Student meets the Master

Some of the new US OR team showed up this week to start training to take over the hospital from the Canadians in mid-OCT. It's a good group that are young but really chomping at the bit to begin, those of you who know me well know that I'm throwing my hands up in the air and telling them to run with it! haha. They will undoubtedly be able to handle anything that is thrown at them. The person who is going to be the head of the OR is LCDR Keith Ferguson. He happens to be the reason that I now work as an OR nurse! He talked me in to coming with him in 2004 in Jacksonville, FL to check out the OR to see if I liked it, obviously I did. It was definitely a surprise to see him here after 5 years of being apart. Welcome Keith and you’ll do a fantastic job. The first picture posted is of me and Keith. The second picture is of me eating a "healthy" dinner after 11 hours in the OR!

The Canadians have done a fantastic job running the OR and the transition is going as smooth as silk. Everyone has been very professional and keeping away from the “us vs. them” environment. As I’ve said in the past, I’ve never had the opportunity to work with so many people from so many different countries and it has been a great experience, I recommend it. You realize that everyone is basically the same, and the similarity to yourself is astounding. I hear “We are the World” playing in the background! Haha.

Shayna is doing great, only one month to go with the external fixator on the left leg, piece of cake! She sure is ready to have it removed and start some rehabilitation. She said that her calves look like sticks from not being worked out! She has a 97% average in both of her Master’s classes, proud of you hun keep it up. Once she is an officer in the Army or the Air Force it’s going to be strange being the military spouse for once, I don’t know if I’ll go to the wives club meetings or not!

It has been an eerily slow week this week. I guess it’s because Ramadan has ended and everyone celebrates for 3 days of eating and relaxing. It certainly is appreciated here! It also has been a very sad week starting Monday with 4 guys that came in, one passing away. I was scrubbed in to the case when he passed and it hit pretty hard. The last time I cried was when Shayna and I exchanged vows, and I almost did again during the case, very, very bad day. It’s okay now though.

Hours worked:
21 SEP 09: 12 Hours
23 SEP 09: 8 Hours of training, no cases! What the….?
25 SEP 09: 14.5 Hours

# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 25 SEP 09
105 GSW
113 IED
7 SVBIED
13 SUICIDE BOMBER
10 ROCKET ATTACK
41 NBI
6 MINE
9 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 9 SURGERIES)
5 MVA

That’s it for this week. Shayna I love and miss you, and I’m sorry if I upset you buying the SUV, but I really think that you’ll love it! Everyone else take care and keep in touch.

Dave