The Push

The Push
We’ve read in the news that as of 3 JUL 09 the push to destroy the Taliban has begun. We have not seen a lot of bad guys coming through with injuries, hopefully they are being sent to Allah to enjoy their 72 virgins, which I have been told by a credible source is actually 72 nuns with shotguns! 68,000 US troops are going to be here by the end of the year which is being compared to the Fallujah push in 2004, hopefully we’ll get similar results.

The picture is of me saying hello to everyone. I was feeling pretty tired at that time, I think we were on our 14th hour of surgery. Actually I was very tired! Haha. Shayna is doing very well back in Wisconsin, getting great care from Mary and Larry. The cat is doing good, loving the attention from Larry. Shayna is also getting the chance to see a lot of her family, which is always a good thing. She is now getting all of her information ready for surgery number two, which will be on 24 JUL. The second one should be a bit better for her since she’ll know what to expect, and she’ll be a little closer to NY from WI instead of CA.

I’m now up to 40 scrub hours, I believe I need to hit 500 in order to be able to take the test for the RNFA certification, if any of you know the particulars could you please email me at ltjgdave2003@yahoo.com so I can start on any of it while I’m out here. Thanks.

This week was by far the longest and busiest week yet. Thursday we had our first 24 hour work day, we all knew that it was coming and it won’t be the last. Yesterday was a 15 hour work day, felt kind of short compared to the previous workday! So that’s 39 hours of work in 2 days, again this leads back to the aforementioned overtime question! Haha.

CASES:

5 JUL: 1. Open reduction internal fixation mandible, washout and external fixation of right leg, washout and steinman pin insertion left foot. 2. Washout right leg, fasciotomy. 3. Bilateral fasciotomies of lower legs. 4. Incision and drainage of left arm.

7 JUL: 1. Washout bilateral legs, wound vac placement right ankle. 2. Abdominal washout, removal of foreign body right axilla (armpit), right eye repair. 3. Appendectomy.

9 JUL: 1. Open reduction internal fixation distal locking plate left femur. 2. External fixation revision pelvis. 3. Molar extraction X 4. 4. Washout GSW left pelvis. 5. EGD. 6. Tracheostomy, dressing change bilateral legs, central line placement. 7. IVC placement. 8. Angiogram left jugular. 9. External fixation right ulna. 10. Exploratory laparotomy.

11 JUL: 1. Dressing change foot. 2. Tracheostomy, leg washout. 3. Washout and closure of leg wound. 4. Washout and wound vac placement leg. 5. Exploratory laparotomy, bowel resection, exfix right leg, slab left arm. 6. Emergency laparoscopy, clamshell thoracotomy. 7. Tracheostomy, facial wound exploration and washout. 8. Craniotomy. 9. Exploratory laparotomy.

Well that about does it for this week in lovely Kandahar, Afghanistan. I’m not running due to strict orders from my wife Shayna and the Orthopaedic surgeon here, I don’t want to disobey either of them! Haha. So we’ll see how that goes. Shayna I love and miss you very much, everyone else take care and keep in touch.

Dave