Retirement Countdown

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Don't fix what's not broken.......right!




I really wish more people lived by that motto! With the new US team coming on board, changes came also. We hoped it wouldn’t happen but it’s typical for a new team to try to re-invent the wheel. Everything in the OR has been running smooth as silk since May, through two of the busiest months ever recorded in Kandahar, and yet the changes are happening. Needless to say the OR and a majority of the hospital is pretty ticked off right now. Some of the changes will be beneficial, but all of the changes were instituted without input from all of the key players, OR nurses, Anesthesia, etc. One person had the ideas and the freedom to put them in place and everyone else has to play along. It’s too bad. All I keep saying to myself is 34 days left, 34 days left, 34 days left! Haha.

The number of OR cases has definitely dwindled away, to nothing on some days. It’s really strange to go from 100 miles an hour to 0. It’s really good because people are not getting hurt, but boring for us unfortunately. Many people are saying that it’s the calm before the storm, boy I sure hope it isn’t! The new teams have been going through a lot of training exercises so hopefully they’ll be ready to rock when the time comes.

This week, Wednesday, we had our Hail and Farewell for the US Navy coming in and the Canadians leaving. It was a great party, non-alcoholic beer for everyone! Haha. The picture is of me and HM2 Diaz, he works in the trauma bays, his grass skirt was strangely turning me on! Just kidding! It was a nice get together, time to kick the heels up and relax with good friends, food and music. Welcome Navy and we’ll definitely miss everyone that is leaving soon, it’s been one hell of a ride! I tried loading a picture that is a take on the Brady Bunch, instead we called it the DUTCHUS Bunch! Haha. It wouldn't work because it's a power point picture, I'll try to put it in the picture gallery. The second is of me and Bryan Fox, I worked with him in Portsmouth, VA, it’s nice to see him again.

Shayna has about 3 weeks left with the external fixator on. She’s doing great. Her second semester of Master’s classes is just about over and she is still kicking butt! Way to go hun. Everyone that I work with from the Dutch team is hoping that Shayna gets stationed in Germany when she joins back up so we can go up to the Netherlands to visit, also to hit Denmark to see the people from the Danish team. That would be fantastic. We’ll see.

The totals for September are in, as I stated earlier we have been doing less cases but spending about the same amount of time in the OR. August we did 201 surgeries, September we did 117! What a change.

I’ve got my averages for runs and weight for September. I averaged 4.45 miles per run at an average pace of 8:36 and the weight was averaged at 144.4 pounds, not too bad, holding steady!


Hours worked:
27 SEP 09: 7 Hours
29 SEP 09: 7 Hours (no cases again!?)
1 OCT 09: 12 Hours
3 OCT 09: 12 Hours

# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 3 OCT 09
106 GSW
119 IED
7 SVBIED
13 SUICIDE BOMBER
10 ROCKET ATTACK
42 NBI
6 MINE
9 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 9 SURGERIES)
6 MVA

That’s about it for this week, only about 4 entries to go and them I’m homeward bound, can’t wait! Shayna I love and miss you very, very much, everyone else take care and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Dave








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3 comments:

  1. "If its not broke, don't fix it." My sentiments exactly. You need a grizzled old Chief Boatswains Mate there to explain that.

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  2. I'm a new reader...enjoying your weblog.

    are you on the base at Kandahar Airport?

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  3. Hey Dennis, I think I'll buy you a ticket so you can talk some sense to the powers that be here! Thanks Katherine, I'm at the Role 3 hospital at the airfield, not too bad, keep on reading! Dave

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