Thank You SGT Knowitall

Once again, I apologize for going on a few day hiatus from my followers. I have had a lot going on. When last I left you, I told you about a SGT who was giving me a hard time about the money Foster and I supposedly have. After talking to him about it, Foster asked, "Although we are not rich, we are very comfortable, and why should we be ashamed of that? We both work very hard for our money. I have graduated college, you are about ready to, we work everyday to make a living and afford the things we want and have."

After further thought, I came to the decision that he is right. I don't know why I felt the need to defend myself about making a good living. I certainly do not go around flaunting it or bragging, but there is no need for me to feel bad about it either. It must be out of jealousy that he felt the need to make an issue of it.

I found out the next day that this SGT must really have some mental issues. He must feel the need to belittle others in order to feel better about himself. I was sitting out in the parking lot eating my lunch. I noticed a guy hanging out by himself on the breezeway. he was leaning against the railing like he was not feeling well. All of the sudden he stiffened up, fell backwards, and started seizing. I immediately jumped out of my car, spilling my lunch all over the pavement, hurdled over a concrete blockade, and ran as fast as I could up to the breezeway. People were yelling "Medic, we need a medic."

I came up on the guy and responded, "I am a medic, someone help me roll him and keep him on his side." It was apparent he had bitten his tongue in the 30 seconds it had taken me to reach him and I wanted to make sure he did not aspirate the blood and drool into his lungs. There is not a whole lot more we could do for him other than call an ambulance, which I instructed someone else to do. As the crowd got bigger, and a doctor came out of the building, I loosened his boots and pants, and then told someone to get a neck brace for him since I think he hit his head on the way down. I then stepped back, allowed the paramedics to do their job and gave them the information that they needed about the soldier.

Never in a million years did I think something like this would happen in a basic Soldier readiness day. These days usually consist of medics like myself drawing blood, giving immunizations, taking vitals, and doing pregnancy tests on all of the soldiers getting ready to deploy. I was helping out with the lab draws and paperwork. When I returned into the lab I was at least thirty minutes late from my lunch break. I told the Sergent who was in charge what happened, and apologized for being late. We will call him SGT Knowitall responded in a very sarcastic tone, "Sure, good excuse for taking an hour lunch break."

"No Sergent, she really was out there helping, I brought the trauma bag out to her," another soldier came to my defense.

"What soldier was it?" an officer asked me.

I told him the soldiers last name, since the officer was in the soldier's unit. "You just violated HIPPA," SGT Knowitall reprimanded me.

"Excuse me? I did not," I claimed. For those of you who are not familiar with medical policies, HIPPA is the Health Information Privacy and Portability Act. Individuals, organizations, and agencies that meet the definition of a covered entity under HIPAA must comply with the Rules' requirements to protect the privacy and security of health information and must provide individuals with certain rights with respect to their health information. If an entity is not a covered entity, it does not have to comply with the Privacy Rule or the Security Rule. These entities refer to health care professionals who are in contact and have access to the paperwork and information of a patient.

"If she REALLY works in an ER, she would know that she violated HIPPA," I heard SGT Knowitall say under his breath to another sergeant.

"Actually Sargeant, I was a first responder, but had nothing to do with his care involving charting, paperwork, or information. The only information I gave that officer was a last name and that he had a seizure. I would be considered a bystander, and not a medical provider, so HIPPA does not apply to me in this situation," I responded. I could not believe he was going to try and lecture me on HIPPA. I have been working in a hospital for 8 years, and have taken MANY classes on it. This sergeant has been a medic in the Army, which I hate to say does not put us through the amount of classes that OSU has for HIPPA, and now he is a nursing student, has only ever been in a hospital for his clinicals, and thinks he is the subject matter expert on EVERYTHING medical. Drives me nuts when students, med students, nursing students, etc., think they know it all.

Anyway, enough ranting, but I eventually got him to shut his mouth. I was a little offended that he would even question my integrity with the phrase, "If she REALLY worked in an ER, she would know about HIPPA." The funny part about this whole thing is this sergeant is not even in my unit, he is in a different company that I had volunteered to assist this weekend. Most of the sergeants in my unit know and respect what I do, and respect my knowledge and would never question my integrity.

On a better note, Foster and I bought me a newer car today. I have been driving around a great 2003 Toyota Corolla. I bought the car last July for myself, and it is a wonderful car. the only downside is it has about 186,000 miles on it. Driving it, you would never know because it drives like a dream, gets about 38 miles to the gallon, and only cost me about $6000 dollars after I got my way at the dealership (another story for another time). However, the opportunity came to us to buy Mama JJ's car which is three years younger, has 76,000 less miles on it, and is an upgraded version of the Toyota Corolla for $5,000. We could not pass it up! We figured we would post my Corolla on craigslist and see what we can get for it. Who knows, we may end up getting all $5000 back. If you know anyone who is in need of a car, let me know. The only thing to note of my 2003 Corolla is it needs new rotors, and is a manual transmission, so the person needs to be able to drive a stick.
I am actually really excited about having Mama JJ's old car, I feel like she will watch out for me every time I drive, of course, she is watching over me anyway, but it makes me smile.