Keep smiling

There is really no such thing as privacy on deployment. As I mentioned before, we live in cubicles. Although you may not be able to see your neighbor, you can still definitely hear your neighbor. Even if you try really, really hard not to listen in on their conversations, when they are literally feet away, it is difficult not to know what is going on with their husbands, parents, kids, and friends back home. Moral of the story: If you don’t want the world to know it, don’t say it out loud.

What's more, the lack of privacy goes beyond conversations with loved ones. We can’t do anything in solitude. Our bathrooms have 8-9 stalls and 6 showers. There are a few “one holers” at the hospital, but those are generally in pretty high demand.

The chow hall allows for intimate dining with no less than 200 of your closest friends.

The gym, Exchange, coffee shop, track, hospital, library, Red Cross room, Movie Theater, even my office, constantly have people around. There isn’t a single location where you can have some down time without someone else being around.

Not that I don’t like people. I do…most of the time. But sometimes I just need some silence and a chance to be alone. When you are constantly around folks it wears you down. Being nice can take a lot of energy.

But perhaps that is the master plan. If you look the part of being happy, you will be. It’s just that sometimes my cheeks are getting a little sore from constantly wearing my perma-grin.

It's not hot

Well, it’s official. I have acclimated to the heat. Maybe “acclimated” is a bit strong. Maybe “I don’t melt when I walk to the DFAC for lunch” might be a better descriptor. Plus the temperatures have been dropping a little. The highs have been in the high one-teens instead of one-twenties and I think I saw a forecast for next week where we are only supposed to reach 107. Break out the parka!

Actually, it is interesting how adjusting to the heat changes things. When we first arrived, I slept in shorts. Now I sleep in flannel PJs. Yes, flannel. The AC is so cold that I need 2 blankets on top of the PJs. I also think my early morning pool days are over. Last week at 5am the temperature dipped below 90 and there was a slight breeze. Normally this would be fantastic pool weather. But I nearly froze after taking the required shower before entering the pool. Goose bumps, teeth chattering…the whole nine yards.

So, I switched back to running for my early morning physical training. I am not at my best while running in the heat. Just ask Anna and Kathleen, my running buddies from back home. Heat + Me = slow time. Normally, 90 degrees at any time during the day would kill me. But so far, I’ve been doing ok. I’ll be tested this weekend when we run a 9.11K (a little under 6 miles) on 9/11. Race check in time is 4:30am. I am pretty sure if the heat doesn’t get me the lack of sleep will. Acclimating to heat is one thing, but adjusting to early mornings (and being happy about it)…never.

Welcome back

Have you ever gone to Mass (church, temple, mosque) when the homily (sermon, teaching) was directed specifically at you? As if God said, “Hello, Marrie. Glad you made it this morning.” Well, this was one of those days.

The morning started off kind of rough. I had two patients I needed to see at 1000. I decided to go in at 0830 to get caught up on a couple charts and finish a presentation for the command. When I got to work, my office had no electricity. This makes updating charts and power point presentations challenging. Deciding not to be thwarted by this unforeseen roadblock, I posted a sign for my patients to go to the CASREC (ER equivalent) for their appointment and I trotted off to the hospital to at least update my charts there.

I was able to complete my records and see my patients. The lack of air conditioning made the process a bit uncomfortable, but I finished. At least they had electricity to power the computer and slit lamp.

After a quick stop at the DFAC, I made it to Mass on time.

Mass started off as most Masses do. Sign of the Cross, prayers, creeds, readings, and then came the homily. The Priest starts off, “Many of you wear glasses or contact lenses. They help you to see things in the distance and up close. They help you to see where you are and where you are going. God is the same.” And he continued, weaving this theme throughout. “So the next time you put on your glasses or contact lenses, or when you see other people wearing their glasses, remember how God helps us to see our lives and our path to him as clearly as our glasses sharpen our surroundings. You would never want to go anywhere without your glasses. This is also true for God. He is the glasses for our lives. ”

Hmmm. ..My first Sunday that I was able to attend Mass in Kuwait. Do you think He was trying to tell me something?

Yes God, I missed you, too.

Coffee

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE coffee. It is one of life’s simple pleasures…a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Nothing’s better. In an environment without friends and family, without many of the comforts we are accustomed to having, “simple pleasures” become the things we look forward to and what puts a smile on our face.

Today I received a cup of coffee from a complete stranger in the States. Green Beans Coffee Company has a program where folks back home can buy a cup of coffee and send it to someone deployed. It’s called “Cup of Joe For A Joe” program. I’m not writing this to convince people to go out and buy a cup of coffee for the troops. But what I am asking is if you pass by a Green Beans Coffee, and you are in the mood for a cup of java, stop in and support this company…because they are making an effort to support us and they (with the help of their customers) are putting smiles on our faces.

Schedule

Folks have been asking me what my “typical day” is like. So here it goes…

I’ve been getting up around 0500 (unless I go to water aerobics or run, then it is about 0430). I try to be at work by 0630. I have walk in patients between 0700-0800 which generally consist of sick-call and follow ups. But don’t let that fool you, I have walk-ins all day long. Patient appointments begin at 0800. Lunch is 1200-1300. Most days, I’m finished with patients around 1600 (that’s 4pm for the non-military folk) and work on records until close to 1700. At 1700 a group of us meet in the supply tent and do an exercise program called P90X. It lasts about an hour. We then mosey on over to the DFAC (that’s Hooah for chow hall**translation**that’s Army speak for the dining facility.) I then go back to the clinic to finish up records and work on a couple of my collateral duties. (Collateral duties are the assignments one has in addition to their “real” job. I am the Dashboard Chair and the Chair of the Medical Record Review Committee . Both are great collaterals, but time consuming.) I’ve been getting back to my rack (cubicle) by about 2100.

We have been averaging near 30 patients a day in our clinic. I don’t actually put “hands on” each one of them, some things my technicians can do, but I have to review and code the encounters in the computer and sign the record on every patient that passes through our door. We do physicals, routine exams, referrals from the TMC (Troop Medical Clinic), acute care (injury, trauma, infection, inflammation, etc), and we can make glasses, too. We are one of the most productive clinics here.

This cycle of events is repeated Monday through Friday. Saturdays are supposed to end at noon. P90X starts at 1200 sharp. Both Saturdays so far, I have had to return to the clinic to see follow ups or was called into the CASREC (Casualty Receiving = Emergency Room). The first Saturday I left at 1800, last Saturday it was 1400, so at least we are trending in the right direction. I have gone in on my “off” day both Sundays for patients requiring tight monitoring and patients in the CASREC. I am hoping this is an anomaly to my schedule and not a weekly event. (I have not added it to my Outlook calendar. ;o)

Luckily, I have fit in a couple movies and a camel ride….mostly during the left-over part of my Sunday. Unfortunately, both times I was called into the CASREC it was right before the beginning of Mass, so I haven’t made it…yet. Let’s hope I can add that to my “typical week” soon.

Movies

Only on a military base will you see the audience stand when the Star Spangled Banner plays across the big screen before a movie begins…even when the technician forgets to turn on the sound.

No talking, no whispers, no wriggling.

Everyone in the theater standing at attention in complete and total stillness watching scenes of wars, planes, tanks, ships, heroes, and finally our flag, flapping in silence.

I-Bay

We FINALLY moved out of the tents and into a brick and mortar structure. It’s not that the tents were all that bad, it was more an issue of convenience. In the tents we had to walk outside to a porta-potty trailer type thing that was located about 200yds away. This trek in the middle of the night was not fun. Due to the need to hydrate during the day, at least one trip per night was unavoidable.

The trailer itself was nice enough, but the problem with its out-sidedness was two-fold. 1. After showering, you were only able to remain clean and sweat –free for about 5 minutes until you started the journey back to the tents. 2. The pipes to the trailer were not buried very deep so the water heated up during the day. Showering in 110+ degree water (and that is with only the cold water faucet turned on) is not very refreshing…in fact, it was a challenge to get soaped up and rinsed off before the scalding water removed your skin along with the dirt.

Now we have our own place in the I-Bay. Our spaces are separated by cubicles and our doors are made of shower curtains. It is small, but it is mine. AND there is in-door plumbing. It is still not necessary to turn on the hot water faucet throughout the showering process but at least the “cold” water is warm, not hot. Afterwards it is now possible to stay clean and sweat-free for an entire evening, unless of course you need to go outside…then all bets are off.