What does distance-learning paramedic school cost?

Yep, you've always wondered, so here we go...
(All in US dollars)

$200 Non-refundable Application Fee
$1500 Non-refundable tuition deposit (to accept your seat in the class)
$6000 Tuition payment, due one week before class starts
$800 Distance clinical fee - due when clinical paperwork is signed

$70 Anatomy & Physiology book/self study class through the University of Texas
$500 Paramedic book package

~$2000 2 Week trip to Massachusetts for skills "boot camp"
~$1000 gas/incidentals to travel to clinical location - not sure exactly where this will be, but it's at least 100 miles from my home and I've got 500 hours to put in...

$110 NREMT Paramedic Exam
$500 Travel to NREMT Practical (probably will need to fly somewhere for this)

What am I forgetting?

Drum roll...

Total estimated cost: $12,680
<gulp>

I'm going to keep a running log of what I buy/spend money on for this, just in case anyone is interested.  Maybe I should track my hours spent as well.  Could be interesting.

I'm in

Paramedic school.
Accepted.
Loan taken out.
Books ordered.

Freaking out that in a mere 18 months or so, I will be the one people are looking at for the answers.
Nothing has felt more correct than this decision, not in a long time.

Classes start in a month - join me on the journey?

Waiting

Had my interview last week for paramedic school.
Now just waiting for the acceptance/denial.
And I'm not freaking out.
Really.
Well, maybe a little.
If it happens, it happens.  If not, I can always re-apply.
Right?

We've got the runs...

Busy.

In the village fire department, we're all volunteers.  We call ALS from the park as needed, but really it's a handful of EMT's and EMR's that keep things going.  An unusually well-oiled machine perfected through years, sometimes decades of working together.

We all have day jobs.  Some have more than one.

But when the pager tones us out, we go.  Sometimes 3, 4 EMS runs a day.  Each trip to the hospital takes a minimum of 3 hours.

I respond when I can, but with the single-lane road choked with tourists it can be 25 minutes 'till I'm on scene.  Clear road at night?  I can make it in 12.

But the others are already there.  On scene, figuring out how to get the patient out.  Taking history, vitals.  Packaging, moving.  They are pros at this.

Our small town swells with tourists in the summer.  And the seasonal help that goes along with tourism.  Cooks, river raft guides, bartenders, housekeepers.  Every bed in town is full.

10 motels, dozens of vacation rentals, 8 bars, 20 restaurants, 3 gas stations, a couple grocery stores.

And one little fire station.

Two dozen volunteers with pagers and radios, ready to roll when needed.