Openbah / Journal of a Marine Officer Candidate

Author: Openbah

  • EMT course ends

    The EMT-Basic course I was taking ended a few weeks ago. Got my scores back from the final exams and was happy to hear I did better than I thought I would. Now I just have to pass the state exams and I’ll be a certified EMT. I take the practical exam on February 16th (yes, 3 days before my surgery).

    We finally had our ambulance ride-alongs. I rode on Saturday from midnight until 8AM Sunday. We got called for a woman in labor, a child that got his wrist stuck in a pair of handcuffs, a stroke, a shortness of breath, an overdose, and a man with pancreatitus. They usually get twice as many calls, but I thought it was a nice variety.

    Next weekend I’ll be spending the night observing in the emergency department at Boston Medical Center. Hopefully it will be a good experience and I’ll learn some things.

  • Surgery three, one month away

    In one month I will at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in NYC. I’m more excited than I am nervous.

    Two weeks ago something happened and my leg got a whole lot worse. It began hurting all the time again. I can’t go a day without taking some Motrin, and I can’t sleep much at all without taking some Percocet. I’m glad the surgery has been scheduled and that theoretically in a few months after this next surgery I could be relatively pain free.

    At the same time I’m nervous.

    Not nervous about the surgery itself, but nervous that I’ll find out in a year that the surgery didn’t work and that I’ll need to have a total hip replacement. I don’t mind surgery. I don’t mind the pain and sleepless nights that goes along with them. What I do mind is how, for those huge chunks of time, my life is at a stand-still again, and I am unable to move forward and continue living.

    But the only thing I can do now is hope. Hope that this will be the last surgery, hope that I’ll be pain-free the rest of my life, and hope that I can return to doing the things I love one day.

    Hope that I’ll be happy.

  • My friends call me “Mike Vila”

    4 months ago I turned this:

    My old kitchen

    Into this:

    Finished kitchen

    It took 22 days from start to finish.

  • Happy 2008

    Happy New Year! I went to the Boston’s First Night Grand Procession last night. Here is a video I made of the highlights.

    Get the Flash Player to see this player.

  • 2007: Things I will remember & things I wish I could forget

    The Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox, and Patriots games. I got health insurance for the first time since college! I built some bookshelves and then built a new kitchen. Jennie’s wedding. Jaynemarie’s wedding. Topsfield Fair and the racing pigs.

    In 2007 I had 8 appointments with my orthopedic surgeon at BMC, an appointment with a surgeon in NYC, 1 MRI, 6 sets of X-rays, a bone density exam, an operation to take the hardware out of my leg, (more…)