I know....quite an original title. Well...this have been on my mind lately. It's been one of those trips where you're reminded very much in the face about how fragile and precious life and health is. to sum up.....in the last month my sister-in-law spent the better part of a week in the hospital for and after major abdominal surgery. Everything went fine. however there was worry in the whole process, as her sister passed away a little before Christmas due to complications from a couple minor surgeries. So losing her was a possibility I was forced to consider. Right about the same time my sister went into the hospital, I got word that one of my Paramedic student friends had been in a really bad accident on his motorcycle and was in ICU at Harborview. Now I am not as close friends with him as I am with a couple of his classmates, but I still know the guy. Serious accident here, bilateral subdural hematoma and stable C5 fracture. Now I've been knocking around as an EMT for two years, but sometimes things get a little close to home. It's been a long few weeks waiting on news and there not being much of anything I can physically do to help my friends cope with things. also it tends to make me feel a bit on the helpless side. At the same time I'm trying to focus on the last of my fire recruit training, that being itself sometimes exhausting and almost overwhelming. But still here I am. Still doing my job too. I got lead on a medical call just this afternoon, which is awesome. Today.... one class day from graduation, one sister recovering faster than expected, one friend still in ICU but getting a little better most every day. I have a lot to be thankful for and tons of reminders not to take the people in my life for granted, whatever their age or current health. We don't know what tomorrow brings, only what we have today, right now, this minute. because it might be gone in the next. Thanks for listening.

Side note: for those that don't know, Harborview is the level one trauma center in my area.
I graduated from Central Washington University, which has, to my knowledge, the only Paramedic Major in the
region. I have several friends in the program, I got my EMT-B there and might someday go back for Paramedic. The
people in the medic program and in Wildcat Rescuers are very dear to my heart.