Mis-comm-u-ni-ca-tion

I’m going to start this week with a funny story. Well I think it’s funny, and I have a twisted sense of humor sometimes! Parris is a guy that’s deployed with us and he’s a good, down home guy from Colorado. Omar is a really nice guy from Holland. They work out in the gym together every night or so. The other night Omar looks at Parris while they are lifting weights and says, “Hey Parris, show me your balls” of course this catches Parris off guard and he says, “No, I’m not going to show you my balls”. Omar insists and again states, “Come on Parris I want to see your balls”. Parris is getting pretty mad at this point and looks at Omar and says, “Man, I’m not going to show you my balls”. Well this is where the miscommunication took place, Omar explains to Parris that in the Dutch language “balls” means muscle balls, or the biceps muscle when flexed. It was a funny story and now everyone is saying that Omar likes the “balls”! haha. It may not be that funny, but it was a good thing to happen so we could all get a much needed belly laugh.

Ralph, or as we call him “King Ralph”, is our Dutch all around surgeon (general, ortho, etc. surgeon). He looked at me this past weekend and said, “Hey, tomorrow is Sunday”. Of course I had no idea what day it was. I told him that I have two days out here, primary call day and secondary call day! He hasn’t been here that long , so his days haven’t jumbled into each other yet.

The picture of this post is of me eating the best cookies I’ve ever tasted made by Shayna and her mom Mary. Fantastic, and this is not just my opinion, they went around like hot cakes! Thanks again hun for such a good birthday present!

Shayna is doing well, really psyched to get the second surgery done and then two weeks after that to get the first external fixator off of the right leg. She also finishes her first semester of her Master’s program in the upcoming weeks. I’m very proud of her, I couldn’t even make it through one Master’s class! If all goes to plan she’ll be done with her first Master’s degree by mid-next year, and then trudge through her second Master’s shortly after. She’s going to try to get into the USAF as an Officer by the end of this year. I really think that she’ll be able to do it. So needless to say we will not be settling down in Tampa in a couple of years, we’ll be there eventually though.

Only 7 paydays left, woohoo! Time is really flying by, and although the working hours have been extremely long it has been a good ride so far! I’m learning sooooo much about scrubbing that it’s helping me with circulating cases. You can’t beat a “hands on” lesson on instrumentation and how they work, even though I’m taught in either Danish or Dutch! Haha.

CASES:

13 JUL: 1. Open reduction internal fixation facial fractures (8 plates!), enucleation (removal) of eyes. 2. Exploratory lap, colostomy, washout left forearm, incision and drainage left leg. 3. EGD. 4. Exploratory lap, colostomy. 5. Craniotomy. 6. Washout left arm, washout left leg, removal of foreign body.

15 JUL: 1. Washout bilateral legs. 2. Washout left leg. 3. Tracheostomy. 4. Washout right hip.

17 JUL: 1. Right leg amputation (below the knee), scrotal closure, external fixation left lower extremity, washout left hand, amputation ring finger left leg. 2. Extraction lower wisdom teeth. 3. Extraction of teeth, incision and drainage neck abscess, closed reduction mandible. 4. Abdominal washout. 5. IVC filter placement.

We had another ramp ceremony (or angel ceremony as we called it in Iraq) today. I haven’t been going to the ceremonies because that is one of two things that bothered me after I returned from Iraq. The first thing that bothered me was every time I heard a door slam I thought that it was a suicide bomber lighting himself off and I would think about running to the OR, the second thing was when I would hear the song Amazing Grace, that was what they would play with a bagpipe as they would take the remains to the flight line. I really don’t want to have such horrible memories from this deployment. I don’t know if that makes me an inconsiderate person but I do know that I respect every person that gives his or her life for this cause.

It is now the 18th of July and I just had breakfast with Don Shula! Okay, I really didn’t eat breakfast with him, but he was in the galley this morning eating across the room from me. He was joined by Warrick Dunn and an actor from Nip Tuck and some female actress or singer or something. It’s really nice that people like that take time out of their schedule to visit the troops.

Shayna I love and miss you very, very much and keep your head up, you’re almost done with your surgical journey. Everyone else take care and I’ll be seeing you.

Dave