One step closer

I passed my Ambulance Victoria fitness assessment today! This means I am now fully eligible to enroll in Paramedics and go out "in the field" on my first clinical placement in mid March. This is yet another exciting, yet terrifying, moment in my somewhat unusual path toward becoming a healthcare professional. 

Before I even saw anyone I had to fill out what seemed like a thousand forms. I had to detail every little medical or psychological issue I'd ever had, which was a test to my memory more than anything. I had to fill out a form about my sleeping habits; where or not I'd ever been diagnosed with a sleeping disorder (yes, I had a sleeping disorder than began in infancy and progressed to night terrors as a toddler, all of which were resolved through pharmaceutical intervention). I had to detail my drinking habits. They probably thought I was lying, given that I'm 20 years old, I don't belong to a cultural group or religion that bans alcohol and wouldn't consume alcohol more than 3 or 4 times a year. 

I also had to give a urine sample. I assume it would be to screen for drugs, but the receptionist didn't say when she handed me the ominous little jar. It even had my first name scrawled on it in childlike handwriting on the lid. I didn't need another reminder that female plumbing really isn't designed for any kind of convenience; not designed for peeing outside, not designed for peeing standing up and certainly not well engineered for peeing into tiny little jars. Oh, and walking back into a busy reception area with a jar of your own pee is close to the definition of awkward. 

The first part of the assessment involved a meeting with an occupational therapy nurse. She took my blood pressure, measure my height and weight and conducted a hearing and vision test. The second component involved a standard medical assessment with a GP. The doctor was very nice and he checked my ears, throat, reflexes, breathing and abdomen as well as some general mobility tests like squatting and back flexibility. 

The first component was with the exercise physiologist, who conducted the exercise based fitness component. He was a really lovely man, who moved through the tests swiftly, so you didn't have much time to agonise over any one part. I did the sit and reach flexibility test, sit-ups, push-ups, had skin folds taken and peddled away on a very old exercise bike.

Thanks to my gymnastics and sport aerobics background and my mother's genetics, the sit and reach test was a very cruisy way to full points. I have never been very good at sit-ups, so that wasn't a big points scorer for me. Push ups and I are on very good terms and the physiologist was very surprised that I could even do full push ups let alone the diamond ones (push ups on toes with thumbs and index fingers together to form a diamond), apparently most female applicants can't. Skin folds, eugh, I survived them and will probably have nightmares with calipers in them. I did as I expected in all of those tests, however, I scored full points for cardiovascular fitness which hasn't historically been one of my strengths. 

I was relieved to pass with a handful of extra points in the bank. It was one of those things where I didn't seriously think I'd fail, but it feels so much better to have it over and done with. 

One step closer to a new life.

On a very funny note; on Sunday Mum, Dad and I all went to the gym. Mum got the timetable confused and we ended up being there an hour early for our pump class. So we all filled in the hour exercising until it was time for pump, at which time, Dad decided to join us. Dad is an avid runner and was a very handy cricketer and footballer at school, club and district level. However, he is exceptionally challenged when it comes to keeping to a rhythm or picking up choreography. Dad didn't know how to do a proper squat or lung or how to do a tricept push it. He also didn't understand most of the instructor's terminology. I ended up talking at him the whole time to help him keep up and not clock himself with a barbell! It was very, very funny =)