Certified as a Wilderness First Responder

I am so sorry I have not updated in almost a week or two, I tried to just simply focus on my WFR Certification class.  Do not worry, I have so much to catch you all up on!

Last Wednesday (August 14), concluded my Wilderness First Responder certification course through the Teton Science School and WMI NOLS (Wilderness Medicine Institute and the National Outdoor Leadership School).

This course was really awesome and interesting. 10 full days of hard work consisting of learning CPR, the Heimlich, treating broken bones, learning how to assess and treat cardiac and respiratory problems and injuries, assessing spinal injuries and how to determine critical and rapid evacuation plans for serious injuries, communicating emergency medical help reports and much more. 

The first day was nerve-wrecking, exciting, and full of really interesting information.  And it made me feel so much better about the course when I started making friends!  You can't go through 10 full days of class without a friend!  The dozen or so individuals that stayed on campus for the course all really bonded together very quickly.  They came from all parts of the country and for all different reasons on taking the course.  Some were teachers, snow patrol, guides, or people that just wanted to take it for fun!

After dinner on that first Monday, we all took a hike to watch the sunset on one of the hills on campus. Such a great time!  We chatted about loads of stuff, posed for some summit pictures, and watched a great gorgeous sunset over the Tetons!

Summit Posing with Alisha at the End of the First Day at WFR

I cannot stop with this view!

Hiking the trails was awesome!  It totally got me pumped to start my graduate program here.  And I can't help but keep gushing about the views!

The Grand and ChristyBel

Throughout the class week, we learned soooo much about any and everything in the Wilderness Medicine world.  First was about the Patient Assessment System: checking the scene for safety of you as a rescuer and to the environment your victim is in, then making decisions about what to do for your patient based on their airway, breathing, circulation, what had happened, and what to do next, we learned on how to take vitals (heart rate, blood pressure, level of responsiveness, respiratory rate, etc) and a patient's 'SAMPLE' history to help gather clues on how to finally treat them.

Learning how to backboard patients.

The best part besides learning all this new, interesting knowledge was definitely putting it into the field in real life scenarios!  This was really fun and nerve- wrecking at the same time!  We were always divided up into pairs as rescuers or as patients.  It was cool to both parts, because it was interesting to see how our peers would assess a situation, how they would respond to patients in their care, and how they would go about treating.

Femur Traction Splint

Learning treatments was fun too.  Testing out splints, wraps, litters/backboards, etc  was very fun and a great way to do some hands-on experimenting to make sure we were on the right track!

The patients were taken care of!

I totally loved being a patient! I mean it was nice being cared for and having attention on you!  Who doesn't love that!??!

Being a patient was great because after scenarios, you could give feedback and opinions on how the rescue went and what they could do to be better and what things they should focus on next time!

I really respected my feedback from my patients.  I learned a lot about myself when I'm put under pressure and when someone is relying on you for help!  

Hearing some feedback from my patients really helped me understand where I've come from in my past careers.  One patient said that when it comes to people under my watch and care, I try to make sure my patient is very comfortable and feels like they are top priority.  It totally made me think of my volunteers back at DNS. They were my top priority and it was only significant I'd act the same way to make sure thy were comfortable and feel like they were cared for. :)

Brusing his hair with my foot stabilizer.

The other cool thing about being a patient was the special effects!  NOLS & WMI really wanted to make sure that when we did scenarios, it felt real in real life environments and situations: whether that meant being in water to having bruises on our body to even having injuries that had protruding bones and lots of blood!

Close Ups

During our night mock rescue and our huge group rescue the blood and special effects were put to the max!  There was gushing blood, patients found face-down in the streams, dislocated limbs, or branches through body parts. Intense, I know!

Special WFR effects to the max with broken, exposed bone and all!

We also had some fun relay races that helped test out our skills too!  We were placed in 5 teams where each person had to be a victim and the rest of the team had to treat you with either a humerus splint, an ankle wrapping, an elbow splint, a walking ankle brace, and a wrist brace while either being piggybacked, carried, hopping on one foot, being pushed around in a cart, or speed walking. It was so fun. I absolutely loved my team. Such a great group of wonderful ladies!

Such a great relay group!

On Friday night, we decided to head into Jackson because we had a free day on Saturday! Yay, no class!  So we decided to hit up the 'Million Dollar Cowboy Bar!'

Sitting on the saddles at the bar!

The bar had saddles as seats!  This place was fun because it had dancing! And not just any dancing, but western dancing.  Jordan tried teaching us before we headed out. But I mean, for girls, you don't really need to know what to do since the guy leads, but t was fun to learn just so we had a heads up!  I'll post a video on my next video blog entry so you can see!

Showing off our steri-strip lacerations!

It was also really funny to be at the bar coming from a wilderness first responder course when you have bruises and bandages on you.  People would ask 'what's that on your arm?' And we would be like 'oh, you know, I learned how to steri-strip an open laceration today and this is the product of it!' Haha.

Cowboy Bar Photo

The next morning the care decided to go to Phelps Lake in the park.  This was cool because there is a 20-25 ft rock you can jump off of into the water.

Getting used to this new elevation!

The view from the lookout was magnificent!  And a few people who had hiked this before we're able to show us where on the lake we'd be going to get to the rock!

Resident TSS WFR Crew headed down to Phelps Rock.  At the Overlook.

The hike down was really pretty!  Going through some switchbacks, to an open field and being in the canyon was pretty cool.  We even saw a black bear on our way down eating some berries a little but higher from us on the switchback.  I wasn't even nervous, which totally surprised me.  Speaking of bears, since we are in Bear Country, we need to be 'Bear Aware' so that means, we travel in groups of three, we carry bear spray (oh my gosh!) and we make noise.  Totally not used to this!

On our way to Phelps Lake!

I don't have any photos, personally, of us going off this 20-25 ft rock, one of the other WFR students took them and I am still waiting on him to send me photos.  Hopefully I can update you on that experience with visuals soon.  But it was really scary, but thrilling at the same time.  Not to mention the water was really cold, but it felt soooo good after sweating up a storm during the hike.

Summit Posing at Phelps Lake

Phelps Lake Overlook

After spending a few hours jumping off the rock, playing music, and hanging on the rock, we decided to head back since it was getting late and we were getting hungry.  On our way back, we decided to shoot for a place in Idaho where they serve Huckleberry Milkshakes!  But sadly, when we got into Idaho, they were closed.  So we went to this burger joint, hole in the wall, called Grumpy Goat's Hotdog Shack (I think).  It was such a unique food place: there were panties all over the ceiling!  The burgers were DELICIOUS!  And not going to lie, the name stands true to the burger joint.  The lady taking our orders was very grumpy, especially to Tom. :( But the food was still very good!

Mule Deer came to visit us while we were at Jumping Rock, Phelps Lake.

Being out here has already and definitely challenged me not only in Wilderness Medicine, but in natural history as well.  The mammals are different and BIGGER, the birds are different (regionally), the plants are all new, and there are things that I do not even know at all!  One morning, Jane, one of the WFR students found this beautiful moth!  It was a mixture of giraffe and cheetah patterns!  So cool!  Went back at researched it.  It is from the Tiger Moth Family.  I believe it is a Great Tiger Moth.  Sheila, you would be so proud!  These cool moths inhabit the Arctic-Alpine zone and boreal forest.  Very cool to find one that morning, since they are attracted to lights and are active during the summer.  Such a great find!

Great Tiger Moth, Arctia caja

Also, while being here, I had a whole bunch of MOGO Taco stickers.  Totally got Mogo represented now in Dallas, TX, thanks to Alisha and at a bar in Jackson.  I need more stickers, someone get Mogo Sam to mail me more!

Bringing MOGO Tacos back to Dallas with her!

Photo Credit to Tom Church for this BEAUTIFUL view on our way to Durnans!

The last night before the test, many of us all got together at a bar in Moose for one last hurrah.  The view at sunset was incredibly beautiful!  Plus it had brought over storm clouds all afternoon, so we could see and hear the storm pass over the mountains while we were drinking out of the deck.

Such a Great group of people to be in class with!

I feel that this course helped me further my knowledge of the simple CPR and first aid training I've had in the past but also has made me a have a bigger confidence in my self to take children and others into the back-country and having the calm mentality and knowledge to know how to help them and potentially save their life in critical events.  I believe it was the best and smartest $1,400+ purchase I've made so far in my life (besides going back to school that is).

The Whole Class Passed!!!

Wednesday morning I took my written exam and practical.  I was soooooo nervous for that test and practical.  But I feel that since we had been constantly going over things all week and participating in scenarios throughout class, it was very easy to go into the mindset and just do it.  Around noon we all got together after lunch and found out if we had passed. I was so relieved when I found out I passed!  Step 1 to the Teton Science School Graduate Program was complete and I'm now an official wilderness first responder!  

After completing the course, we all went into Jackson to FINALLY tour and shop.  Spent the day with Alisha and Stacey before they headed back to Dallas.  That evening, the three of us pre-gamed at their friend's house in Jackson (please note we got champagne at a drive-thru window!!!!) and then played Farkle with our new MOOSE-themed dice!, then we all went to Karaoke at the Virginian Bar.  

Totally crashed at the house in Jackson and drove back to Kelly the next morning to pack up my car and get ready for Salt Lake City and my drug test for the TSS Grad. Program.

I couldn't have gotten through WFR without these two Dallas Girls! xoxo!

I have a few days before I can officially move into my cabin at my school. So I am headed 5 hours south to Salt Lake City, UT to visit one of my former co-workers from Ashland, Chris Zawislak. So I'll be there from about 10pm MST, Thursday, August 14 until Monday morning (August 19).

Orientation for the graduate program is next Wednesday and I am beyond anxious and excited to meet my fellow grads because I am not going to lie, I feel pretty lonely. Not that I didn't make any friends during my WFR course, because I did, but a lot of them were only in town for that course. So I'm ready to meet people I can spend more than 10 days with.

See you in Salt Lake City!

Xoxo,

TheChristyBel

Representing Asbury Park, NJ in Wyoming! Bringing MOGO Tacos Across the Country!