Combat Life Saver Course

I did something today that I never thought I would do: I put an IV into someone's arm, for real. It was part of the Combat Life Saver course. My partner took two sticks to get in my vein, but he did well with the rest of the procedure after the stick. I got into his vein on the first try, but I kept putting pressure on the catheter when I was compleing the IV (which hurts). We called it even. Eileen got some great pics. One guy, Christian, had a Canadian partner. The Canuck was REALLY shaking. He basicaly massacred Christian's arms (both of them). There was a good deal of spurting blood, Nice.

We also put tourniquets on each other. We had to actually tighten them until the pulse below the tourniquet was gone. For the record, tourniquets really hurt. I had to put two different tourniquets on my arm (me putting on my arm). Then I had to puts tourniquets on my partner's legs. The tourniquet on the leg hurt, but not as bad as the pressure point stuff you do with your knee. A knee with full weight pressed into your inner thigh smarts really bad. Good training though.

Well, off to study for my CLS Exam tomorrow. I'll send pix when Eileen gets them downloaded.