3 Paydays to go!!!!

Only 3 paydays to go and then I get to see my honey! Woohoo! As in the previous deployments this is the time when you realize just how long you have been gone (since 28 MAR 09), it’s something how fast time flies by. I wouldn’t say that it’s flying by because we are having fun although the Canadian, Danish and Dutch teams have been fun and fantastic, I’d say it’s just because we have been very, very busy. Our monthly case load has been dwindling down as far as cases go, and that’s a good thing. The new people are starting to trickle in and before we know it the old codgers (us!) will be put aside so the young bucks (the new US, Canadian and Danish team) can take over. That will not be a bad day!

I've posted pictures of the Qatar trip, again! Haven't really taken any new ones here yet. I did work on a team picture for the OR, but am having trouble getting it to open. As soon as I get it finished correctly I'll post it here, it's pretty funny.

Out of the last 33 months of knowing Shayna, I will have been deployed 15 of them. Now that she is going to join the Air Force or the Army as an officer, I’m sure we’ll be apart for a couple more deployments (up to 2 years!). We were talking the other night and we both said that it’s strange how we just take it as a part of our lives, where many people you see on Survivor are crying because they have been separated from their loved ones for only 39 days! Granted it helps a lot having access to forms of communication (phone calls, internet, letters etc.), but just think what it was like for the military personnel just a mere 20 years ago, no communication for up to 4 months! Those were the days of the strong men and women of the military!

Hours worked:
13 SEP 09: 16 Hours
15 SEP 09: 17 Hours
17 SEP 09: 13 Hours
19 SEP 09: 13 Hours

# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 19 SEP 09
104 GSW
109 IED
7 SVBIED
13 SUICIDE BOMBER
10 ROCKET ATTACK
41 NBI
6 MINE
9 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 9 SURGERIES)
4 MVA

That’s about it for this week in beautiful Kandahar! Shayna I love and miss you more than you can imagine, everyone else take care and I’ll be seeing you soon!
Dave