Immunizations for patrol — Measles, Mumps and Bears, OH My!

*** Let me start this off with a disclaimer as although I’ve now received a fair amount of medical training (ha), there is still no substitute for talking this over with your doctor.***

Having said that, when I joined up I didn’t really think through the part about having to deal with other people’s blood. During class you will “talk” about it a lot but in the real world we will probably see a bunch of the real stuff and if you are coming into contact with bodily fluids of random people, you are going to want to make sure you are fully protected. First off that starts with always wearing gloves. My whole class was infatuated with the rumor that some patrollers wear their nitrile gloves UNDER their ski gloves, YUCK! I’m sure its a good idea but i’ll take an extra few seconds to put them on thank you.

The other thing you can do is get immunized. For my class, we were recommended to get Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, DTAP, Flu Vaccine and MMR. DTAP and MMR are easy, one shot and you are done and many have probably already had these when you were a kid but its a good idea to top it up. Hepatitis A is two shots over six months. One now, one 6 months later. Hepatitis B is three shots. One now, one in a month and one in 6 months. Given that the Hepatitis ones take so long, its probably a good idea to start these earlier than later to insure full protection so don’t put this off. Need some motivation, just read on the web what Hepatitis will do to you and you will do like I did and call you doctor and let them give you a couple of shots to be safe.

Just hope you don’t get the nurse in the photo above. If she shows up, all bets are off!!!

I Passed my test!

Last night I passed the OEC written exam. It was 100 questions of multiple choice and to be honest, it wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. You need 80% to get a passing grade and everyone in my class passed first try! Hooray. Now I have the second step with my hands on practical exam this Thursday. If I can pass that one, i’ll be an OEC Tech and ready to apply to be a ski patrol canididate

Why am I doing this?

In the beginning….

First of all I love skiing. It is a great sport full of beautiful vistas, great fresh air and smell, speed, skill and the rush of throwing yourself down a steep slope at speed and making it all look easy! I’ve always looked up to the ski patrol as the gurus on the hill. They always seemed to be superhuman skiers who were always going somewhere in a hurry with lots of cool gear on them and doing something important. I’ve spent many an early morning watching them go up on the lift to “make sure its safe” while they get those early morning fresh tracks all to themselves.

I’ve always wanted to join the patrol. Maybe for ego reasons, maybe to be in the secret club. The free pass doesn’t hurt…. Whenever life wasn’t going so great, I always knew in the back of my mind I could check out and go join up on a ski patrol somewhere and life a more simple life. I’m sure I’m not alone on that one. But for whatever reason I was too busy and then once I got married and had a family, it seemed more of a pipe dream to deal with bad days at work.

Until….. December 30, 2010. A day that changed my life forever. While skiing with the family at Snow Summit in Big Bear Lake, CA, I missed a turn in boot deep powder and skied right into a tree going 20+ mph. I impacted the tree to the right side of my head and behind my right shoulder as I twisted away from the impact to save my face. I felt two pops in my spine and knew right away I was in trouble. Landing on my back I was lucky that I was wearing a helmet as it had just saved my life. I couldn’t move and all I could do was try to breathe and look up to watch the clouds going past the trees. The next few minutes seemed to take hours.

I could hear people calling me from the chairlift asking if I was OK but I couldn’t move to answer them. I was afraid that if I moved, I might not walk again. The pain was intense and I was barely breathing. Someone must have notified the patrol as eventually my vision of watching the clouds was replaced by a guy in a red jacket with a scruffy beard. “I’m from the ski patrol, we are here to help. We are going to take care of you and get you down the mountain safely”. Man, were those words music to my ears.

I knew right then and there that if I was lucky enough to walk again, I was going to bite the bullet and join the ski patrol so that one day I could pass on that gift to someone else.

The good news is the two pops in my spine were not my spine but my ribs near the spine. I also broke my tibia and did a ton of soft tissue damage. There is no question that the helmet saved my life and I know I’m in “extra time” and shouldn’t be here. Three months of healing and rehab and I’m lucky to have made a 100% full recovery. Now the journey begins to make good on my promise to help someone else and pass it forward…..