Letters from NYC

6 Degrees of Separation

I have always believed that we are all connected by more than just our existence on earth and our universal conciousness. We are connected by the thread of common human experiences that we share with each other.

I was over at Bou's reading about (her youngest) Bones' 9 lives yesterday and as I read, I realized the reason I had such a mental block in my CPR class the day before was because I was remembering how last summer I had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on my son and how I froze at first, trying to recall the CPR process.

He was the primary reason I signed up for a CPR refresher course. This incident was the second reason, and the 3rd was the fact that the adult I saved 6 weeks ago is trying to sue me for "malpractice". I should have let him die then, huh?

In reading Bou's post, I realized I really wasn't doing anything wrong because I was giving the right number of breaths and compressions, but in my head I was rescuing a child my son's age, and the age of the kid I had saved 6 weeks before. The problem was, in reality I had an infant dummy in front of me, which requires different positioning, approach, compressions and rescue breaths. Realizing that made me want to see if I could remember and perform the right rescue techniques on an infant correctly.

So I grabbed my son's panda bear to practice Infant CPR (which he left behind on Saturday) while visiting Mike (who is a retired NYC firefighter, our Building's Fire Safety Director and is certified in CPR training). So while in his office he suggested that in order to make sure I was focusing on the right age group I should close my eyes and envision an infant before me. Just then he was called away so encouraged me to go ahead and practice in his office.

A few seconds later Tom, Mike's Deputy Director, came in and stopped in the doorway. I opened my eyes just as I was removing my mouth off the bear's face. Realizing the awkwardness of the moment I opened my mouth to explain, but Tom held up his hand interrupting: "No... No.... No need to explain, you two obviously need to spend time alone, so I'll just be on my way" and with that he closed the door.

I sat there with my mouth wide open, embarrased beyond belief! This is something the Fire Safety Team will never forget. I can already see the email subject headline to the team: "Michele found making out with bear... Don't let this happen to you." Yes, that's how they're going to make sure that everyone knows about the new CPR guidelines and free classes.

A short while later, when Mike didn't return, I stepped out of his office to find everyone laughing at the sight of me with my bear in arms. Outwardly I smiled with them, realizing that it was Mike's practical joke. Inwardly, to quote Rosana Rosanadana (Gilda Radner's character on SNL): "I just wanna diiiiiiiiie!" Sigh!

It turns out that Mike restrained his laughter long enough to watch my technique and reassured me I was fine. I'm fine... good to know! [giggle]

Anyway, the 6 degrees comes from having learned the lesson from when I last saved a life 6 weeks ago. The chain of events started with the inspiration from my blog dad's post which led to me being equiped to save 2 lives. Same thing with Bou's post yesterday, it reminded me that I had to get my epi-pen refilled. Didn't want to go one more day without it because I was having mild allergic reactions to the different take out foods I was buying (due to the damned blackout). To make a gigantic story a bit shorter. I got my epi-pen refilled and picked it up on my way home. Last night, after putting my son to bed, I had my dinner. Later, I began to have what I knew would be a major allergic reaction and was forced to use my epi-pen.

So, I attribute to Bou, me being here amongst you today, because my cell was pretty low power last night, and the land line didn't work, so I couldn't call 911 or get an ambulance. All the pharmacies were closed as they were still out of power and if they had an epi-pen, well I don't think I would have used it as it might have gone bad in the heat.

Hmmmm, I wonder if I owe Bou something for having saved my life. I seem to remember there's a chinese proverb about that but I'm still under the effects of what my new, cute, temporary, physician gave me this afternoon and so I'm feeling no pain (and no memory to speak of right now). Just sitting here with a stupid grin on my face, feeling euphoric. I'm going to have me a damned good sleep tonight.

Well, I think I'm finished. I'm not going to re-read or edit this one. I think I'll just sit here and smile for awhile. YOu all take care now... ya here!

Posted by Michele at July 26, 2006 01:28 PM | TrackBack