Post-Christmas

It is the 26th and all is well. Even in a deployed setting, you are exhausted after Christmas. With all the hustle and bustle with 2 church services, the Brigade Commander visiting, and having a mini-Christmas party with Nasty Santa game, (Dirty Santa if you will, My PA decided he was going to call it Nasty Santa instead). We saved up all our treats that everyone sent, especially the homemade ones, and defrosted them for our party. Christmas in a deployed setting is definately different. Number one: I still was working and I was still on call for Medevac. Number two: No mimosas or bloody mary's on Christmas morn. Number three: the Candlelight service for Christmas Eve was actually a Chemlight service which didn't quite work out. Coordinating the breaking of Chemlights doesn't quite work out. Number four: I didn't pass out around 3pm from all the wine and turkey. Number five: No family, kids, or bird dogs running around was definitely missed. I did watch "Scrooge" my favorite Christmas movie and enjoyed it as always. I want to thank all of you who sent care packages for Christmas. I enjoyed everything and distributed a lot of stuff that I had excess, (the 12 jars of Peanut Butter was one of those things in which I couldn't justify to myself for keeping all of them....Thank-you Mayhues!).

(The following paragraph may not be for kids).

Probably the low point of the day was when my company commander came to the aid station with gifts for all the single soldiers.....Yeah! I got two Army socks stuffed with girly things like deodorant, tampons, summer's eve wipes, and of all things petroleum jelly. I really don't know what these people were thinking when stuffing this stuff in the socks. I mean are they telling us that the reason we are single is that we lack hygiene? And I don't even want to touch the reason they gave us petroleum jelly. It was extremely weird.

(It's okay for kids now)

So now, we recover from Christmas. I soon will be 29. I love and miss all of you. Just know that I am doing well, getting to know more and more people everyday. I believe in what we are doing here. I love MEDEVAC. I am in an environment in which I can be myself and also have room to learn and develop both as a physician and as a person.

P.S. the pictures are of my office status post Christmas cards and gifts and my dorm room.

care packages, condiments, coffee

I awoke this evening 11:30 PM to get ready for work. I usually get up early and go work out prior to work but I really was in need of a full 8 hours of sleep. The day prior I only had about 4 hrs of sleep due to me not going to bed until 3:30 PM and then having choir/band practice at 8 PM. Why, do you ask, did I stay up until 3:30 PM? Well, that is because I received a ton of care packages including some of the 14 boxes Ada High School sent. I had to go through the boxes, see what they contained and then distribute the items as needed. Honestly, I did that for a while and then my head medic took over. The mass care packages are overwhelming honestly. Especially when our mail was backed up for weeks and now we are getting everything all at once. I have never seen more beef jerky, random magazines, candy, and breath mints in my life! (Apparently, everyone believes that while you are deployed you will automatically have halitosis). I just got my uniquely stuffed box from my mother from 17 Nov. just yesterday. It contained a trash bag, that when opened revealed 6 or so mini loafs of homemade bread that was not, I'm afraid, safe to eat. The padding that my mother chose to use was a mixture of peanuts in the shell and Splenda packets. This, while a interesting choice of padding, was genius because I asked both for nuts and Splenda packets and did not specify how I wanted to receive them. (Mother, do not get offended by this story. It is awesome.) Cookies, I have found. keep wonderfully and for those of you who baked me some, they are delicious.

I have enjoyed all of your gifts and currently have a real mini christmas tree, Yoda lights in my office and in my room, a Willow movie figurine, a close up face mirror, new blush and eyeliner, (for church), a self warming vest, and a pair of dreidels. This is just a sample. For all of you who wrapped your gifts, I kept them for Christmas. With the exception of Aunt Vicki's large box in which I unconsciously ignored the obvious gift sacs and opened every thing in the box. ( I can only attribute these actions to the fact that it was the end of my shift and on the top of the box was the Yoda lights. I got all excited like JoJo the idiot circus boy with a pretty new pet and opened everything. The moral of the story is this: Don't allow me to make decisions on my own. If you want me to wait on gifts you must place a card inside the box, on top of the items, explicitly directing me what I can open. Therefore, leaving no choices up to me.)

As for the other items listed in the "title" line. This morning at about 1AM when I was eating breakfast, I looked down at what I was eating and was a tad disturbed. My breakfast consisted of more condiments then actual food. I have chosen to be on the South Beach Diet Phase 1 which is pretty strict with no carbs. Therefore, my breakfast was a salad with lettuce, tuna, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I had then topped it with mixture of fat free italian dressing, Caesar dressing, and taco sauce. On the side I chose to be classy and go for the green olives and pickles combo in which I dip into ketchup. My drink to go with this fantastic meal was coffee, a tropical blend, in which I like to use Splenda and some sort of peppermint flavoring. It sounds divine, I know.

P.S. MAJ Baumgartner really loves my care packages as well.....

A few select stories2

When a Medevac is called, everyone runs to the aircraft as fast as possible gets all their gear on and then straps in to fly. Well, you can imagine that this process has to be perfected and takes a few tries to get down.....or more than a few tries. I am on the more than a few tries end of the spectrum. It is a process involving many things like making sure you have your aid bag, cap/head gear, flash light with blue light(if dark), appropriate weather gear, your weapon, your 2vesta/helmet. After the first instance of me running 300 meters carrying all of this crap, I quickly realized I would have to be proactive and prepare my gear.

My first mission, I forgot medical gloves, and ended up ruining a pair of flight gloves. I also didn't get my vest on in time, and was not plugged into the communication system therefore resulting in painful sign language with the medic for patient care.

My second mission, I forgot my head gear and had to ride back in a gator with my flight helmet which is not really the cool thing to do, but going without head gear is not acceptable. I was able to get all my gear on at that time but still did not have my Aid Bag. ( The medics have their in the birds so don't worry we had medical supplies)

The third mission, I wasn't even called for due to technical difficulties, but I just so happened to walk into the control center and hear about it. At this time, the bird was already ready to go and I had to run like the wind to make it. Once on, I was good until getting off for report. I ran out and suddenly had something jerk my head back almost flipping me on my back......I forgot to unplug myself from the helicopter commo system. Fortunately, I have the innate ability for coordination and balance and didn't fall but I did slightly resemble the scene in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" when she is wearing the headphones in her office and it snaps her back to the floor. I lost a lot of cool points with that one.

A few select stories

Working nights there is a lot of down time here at FOB Shank. We have an officer here in charge of personal who is a Lt and she is very young and way too peppy. She is very nice but she says things like Golly Gee Willakers and good golly gum drops and I feel obligated due to my established morals and values to harass her. She was given a Santa Pen that has dangly legs and arms in which she would bring to meetings and as she talked she would spin in around where the legs and arms swing around. VERY distracting and annoying. If you could have seen my face watching her do this you would have seen a Caton look portraying disbelief, humor, mixed with a little bit of confusion. Confusion, in the fact that I would never brief my commanding officer with a twirly Santa pen.....but that is just me. Apparently, she has set a precedence of this sort of activity that my XO (commanding officer) is immune to it.

Therefore, I took it upon myself to steal the pen, take a picture of it hanging from a nail, with a firearm pointing at it with the post - it note saying "No,NO, NO" instead of HoHoHo. I then wrote a ransom note demanding good coffee to be dropped at a drop site in which I supplied a diagram marking the drop site. I then climbed into the personal office, put the ransom note and picture in the Lt. office and exited without any evidence of how I got in the locked office.

I plan to give the Santa back to her tonight after checking the drop site. She handled it in good fun and she knows it was me although I was very elusive in seeing her that day.

Working midnight to noon brings out the creative and bored side out of many......Take that as an acceptable explanation for my actions.

Snow=Slow

It is actually difficult to navigate to this page so I can add in a new post. The Google server I use over here is German therefore half my time is me clicking random German words on the screen hoping that they will take me to the right site for adding a new blog. Yesterday morning around 5am it began to snow here at FOB Shank and did not stop until nightfall. It was a wet snow and actually made great snow balls. The first snow is just like the first snow everywhere else. People are happy and playful etc. I attempted to make snow angels on some roofs which proved difficult but attainable. After the giddiness of the first snow passed, the FOB focused on finding out the glitches in the "winterizing" process which involved some failing generators, card board walk ways, and figuring out who was responsible in clearing off the airfield. The Apache pilots who were on night shift made a snow man with a cigar before it was even day light. They also are currently showing me up with their light display. The Apache pilots tend to be a little rowdy. I turned on my Christmas music and tried to get my medics in the Christmas spirit. Mom's smell good pine cones helped but the aroma was dampered by one of my medics who constantly smokes and smells like it. I rudely remind her that she smells...and only feel bad about it for an instant. We are planning on doing a dirty santa exchange party for christmas. MAJ Baumgartner likes to call it nasty santa....just to annoy me. I don't know what we will give. I guess I will have to make a special trip to the West side of the FOB to find something. They have much better Hajdi stores. Apparently, someone here declared this month Mustache month so all the men are growing mustaches. I think it is hilarious because they all look like creepy policemen/pedifiles.

MEDEVAC

Each CAB or combat aviation brigade has a MEDEVAC unit that is solely for the medical evacuation of not only soldiers, but of people in risk of life, limb, or eyesight. There are specially trained pilots, crew chiefs, and medics. I am the flight surgeon who overseas my small portion of the brigades MEDEVAC capability. Not all flight surgeons get to fly as much as I foresee that myself and MAJ Baumgartner will need to fly. It is a component of this job that makes it unique and amazing. I believe that it is one of the few medical care positions where you actually see what the foreward soldier is going through and exposed to. I am one of the few physicians who see the Point of Injury, who get them when there are no x-rays to tell you what is broken, and minimal vitals to lead you to the direction of how stable they are or not. Let alone, not being able to talk to them because of the noise of the aircraft.

We are attached to a infantry division and it is easy to forget sitting at protected FOB Shank that the majority of the the infantry is not roasty toasty on a FOB, but out forward in the dirt and grime, (Like Jay was, I am assuming). Being able to be involved in MEDEVAC makes me feel like I am involved and directly helping these guys. The reward is something that I have not ever felt. In many ways, I am more involved then many of these pilots, commanders, and big wigs. MEDEVAC is the primary link in the chain of saving soldiers lives. There are many important links like the general surgeons at the FST, the specialists at the Level III CSH, and all the transporters inbetween, but none of them see what I see on a MEDEVAC bird and that is why my job is awesome.