After having nightmares all night that featured bombs, explosions, body parts falling from the sky and smacking the ground, and plates of fried chicken and cookies, I woke up with a bit of a knot in my stomach. I didn’t feel sick or nauseous or anything, just a little painful knot in the gut.

I’m never really one to call out sick, so of course I still went in to work.

And today at work, I’ve been studying in-between calls, as well as listening to my self-recorded glossary when I can.

I played it for my friend and ambulance partner, Dez, who got a good laugh out of it. He claimed that I sounded “just like one of those books-on-tape VoiceOver guys”.

Well, I guess if I fail this class, I know of another career that I could try.

So as I study when I can, it dawned on me that I have a resource I completely forgot about: Dez. He’s a Paramedic.

I asked him a couple of questions, and to help me verify my IV drip rate calculations, and he gladly helped me out.

Also, he didn’t make me feel like a dumbass or like I was bothering him to “hold my hand”.

Now, would it be too man-crushy of me to wish that he would “hold my hand”, in the literal sense?

Kidding, none of that here. But I’m telling you, when you spend a whole 24 hours with a friend every 3rd day, that’s 10 times a month, I find that the jokes tend to get a little “bromancy”. Even my wife jokes for me to “behave myself” every time I leave for my shift.

As for the help with my schoolwork today, I didn’t bother Dez for longer than 20 minutes, and it wasn’t that I was worried about annoying him, I just didn’t need him for any longer than that.

All I needed was just a little reassurance that I’m not completely lost, and maybe a quick explanation on something I haven’t encountered yet.

Dez gave me that, and almost immediately, my stress was gone, and my stomach pains, gone as well.

Thank you Dez, you are a great friend. And a great Paramedic.

I hope to be as great a Paramedic as you one day.