Hey! I'm CPR Certified Now!

Today Maureen and I were certified in CPR and First Aid by the American Heart Association during a free day-long class at the Lucas County Department of Health.



The last time I had any CPR training was in junior high, so the day was full of lots of good common-sense reminders as well as some new and updated information.

For example, did you know you are supposed to lean your head forward, not tilt back, when you have a nosebleed? Otherwise blood could trickle back and cause problems for your ear/nose/throat areas. Makes sense if you think about it, but I'd always thought you tilt back.

Or that a person having a heart attack loses 500 heart cells per SECOND? Wowzers. That's why ever second is crucial during CPR.

It was also probably good for me to practice being authoritative and taking control of a situation: "YOU! (pointing at someone) Call 911 and bring me that AED!"

Best of all, we got to watch the episode of The Office where Stanley has a heart attack so Michael makes everyone take CPR training at which Dwight tries to harvest the organs of the dummy.



SIDE STORY: Today was a little nuts.

First I couldn't find the health department building. Once I found it, I circled the area several times, navigating annoying one-way streets, trying to figure out which parking lot I was allowed to park in.

Once I got inside, I was told the class was on the 2nd floor. But that door was locked. Turns out it was actually in the basement, which was a huge creepy maze of boilers and dirty sinks and rusty metal cabinets.

Then, just as the class was starting, Bernice my supervisor called, having issues with her laptop/projector set-up during a training. None of the obvious problems I could think of over the phone were the issue, no one else was around to help and she was in front of a class right then, and she wanted me to come try to fix it. So I left the class and drove over to see what I could do.

Luckily I got it working.

But just finding her was rough. There was a sign on the main door saying the training was in an annex building. No clue where that was. No further signs. Went inside and asked. Found out it's a few houses down the street. Walked there. Door was locked. But I could hear voices so I knocked. Bernice let me in.

On the way back to my car, this pit bull/boxer escaped from its owner, ran across a street (in front of a truck) and started jumping all up on me and following me down the street.

Shook off the dog and made in back to the class without missing too much.

Then, over lunch, went with Maureen to the Government Building down the street, which has a cafe on the 13th floor. Sat down just in time to hear an annoucement that there was a fire drill planned -- for the 13th floor only.

Ohh craziness. Haha!