badger_14

I will rest. I might even go and see a medical professional about my leg and/or shoulder. Okay?

EMTs don't really make much more than minimum wage. (certainly not one with less than a year's experience on the job), and I'm also still only working part time. (part time on EMT job, part time at the gym, part time altogether). It's been a while since I was totally dysfunctionally sick, but I'm still working back into being stable and working a full 40 hour week.

@OptimusReim You know, it's a good thing that it's the beginning of the month, and that I worked extra hours the past two weeks, because one of those kits is roughly 1/3 of my usual weekly earnings... @bunnyman666 I seem to be okay. If there is hockey this weekend, I probably won't play, and with everything else going on I'll probably skip the softball double-header as well. Resting is healing, as the hospitals are fond of saying.

On the border of cage and mask, if I recall correctly. No dents, all fine. Brain is functioning well enough to parse my Russian homework with no more difficulty than usual. A little extra padding, I think.

I would describe it as an isolated incident. I mean, I basically took the puck right between the eyes from point-blank range.

Well, I'm wearing a CCM 9000 now. So. (I just got it last ... August? Might've been July.) It's possible I just felt crappy due to being dehydrated and sleep deprived. I'll look into throwing some extra padding in there for shock absorption. I'm probably not playing this weekend anyway, from every other body part going pear-shaped.

It just feels like a karmic insult. Like, if I'm going to get clanked in the face, at least let it not go in. I couldn't get my gear upstairs (it has to live in my room, on the second floor) last night or this morning so I guess I have to swallow my pride and take it easy for the rest of the week. I just feel so guilty when I don't play or work out. :/

Hahaha "low intermediate" pickup. Actually it was pretty evenly balanced, mostly C+ with scattered D's. Among the worst annoyances as a goalie is when a puck hits you in the face and still goes in. This did not happen tonight, but I did get hit square in the forehead and now I do not feel so good. (my leg and shoulder also hurt, which was expected, so I am just a hot broken mess at this time). What I should do: rest. What I will probably not do: rest.

Holiday weekends, I suppose. Perpetually confounding. :( Well, at least you got to work on something?

Where in the hell are all these goalies coming from?

I am feeling better, mainly what needs to happen is that I need some time to socialize with people who aren't my co-workers, other medical professionals, patients, or children under the age of 6. I'll go visit the ocean this weekend, or something. The water's a bit cold for normal people, but nothing that the Badger-shaped can't handle.

I had a really awful day on Saturday - my game probably wasn't that bad, but it felt bad and I was in a tough emotional state anyway. I may or may not have been trapped in a despair-thicket, which are treacherous, nasty places that sneak up on you and make you feel like you are nothing. Fortunately it improved within a good 24 hours but this week has already been tough, and there's no hockey this weekend because it's a holiday and people are doing other things. I'm not sure why "playing hockey" can't be one of those things. I would try to find another spot on Saturday, but I'm feeling pretty bad about my game, so perhaps a bit of a break will be for the best.

There was some sort of dispatching mix-up, which resulting in my partner and I covering a chair-car call (sometimes BLS ambulances do this if there aren't any chair cars available) which was more than two hours late. (patient was supposed to get picked up at 5:30, we were dispatched at 6:30, and got to patient at 7pm). Naturally, the patient took it all out on us, was extremely uncooperative (didn't even want to sit on the stretcher - sorry, this is an ambulance, not optional. Also, you get to lie down???) and verbally abusive towards me and my partner. The funny thing is, I felt far less safe in the back with this patient than I did with last week's knife-possessing ex-convict. Wild times.

Opti - that's awful, the whole thing. I hope your recovery goes quickly.

On Monday, my partner and I picked up a psychiatric patient for transfer from a major hospital ER to a psychiatric facility. Turns out that Major Hospital ER didn't do such a hot job searching Patient's belongings, 'cause when Patient asked if we could get his (sealed, no worries) Gatorade out of his backpack for him, we all discovered he was in possession of a steak knife. Fortunately, he was a cooperative guy, and told us we should take it and not leave it with him. (This was during the hour we spent in a locked 5x8" foyer waiting for someone to take Patient for admittance to the facility, because facility in question is badly understaffed and was in the middle of a crisis.) Thanks, Major Hospital ER. That could've gotten ugly. Fortunately it did not, and my partner and I got a reassuring rundown from the supervisor at the end of shift on what to do about contraband like that (or lighters, or matches, or drugs, or whatever else the patient has in their belongings), and then the supervisor made sure we got ice cream for EMS week.

Hooray! Hockey with the Russian Embassy returns at last! At 8am on Saturday, oof. Still looking forward to it.

Happy (American) national EMS week to all the EMS modsquadders. May your week be safe and full of cool swag.

+10 to this. It's much the same as learning any complex set of skills - as you learn new things, you focus on those, and get lost on skills you already had as you try and incorporate the new ones. You start off okay, falter as you try and incorporate new skills, incorporate those, do okay, falter again, etc. Eventually the scaffolding all comes together. (I shouldn't say that, as it hasn't come together for me yet, so I don't know. ;) ) Sometimes it helps, also, to take a short break, to let your body and brain process. Then you come back refreshed and not thinking so hard.

Finally got in some hockey today! Not too many people at the lunch-time open hockey, but enough for 3 on 3 half ice, which meant a solid workout for an hour. Then two of them left and it was a less-solid workout for another half hour. I have had some pain in my leg for a couple of weeks - I think I may have tweaked something while stretching, because there is no obvious external damage, and there's no tenderness either. But after skating today sweet merciful crap going up stairs, or down stairs, or any kind of 'pushing off' on that leg hurts like a bejeebus. Ugh. I know it will subside with rest and ice, but rest isn't any fun. (I may have to take to the liquid form of ice for exercise for a bit.) I know the regular rink opens again on the 16th, but I've heard nothing so far of what the Russian Embassy's plans are for summer hockey

It's been a long few days. Secretly, I just want to have something nice to post here. ;)

Sorry wrong thread

There's certainly something to be said for the adrenaline high. (and the part where I get to socialize with people who are not a) co-workers or b) under the age of 6.) Luckily, the mailing list (a sort of internet goalie 911) is always full of people pleading for a goalie for their pickup or to sub in for a league game. I had 5 emails just this morning. (of course, all for games tonight).

Probably no hockey the next couple of weeks ... primary rink is still closed and no one's yet sorted out if we'll play on a weeknight (vs Saturday morning) and what night that will be. Primary rink re-opens on the 16th of May. I'll try to find a skate or two between now and then - there is always someone looking on the MassGoalies listserv. I'd go somewhere Friday or Saturday of this week, but I have a 10-hour ambulance shift on Saturday. Hopefully something next week, and then the Russian embassy gets it together and we start skating again.

Congrats to the small fry!

Oof yeah that would be quite the hockey town. I would say if you can find a lesson with a coach, even just one or two lessons would be a far better value than just renting the ice. After all, the basic advantage is a live human (hopefully experienced) who can tell you what you're doing wrong, and give you things to work on that you can take with you to other ice times. You could also try Craigslist, and ask if anyone would be willing work with you a few times if you rented the ice.