first before you go into the straight Heimlich).
I felt pretty ready, but also wrapped in the warm feeling of knowing I’d have other people around me who knew what they were doing so we could all work together and hopefully make up at least one competent person. 😉
Alas, when I got there, they greeted me as the medical person – not one of many. Nope. Just me.
Granted, it was a small race – actually, it wasn’t even a race, just a walk. It was only a 3-mile walk at that. It’s not like I was working a marathon. Hopefully I wasn’t going to deal with a lot of injuries. (Spoiler alert: I didn’t.) So, it was fine that I was going to be the lone medical person, but it was slightly unnerving in the moment.
(Granted there were firefighters and police there. And we could’ve always called 9-1-1 for true emergencies. So, everything is cool! Don’t even sweat it.)
And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.