AAR: Patriot Nurse Medical Prep 101 - Greenville SC 6/9/2013

I attended the Patriot Nurse's Medical Prep 101 class in a hotel in Greenville last week. I wanted to get this typed up before I forgot all the subtle points. I'll give a quick rundown of the material covered, and then some thoughts and notes on the material and critiques.

Here's PN talking about the class:

So I'll evaluate the class based on the fact that it's supposed to be how to identify, prevent, and treat illness when there is minimal access to medical help. It's a prepper medical class, basically. But the lessons can be immediately applied to day to day life, which is pretty neat.

The class was broken down into modules of physical assessment, respiratory disease, digestive disease, wound care, and post mortem considerations.

Leading into it all was a cool acronym that is a reminder on the basic ideas of medical care. the K.A.T.C.P. protocol. Know, Assess, Take Care Of, Contain, and Prevent. They're pretty self explanatory, but some really nice lessons inherent in this are that you should understand your baseline (so you can see when you deviate from it, indicating disease), and to devote a lot of energy to the prevention of disease, rather than having to count on a (possibly non-existent) medical intervention, depending on your scenario. That's damn good advice that is immediately applicable today. Don't wait until it's E.R. worthy, fix your shit now.

There is some practical time spent learning to take blood pressure with a cuff and stethoscope, pulse, as well as checking the lung fields for breath sounds. Getting the hands on time was very useful. I spent a month in the hospital 5 years ago, and watched my blood pressure taken every few hours, so I sort of figured out what they were doing, but it's always good to get 'trigger time' doing the deed.

Then the respiratory segment started. The signs of respiratory infection and some overview stuff about evaluation, and then some stuff on how to help fix a respiratory infection. I'll give you a spoiler, the aides are the same things that every athlete should be doing. Water, Vitamin D and sunshine, and rest. Following were treatment options. As is my personal philosophy, use of antibiotics was discussed as a last resort. Lastly, prevention was discussed. As should be common knowledge, hygiene, rest, and ventilation were the primary means discussed. This block concluded with scenarios that were discussed in small groups. We even did a cool calculation on dosing antibiotics using the nurses drug handbook. It's another good exercise to actually do.

The digestive diseases were next. The why, how, and when were discussed. The indicators of dehydration were next, and those are useful for anyone who spends time with groups outside during physical exertion. Then a nice home-made rehydration recipe was shared, composed of table salt, sugar, maybe some KCl salt alternative, and a liter of water. Then the super useful method of rectal rehydration was discussed. The details can be googled, I'm sure. The segment was again concluded with a scenario.

Wound care was the next topic. The biggest take away for me was to keep accurate charts, as well as dry heat sterilization temperatures for instruments. Rashes, blisters, punctures, dog bites, and dressing wounds were highlighted as well.

Post mortem care was the last topic. I felt like this section was a little out of place in the curriculum, and could possibly be dropped in lieu of more content on the other diseases, or at least shortened to just the aspects directly related to austere conditions and disease containment, rather than emotional and spiritual aspects. That's must my opinion, as most of the class seemed to be fine with the segment.

The coolest thing I learned was about stockpiling antibiotics in the form of veterinary grade drugs. FishMox, Penicillin, erythromycin can all be had through veterinary supply channels. Good stuff.

That's the course in a nutshell. Next I'll share a few things that I think could be done a bit more smoothly (I realize unsolicited opinions are generally never wanted, but I can't help myself). I think a 'purchase cheat sheet' would have been extremely useful for students wanting to buy the items we used in the class. Instead, every time a piece of gear was mentioned, PN would refer us to her Amazon click-through store. This is fine, but it takes away from time we could be discussing the topics. I'm all about meat and potatoes during a class.

PN kept referencing her 201 level class during the 101 level class. I suspect she's currently giving a lot of brain sweat to developing her curriculum for that course, so I get it. But, I would have liked to have some more depth of the topics discussed, instead of the sales pitch for the next course. If that makes sense.

Overall, it's a cool 1 day class that is a huge step outside of what I've been concentrating on for the last few years. I was immediately able to put the information to use, as my son caught his first virus 3 days after I got back. Runny nose, cough, no fever. This was pretty much exactly a scenario we discussed in the course. I was able to keep my wife calm enough to keep us out of the E.R. in Milwaukee on our trip, and instead convinced her to wait until a local pediatrician opened the next day. So that was pretty nice.

Overall, I would say that the course lived up to it's mission statement.

Thanks to PN for inviting me to check her out.

Later,
M

Dogg Crapp and Me

So, as the noose tightens on my free time (mostly kidding), I have to keep tweaking my training programming accordingly. I realize that MMA is out for now, as is highly complicated training at a big gym like GaTech's. I had to find another way to improve physically. So I begged my wife to let me buy a used power rack on Craig's List. Here's the score:

I'm still interested in getting stronger. That's the primary goal. But since I'm a program-jumper... I figured I'd try something new for 6 months or so. Serendipitously, Paul S. and Brandon S. both mentioned DC training within about a week of each other so I started digging.

Brandon posted a progam, based on an article from T-Nation: It's a hybridization of 5/3/1 (I have 7 months on this program) and DC training. Here's the program. https://www.facebook.com/download/168887719940119/DC%20531.xlsx

Here's the article: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/531_and_rest_pause_a_six_week_challenge

I started this program, since I like the idea of 2x a week training, as well as concentrating on the power lifts. Then I started reading about pure DC training.

I read this http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/how_to_build_50_pounds_of_muscle_in_12_months

this: http://www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/fbbuploads/1215471959-DC_Workout_Crib_Notes.pdf

and Paul S.'s thoughts:

I've been getting a few texts, calls and messages about D/C training, injuries and assorted strength training questions. Most guys know I've used D/C training to work my way up from 190-200 to a peak of 290. I walk around at 245-255 now and with one blast phase I can usually go back up to 275. The main thing guys have to know before starting D/C is; Dante is right. Guys will think they should change this or that, don't. Do it by the book, which also includes the part about being honest with yourself regarding whether you're ready for D/C. I wasn't. I was coming off of an injury and my training prior to D/C was a combination of body weight stuff, Oly lifts, plyos and sprint training as I was a competitive MMA fighter. Once I knew I couldn't compete any longer I decided to see how big and strong I could get. I read as much as I could about D/C, talked to friends and my cousin Rick who has experience with D/C and started the program. My first few blast/cruise phases were great, I was growing constantly. I knew how to push myself hard from all the fight prep for MMA so digging in for the rest-pause sets was normal however, i racked up some pretty bad injuries because i didn't have the training history Dante recommends prior to starting. That's an important element. I had a serious training history in MMA fight prep but not in strength training. If you have the training history definitely give D/C a shot, if not though you're better served to put some time into a more conventional program. ..Good find Corey. Essentially I posted; 1) Don't change anything, just do the program as is, 2 way split. 2) base your diet around protein. 2 grams per pound of bodyweight you WANT to weigh. 3) do the stretches. It really helps. 4) Dig deep. You get one set with 3 attempts, make it count. 5) Cardio on the days you don't lift. Just do it. That's 4 days of cardio, 3 days of lifting. You'll be glad you did. 6) Add reps before adding weight. 7) When you add weight add the least amount possible. Don't blast for longer than 6-8 weeks in the beginning. If you do you will burn out, you will get injured. 9) Pick your 3 exercises wisely. Pick moves you can add weight and/or reps easily. Barbell and plate loaded machines work great, dumbbells not so much. 10) when it's time to cruise take advantage of the cruise and give your body a break. I didn't at first and my joints hated me. My cruises would be more heavy lifting just not DC, for example I would do 4-5 sets of heavy bench, incline and dips for chest..., not good. My joints never got a break in the beginning and the injuries and constant pain drove me nuts. Later I learned to cruise properly and my joints/injuries went away and I made better gains when it was time to blast again because my body and mind were good to go.

So I sketched up the lifts I'm able to do in my basement gym. I'm going to do my absolute best to stick to the protocols. Rest/Pause, Beating the log book, Protein intake, carb cutoff after 5pm, deep stretching after the sets, adequate rest, cardio on off days, lots of water.

Here's an early spreadsheet of my plan: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoCMMYGsnozMdFR3OTZXemF2SG5uYnFwRWFTVnFwLUE&usp=sharing

So my proposed schedule will look like:

M/W/F: DC work

T/Th/S/S : 30 mins light cardio, most probably dog walks with a weight vest.

I can already tell the protein intake will be the hardest part. I'm looking at 400-450 g per day which is a load of whey and eggs and steaks. I'm using myfitnesspal to track protein intake, assuring that I'm getting 450g a day. Without some pretty heavy whey shake supplementation, I'll get nowhere near it.

Starting weight is 192.6 on the week of June 10.
Let the Blast commence.