There will never be sand in my... again!

2011-01-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the time gap! Well I finally had a holiday weekend off for New Year's Eve, with fantastic plans to go to a co-worker's house and celebrate with a huge bash around a bonfire. That plan basically went down the toilet when I caught a heavy duty cold, not good! So basically I went to bed at around 10:00PM sick as a dog, while Shayna stayed up until midnight. Not fun for her at all, I owe her! haha. She didn't mind, and knows what I was going through because I gave her the cold, which she is experiencing now. Overall she is feeling much better. I'm getting everything organized for the next big run, the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey, a 178 mile, 12 man relay race on 3-4 JUN. So far only 3 of the 12 have been training, hopefully more will start soon. It's an interesting race, check out the website sometime. Our team name is going to be "Running With Sharp Objects", kind of fitting for a hospital team. Things are getting busier for Shayna at the gym, the new year's resolutionists have invaded the gym, hopefully she'll pick up some personal training clients soon. Well that's about it, I hope everyone is doing fine and having a great new year so far, take care.
Dave

Great Holiday

2010-12-29T08:02:00.000-08:00

Hello! I hope everyone has had a great Christmas, ours was fantastic! First of all we did not make the trip to the mountains the weekend prior to Christmas, heavy snowfall was predicted and everyone didn't want to get stuck up there for a week or so! We ended up going to Shayna's boss's house and had some drinks, overall a good time, nice and relaxing. I was on call Thursday through Sunday over Christmas, there were 6 baby deliveries with no c-sections, praise the Lord! So I was stressed for 4 days, but didn't get called in, great Christmas present. Christmas day was spent over at our General Surgeon's house, he's a great surgeon and a fantastic cook, I think he missed his calling! haha. We had a standing rib roast, homemade rolls, etc., it gave my Grandmother's cooking a run. I got a bunch of Bengals stuff from Shayna, golf balls, tees, wallet, so I'll be ready for next season when they make their run for the Super Bowl! woohoo. New Year's Eve will be spent at a fellow OR Nurse's home. She lives on a farm, so it's bon fire time, takes me back to the good days back in Kentucky, gonna be a blast! I should be adding a picture coming up soon, have to find my camera first. Take care and have a great New Year!
Dave

Break Time

2010-12-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

Obviously I haven't put any posts up lately, sorry about that! Nothing much going on, just trying to pre-plan my departure from the Navy. Sounds like it would be an easy task, but nothing in the Navy goes easy, or as planned. The big issue, as always, is staffing. I'm trying to take leave that I have accrued over the past year or two and due to staffing it just doesn't work out. Other that that nothing much going on. Shayna and I will be going to a cabin in the mountains with some of her friends, should make for some good photos, I'll write more when we finish that trip. Take care and I hope everyone's holidays have been and will be great!
Dave

Busy, Busy

2010-11-07T15:35:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy weekend. Shayna's dad, Larry, and soon to be step-mom, Karen, came in town to visit. Friday Larry and I started the day with a 4 mile run, came home to shower and then we were off to Hollywood for Shayna's show at the INBC. Shayna had the judging phase at 0900 on Saturday. After that phase we went to eat at a sushi restaurant on Melrose Ave. It sounds glamorous, but in my opinion Hollywood and LA are filled with a lot of people which equals a lot of traffic and bad attitudes. I got a parking ticket for not putting money in the meter, on a weekend. I assumed that Hollywood was like all other states in the country and parking was free on the weekend, wrong! After that we drove to the Hollywood sign and took a picture. The second part of the competition started at 3:30 pm and lasted until 7:30 pm. We hit the road for home and arrived at around 10:30 pm. We woke up at 0745 and took off for the paintball field. The picture above is of Larry, Karen and I in between some of the games. They had a good time and got a lot of exercise along the way. Now we are just relaxing and watching some football, go Bengals tomorrow night. If they lose I have to wear a Steelers scrub hat and post it as my profile picture on Facebook for a week, God I hope they win! Well that's about it for this week. Take care.
Dave

Another one down

2010-10-25T21:56:00.001-07:00

A great week. I finally got some leave and took the opportunity to go to Washington, D.C. and compete in the Army 10-miler. What an awesome race. A lot of the Vets that have had various types of amputations and visual impairments also competed, talk about inspiration! I thought a lot about all the work we did in Iraq and Afghanistan and to see them out there competing was incredible. Look up the Army 10-miler website and read some of the stories, they're something else. The time spent in DC also allowed me to see some of my old friends from deployments and also family members. Pictured above is Carl and I, we were in Ramadi, Iraq together for 8 months. What a good friend and extremely smart guy. It was fun to reminisce about the deployment, I guess it was a warm up for when I'm very old, very retired and hanging out at the VFW! Sarah was another person that ran and hung out with us for a while, she and I were deployed to Afghanistan together, another fantastic person. A funny story to follow later. My brother Dan, who I haven't seen in a about a year and a half, and my cousin Dina, who I haven't seen in over 15 years, also were there. Dan participated in his first run in about 10 years and finished great, in the top half of 21,000 runners! Dina smoked the run with a 1 hour 28 minute time. We have all agreed to meet up next year somewhere to run together again, probably the Flying Pig 1/2 Marathon in Cincinnati in May. Now for the story. Myself, Dan and Jack (Dan's friend) decided to scope out a place to eat and watch football after the race, Sarah to join us later. We went to a sports pub first and it was packed, standing room only. The greeter said that the owner also owned the restaurant down the street and it was empty with plenty of televisions with football on. We headed down the street and went into the place. It was empty as advertised and we decided to order some food. The menus came with a naked lady on the front cover, that's when we realized we were sitting in a strip club, the neon lights and low lighting also clued us in! We stayed because we thought that the dancers were off on Sunday for the games, and we had to wait for Sarah. Everything went well until the 4:00 games started, that's when the dancers headed for the stage! We were gentlemen and walked out with Sarah, although the dancer was probably depressed when 3 guys walked out when she started doing her thing on stage! haha. We went to the original restaurant and there was now space for us. We'll be talking about that for a while. That's enough excitement for this entry. Over all a great weekend. Take care.
Dave

It's been a while

2010-10-14T18:40:00.001-07:00

Hello,
It's been a while since I've posted. I've spent a majority of the last couple of weeks trying to get my back to feel better, not a fun time! The 'ol back started acting up after a workout at the gym, oddly enough the workout was supposed to be cross-training for running so I could fight off injuries, go figure. After 2 trips to a chiropractor and being treated to a massage by my awesome wife I'm feeling better, now I just have to get back to where I was in my training before the injury. My next race is the Army 10-miler in Washington, D.C. on the 24th of October, I should be ready but I'm pretty certain I won't be breaking any personal time records. Shayna has her second show this weekend and again due to scheduling conflicts I cannot go to cheer her on. She'll do great at the Sacramento show, I'm really proud of her. She also got hired on to work at the gym as a personal trainer, that's fantastic also. I guess I can never get fat now! haha. Work is still work, I'm sure like your jobs, not any different in the Navy. The last year, 350 days to be exact, in the Navy I'm going to try to keep my mouth shut and just get through the days. I have to admit it is getting to be much better since we are gaining a couple of OR nurses, that is a huge relief! I'm just waiting for the inevitable, which is pulling people out of the OR to do administration jobs, again leaving us short-handed! I've been in the Navy too long to believe otherwise. I hope everyone is doing good, things are great here. Take care and I'll have some better entries this weekend. Take care.
Dave

Great Weekend

2010-09-19T18:37:00.001-07:00

Hello there! It was a great weekend, nice to blow off some built up steam. As I mentioned in the last post, this weekend was going to be about paintball and golf, I did both. My wife, Shayna, is the best wife on the planet to allow me to do that, she probably enjoys the quiet for the couple of hours that I'm gone! haha. In the above picture you can see everyone looking at me and laughing, I made a smart a#$% comment and they laughed. Imagine me making a comment like that! haha. Golf went really well today, I shot a 102. I would have broke the 100 stroke mark, but I ended up shooting a 10 on a par 5, it destroyed my chances of hitting the goal. Oh well, there are many more days of golf ahead of me, I'll eventually do it!
I want to thank Ms. Mcgovern for including me in her dissertation for her Master's Degree in London. She called me about a month ago and scheduled a phone interview with me about my blog. Specifically the parts when I was writing while deployed in Afghanistan. It was a great paper on how the news differs between "big media" and the information being passed on by "bloggers". Very interesting and well written, I wish her luck.
I've been looking at my hit list of what countries have been reading my entries and noticed that there have been some hits from Puerto Rico. I was stationed at Roosevelt Roads from 1992-1994. Just interested to hear from someone down there to see who you are and what it is like down there now that the base is closed. Drop me a line sometime at ltjgdave2003@yahoo.com. Well I think that's about it for this week. Take care.
Dave

Another Duty Weekend

2010-09-15T12:50:00.001-07:00

Hello, well another duty weekend completed! It was a little busier than usual, called in at 1030 pm on Friday night and stayed until 2am Saturday, then called in at 0630am on Sunday until 1000 am or so. At least they were spread apart! While working I was thinking to myself when I'm a civilian I would be making at least $600 or so for coming in for those days, not going to be too bad at all! Have I said lately that I can't wait to retire and start working on a second career? haha. Shayna went to support one of her friends in a figure competition and enjoyed the heck out of La Jolla, CA. She said that it was absolutely beautiful, I'm glad she had the opportunity to go hang out with the girls for a weekend, we all need that every now and then. This upcoming weekend we are having another paintball war on Saturday and then I'm golfing on Sunday morning, hopefully I'll break 100 strokes this time! Well that's about it for this week, I'll write more next week.
Dave

Number 13

2010-09-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

Hello, well it was a great weekend! Friday I drove down to Anaheim/Huntington Beach, CA for the Disney 1/2 Marathon. I met one of my good friends, Mike, for the race. It was nice to see him since we ran our first 1/2 Marathon exactly 4 years ago! I was worried checking into the Hilton and my room number was 313, I'm kind of superstitious and thought it was going to be a problem! I don't have any pictures from the race yet, they'll be on the next entry. Shayna didn't come down with me because it would be too much of a downer watching Mike and I happy after the race, she still isn't 100% for running yet, it'll come! We hit the Dodger-Giants game at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. The first picture was funny because that police command vehicle was parked out in front of the entrance to our section of the stadium, we called it the "Ghetto Section"! We sat on wooden benches and ate all the food we could, which was included in the price, so you could imagine the lines and smells by the bathrooms. Honestly I wouldn't have wanted to be in any other section, the people were really a lot of fun and really into the game, great experience. You can see in the second picture I'm wearing a Dodger hat, although I'm a die hard Reds fan. I called the wearing of the Dodger hat a form of life insurance! It worked, I'm alive! There were a couple of Giants fans sitting in front of us that went through absolute hell during the entire game, good on them though for coming out to support their team. The last picture is taken from the parking lot, LA is in the background. Saturday we went golfing at Meadowlark Golf Course in Huntington. Challenging course, beautiful, but it was the longest game of golf known to man, just short of 6 HOURS! It was packed. Mike and I did so bad that we stopped keeping score at hole 13 or so. We met some nice locals there also, great day. Sunday we woke up at 3:30 in the morning to head out to the race, yep 3:30 in the morning. We were lined up and ready to start at 5:15 when the race actually started at 6:00. Great weather, 60s with cloud cover. My personal best for 1/2 marathons is 1hr 43min, I finished this one in 1hr 46min, I felt great the entire race and afterwards. Mike started the race with an Achilles injury and it held him back the entire race, good for him for pushing through though. We went out and had some beers later that night and then laid out on the beach on Monday, where I got an impressive sunburn. Wind, cooler weather and cloud cover is a bad mixture, it was a ninja sunburn, didn't feel it happening at all. I'm really glad to be home with Shayna and am looking forward to the Army 10-miler in DC toward the end of October. My cousin from Pennsylvania and my brother from Florida will be coming to compete, should be a good weekend. Well that's about it for this entry, take care.

Dave

Lemoore or Afghanistan?

2010-08-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

As you can see by the picture on the left I was pretty confused this past week. I couldn't figure out if I was in Afghanistan or Lemoore, CA? It was hella hot! Running during the day was definitely out, so I was getting up at 0445 to get a good run in, not good when I ended up staying late at work due to being on duty. Very long days. The strange thing is that today the high is 77 degrees, I was actually able to run at 2pm with no problems at all. Next Sunday is the Disneyland 1/2 marathon, really looking forward to that. My friend Mike is coming out from Virginia. We're going to see the Dodgers vs. the Giants on Friday at the stadium in Anaheim, CA, Saturday we are hitting the links somewhere to play the best golf of our lives (yeah right!), Sunday is the race and then Monday we are going to recover from the run and the hangover! This blog was part of a research project of a person in London. It was cool actually doing a phone interview with her. It's going to be nice to see her finished project, she had some interesting questions. I'll post some excerpts from the paper when I get a copy. Shayna's next competition is on 16 OCT. She'll be doing the bikini competition this time so she can work up to the figure competition again. I can officially say that I'm married to a bikini competitor! woohoo. Well that's about it for this week. I'll be posting the next article late next week due to being out of town. Take care.

Dave

Hello

2010-08-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a good two weeks since the last post. I had the opportunity to be the department head for a week and I really enjoyed the challenge of keeping everything running smoothly, I feel that I did a pretty good job and that's satisfying! Now I'm back to being a regular staff OR nurse and that's a good thing also, nothing to worry about except taking care of the patient and making sure that everything is done safely and efficiently. 404 days left in the Navy as of today, hopefully it continues to fly by, I'm sure it will. Been in touch with Andria our realtor in Jacksonville, FL and it looks like we'll be in great shape when it comes time to buy a house out there, probably around June or so. The prices keep falling on the homes there, it's nice being on the other side of a crappy economy, at least we'll get a fantastic deal on a nice home. 2 weeks until the Disney 1/2 Marathon, I just finished a 10 mile run in 1hr 25min, so I think I'm ready. Not a whole lot of pains to speak of, just the norm, knees and back a little sore nothing major though. It's going to be a really nice weekend. I'm meeting up with an old friend, we both ran our first 1/2 marathon in Virginia Beach back in 2005, I can't believe 5 years have passed already! We are planning on going to the LA Dodger, SF Giants baseball game on Friday the 3rd of September, on Saturday hitting the golf course, Sunday we're running the race and then Monday recovering from the hangover! haha. Shayna is going to stay home, she really doesn't want to be surrounded by a bunch of runners when she is not able to participate herself, it's a bummer for her and I understand. Shayna really enjoyed her first competition experience and is hitting the gym twice as hard now for her next one in November. She looks fantastic! I'm very proud of her and am in awe of the dedication and focus that she possesses. Well that's about it for this post. I'll have a picture of something on the next one. Take care.
Dave

Fun Day

2010-08-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

Let me explain the picture! I just finished winning a challenge through Nike+ called the Kandahar Kup and the helmet was the trophy. The sticker on the front of it is the Afghanistan campaign medal. Myself and 3 others that were deployed to Kandahar last year decided to have a race to see who could hit 500 miles first, or who ran the furthest in a year whichever came first. The 500 miles were completed in 9 months, not too bad. You should see the insane challenge I'm in now, same criteria just running with a bunch of insane runners. We started on 11 JUN, two runners are already at around 350 miles leaving the rest of us mere mortals in the dust! I golfed this morning and shot a 109, unfortunately that is my norm. I am going to get a new set of clubs in October, maybe that will do the trick. Shayna is going through one Hell of a week, being the week prior to her competition. She has to eat and drink very little to get the muscles to pop out for the stage on Saturday. I think she will do very well. That's about it for this week. Take care.
Dave

The Worst Drivers

2010-07-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

Shayna and I went to Morgan Hill, CA yesterday for her 2 mile open water swim this morning. She did great for her first competition finishing in 1hr 5 min! Fantastic! On the way there and back I was thinking about the State with the worst drivers, from my perspective. I came down to California and Virginia in a tie for first. The closer you get to Los Angeles the further in first place California goes! I just want to say to all the drivers in California, the left lane is for PASSING and the right lane is for SLOW drivers, or ones doing the speed limit. It's really not that hard! Traffic problems in this State would decrease exponentially if people would just follow that simple rule. I'm really proud of Shayna and she looked like she had the "high" that you get from completing a goal. She finished in the middle of the pack of seasoned swimmers which is saying a lot about how she did for her first competition. Nothing much planned for this week and I have duty again next weekend, have I said how much I hate my current work situation lately? haha. It's going to get better in September/October when we gain 2 OR nurses, I can't wait. Well that's about it for this week. Take care.

Dave

Nothing New

2010-07-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

I was going to post a picture of what I do during duty, basically just sitting on the couch watching movies and playing video games. Yep, 42 and still addicted to video games! haha. It makes time fly by. I'm sure that Shayna is bored to death when I have duty, which is every other day and every other weekend. It should get better in the September/October time frame, when we get one or two more OR nurses on the watch bill, thank you Lord! We'll have some more pics for you this weekend, Shayna has her 2 mile lake swim competition this weekend, she's fired up for it and I'm sure she'll do fine. Pretty much how I run, run to finish not win! haha. Well that's about it for this week, I'll have a better entry next weekend.
Dave

Sorry Netherlands and Golfing

2010-07-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well I was rooting for the Dutch in the World Cup finale, the outcome was obviously not in my favor! Sorry guys. The Dutch played a much more physical game than Spain and I like that type of play. There's always next, well no, maybe the year after, well no again, okay there's always 4 years from now! haha. I think the US will take it then! haha.

Finally got to pick up the sticks and hit the fairways yesterday. What a good time. I shot a 106 which is terrible for most players but better than average for me, so overall a good day. Our tee-time was at 0850 and finished around 1230 or so, just when the heat was becoming unbearable. A lot of water and Gatorade kept me from passing out! I rode in the cart with Bob who used to work with us at the hospital before retiring from the Navy, it was nice being able to spend some time with him and catch up. Hopefully I'll be able to go out again soon. Next weekend is another duty weekend so no leaving and then the following weekend we'll be near San Jose for Shayna's swimming competition. It is called the "Catfish Crawl", basically a 2-mile lake swimming race. I'm sure she'll do great, and also post a lot of pics from her adventure. My next race is creeping up, 5 SEP. Can't wait to see my old friends Mike and Herb, should be another good time. Well that's about it for this week. My condolences go out to the Netherlands, keep your heads up!

Dave

One More Year

2010-07-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

I can't download any pics right now since our router is down until Thursday, so I'm using the I-phone! Another year down, it is my birthday today (42), who knows how many more to go. By far the past couple of years have been my best and it's all due to Shayna. I'm in the best shape of my life, both physically and mentally! I was speaking with Mary, Shayna's mom, and I told her that I'm so thankful that I joined the Navy and finally married a fantastic wife, it doesn't get any better than that. The upcoming year will be filled with planning for the future. Maybe a child, maybe another deployment, maybe Shayna moving out to Jacksonville, FL early to start work, maybe buying a home early to take advantage of the low prices and interest rates, etc. Needless to say a lot of "maybes"! Through all of the crap I've been through with moving a lot and two, technically three, ex-wives I've learned that everything works out for the best. Shayna and I are really optimistic for the move back to Jax and I have a couple of hook-ups for jobs. Am I worried, of course, but I know that we are going to have a great life out there.
I have started a new running competition with some guys/gals at work and I'm getting my butt kicked! I have completed about 120 miles in the past couple of weeks and I'm still behind around 50 miles! These guys are beasts. My mileage has definitely increased which is going to help me for the upcoming 1/2 marathon in Disney on 5 SEP and the Army 10-miler in OCT in DC, but I am sore, I guess it has to do with celebrating another birthday! Well you take care and keep in touch.
I wanted to ask everyone to keep praying for the troops still deployed, I have several friends that are out there in danger, so keep the prayers coming because they worked for me!

Dave

Run and Shoot

2010-06-27T11:19:00.001-07:00

Paintball game again yesterday, still a lot of fun. Maybe I should have been in the infantry instead of medical! I'm sure it's a little different having live rounds being fired at you as opposed to paint. haha. The video below is a little taste of what it's like. I bought a new paintball gun yesterday, it will pay for itself after 10 games or so. The one I purchased is semi-auto and also has the ability to go fully automatic. We had a couple of guys with us yesterday that had fully auto weapons, they looked like the guys from the LA bank robbery years back, just walking slowly and painting everything is sight, pretty impressive. The normal price for the Tippman X7 was $400-$600, I got it for $180 off of Ebay, not a bad deal. Can't wait to play again, everyone had a really good time again.
Running has been a chore the past two weeks. I've completed 91 miles and my legs are feeling it, the left Achilles tendon to be exact. Hopefully I'll be able to get it enough rest to be able to run on Tuesday, we'll see. We started the new running competition and I have been talking sooo much garbage at work that I now have to back it up with many, many miles. I am a very competitive person which makes me want to run more to possibly win the competition, at the same time it is helping me get in great shape for the upcoming 1/2 marathon in Anaheim, CA in September. I believe I'm ready now! haha.
Take care and keep in touch,
Dave

Almost There

2010-06-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

Almost there. "There" meaning a couple of things. First of which is posted above, it is a picture of my request for retirement from the Navy, almost there. Some funny person put the "denied" sticky note over the request, actually I thought that it was really funny. The second "almost there" is what I'm going to be saying for the next 400+ miles of running. We started a new running competition called "The Lew Chase" on Nike+, first to 500 miles in a year. Lew is our general surgeon and he is a running machine. We started the challenge this week and I've been almost there, meaning passing Lews total miles, several times but just can't get there. I've completed 51 miles so far this week and Lew is over 60. Of course I was shooting my mouth off on Thursday at work telling him that I was going to pass him by Monday. I ran 13.1 miles yesterday to take the lead, only to wake up this morning to see that I'm 22 miles behind again. I ran 5 more miles this morning and planning on doing a long one again tomorrow, in hopes that I'll be able to at least catch him! The camaraderie that the competition creates is fantastic, also the motivation is increased to run further which is always good for weight loss. This week has basically flown by with all the competitiveness going on at work, next weekend is another round of paintball, hopefully I'll have some good photos from that. Take care.

Dave

Starting A New....

2010-06-13T20:13:00.001-07:00

Starting a new running competition this week, it's called "The Lew Chase" on Nike+. We decided to call it that after Dr. Diulus who is a running machine and we'll all be chasing him throughout the duration of the challenge! It should be a lot of fun and increase morale a bit more. Shayna is adding another part to her already extensive training program, she received her Trek bike from her sister and brother-in-law for her birthday. Great bike! She is also going to dabble in a bit of "Skinny Girl Margaritas"! Shayna loves to watch the Real Housewife series, thus the interest in the alcohol! I don't know if she'll like it or not, I'll let you know after the test run, she does not drink at all, should be interesting! haha. That's about it for this week, short entry for a "normal" week. Take care.
Dave

Burnin' it up!

2010-06-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

My first attempt at a BBQ for a larger group failed miserably, as you can see by the picture above! The ones that came out that were edible were really good, these little guys unfortunately made it past the edible stage. I had a surprise party/BBQ for Shayna's birthday which is on the 7th. She was caught completely by surprise. She had her comprehensive exam for HR for graduate school and then went swimming afterward which afforded me plenty of time to get the house cleaned up a little, wrap the present, grocery shop and get the people in the house. I knew that it was going to be a little problem with her returning after a stressful test and a 1.5 mile swim, but she was very happy. Shayna had mentioned to me a couple months back that she really liked paintings by Grace Slick (formerly with the band Jefferson Airplane). I bought the painting called "Crossroads", it was number 280 of 300 painted. The reaction I got from her when she opened it was worth all the stress about buying it! All in all it was a fantastic day.

The next two weeks we will be without Jane our PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit) nurse and we will definitely feel the pressure. Jane will be sorely missed. Her replacement, Melody, will be working a couple of days each of the coming two weeks and then be on full time. I hope Melody will be able to fill the hole that will be left by Jane's departure. Needless to say, Jane if you are reading this we're going to miss you and have fun in Germany!

Well that about does it. The next big thing we'll be doing is another paintball war on the 26th of this month, should be a blast again.

Take care,
Dave

Celebrating by Shooting

2010-05-29T14:46:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy week, and a blast! The first pic is of Shayna and I at Knotts Berry Farm near Los Angeles. We were on the Ghost Rider, a wooden roller coaster, and a rough one at that as you can tell by the terror in Shayna's face! haha. It beat us up pretty bad, but overall a fantastic ride. We spent about six hours or so going from coaster to coaster, the Xcelerator being our favorite. You start out by sitting in the car waiting to be brought to the top of the coaster and it takes off all of the sudden, spinning you to the precipice of the hill. You go from 0-55? mph in under 2 seconds, what a rush! We hit that one a couple of times since there was no line. Shayna's favorite one was the Silver Bullet which is a suspension coaster, and equally fun. If you want to know what is the best time to hit a theme park, it's the week before Memorial Day weekend, no line and not too hot yet.

The next pics are from today when we celebrated Memorial Day by declaring a paintball war on the Dental Department. We played approximately 6 games or so of capture the flag. We burned a lot of calories, which we immediately replaced by having a cookout of teriyaki chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs! What a blast and it increased the morale of both departments ten-fold. We will be trying to put together a challenge every month, I believe the people that played today are on board and I'm sure the word will spread like wild fire throughout the hospital about how fun it was. I foresee many people wanting to take us on in the future, well I hope at least! That's about it for this week, should be a fun one next weekend also, I'll keep you updated.

Take care.

Dave

Getting Muddy!

2010-05-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

Marine Corps Mud Run is done! It took our team 1.5 hours to finish a 5 mile run. It was really, really muddy and fun. The above pictures are the before and after shot, I'll be getting a lot more photos and will upload them hopefully by the end of this week. The morning temperature was 45 degrees F, that mixed with mud and water, not a good thing! During the run it was not that bad, we were working really hard to get through the course and burning a lot of calories, so the cold water/mud traps were very welcome at the time. Myself and one other in the group have had hernia surgeries within a couple of months of the race and we did fine. Thank goodness for the advancement of surgical procedures. All and all it was a great time and did wonders to build team morale.

Next weekend is the paintball war versus the Dental Department at the hospital. We drafted a declaration of war against dental and they responded with their own declaration. It has been a fun couple of weeks leading up to the fight, everyone talking trash to each other, should be a really good time. Afterward we are going to have a barbecue and some laughs I'm sure.

Shayna and I are off to Buena Park, CA to go to Knotts Berry Farm. It's an amusement park with some pretty wicked looking coasters. We are adrenaline junkies so it should be a blast. Well that's about it for this week. Look forward to a good post next weekend!

Dave

Just a Swingin'

2010-05-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

What a good week! I'm finally back into running full bore again, completed approximately 26 miles this week and chasing the leader in my Nike+ competition, Sarah. So far I'm about 29 miles behind the lead. There are 4 of us that were deployed together and we decided to call the competition the "Kandahar Kup". The first one to complete 500 miles wins the trophy, a viking helmet complete with blonde locks and an Afghanistan campaign medal bumper sticker on it, it's been a lot of fun and really keeps you focused on running.

The pics show me driving the ball at the range, feel free to critique the swing! Golfing is much like riding a bike, once you get your swing down it comes back quick when you pick up the clubs after a while. We are going to go again today and then hopefully hit a course in the upcoming weeks.

Next week is the Marine Corps Lemoore Mud Run, we have a team of 5 called the NHL Mudslingers. I'm sure I'll have some interesting photos for next weeks post. The race is about 4-5 miles long through water, mud, hills, tubes to crawl through, walls to climb and ropes to swing on. Should be a blast and hopefully injury free.

I saw something really funny yesterday. Shayna and I were on the way to Target in Hanford, CA. At the light before turning in we saw a Hanford Sheriff and a Hanford Police car pull up like there was a robbery somewhere. They responded quickly to about 10 kids hanging out in front of McDonalds goofing off. What's funny about this is that there are homeless people hanging out in the median right next to McDonalds bugging the crap out of all the drivers coming out after finishing shopping! The police and sheriff don't even bat an eye at them. Is that ridiculous? I know that homeless people need money and I pray that I'm never in that situation, but come on. I think I'm going to write the local paper and see what kind of comments I get back, we'll see.

Well that's about it for this week, hopefully some good, muddy photos for the next post.

Dave

Cleaning the Sticks

2010-05-09T10:33:00.001-07:00

I broke out the WalMart clubs, washed them up, ready for the season! I originally bought these around 6 years ago telling myself that if I enjoyed playing I was going to get a new set in a couple of years. I'm going to use these one more year and then pick up a set of Pings, that's going to be a good day! I really believe that a new set will improve the length of your drives, I'm hitting straight as an arrow a majority of the time, just not getting the distance I would like. The last time I played was in Qatar on our 4 day liberty from Afghanistan. We rented Ping clubs out there and it definitely helped my game. Tomorrow Shayna and I are going out to the driving range to see how bad I've gotten in the past year, I'll post pictures of the disaster next week!

We are officially the couple that is not going to get invited to any neighborhood parties. It was verified yesterday when everyone got together on the block except for us, no invite, oh well. I guess it's because I got on about 4 of the couples for them letting their kids play baseball in the 10 foot space between our house and our neighbors. It would have been okay except the ball kept smacking against our house and the parents were right there watching it, not saying anything. Every time the ball would hit the house I kept thinking there was a rocket attack! Not good! They really don't understand because they deploy on ships which equals no rocket attacks! It's the first time that I haven't been invited to a neighborhood get together and it's kind of nice, no feelings of responsibility to be anywhere, all we have to do is relax! Oh well, that's life.

That's about it for this week, take care and keep in touch.

Dave

Hello

2010-05-03T09:29:00.001-07:00

Well the past week was a bad one. I was really sick for the entire week, didn't work a single day! It was nice being off for the first couple of days but after that you can only watch so much TV and play only so many video games! Shayna also received the virus from me, I guess it's the gift that keeps on giving. She is feeling much better also. Nothing much else happened, just a lot of crackers and Canada Dry Ginger Ale, it's amazing how much better that simple fix makes you feel. I'll write some more interesting stuff next weekend.

Dave

The Revenge of the Chili Dog

2010-04-26T11:29:00.001-07:00

Well after a long week at work, time for some relaxation at Bass Lake, CA. Well it was relaxing for about 4 hours or so, then I had the chili dog for lunch. Shayna said, "Are you sure you want to eat that?", and of course I said that I would be fine, I want to drink, smoke a little, and eat bad food all weekend. Well I did have a couple of cigarettes, didn't have a single beer, and ended up in the bathroom all night Saturday and Sunday morning. It's now Monday and still has me running to the bathroom every 1/2 hour or so, not good! As you can see by the picture to the left we were very happy to be there, it was taken after eating the chili dog and before the canoe trip. We were on the lake for about an hour and then had to head back in, I was tired, little did I know that it was the beginning signs of a very long night. Well enough bathroom talk. We did have a good time overall, it was only 1.5 hours from Lemoore and it felt as if we were in another universe. Fantastic place to get away to relax, we're going to do it again in a couple of weeks, sin chili dog! The picture on the right is of our view from the back porch, fantastic. It was nice just sitting there in the complete silence, and perfect weather. I have duty next weekend so no trips. You guys take care and keep in touch.

Dave

Reason #596

2010-04-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well no pictures this week, I'd probably get in trouble from work if I posted pictures of me doing what I'd like to be doing! Now that was confusing, I even confused myself. To explain a little further, we are down to 2 OR nurses due to deployments, and that means we have duty every other day, every other weekend. Duty is carrying the pager just in case there is a c-section, appendectomy, cholecystectomy that needs to go to the OR. This becomes a problem when you get called in for a case around 1 in the morning, when they usually go, and then have to recover the patient, this equals an average of a 3 hour stay after the page. So that leaves us getting home at 4 in the morning, going to sleep for 2 hours, getting up at 6 in the morning and working a full day, not good, not safe and not smart! Now we knew in January that we were going down to 2 OR nurses on 9 April. We brought this point up at that time and were told that it was being covered, so much for that idea! We were finally told on 16 April that the contract is in place, I'm thankful for that but now we have to train a new employee to get him/her credentialed, etc., and that will take at least 3-4weeks, what a mess. I really don't think that it's our command's problem, I believe that the whole system is a mess. Can we bring it back to a simpler time? If you need a worker why can't you just go out and get one instead of going through mounds of red tape to get the problem solved. Believe me, with our economy in the toilet there are plenty of people that need jobs out there, am I right? Reason #596 I'm turning down Lieutenant Commander and getting out in 532 days, but who's counting? haha.

Take care and keep in touch.

Dave

The Couch

2010-04-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

The first picture is how Shayna and I basically spend our time, on the couch! That is if we are not working out or running, so I guess the couch time is justified! The second pic is of Mohinder sitting up, not that he follows any of our commands though. He sure does love the straws, he's mesmerized by them, hilarious.

We actually got off of the couch last night. We went to the Cellar Door in Visalia, CA, nice place. Basically it's a big dance floor with a stage for a band and a bunch of couches all around the room, very nice. The band was pretty good, but the solo artist that played in between sets was fantastic. He played the guitar with that Southern Louisiana sound, I love that. We went to another place called Crawdaddy's down the street, it was a dance club, I felt out of place there, but still it was nice to get out and do something. We went with my friend Aaron from work and his wife Oksana, sp?. We are looking forward to spending some more time with them in the future.

That's about it for this week, I have duty again next weekend so definitely more couch time to come!

Dave

First Run After Hernia Repair

2010-04-03T13:44:00.001-07:00

The first run after a two-week lay off due to hernia surgery went well. The first picture is actually when I was walking before the run, not a bad recovery at all. Now I'm ready to start training for the Marine Corps Mud Run in Lemoore on 22 MAY, the Disney 1/2 marathon in Anaheim in September, and then finally the Army 10-miler in DC in October! woohoo. There are a bunch of my friends getting together for all three runs, it'll be nice seeing some of the people I was deployed with again. I spoke with my friend Keith that ran the OR in Kandahar after I left and he said that there are a bunch of people coming from Denmark, Holland, Canada and throughout the States to Vegas sometime in October. I'll definitely attend that if it all comes together. If any of you heard about that please email me at ltjgdave2003@yahoo.com and fill me in.

The second pic is how our cat Mohinder gets our attention now. Very smart, but I still like watching TV so he'll have to try something else! haha. He's now 14 pounds, getting huge.

The last pic is of the welcome home signs for some of our local squadrons. It reminds me of the past when armies would return from battle to a huge celebration, it's nice to see that the tradition is holding strong on the base here.

Shayna is doing great and will be updating her blog also in a couple of minutes, check it out at the link to the right "Building Shayna". Well that about does it for the update this week, take care and keep in touch.

Dave

Recovery

2010-03-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

Still recovering! I just did a 3 mile walk in 49 minutes, and I'm tired. That's pretty sad considering I'm a runner! I know I have to recover, but I really want to start running again, supposedly I can start this Friday, we'll see. I had a major break through this morning, I rolled onto my belly with minimal pain, woohoo. Man do I feel old right now. haha.

As you can see by the new link on the right my wife, Shayna, has started a blog describing what it's like going through training to get to a figure competition. Should be a very interesting blog, since she just went through the leg straightening surgery last year! She's a trooper. I helped her set it up, so hopefully she keeps up with it and has a blast. She said that she is going to write an article about her journey for a fitness magazine, I'm sure that it will get published eventually. So check out the blog at http://makingshayna.blogspot.com/.

Back to work on this coming Friday. I'm looking forward to it. It's been great relaxing here with Shayna for the past week, but I need to get back to normalcy once again, and finish out this last year and a half in the Navy. I've been putting feelers out to see what my income will be once I get out, debating between travel nursing and per diem, both are great pay, and both have ups and downs. Just have to do the ol' pro's and con's list to make my decision. Shayna and I were talking the other day about how strange it's going to be to stay in a place for more than 3-4 years, we wonder if we'll get the "moving bug" once we've been at a place that long. We'll see.

Well that about wraps it up for this week, sorry no pics, I didn't think you'd want to see another of me sitting on the couch with a bag of frozen peas on my crotch! Take care.

Dave

Herrrrrrnia and Brain Injuries!

2010-03-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll recall my entry called "Turtle Roll". That entry was about a year ago, well during the roll I injured my left ankle and also obtained my second hernia. I had the right inguinal hernia repaired on the 18th of this month and the above pictures are of what I've been doing since! My cat, Mohinder, has been doing a good job of taking care of me, as you can see above. He lays on my legs and then challenges the camera when it is on, "What are you taking pictures of?", haha. Shayna has been a godsend once again, while her old husband has been out of commission for a while, she's been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, I guess I can be kinda needy every now and then, okay, I'm a wuss! Once again I realize how lucky I am to have her, it's been great.

Shayna is still working out a lot and getting ready for the upcoming competition in Culver City, CA in May, she can't wait, and she's going to do great. She's also been out of commission for about a week with a bad muscle pull in her lower right back, but coming along nicely. One thing that has been a pain in another part of the body is dealing with the new GI Bill. They have conveniently forgotten to pay her all that is due to her for the last part of 2009, and dealing with them has been next to impossible, probably what it's going to be like once the government gets it's hands on our health care system, brace for shock people! It's going to be a wild ride, hopefully a good one though.

I'm attaching an article that addresses head injuries that our service members have been experiencing since being in Iraq and Afghanistan, pretty interesting stuff. Get the word out about our warriors and the help that they WILL need in the near future, if not now. Here it is:

Traumatic Brain Injuries in the Military

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is becoming a common wound of modern warfare. It has even been coined as the "signature wound" of the War on Terror. While TBI is becoming more prevalent in wartime activity, many service men and women continue to go undiagnosed. Institutions, US Department of Veterans Affairs, are working to make quick and accurate diagnoses in order to prescribe appropriate and effective treatment.

TBI is causes by forced trauma to the head, either by being shaken or hit. The severity of TBI varies from case to case, but symptoms range from mild concussions to a debilitating state. The majority of TBI's acquired by military personnel are classified as Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries, (MTBI's). Initial symptoms of MTBI consist of loss of consciousness, disorientation, loss of memory, headache and temporary loss of hearing and vision. They are often partnered with anxiety, irritability, difficulties processing information, limited concentration amongst other problems experienced down the road. While MTBI is most common amongst the men and women of the armed forces, more severe cases of TBI are happening much more frequently and often require the victim to attend specialty rehabilitative nursing centers, like CareMeridian.

The most common cause of TBI in the military is due to blasts. There are three degrees of blast injuries where a TBI is common; Primary (due to the blast itself), Secondary (due to objects being propelled by a blast), and Tertiary (due to a collision with a third party object). According to the Veterans Health Initiative, active male members of the military from the ages of 18-24 are hospitalized with a TBI at a rate of 231 per 100,000 and females 150 per 100,000. Based on military force projections this would mean that 4,141 military personnel are hospitalized on average each year with a TBI, and these numbers often rise during war times.

The best prevention for veterans to avert the long-term effects of a brain injury is to recognize the symptoms of a TBI. Once the symptoms are identified an individual should take basic precautionary measures in order to begin the healing and recovery process until a more specific diagnosis can be made.

Service men and women give so much to protect this country and they deserve to come home to a happy and healthy life. Creating awareness about TBI will help ensure their long term health. By helping our veterans, their friends and their families to recognize the early warning signs of a TBI, treatment can be sought as early as possible. Check out the link at www.thementornetwork.com/standard/News_Item.aspx? for more information.

Thank you to Chelsea Travers at ctravers@caremeridian.com for the information and please contact with her with questions of your own. Help our guys and gals out now and when they get home to get the care they deserve!

That's about it for this week, a little longer, but a bunch of great info. Take care and keep on reading!

Dave

Visit

2010-03-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

Another great week down! Last weekend was spent in Virginia visiting an ill grandmother of my X-wife, long story! She is doing fine and now out of the hospital. The chemo and radiation therapies have started and she's feeling pretty good considering. One problem occurred when they found that she had an allergy to the chemo agent, I'm not up on oncology so I have no idea what they are going to do about that. Needless to say she still needs everyone to think good thoughts for her and to throw some prayers her way.

In the picture is me, no I'm not the one in the middle with the saddle on! Amanda is the girl in the front and Terry is in the background being held. This was taken after Terry had finished with his riding therapy. It's a fantastic idea for children with medical problems. You can really see that his balance has improved as well as core strength. It was a very interesting afternoon watching that!

All is well here at home. We are working on getting a third OR nurse in to cover while my boss is in Afghanistan until approximately November, a third will help out tremendously. I'm still not crying too much about it though, at least I get to go home every night now! Well that's about it for this week. I hope everyone is doing great and changed your time an hour up, like me and Shayna forgot to do last night! Take care.

Dave

1 Year Down

2010-03-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

Well our first year of marriage is complete as of yesterday! We just took the pictures above, the date is obviously wrong in the photos! The first is us with the cake, but the cake didn't make it into the picture! The second is us with the top layer of the cake that's been in our freezer for a year, and the last is the picture of us before we get sick from eating year old cake! If all the years to come are as great as this last has been, I've hit the jackpot! woohoo. We went to see Alice in Wonderland 3D today and then had some sushi at my friends restaurant in Hanford, CA. It was our first time eating sushi, it was an experience. Our 1 year anniversary has come which means I left for training about a year ago, hard to believe it's been a year, both for the marriage and the deployment. Glad the deployment is over and glad the marriage is still going strong. Well hopefully everyone is doing as great as we are. Again, say some prayers for Grandma Terril in Hampton, she's putting up one helluva fight! Take care.

Dave

Still a boring life!

2010-02-28T11:41:00.001-08:00

Okay, I swear Shayna and I will start doing things worth writing about soon! haha. Things coming up in the near future are a hot air balloon ride, a USMC mud run, a 1/2 marathon and a figure competition. Right now we are just training machines, a lot of exercising and resting in between. I hope every one is doing great. My grandmother from a previous marriage is pretty sick right now so if you can send some prayers her way it would be greatly appreciated. Take care and keep in touch.
Dave

Nothing much this week

2010-02-22T09:58:00.000-08:00

Nothing much happening this week. We were really busy at work, well it's all relative! We were going to be down to 2 OR nurses as of this week but the Haiti deployment was cancelled which is a relief to us. I know that the people need help down there, but we were going to be left really short-handed which would have affected the care able to be given to our patients.

Shayna is doing well with her training and still kicking my butt with it, but I'm feeling great. Her competition is on May 27th, can't wait to see her shine during that.

Well that's about it, I'll put some pics up next week.

Dave

Feelin' Good

2010-02-14T11:27:00.000-08:00

Look at that computer monitor! woohoo! Shayna just shakes her head at me, haha. I'm a techno geek like my father and grandfather. We bought a new LED/LCD HDTV last weekend and I put our old TV as the monitor, it's awsome! I feel like I'm sitting in the front row at the movie theater. At least it's making me sit up straight at the desk.

Shayna is still working out 4 days a week with her trainer, 2 of them she is working me out. I'm feeling good, but man it's hard. Today we workout out for 2 hours and then I ran 4.5 miles, I'm exhausted. She is looking good. Her first figure competition is 29 MAY 2010, she's really excited about it and I'm sure she'll do fantastic. One more semester for her and then she has completed her Master's Degree in HR (Human Resources), if anyone needs an HR manager just let us know. She will be joining the Navy Reserves as an Officer, and also excited about that.

I received an email requesting my support of training programs for the injured Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines from the war on terror. Obviously they have my full support after all that I saw over in Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan and I urge all of you that are reading this to do that also. It isn't just Americans getting hurt it's also all of the Coalition Fighters from Holland, Denmark, Germany, France, etc. So please continue to support all of the young fighters that are trying to make our world a better and safer place to live. I don't know if I'll have to go over again or not, but I'm ready and able to do it whenever the call comes. I hope you all feel the same way.

This week is a short one due to the holiday weekend, I'm looking forward to the rest. We really haven't been busy on Mondays, but Tuesday and Wednesdays are Ortho marathon days, and on Thursdays and Fridays I go over to dental to do conscious sedations for the tooth extractions, usually 6-8 sedations a day. I need a little break. Still not as busy as the deployment, but I guess it really just depends on your current situation.

Well that's about it for now, take care and keep reading.

Dave

Nothing Much

2010-02-07T12:59:00.001-08:00

Nothing much went on this week. I am ready for a good Super Bowl game today between the Colts and Saints. Nothing much else! Pretty boring week, nothing exciting, much like this entry. I've been working out with Shayna the past two weekends, I'm definitely over 40 years of age, very sore butt and legs and arms and chest, well just about everything is sore. I'll try to take some pics of us at the gym and post it next week. We are down to two nurses at work now, that means we are on call every other day, not a good thing. Well everyone take it easy and I'll try to drum up something remotely interesting for next week's entry. Take care.
Dave

Swing of Things

2010-01-30T13:25:00.001-08:00

Finally back into the swing of things back at work and home, feels good. The first pic is of me at work relaxing between cases, must have been on a Tuesday or Wednesday because that is the only days we have cases now due to the deployment of our General Surgeon. Not a bad deal for us, but it stinks for him! The sun is starting to come out again and we are hitting around 60 degrees during the day, no complaints here! I'm back to running a lot of miles each time and Shayna now has a personal trainer at the gym, so she is training me following her plan, I'm getting my butt kicked! The second pic is of Mohinder giving us the "mad face", I can't believe that Shayna and I are cat people, my Dad can't believe it either. Well it's a short entry, but it's an entry. I hope everyone is doing good, take care and keep in touch.
Dave

Aqua-flage

2010-01-23T12:51:00.001-08:00

"Aqua-flage" is a termed that was coined somewhere on the East Coast, that's hilarious! Our XO just came back from CO training and brought the term with her, I think that it will catch like wildfire, at least I'm going to do my part to spread it around! The real term for the uniform is the "NWU" aka, Navy Working Uniform. I really like it, looks cool, but I don't know what we are being camouflaged to? I was talking with a Soldier and he said, "Yeah it looks cool, but when you fall into the water off the ship you'll be camouflaged to the ocean and not rescued!", he also said that the camouflage should have been a mix of international orange and bright yellow. Sometimes you need the observation from someone on the outside to try to make sense of things. Anyway, cool uniform and I like it.

I thought I was going to be selected for another deployment last week. Word came out that we are sending a group to Haiti for the humanitarian effort, including one OR Nurse. Well let's see, we have a total of four OR Nurses, one is already leaving for Kandahar, one is retiring in April, and one has a pregnant wife that will give birth the first week in February, it certainly didn't look good for the home team. I told Shayna what was happening and all she could say is, "Oh no!". They decided to deploy the expectant father, was it a good decision, probably not, but it saved me from deploying again for who knows how long.

Shayna is doing really good in her studies, she only has to take one more class after this semester and then the Master's Degree in HR is completed! She is focusing on either; 1. rejoining the Navy, or 2. joining up with the Public Health Service. If neither of the two work out then it's off to Cape Coral, FL to bask in the sun! The future looks really good right now for the both of us!

Well that's about it for this week, I'll post something else next weekend, hopefully something exciting! haha. Take care and keep in touch.

Dave

Moved again, home sweet home again!

2010-01-15T16:27:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's the last move until 1 OCT 2011, I swear! Things are going great here, can't complain about anything. We moved into a nice house on base and I'm now 0.2 miles from work, it's a wonderful thing. I no longer have to stay in the hospital when on watch for cesarean sections, that's a good thing. If we hadn't moved on base I would've had to stay in the hospital every other day from April to November due to more personnel being deployed, not a good thing! Several people have been deployed in response to Haiti, they really need the help and we are sending a lot of top notch people, not me though, I believe I'm out of the deployment list for now. Shayna is doing fantastic in her studies, Masters in Human Resources, carrying a 3.8 gpa with 6 classes left! How did I find such a beautiful and smart wife? She is throwing around the ideas of either joining back with the Navy or going to the Public Health Service, either way I'm sure she'll do great. I'm back into the swing of things at work, we have a lot of new people that are working very well together, great team and that makes things go really smooth thus making work enjoyable. The other pics I posted are of Shayna relaxing after emptying around 50 boxes and one of Shayna with the acrobatic cat Mohinder, he's been a blast. Well that's about it for now, sorry about not uploading an entry last weekend, you can thank ATT for having lousy customer service! Take care.

Dave

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I am on duty right now, Wednesday through Sunday, so no alcohol for me this season. We went to bed around 10 PM last night since we weren't doing anything. I was paged into work at 1225 AM and stayed there until 3 AM, we delivered the baby new year for our area! Pretty exciting stuff. When the pager went off I was immediately back in Kandahar, we always had a pager with us and I was once again thinking, belly, chest, head, extremities, it was a strange feeling. I spoke with one of my friends from this last deployment and he is starting to suffer from PTSD, it's too bad, and he has it bad. I hope everything goes well for him, I'm going to keep in touch and put him in touch with other friends of mine who suffer from it as well. My friend and I were talking at work yesterday about PTSD and were wondering if anything is ever going to happen to us like that in the future. I sure hope not. Shayna is doing well, still 12 miles a week in the pool and is now going to start biking. Her sister and brother-in-law, Andrea and Scott, got her a Trek bike for Christmas last year and now she is ready for it. I can only imagine how many mile she will be doing on that each week. Work is going really well for me, there's nothing like coming from a pretty intense deployment into a controlled surgical environment, it's a beautiful thing! I'm also much calmer, many people have told me that, never thought that I wasn't calm in the past, but it's a good change anyway! As of today I can officially say that I am retiring from the Navy next year! woohoo! Heck of a feeling to say that, it's been a long, fantastic trip. Well I didn't have any pics for this week but will put some on next. Take care and keep on reading.
Dave

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2009-12-26T10:13:00.000-08:00

I don't know how these pictures are going to show on the final publish, so I'll just explain them as I go and you can figure out which one I'm talking about! Shayna had a good Christmas, I got her a rose gold ring with pink diamonds all the way around the band, she loved it! We may add more diamonds though, of course every woman likes more diamonds! haha. I had a good Christmas, I'm home first of all, I got a lot of Bengals stuff which would make anyone on the planet happy! The new Explorer also makes me happy, I love that vehicle. The cat, Mohinder, is happy as you can see by the picture, he's posing by the fireplace with his growing belly resting also! The tree that is pictured is our last minute Christmas decoration, no ornaments or star but it did the job! We'll put the big one up again next year. It's pretty sad when two of the presents are almost as big as the tree! Thanks to everyone that sent gifts, they were awesome and needed. The weather has been pretty good here, a little below freezing in the morning and then warming to mid 50's F in the afternoon. Work is going well, we went to computerized documentation while I was deployed. So now I'm really the new guy again since I really don't have a clue yet to what I'm doing on the computer! haha. I'll get it sooner or later though. Back on the duty call again also, my first duty day is Monday, then I have duty Wednesday through Sunday, so no drinking on New Years, that's fine with me since I didn't have anything to drink from March through November, good practice. Well that's about it for now, I'll write more next weekend. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year to follow.

Dave

Home Sweet Home, really this time!

2009-12-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

Finally home! Time to relax.....not! We have a lot of things to do now, unpack the bags and the box I sent home from Kuwait, a ton of laundry, setting up the new wireless printer (which isn't happening as well as I thought it would!), oil changes for the cars, taking Shayna's car to a repair shop (she was hit by another driver the day before leaving for Wisconsin), etc. etc. etc. We are really happy to be home, although we were really happy to have the opportunity to see all, and I mean all, of our family and friends! It was exhausting for Shayna. On the way back across America I asked her what was the first thing she was going to do when we got home and she said she wanted to lock herself in the room to get away from me for about an hour, and then laughed. I guess I can be annoying sometimes, well probably a majority of times! haha. We are doing great, and no she didn't lock herself in the room.

The first picture is of Mike, Suzanne, Herb and Shayna. We went over to Mike's for a couple of drinks and some good food, it was really nice seeing them again. Mike and I played soccer together from the 4th grade on through high school. Herb and I have been friends going on 20+ years, still close.

The second picture is of me getting my tattoo. It looks like it hurt a lot, but it really didn't I was hamming it up for the photo! I told a lot of you I was going to do it, and it's done. It's an American flag in green and black (the colors of our IR flag on the uniform) and it says, "Home of the Free because of the Brave". It is dedicated to all of the US and Coalition fighters that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. That fact hit closer to home this past week when one of my cousins friends lost their life in Kandahar. My thoughts are with his family, I'm really sorry that it happened.

The third picture is of Mohinder our Bengal cat. I cleared out a huge area for him in the Explorer, complete with a blanket and two pillows from home. He couldn't care less about all the room, the first two days he spent with his head jammed in the floor board near Shayna's feet! The third and fourth travel day he came around and started to explore the Explorer more and even tried to help drive, not a good thing while driving through a snow storm in Colorado!

The fourth and last picture is of my dad (Bob), mom (Teresa) and their neighbors, Bill and Monica (yes that's their real names and no there were no cigars present!). We went to a Northern Kentucky University basketball game and watched it from a private viewing box from my dad's company. It was fantastic.

I'm glad all of the trips are over and I'm almost looking forward to going back to work. I can't believe I said that! We have a great group at the hospital at NAS Lemoore, should be a good last two years in the Navy. Take care and I'll update again in a week or two.

Dave

Home Sweet Home, again!

2009-12-05T16:59:00.000-08:00

Well we are now in Northern Kentucky! The pictures above were taken last week when we were in Cleveland. The first is of Shayna in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she was freezing and didn't like the picture, but I obviously did! The bottom left picture is taken on the deck in front of the Hall of Fame, Cleveland is in the background, and the bottom right is us in front of the Christmas tree set up in the lobby of the Marriott in Warrensville, OH. It's been a great trip so far. We've seen a lot of family and it has been fantastic. Grandma and Aunt Dianne are doing well in Cleveland as well as my Mom, Uncle Rich, Aunt Kathy, Grandma Fulks, Ryan, Shannon, Missy, Ty and their children. Ty and Missy's son Chad really wants to join the Navy as an officer, using the Naval Academy as his avenue to success! I'm really proud of him, and I get the feeling he is going to achieve his goal, that would be fantastic.

My Mom and Dad, Bob and Teresa are looking good and feeling good! We are staying at their place and it's as comfortable as usual. We had a good party last night with Teresa's side of the family, so I didn't run this morning! It was nice to see Dennis, Linda, Wanda, Rick, Eric, Randy, Tony, Sharon, Rob, Bill, Melinda, Amy, Josh, and everyone else. Shayna did another 2 miles in the pool at Silver Lake fitness center and it was flawless as usual.

I feel sorry for the guys back in Kandahar, I guess that it's starting to heat up again and get busy. As in previous messages that can be a good and bad thing for them. Good because time flies and bad because people are getting injured. Hang in there, you'll be home soon.

Well that about wraps it up for this week. More visiting to come this week and then we're hitting the road for the final time on Friday for the 3.5 day drive back to real HOME! woohoo. Take care.

I revamped the countdown clock to show the number of days to the Navy retirement. The Navy has been great to me, but everything must end, only 650+ days to go!

Dave

Home Sweet Home

2009-11-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

Home sweet home, well almost! It took a total of 43 hours of travel from Kandahar to Lemoore, CA. Three days after arriving in Lemoore, I picked up the new Explorer and drove 34 hours to Wisconsin to see my honey! The picture on the top left is the first meal we had at the Sundara spa in the Wisconsin Dells, fantastic, even though we really had no idea what we were eating! haha. The menu was written in "fancy words" and I'm from Kentucky! The picture on the top right is of me and Shayna having a glass of red wine, I had my Hugh Heffner robe on. The bottom left picture is of me and Shayna visiting some of her family, it is our official first picture of us after me seeing her for the first time in 8 months, great day!

Shayna is doing fantastic with her external fixation devices off of her legs, she is now swimming around 2.5 miles 4 times a week, awesome. I am still running and trying not to gain back all of the weight that I lost while deployed, it's definitely a challenge with all of the holiday foods surrounding me! I'm still not smoking and hopefully that holds out also.

My cousin Adrianna in Cleveland is thinking about joining the Air Force. She has been fantastic through my Iraq and Afghanistan deployments. She is constantly sending me messages and keeping me informed of what was going on back home. She is interested in being a Biologist, and is great with animals. I will support her through her decisions and am very proud of her of even entertaining the idea of serving her country. See you soon Adrianna!

I got a call from Keith in Kandahar the day before Thanksgiving, it sounds like things are heating up for those guys over there and I feel bad for not being there with them, well I feel bad at least for a minute or two! haha. Hang in there guys, you have a fantastic surgical team, kick butt!

We are hitting the road again on Monday morning for Cleveland to see family and friends, and then off to Cincy to see the rest of the family and friends. I can't wait. I'll be updating this again next weekend and hopefully every weekend thereafter. Take care and I'll be seeing everyone soon!

Travel Time

2009-11-14T06:14:00.001-08:00

Well I figured that the trip from Kuwait to Lemoore should take a total of 42 hours, we’ll see! I’m writing this from Kuwait International Airport at 2354 local time(1500 EST). So far the whole warrior transition program has been really well organized and a breeze to get through. Although we were staying in tents and had to walk to the showers outside, it was a great experience. If the people who organize and run the WTP ran the Navy, I’d be staying in another 10 years!

Have I said that I cannot wait to get home? Well I can’t! haha. I’m pretty tired right now and can’t wait to get on that plane and feel the wheels come off of the ground. I’ve noticed one thing about Kuwait, the roads on the way to the airport were all nicely paved. As soon as we got to the spot to depart the bus, dirt again! I wonder why. I’m sick of dirt by the way. I think that we have a 6 hour flight to Germany and then an 8 hour flight to Baltimore. I wonder who is going to be hammered once we are able to finally drink a beer or two or ten! I’ll probably only have one in Germany and then one in Baltimore, we’ll see.

I’ve met up with several people I trained with in Fort Jackson this past week. It was nice to see them again and hear their stories. Josh was in Kabul and in charge of training the Afghan Police up there, he said that it was very interesting. Saw a couple of pictures he had and it definitely looks like a third world country. I never did get to go out into town, and I didn’t want to either! I was fine being a “fobbit”, a FOB is a Forward Operating Base, and a fobbit is someone who never leaves the FOB.

Now I’m writing from the plane trip from Baltimore to Salt Lake and then finally to Fresno. It was a 34 hour trip from Kandahar to Baltimore. After the 9 hour flight from Germany to Baltimore I had to sprint to the gate to catch the flight to Fresno, I missed it by 35 seconds or so. I watched the plane back up. It turned out to be a nice rest stop though. I got a room at the Sheraton and relaxed, it was a beautiful night! Like I said before, I’m writing while on the flight, in flight Wi-Fi rocks! I should be home in Hanford around 1300 or so this afternoon, can’t wait. People have been really nice, upon check in to the hotel last night, the manager bought us a couple beers each. This morning at the airport I had breakfast and some lady paid for it for me, absolutely amazing! I feel for the guys who returned from Vietnam who were greeted with spit, thank you to those who served during that “police action”. Take care and I’ll keep writing every week or so about Shayna and I if anyone is interested.

The picture this week is after we ran the Marine Corps 5K to celebrate their birthday. I ran it in 23 minutes, not too bad. I’ll be running a 4 mile race with Larry, Shayna’s dad, the day before Thanksgiving, should be a lot of fun.

Shayna I love and miss you very much, see you in about a week. Take care everyone.

Dave

On the road again

2009-11-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

We are in transit once again. We arrived in Kuwait around 0300 on 8 NOV 09. We immediately went to bed and got up around 0800. I finally was able to run outside again, and did 7 miles on a nice flat surface, without dirt and rocks, woohoo! At 1300 on 9 NOV 09 we turned in our weapons, it was like getting rid of a bad friend, it feels great not carrying around a piece of metal everywhere. I’m getting up at 0430 on 10 NOV to run the Marine Corps 5K, in celebration of the Corps’ birthday, should be fun, I think I’ll be getting another t-shirt for you Shayna, gotta love the t’s!

So far the WTP, Warrior Transition Program, has been surprisingly well coordinated, hard to believe being run by the Navy and everything. Haha. After the Marine run we come back and turn in our 2 seabags of gear that was never used, that will be a load off of our minds, literally. After the turn in I’ll be down to a 2/3 full seabag and a carry on, traveling light will be a welcome change. I’m at the point now that I throw away a pair of socks, underwear and t-shirt after each use, since everything has a wonderful light brown tint to it from the laundry in Kandahar.
I’m under the impression that our decompression classes start on Wednesday, and continue through Thursday and then we’re outta here. I love the feeling you get when the wheels leave the ground for the last time, it’s incredible. Everyone cheers and then settles in for two long legs of flight, but they go by really quick since we know we are on our way to see our loved ones. Can’t wait to see you hun.

I checked with the overseas sales office here today about my Explorer. It was built on the 2nd of November and was on the rail system for delivery on the 5th. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will be there by this weekend. It will be a nice drive to Wisconsin either way, but I’m really hoping to break in the Explorer with a nice, relaxing, long drive.

I know that these paragraphs are not in chronological order, but I’m doing random entries so stick with me! Haha. I finished the 5K (3.2 miles) in 23 minutes, I cut a minute off of my best time! I felt pretty good afterward. Today we have a small stress class and then our doctor’s appointments to go over any injuries sustained while deployed. For me it’s the left ankle and a possible hernia, we’ll see what happens. Tomorrow, the 12th, should be pretty much free and then we’re outta here! Woohoo. I should be able to write a short entry at one of our stops, at least I’ll try to. Take care and I’ll be seeing everyone soon! Shayna I love and miss you, everyone else take care!

Dave

Tradition

2009-11-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

This is the last entry from "beautiful" Kandahar, really this time! There will be more entries to follow from the trip home. Very short entry this time, but needed to close this trip out. I don't know if it is an official tradition to have a cigar at the end of a deployment, but it has been the case on my three deployments. The first picture is of me having a stogie at the end of the Ramadi, Iraq deployment in 2007 and the second is of some of the 10 last survivors of our original group enjoying a stogie last night. Again it's been a challenging and rewarding experience here and I'll miss some things, but definately not enough to extend! haha. Shayna, I'm almost there and can't wait. Everyone else take care and I'll be in touch.

Dave

Zip, zilch, nada, zero.......

2009-11-05T23:41:00.000-08:00

That’s about how many days I have left! Woohoo! After 36 amputations, 21 craniotomies, 12 appendectomies, 46 external fixations, and a multitude of other surgeries, it’s finally time to call it quits. I was involved in a total of 369 surgical cases, 79 of which I scrubbed and first assisted in, not bragging but I am damn proud of that! I have gone through the whole gambit of emotions, sadness, happiness, anger, jealousy, etc. I didn’t experience depression which is a good thing! The “can’t waits” still apply from the last entry, just getting a little stronger now. The emotion that I’m feeling the most right now is HAPPINESS!! I’ll be home on 13 NOV at 2100!!!! I can’t explain how ready I am to have the wheels touch down on American soil.

The picture this week is another group shot. This one is unique because it contains people from Napal, Canada, Denmark, Holland and of course the USA. I'm going to miss these guys, it was a fantastic collection of professionals from around the globe! I’ll be doing another entry from our next stop with plenty of more pictures I’m sure. I’m going to keep this blog going every week even after the deployment to keep in touch with family and friends as our life evolves! Take care.

Happy birthday to my brother Dan! Thanks for all of your help with Shayna’s travel plans and listening to me talk to you about the crap that has been going on here. Take care and I’ll be seeing you next year in Florida.

Shayna is doing well and can’t wait to go to the movies with me and some other things, I can’t wait either gorgeous! When I get home I’m going to pick up the new SUV and start driving form California to Wisconsin. The 2-3 day drive will give me a chance to get all of the bad things from my memory before I see Shayna, family and friends again. After Wisconsin we’re going to head toward Cleveland and see family there, then on to Northern Kentucky to see family and friends. Hopefully we’ll be able to have a big get together somewhere in KY where we all can catch up and tell “sea stories”! To complete the trip, Shayna and I are driving back to Wisconsin to pick up our cat and then to Cali for the final stop, at least for 2 years. If Shayna gets in the Air Force or Army there will be many more stops until she retires in 12-13 years. Looking forward to the travel babe and being the military dependent for once! Haha.

Hours worked:
1 NOV 09: 11 Hours
3 NOV 09: 10 Hours (LAST DAY!!!!!!)

# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 6 NOV 09
116 GSW
132 IED
8 SVBIED
19 SUICIDE BOMBER
13 ROCKET ATTACK
49 NBI
7 MINE
9 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 9 SURGERIES)
7 MVA
1 GRENADE INJURY

Shayna I love and miss you very much, and will be seeing you in a couple of weeks, can’t wait! Everyone else take care and I’ll be seeing some of you soon.

Dave

Alotta can't waits!

2009-10-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

Can’t wait to get home, can’t wait to see my beautiful wife Shayna, can’t wait to get my new Explorer, can’t wait to drive to Wisconsin from California, can’t wait to see my family and friends in Ohio/Kentucky, can’t wait to see Shayna’s family, can’t wait to take a shower without shower shoes and for longer than 3 minutes, can’t wait to walk on carpeting barefoot, can’t wait to play with Mohinder our cat and there are many more “can’t waits” but I don’t think that my computer’s memory would be able to store them! Time is chugging along here, not too busy but not too slow, just perfect. The schedule change that I was complaining about before really isn’t that bad, although it still is a change that didn’t need to be made, but I’m still very happy to be leaving very soon!

The pictures of this week are of me in the duty tent. Thank goodness I had my last overnight duty for the tour the other day. For you that have been here before, we are now manning the hospital with an OR team for 24 hours. Is it a good idea, well put it this way, it would have been a good idea in July and August when we were really busy but unfortunately we did not have the manning in order to be able to do it. Now, on the other hand, it is kind of a waste of sleep for the on call team (because of the jet, helicopter and generator noise) since the workload has dwindled since the summer. I’m sure once it gets busier it will be nice to be right there and walk into the OR when needed.

Shayna is doing great, one more week with the straight leg immobilizer on her left leg and then she’s off and running, well not literally yet, but she’ll be free of all artificial devices on her legs, finally. She has started with a physical therapist that is really putting her mind to ease. She said that it was really funny because before joining the Navy she used to volunteer at the same place and the same therapist is there. I really hope everything goes great for her.

Goodbye and good luck to team number 2 that left last night. I have to admit that I was jealous when I was returning from work at 2230 and they were getting ready to load onto the vehicle to take them to the terminal. Only a small amount of time and I’ll be in their position! Woohoo!

Hours worked:
26 OCT 09: 9 Hours
28 OCT 09: 12 Hours
30 OCT 09: 9 Hours

# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 30 OCT 09
115 GSW
132 IED
8 SVBIED
19 SUICIDE BOMBER
13 ROCKET ATTACK
49 NBI
7 MINE
9 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 9 SURGERIES)
7 MVA
1 GRENADE INJURY

Shayna I love and miss you very much, everyone else take care and see you soon!

Dave

Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!!

2009-10-24T21:21:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that my Grandma is now 90 years old, and doesn’t look a day over 40! That's a huge accomplishment, I hope to be around as long as she has and still look as good! Happy birthday to you Grandma and I hope you have a great day! Last year my dad told me that she turned 90 so I got some flowers for her and the card said Happy 90th Birthday, the problem was that she was turning 89! Needless to say the Davis males are really bad at remembering people’s ages! Haha.

I’ve run over 250 miles since being deployed. To put that in perspective it’s like running from Cincinnati to Cleveland and turning around to start back to Cincy. Not too bad. Speaking of Cincy, I guess we are sharing first place with the Steelers, we’re still in first though! Now we just have to beat the Steelers to retake first, no problem! I’m sure they’ll pull it through.

The first picture this week is of the DFAC Pack, DFAC is short for dining facility. We all started eating together around 2 months ago and found out that we are all football fans, all married, and all without children, so we had a lot in common. It’s been great getting to know the guys and having a ritual at 1730 every day as long as one of us isn’t stuck working! Pictured from left to right is Dr. Sam Gao, CDR Todd Stein, me and HM1 Parris Mason. Sam is the first to be kicked off Survivor Kandahar and should be on his way home now. Next will be Parris followed shortly by Todd and I. Sam is going back to Portsmouth, VA, Parris to San Diego, Todd to Japan and I’m going back to Lemoore California. It’s been great knowing you guys, thanks for making the deployment enjoyable as possible! Go Bengals! The second picture is of the entire OR staff from the US, Holland, and Canada. Some of the people are missing from the photo due to a race that was held this morning. Most of the people in the photo are part of the incoming team, I sure hope they have as good and rewarding deployment as we have. Good luck guys!

Shayna had her left eternal fixator removed on the 23rd and is ready to hit the gym! She has to wear a brace for 2 weeks and then it’s back onto the workout train. She can’t wait and I’m very proud of her being able to deal with me being gone, carrying a 4.0 average in her Master’s studies, and going through the trials of major surgeries. You did great babe.

We saw some of the people we trained with in Ft. Jackson on their way home form Bastion. They are lucky that they are going home early, but they were unlucky in a sense that they had it a lot worse than we did here in Kandahar. They were in tents the entire time and the food was terrible. I guess from what I’m hearing the working environment was not friendly at all working with the British, that’s too bad. We’ve had great surgical teams throughout this deployment, regardless what country the personnel were from. Welcome back to Anne, Spencer, Toth, Trudeau, Schneider, etc. I hope you have a great trip home.
Hours worked:
18 OCT 09: 7 Hours
20 OCT 09: 7 Hours
22 OCT 09: 12 Hours
24 OCT 09: 13 Hours

# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 24 OCT 09
115 GSW
132 IED
7 SVBIED
13 SUICIDE BOMBER
13 ROCKET ATTACK
49 NBI
7 MINE
9 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 9 SURGERIES)
7 MVA
1 GRENADE INJURY

That’s about it from Kandahar, only a couple of weeks left, woohoo! Shayna I love and miss you very much and I’ll see those sexy legs soon! Everyone else take care and I’ll be seeing you.

Dave

Another Week Down

2009-10-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

That’s it, I guess I’m officially Dutch! Thanks to Linda DeJager and team NOODLES for sending out the Dutch wooden clog slippers, they don’t quite go with my Army ACUs though! They are actually coming in handy, it’s getting pretty chilly in the rooms now that the weather is cooling off outside, it’s only 85 degrees during the day now, brrrrrr. Thanks again Linda from Jere and I both, the candy is great!

The second picture this week is of the second Dutch team that I’ve worked with while deployed. We have our heads in the middle of the CT scanner, no it’s not a giant doughnut! Haha. The white swirly things on the picture could be one of two things. 1) could be ghosts of CT patients past, or 2) could be the reflection from the flash on the glass ring in the CT scanner. I’d like to think that it’s the previous, because that would be just way cool! The names of everyone starting with me and working clockwise is, Me, Mike, Sanne, Esther, Jere and Jolanda. It has been a great team to work with, as with the first Dutch team and the Danish. I’ll certainly miss all of them, they’ve taught me a lot and made me laugh.

I was sitting with Mike, our Dutch anesthesiologist, and he asked me if I could name all 50 states that the stars represent on our flag. I said sure, so he challenged me. I got 47 and he got 43 correct! It really made me feel bad because not only did he get 43 correct, he also got a majority of the capitals correct also. I was really embarrased because I couldn’t even tell him where Netherlands was located on a map! I have always been terrible with geography and it definitely showed during that conversation!

Bengals in first place in their division, wow! It’s been quite a while since we were able to say that, go Carson Palmer, you rock! Sorry to all of you Steeler, Ravens, and Browns fans, well not really! Haha. Hopefully we can hold out until we make it to the playoffs. We’ll see.

22 days left. That felt pretty good typing that, I think I’ll do it again, 22 days left! It’s been a great ride so far, hopefully everything continues to go smoothly for the remainder of the time. We have been getting a little busier, which is bad for the patients but good for us because time is flying by. I’ve been spending a little more time in the horizontal time accelerator (the bed)! It seems to work really well, I actually stole that name from Chad Deaton who I was deployed with to Ramadi. He was the master of the accelerator!

Shayna gets her left external fixator off on 23 OCT, and she is really excited with a little nervousness thrown in there. She hopes that the surgery will do the trick and help her get around a little better. I just told her that there will be some aches and pains associated with the surgery but they will pass over time, especially with her working out so much. She’ll probably be able to bench press me soon!

Hours worked:
11 OCT 09: 12.5 Hours
14 OCT 09: 17 Hours
16 OCT 09: 12 Hours

# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 16 OCT 09
111 GSW
126 IED
7 SVBIED
13 SUICIDE BOMBER
13 ROCKET ATTACK
48 NBI
6 MINE
9 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 9 SURGERIES)
6 MVA

Well that about does it for this week in exciting Kandahar. I can’t wait to see you Shayna, everyone else take care!
Dave

``

Morality ends....

2009-10-09T23:59:00.000-07:00

When does morality end and reality start? That was a big discussion between some of the newbies and us. I am of the firm stance that the “detainees” are pieces of you know what and they should be treated that way. Of course that got the attention of a lot of the people around me and I was immediately blasted by them stating that deep down inside they are people also. Obviously they have not seen the carnage that we have been exposed to thus far caused directly by the “detainees who are people deep down inside“, we’ll see how their attitude is about halfway through their deployment. I’ve been in many cases where a coalition fighter has passed due to the piece of crap that is sitting in the trauma bay awaiting treatment. Don’t get me wrong, I will do everything humanely possible to save a life and have done so, no matter who’s it is, but who they are and what they stand for is always in the back of my mind. Much like Ramadi, Iraq when we had two higher ranking US individuals brought to us with massive gunshot wounds to their heads, dead. The person who was responsible for their wounds was on our OR table, that is a very tough thing to go through. Hopefully the new team doesn’t have to deal with situations like that and they can go on believing that the Taliban are good people deep down inside. Woohoo! Sorry about that, I just had to get that off of my chest, it was bothering me! Haha.
The pictures this week are of me sitting and waiting on a trauma in the background, we ended up bringing him to the OR to treat a gunshot wound, basic washout, no big deal. The sign is of Trauma Baywatch, I guess I’m David Hasselhoff, sp? Haha. The OR team always stands in this area and watches the bays to see what surgeries we will be doing, thus Baywatch.
Shayna is doing great. She is going to have her first meeting with the USAF officer recruiter this upcoming week. Hopefully all goes well. She wants to start communicating with them now to get herself recognized and on the front page of their minds, smart move. She will be finishing her Master’s degree mid-next year and the qualification test for the USAF should be complete by then. After that it should be just a waiting game to see if she gets in or not. If she is not selected then she is going to turn her sights on the Army. Either way she will have a rewarding experience, and not in direct danger which is a good thing!

Hours worked:
5 OCT 09: 7 Hours
7 OCT 09: 11 Hours
9 OCT 09: 16 Hours
# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 9 OCT 09
108 GSW
122 IED
7 SVBIED
13 SUICIDE BOMBER
12 ROCKET ATTACK
45 NBI
6 MINE
9 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 9 SURGERIES)
6 MVA
Another week down, about 4 to go, piece of cake. Shayna I love and miss you very much, can’t wait to see you. Everyone else take care and keep in touch.
Dave

``

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

2009-10-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

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

``

Student meets the Master

2009-09-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

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

3 Paydays to go!!!!

2009-09-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

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

14 Hours of Blood Soaked Shoes

2009-09-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful welcome back, 14 hours of surgeries and blood soaked OR shoes. Woohoo! I scrubbed a 6 hour vascular repair case wearing a x-ray protection vest the whole time, it looked like I just completed a marathon after the case was over, sweat soaked everything. Maybe that’s why I’ve lost so much weight! Speaking of weight, I averaged a weight of 144.2 pounds for August with an average run length of 3.37 miles at a pace of 8:35 per mile. I’m a number freak, what can I say!

The pics this week are of me in the Arabian Gulf enjoying the sun. The salt content of the water is very high, actually burned the eyes when water went in them. The water was also very warm, almost hot! Aaron was standing by me and he said that he found a cool spot, I told him that’s the spot I just peed in and that my pee was cooler than the water! Just kidding! Haha. The second pic is of Shayna with her external fixators on, she sure is happy to have the right one off. She says that the left one is a little slimmer which makes her happy. She should be starting to work out again soon, that will make her feel great since she is a workout freak of nature! She’s going to try swimming to see how that works out, she already has started the abdominal and upper body exercises, way to go gorgeous, I’m proud of you!

It was a long trip back to Kandahar from Qatar. We had to check the flight manifest on the night of the 7th at 2100 hours to see when we were scheduled to leave the following day. We all hoped that it would be a nice, leisurely afternoon flight, yeah right. The flight time had us show at 0230 in the morning of the 8th, and we finally arrived back at Kandahar at 1700 or so that afternoon, long flight but uneventful which is a good thing. The last leg of the flight we had a Stryker vehicle and a MRAP in the plane with us, two very large, very armored and very heavy vehicles, it was concerning upon take off and landing. I kept thinking of the scene from Saving Private Ryan when the pilot was saying that his aircraft crashed because someone armored it without telling him!

The last couple days of the trip were spent at the pool, gym and a couple meals at Chili’s. It was only 4 days off, but what a fantastic break it was. When we arrived back in Kandahar we heard that some General in his infinite wisdom has cancelled all the R&R breaks for all US personnel in Afghanistan until further notice. I guess that he is going by the old adage, “Beatings will continue until morale improves!“. I’m sure that there is a good reason for his decision, but it escapes me right now! The toll it has taken on the young Sailors that were gearing up to leave is enormous. They have worked their butts off at a high tempo, extremely emotional job and this feels like a punishment to them. If anyone of any importance in the military is reading this, please re-instate the R&R policy in Afghanistan, it is a serious mistake getting rid of such a small but helpful time off to recharge.

September 11th, the reason why were here. It was a quiet day, we were wondering if the pace would pick up a bit due to the importance of the day. We had a flag raising ceremony, which I was unable to attend due to being in the OR. I wonder how many 9/11’s will be remembered by US personnel in Afghanistan in the future?

Hours worked:
9 SEP 09: 14 Hours
11 SEP 09: 12 Hours

# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 12 SEP 09
100 GSW
98 IED
7 SVBIED
12 SUICIDE BOMBER
8 ROCKET ATTACK
40 NBI
6 MINE
9 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 9 SURGERIES)
4 MVA

Well that’s about it for this week. Only around 7-8 more entries and then I’ll be writing from home sitting in a pair of shorts on our couch, woohoo! Shayna I love and miss you very, very much. Everyone else take care and we’ll be seeing you soon.

Dave

Rocket Attack!

2009-09-05T05:15:00.000-07:00

I'll start this entry with a pretty funny story that was told to me by our ortho surgeon Sonya. She said that the other day the fire alarm went off in the chow hall, which is a common occurrence and everyone usually just looks around to make sure we don’t have to evacuate the building. Well this particular day I assume the building was full of new arrivals to the area, the alarm went off and she said that about 70% of the personnel hit the floor and climbed under the tables thinking that it was the rocket attack alarm! She said what was funny about the whole situation was when a guy with a strong southern accent said, “Hey dumb_ss_’s, that’s the fire alarm” and everyone slowly got back to their seats, a little embarrassed! I don’t know if that’s funny to any of you, but I think that it’s hilarious.

Pictured is me driving the ball at Doha Resort Golf Course, and the second one is of me on a C-17 Aircraft in darkened out conditions on our way to Qatar for R&R.

It’s official, we destroyed the record of 155 set in July. We completed 201 surgeries in August, busiest month ever! The new Dutch team said that now we need to break another record, the least amount of cases completed in a month, and we all agree. Haha.

I’m writing this from the R&R in Qatar. I’ll first apologize to those reading this in Bastion and other places that aren’t able to leave due to op tempo and staffing issues. Sorry guys, I’ll drink a beer for you! Haha. It’s now day 3 in Qatar and so far it’s been fantastic! Day 0 we hung out, drank a couple of beers and rested. Day 1 we worked out, ran and then went on the inland sea beach picnic. The trip to the small resort was a blast. We loaded into 3 SUV’s and hit some huge sand dunes after letting some air out of the tires. So now that I know what a Chevy SUV is capable of, can I borrow your SUV for a while when I’m home to visit mom? Haha! After the roller coaster ride through the dunes we swam in the Arabian Gulf and had a bbq complete with some local foods, hummus and other things that I didn‘t want to know what it was. Day 2, today, Aaron, John and I went golfing at the Doha Golf Resort with the Chaplain who is stationed here, absolutely beautiful (not the Chaplain, the course!). I haven’t golfed in 2 years but still shot a 56 in 9 holes, when I usually averaged 100 - 105 on 18 holes, kinda rusty! Tonight the group is going to a local mall for 5 hours to shop, that is the equal to a trip to hell for me so I’m going to pass on that trip and just do laundry and relax. Tomorrow I’m going to workout, run and hit the pool for some sun, hopefully I’ll be able to hold the tan for you Shayna until November! Haha.

Shayna is doing great after getting her external fixator off of the right leg. She should be back in Wisconsin today after spending a couple of days with her friend Irene in Manhattan. Thanks again Irene for opening your door to my hunny and being such a great host. Her next surgery, to remove the left fixator, will be in mid-October, then done with that mess! I know that she is looking forward to that day, as I am for her. Hang in there gorgeous almost done!

Hours worked:

29 AUG 09: 3 Hours (called in for two mass casualties)
30 AUG 09: 16.5 Hours
1 SEP 09: 9 Hours
3 SEP - 8 SEP in Qatar for R&R, woohoo!

# CAUSES OF SURGERY AS OF 1 SEP 09

100 GSW
94 IED
7 SVBIED
9 SUICIDE BOMBER
8 ROCKET ATTACK
39 NBI
6 MINE
8 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 8 SURGERIES)
4 MVA

Well that’s about it for this week, it’s been a great break but I’m looking forward to getting back to the grind and excitement of Kandahar. Shayna I love and miss you very much, everyone else take care and keep in touch.

Dave

Goodbye Dutch, Hello Dutch

2009-08-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well today we said goodbye to the first Dutch team we worked with and said hello to their replacements. I’m sure that they will have the same work ethic as the first team, hopefully they’ll be as nice and calm! That’s very important in stressful situations. It’s too bad that the first Dutch team is leaving, we were a well oiled machine when it came to getting through tons of cases, piece of cake. We have broken the record set in July for the numbers of cases completed since the inception of a medical facility in Kandahar. The previous record was set in July at 155 as of today, 28 August, we are at 176 cases. Again, not a record we wanted to break, but we blew it out of the water anyway!

There was a coordinated suicide vehicle bomber attack this week in Kandahar. There were 5 cars loaded with explosives that hit a Japanese construction company that employs Pakistani engineers. According to the Stars and Stripes article, the blast killed at least 41 people and injured 66. Fortunately we only received one patient from the blast, we were expecting a very large mass casualty.

So far I have scrubbed 107 hours of cases and our team has completed 271 cases since 16 MAY 09. I’m going to try to hit 200 hours of scrubbing by the time we leave here. I predicted that we would do 360 cases total, looks like we’ll also surpass that estimate!
Shayna is doing good still, getting ever closer to having the contraption on the right leg removed and very happy about that! Sorry I haven’t called as much Shayna, I’ve had some late nights the past couple of shifts. I can’t wait to be there relaxing on the couch with you!

Hours worked:
24 AUG 09: 10 HOURS
26 AUG 09: 16 HOURS
28 AUG 09: 12 HOURS (not a bad week as far as hours worked goes)

# & CAUSE OF SURGERY AS OF 28 SEP 09:
98 GSW
88 IED
6 SVBIED
5 SUICIDE BOMBER
7 ROCKET ATTACK
39 NBI
6 MINE
8 AIR STRIKE (SAME PATIENT 8 SURGERIES)
4 MVA

Sorry about not having any pictures this week, we’ve been pretty busy. I’ll take some and post a supplemental entry with nothing but pictures. I’ll have a lot of me just for you Shayna! I’ll try to keep them appropriate! Haha.

That’s about it for this week, it’s getting to be a little like Groundhog Day here! Shayna I love and miss you more every day and I’ll be there with you soon. Everyone else take care and keep in touch.

Dave

Resources

2009-08-22T23:38:00.000-07:00

I was in the chow hall today and I overheard a conversation between an Army Captain and several enlisted guys. The Captain said that he was finding it really hard to tell his people that they should re-enlist in the Army. Basically because of the stories that I heard from the enlisted guys. One of them has been in the Army for 5 years, 3 years of it has been spent on deployment! That’s outrageous! He stated that it was really hard for him to have a meaningful relationship with anyone since he’s gone all of the time. He also said that he is nearing the end of his enlistment and that even if the Army gave him a gold plated Mercedes he was still going to get out, a few choice cuss words were used! Even though the Canadians do a poor job in utilizing the people with certain skill sets (not the people in this hospital it comes from higher up and yes I’m still pissed about Ron leaving for Kuwait!) they do take care of their deployed personnel. During a 6-7 month deployment they get to go on a paid vacation for 3 weeks to a destination of their choosing, and a replacement is sent out to cover their shifts while they are gone. What a deal! Some went to Greece, Italy, Spain, and Bolivia. Could the US Military do something similar with their troops, probably not due to the massive amounts of people deployed all over, and our Armed Services spread so thin around the globe, thank you Mr. Clinton! But I’ll tell you one thing, the morale and retention of the troops both would definitely increase. The Army is giving us 4 days of R&R to go to Qatar, which is a good deal and I think that you get a couple of weeks off to go home if you are deployed for a year. I think that they really need to re-evaluate that program and come up with a better plan to take care of their people, but who am I, I just count things in an OR for a living! Haha. Don’t get me wrong, the Navy has treated me very well over the last 19 years and I am very grateful for all the opportunities that my service as afforded me. I would still encourage all young people to do at least one tour in the branch of service of their choosing, it is a great experience and it instills a feeling of accomplishment and pride.

I wanted to give a shout out to the SUPPORT THE TROOPS OF HARTFORD, WI, HARTFORD VFW #8834, AMERICAN LEGION POST #19, PACK & SHIP OF HARTFORD, WI, SUPPORT THE TROOPS FRIENDS AND FAMILIES, ST. GABRIEL’S CHURCH RICHFIELD, WI, NORTHLAND MARKETING AND STARBUCKS IN WEST BEND, WI. Thank you all very much for the box that you sent out to me. It pretty much contained everything that I needed. Fantastic! I think that you are doing a great service to your country by doing this, and it is much appreciated. Thank you all again!

Pictured is me, Parris, Linda and Martyn sporting our t-shirts that were sent out to us from the Inter-National Hero to Hero.US campaign and the Red Deer Fire Fighters Association. Thank you to both organizations for the gifts! You are awesome!

Also pictured is Ron in his last Kandahar picture! You can tell by the picture how much stuff is floating around in the air, and who knows what we are inhaling into our lungs! woohoo. We’ll see you in a couple of months Ron, take care and we miss you already buddy, tell John I said hello.

Shayna is doing great with the legs. She has been dedicated to beating the odds and not getting a pin site infection, and is winning the battle. September 3rd is the magical day of getting the first external fixation device removed, and she is ready for that! The left leg fixation gets removed somewhere around mid-October. It’s neat that we are both going through a trying time for the past 7 months or so, me with the deployment and Shayna with the surgeries and we are both going to be ecstatic when this time is over. Shayna I love you and am very proud to call you my wife!

CASES:
I’m going to stop listing the cases and instead have a running total of types of causes and hours spent at the hospital per day. I’ve spoken with several people and they said that they generally skip over the case listings stating that it is a boring entry. I’m going to still keep a tally of surgeries completed and the country of origin of each patient if anyone is interested in seeing that, just ask me when I come to visit. Here we go:

15 AUG: 1 hour (we were called in to assist the Canadian team with several patients at one time)
16 AUG: 10 hours
18 AUG: 17 hours
20 AUG: 14 hours
22 AUG: 7 hours, huh? Woohoo!

# CAUSES OF INJURIES AS OF 22 AUG 09
91 GSW (GUNSHOT WOUND)
84 IED (IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE)
38 NBI (NON-BATTLE INJURY)
6 MINE
5 SVBIED (SUICIDE VEHICLE BOMBER)
5 SUICIDE BOMBER
6 ROCKET ATTACK
7 AIR STRIKE
2 MVA (MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT)

If anyone is interested in having me return to having the surgeries listed please leave me a message and I’ll be happy to list them once again.

Shayna once again I love and miss you very much, can’t wait to see you. Everyone else take care and keep in touch.

Dave

Well....

2009-08-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

Well we’re at that stage of the deployment where we’ve seen just about all there is to see in trauma. Been there done that, got the blood on the shoes! Now that I’ve said that we’ll probably get something really freaky in! haha. We are on track to destroy the July record that we set, hopefully we don’t break it, we don’t want to see people get hurt. We had a conversation with a father of one of our child patients (pictured), through the interpreter. He lost 3 sons and a daughter and is at the hospital with his remaining son. The conversation left me with a warm feeling, he said that he now sees that the coalition forces are here to help and not hurt the people of Afghanistan. We have done multiple surgeries on his son who has lost his left arm and had some chest injuries that have since healed. You could tell by just the body language the tremendous loss that the father has suffered and how much he loves his remaining child. It’s really sad to see the suffering that the Taliban has brought to this region. Hopefully this push will eliminate all Taliban presence in the area, hell hopefully all the Taliban everywhere will be gone by the time we leave!
Shayna is doing great after her second surgery and has completed the last adjustments on her external fixator on her left leg. She had x-rays done on her right leg and if all is well she’ll be having that removed by the end of this month. Can’t wait to see those legs! Haha.
We have 5 paydays to go. Time has really flown by and hopefully it will continue to. In a couple of weeks I’m going to go to Qatar to enjoy some time off, looking forward to that. They have a lot of trips that you can take but all I’m really interested in is not carrying my weapon, getting some golf in, and laying by the pool! I should have plenty of pictures to post after that trip, probably one of me breaking a club in half after another great shot into the sand, water or woods!
CASES:
10 AUG: 1. Face washout, tracheotomy. 2. Washout right buttock. 3. Washout right buttock, wound vac placement. 4. Wisdom teeth extraction. 5. Removal of hardware right ankle.
11 AUG: 1. Craniotomy.
12 AUG: 1. Open reduction internal fixation zygo and orbital fractures. 2. Abdominal abscess drainage. 3. Removal of wound vac and closure of wound. 4. Dressing change on 30% burn patient. 5. Washout of left arm amputation, wound vac placement, closure of chest wound. 6. Washout right arm, wound vac placement. 7. Craniotomy.
14 AUG: 1. Left arm amputation washout and closure. 2. Exploratory lap, I&d. 3. Removal of IO needle from chest. 4. Trache. 5. Exploratory lap. 6. Left lower extremity external fixation and fasciotomy. 7. Washout right arm, amputation of thumb, closure of head wound. 8. Closure of bilateral calc fractures, left lower extremity external fixation. 9. Washout left foot.
Shayna I love and miss you very much, hang in there it’s almost over for both of us! Everyone else take care and keep in touch.
Dave

Records

2009-08-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well it’s official, we had the busiest month EVER recorded at the Role 3 hospital in Kandahar during the month of July! It’s pretty exciting being a part of that milestone. I asked those in charge if we get a t-shirt or something, but they just ignored me! Haha. If we keep going the way we have been during the month of August the previously set record will once again be shattered. Our shift is basically every other day, with being on call on your “off” days, so during July I calculated how many hours were spent at Role 3, here it is:

1st week of July: 57.5 hours in 4 days
2nd: 45 hours in 3 days
3rd: 56.5 hours in 4 days
4th: 45 hours in 3 days

It doesn’t seem like a lot of hours, that’s why I put the qualifier of working every other day. So needless to say we have been pretty tired, but we are doing some amazing surgeries in such a Spartan setting. We still are not beaten so, again, bring it on!

The first picture is of team NOODLES (NLD for Netherlands + US for the United States = NOODLES!) We are a really good surgical team. It’s nice to be able to draw from such a wide range of experiences to make the team work well together, there isn’t much that we are not able to do. Pictured from left to right is: Dr. Ralph De Wit (general/ortho surgeon), Carol Water drinker (OR nurse), Dr. Peter Keijzers (Anesthesiologist), Linda De Jager (OR nurse), Jere Tien (OR tech), myself (super nurse! Haha), Omar Cannich (CSR tech, we’ll miss you buddy!) and Martyn Van Steennis (nurse anesthetist). Jere and myself are the only US individuals, all the rest are Dutch. The second picture is of the thermometer we have outside of the room, and it definitely isn’t -50 degrees! It pretty much hits that temperature every afternoon, it’s really something when it’s windy! Just imagine sticking your head in the oven with a hair dryer on at full blast, that’s about the best analogy I can come up with, completely unbearable. I just feel for all the coalition soldiers out working in the heat every day, God bless them!

I weighed myself today, 3 AUG, and I’m down to 143 pounds, that’s 20 pounds lost in 4 months or so. Thanks to the diet and workout advice from my beautiful wife, heat in Afghanistan, and working out every other day when I can. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up once I’m home with all of the temptations of ice cream sandwiches, Cincinnati chili, etc.! haha. I weighed 135 pounds when I graduated high school.

CASES:

2 AUG: 1. Bilateral fasciotomy extensions. 2. Exploratory lap, bilateral washout legs. 3. Washout and closure of multiple wounds to the right leg, skin graft to right hand. 4. Washout right leg. 5. Amputation left lower extremity. 6. Craniotomy. 7. Washout left leg.

4 AUG: 1. Washout and wound vac change. 2. Open reduction internal fixation zeugmatic fracture. 3. Craniotomy. 4. Washout and closure multiple wounds right hand. 5. Amputation left arm, amputation left foot, washout wound left leg, external fixation left femur, washout and packing of face trauma.

6 AUG: 1. Face washout and temporary closure, left arm irrigation and debridement, left leg irrigation and debridement. 2. Left foot amputation, right leg fasciotomy. 3. Exploratory lap, chest tube insertion. 4. Bilateral arm washouts, external fixation right arm, bilateral leg fasciotomies, right carpal tunnel release. 5. Hemi-laminectomy, decompression of spinal cord. 6. Removal of rectal abcess. 7. Thoracotomy. 8. Amputation of left arm, exploratory lap, abcess drainage, primary closure of ileum. 9. Amputation left lower leg, washout of face, repair of trach. 10. Washout neck wound, removal of bullet. 11. Washout of left arm.

8 AUG: 1. Right femoral nail, skin graft from left thigh to right thigh. 2. Irrigation and debridement right buttock. 3. Washout left lower leg amputation with wound vac placement, washout face. 4. Washout right lower extremity. 5. Exploratory lap, colonoscopy. 6. Washout right thigh.

Shayna I’m very lucky to have such a beautiful and patient wife, I love and miss you very much. Everyone else take care and I’ll see you soon.

Dave

Cease of the Cease Fire

2009-07-31T23:46:00.000-07:00

This week we were in the middle of a cease fire that was requested by the Taliban but it was short lived. I don’t know the whole story of why, all we hear are speculations, but we were feeling the effects for the couple of days it lasted. The case load had gotten very light, which was a good thing here and I’m sure it was wonderful in Bastion who had been getting hammered with patients since they had arrived. It didn’t last long though, we’ll see if it will ever happen again. Either way we are still ready to rock, so bring it on!
As of 31 JUL we have done surgeries on injuries caused by the following; 64 gunshot wounds, 60 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), 5 suicide vehicle bombers, 5 suicide vest bombers, 4 rocket attacks and 31 non-battle injuries (appendectomies, etc.) These cases were completed by the Danish/US team and the Dutch/US team combined, it does not include the cases that the Canadian/US team have completed on alternate primary call days. It’s been busy, but a lot of fun and a fantastic learning opportunity. So far I have scrubbed 70 hours and enjoying every minute.
The picture is of me scrubbed in to a craniotomy case with Dr. Christie and Dr. Trache. I’ve been told that I need pictures of me actually working because no one would believe me! Haha. I tried to get a picture of the Noodles surgical team but I couldn’t catch up with the person that has the card in their camera with it. I forgot my camera when we took the pick, perfect! Hopefully I’ll post it in the entry next week.
Shayna is doing great, so far a much smoother ride than the first surgery. I’m very proud of her being able to go through the stress of two surgeries, a move to Wisconsin and still being able to complete her courses for her Masters degree, way to go hun! Woohoo!
CASES:
27 JUL: 1. Washout right ulna. 2. Bronchoscopy, removal of needle. 3. Open reduction internal fixation mandibular fracture, tracheotomy. 4. Thoracotomy. 5. Fasciotomy left lower extremity. 6. Removal of shrapnel c4-c5 vertebrae on 5 year old kid.
29 JUL: 1. Craniotomy. 2. Facial reconstruction. 3. Washout and closure left arm, washout and external fixation right ulna. 4. EGD.
31 JUL: 1. Washout left lower extremity. 2. External fixation left radius. 3. Open reduction internal fixation left humerus. 4. Washout right leg, external fixation adjustment. 5. Craniotomy. 6. Wound vac change right leg. 7. Washout bilateral legs, removal of shrapnel. 8. Appendectomy.
Shayna I love and miss you very very much and I can’t wait to see you. Time is flying by. Everyone else take care and I’ll see you soon.
Janine, thanks for the Danish cookies, everyone in the OR loved them, and we hope that you’re having fun in Bastion, let us know how it’s going.
Dave

Crash

2009-07-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

We had a helicopter crash this past week, I’m sure you’ve seen it on the news, if you haven’t look it up on Fox News or CNN. From what we’ve heard it was a Russian company that is contracted by someone to carry supplies and civilian personnel around to their places of work. This particular helo took off with 18 passengers and 3 flight crew (2 pilots and an air crewman). The pilot told us that he took off, flew for about a minute or so, and the engine gave out. They fell to the ground, the impact caused the helo to catch fire, don’t know if it exploded or not. 16 of the passengers were killed (all contracted civilian workers), two injured with burns and cuts. We took care of the pilot, co-pilot and air crewman, many nasty fractures but no life threatening injuries. The crash happened just as we were finishing the cases for the day and hoping to get out of there early for once, it ended up being a 15 hour workday even with the second OR team called in. It was exciting but we are all hoping that we don’t get another aircraft crash for a while, if ever!

I started my rehab on my left ankle, after being hard-headed and not doing anything for a while! Shayna sent me an article from a Runners World issue and that coupled with the exercises I learned today I should be good to go in a couple of months. One of the exercises I was told to do is to pick up socks with my toes and put them in a container to strengthen my arches. I figure that by the end of the deployment I’ll be like a chimp and be able to use my feet as hands, I’ll be much more efficient. I’ll be able to give Shayna a massage with my right foot, fold laundry with my left foot, use the remote with my right hand and eat with my left hand! Haha. The physical therapist (Pia, from Holland) stated that it was fine for me to run just as long as it doesn’t hurt. She also stated that she would like me to run short distances outside on the uneven terrain when I’m not tired (yeah right) to help strengthen the ankle. I don’t know if I’m going to do that, I may just stick with the tread mill so I don’t twist it again. We’ll see.

Can you tell which one is me in the picture? Haha. Peter is standing behind me, he is our Anesthesiologist from Holland. They don’t have American football in Holland, that’s a shame because Peter is a very big person as you can see in the pic! We are going to take a picture of team Noodles (NLD + US=Noodles) and I’ll be posting it. Again, the team is very nice and we work well together.

Shayna had her second surgery, placement of the external fixation on the left leg, on Thursday and is doing fine. I told her that this round will be much better than the first because she’ll know what to expect, and it is so far! Woohoo. I’m very happy that she decided to stay up in Wisconsin during the recovery, it’s really nice of her family to take her in and take care of her. Thanks to my parents also for opening their door to her, and Dan for arranging and getting her flights. It is all much appreciated!

Just found out today, 22 JUL, that my roommate Ron will be leaving for Kuwait in the near future. The reasoning is that the Canadians do not recognize a Nurse Anesthetist as an anesthesia provider. It is a gross misuse of personnel, which is agreed upon by all the US personnel and most of the Canadians here at the hospital. So basically we are sending Ron to Kuwait and receiving an Anesthesiologist from Kuwait in return. It’s a shame that some of the people in higher positions are not fighting this harder than they are. Ron is an integral part of the Canadian surgical team and will be missed. This is another reason why I’m going to turn down Lieutenant Commander and retire as a Lieutenant.

CASES:

19 JUL: 1. Tracheostomy. 2. Open reduction internal fixation left humerus. 3. Washout left arm. 4. External fixation left leg, vascular repair left leg, washout right hand with finger amputation, washout right leg. 5. External fixation left acetabulum, external fixation right femur, splint right ankle fracture, splint right wrist fracture.

21 JUL: 1. Incision and drainage left leg, dressing change right leg. 2. Wound vac change right leg. 3. Bullet extraction left leg. 4. Burn debridement both arms and face. 5. Amputation right thumb and index finger, washout right leg and left hand. 6. Appendectomy. 7. Craniotomy, bilateral eye washout and inspection. 8. Craniotomy.

23 JUL: 1. Craniotomy. 2. Craniotomy. 3. Washout multiple back wounds. 4. External fixation adjustment, suture removal. 5. Tracheotomy, facial repair. 6. Appendectomy. 7. Bilateral leg amputations (below the knee). 8. Washout right arm. 9. Appendectomy. 10. Washout right leg below the knee amputation, left lower extremity fasciotomy, left lower extremity external fixation.

25 JUL: 1. Vascular repair, auto venous graft. 2. Egd. 3. Thoracotomy. 4. External fixation left arm. 5. Washout wound vac right arm. 6. Percutaneous tracheotomy, central line placement.

Shayna I love and miss you soooo much, everyone else take care and I miss you too! Haha.

Dave

Mis-comm-u-ni-ca-tion

2009-07-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

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

The Push

2009-07-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

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

Ch..Ch..Ch..Ch..Changes

2009-07-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

It’s been a week of changes. We said goodbye to the Danish team and welcomed aboard the Dutch team. I also have a change coming tomorrow, I’m one year older at 41 but I still feel like I’m in my 20’s, thanks in no small part to Shayna! Haha. I’m sure that this new group of medical professionals will be just as good as any of us here, one team one fight! Ron and I ran the Peachtree 10K today the 4th of July, it’s the same race that takes place in Georgia, same bib numbers and everything. Well Ron ran it, I ran .5 miles and twisted my #$@%$% ankle again! Not good. Our bibs have Afghanistan written on them, I’ll keep that one. No medals were awarded, but we get t-shirts and you can’t beat a t-shirt.

The first picture for this blog is me holding a bullet that was removed from a patient, non-coalition which is good. I’ve accumulated about 28.5 hours of scrub time so far and have even done a couple of external fixations, I’m loving it. I told Shayna that I’m thinking about going for the first assist certification (RNFA) when I get back. Okay Chris you can say I told you so at any time! Chris is my buddy from Lemoore that tried to convince me to work on the cert several times while we worked together.

The second picture is of me holding my birthday present from the Danish team. It says that I’m the best US OR nurse on Kandahar Airfield, it’s funny because I’m the ONLY US OR nurse in Kandahar! Haha. Thanks guys!

I wanted to officially say goodbye to Janine, Bodil, Sasha, Harriet, and Dr. Nielsen, Dr. Sorensen and Dr. Truxoe from the Danish team. Guys, Jere and I showed up at the terminal at 1945 and you had already checked in. We couldn’t get in to see you and I apologize. I hope you had a good flight and Jannie be safe in Bastien. Hopefully Shayna will get stationed overseas with the Air Force or Army and we’ll make a trip up to Denmark to visit. Take care and we miss you already!
Speaking of Shayna, she is doing really well. She is now in Wisconsin getting first class care from Mary and Larry, her mother and father. Mohinder (the cat) is now in Wisconsin staying with Larry, both the cat and Larry are having a lot of fun! Larry was actually in California with us when we initially picked the cat up, so they are long lost buddies reunited! Haha.

CASES:

28 JUN: 1. Abdominal wound closure. 2. Abdominal wound closure and colostomy placement. 3. Abdominal wound washout and closure. 4. Groin washout and closure, bullet retrieval. 5. Right ear repair.

30 JUN: 1. Maxillary splint. 2. External fixation right leg, closure of hip wound. 3. Appendectomy.

2 JUL: 1. Tracheostomy. 2. ORIF mandibular fracture.

3 JUL: 1. Open reduction internal fixation maxilla fracture, left eye orbital plate placement. 2. External fixation left femur, left patella repair, left shoulder washout. 3. Open reduction internal fixation left ankle fracture, washout right hand (open wound right index finger). 4. Lip repair. 5. Repair of facial laceration, repair left foot fracture, fasciotomy (sp?).

So that’s about it for this week. Been very steady but nothing overwhelming yet! Stressing the “yet” part. We get to our ½ way point coming up soon, can’t wait for that, finally over the hill on the downward slope. Time is flying by and I hope it continues. Shayna I love and miss you very much, everyone else take care and I’ll be seeing you.
Dave

Busy Week

2009-06-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

Well soon we will be saying goodbye to our Danish friends. It’s going to be a sad day, we’ve all become good friends. I guess everyone is used to saying goodbye to friends, that is the life of a military person unfortunately. It’s really not “goodbye” it’s always “see you later”, goodbye is final and that’s not good, especially here! Last week was really busy, 2 eighteen hour days and a fourteen hour day, this week we‘ve had a couple of 12 hour days, not as bad as last week. Wednesday was a very sad day, two children came in after experiencing an IED blast that tore through a bus. Their mother and father were killed in the incident, and one of the kids ended up passing away due to injuries from the blast, that left the one child all by himself. Not a good day for anyone at the hospital. It’s sad that the cowards use such a crude weapon to fight their fights, they are very unpredictable.

I’m doing good overall, but when you see kids die it really takes a toll on your psyche. They are truly the innocents in this whole war. It’s too bad.

The picture on this entry is the empty blood units we used on one patient. Believe it or not he survived and is doing well! I couldn’t believe it.

CASES:

22 JUN: 1. Neck washout and closure, left shoulder and leg washout, wound vac placement left leg. 2. Abdominal washout, wound vac placement. 3. Washout right hip. 4. Bilateral knee disarticulations (amputations). 5. External fixation left femur.
23 JUN: 1. Team DANUS was called in to help with a massive casualty, basically another amputation, I was only there an hour, don’t know how many limbs were amputated, very sad day.
24 JUN: 1. Wisdom teeth extraction. 2. Abdominal washout, wound vac placement. 3. Tracheostomy.
26 JUN: 1. Colectomy, wound vac placement. 2. Closure of scalp laceration with skull fracture, done on a “detainee”, we saw 3 “detainees today that blew themselves up with an IED, I guess you would call that self imposed justice! Woohoo! 4. Thoracotomy and closure, placement of chest tube. I held the lung in my hand on this one, pretty exciting stuff don’t you think? Haha.

Well that’s about it for this week, Shayna I love and miss you very much, everyone else take care.
Dave

Team DANUS

2009-06-21T00:53:00.000-07:00

DANUS = Danish + US. A lot of the people in the group didn’t want me to use this name since it sounds a lot like anus, but I like it. Not the anus, the DANUS! We also had a normal serious picture taken and it can be found under the “picture gallery” tab. I volunteered to be the patient for the picture, with the understanding that no tubes were to be placed anywhere in me! Had some excitement this past week, I got to cut a leg off. I know it sounds weird to say, but it was really cool. I have pictures but I don’t want to post the really gross ones on here, I’ll let most of you see them when I come visit, that is if you want to see them. We also had a couple of guys come in with some minor injuries, but they had their security dog with them, he had to be taken to the vet with possible blown eardrums, poor dog. I’m sure he’ll do fine though. Shayna is doing well after her surgery, unfortunately our cat is being returned early so if any of you living close could drop by and help Shayna change the litter box once a week that would be great. It’s going to be kind of hard for her to carry the box while on crutches for the next 5 weeks or so! Thanks in advance!

I spoke with Shayna’s dad, Larry, on the phone and he said that the Legion in his area was interested in sending some stuff out to us. That’s great and thank you! If anyone else would like to send some things just use the address I included in the last article, it will come right to me. Anything from home would be great, use your imagination, I trust you……..well some of you! Haha.

I will added a video today, 25 JUN, at the bottom of this entry, just sound really, of what the rocket attack warning sounds like. The small video is actually the “all clear” announcement we hear after the rocket attack danger has passed. It’s really loud and annoying which is a good thing for us!

CASES FOR THE WEEK:

14 JUN: 1. Removal of bullet from neck. 2. Amputation left lower leg, washout right leg, washout right hand.

16 JUN: 1. Open reduction internal fixation (ORIF) of the maxilla (lefort I), basically we put 3 plates and screws in a patients face, around the right eye. 2. Appendectomy. Good day, no mass casualties!

18 JUN: Very long day, 18 hours at work, 15.5 hours actual surgery time. I’m getting paid overtime right? Haha. 1. Abdominal washout, wound vacuum placement. 2. Face washout, removal of foreign body, exam under anesthesia right eye. 3. Removal of K-wire, finger. 4. Dressing change, washout left leg. 5. Exploratory laparoscopy. 6. Washout and external fixation right hand, washout left hip. 7. Washout and removal of foreign body right leg. 8. Washout left arm, auto-venous graft from right leg to left arm, angiogram.

19 JUN: Called in for a case today, not fun especially after the long day yesterday! Washout of a gunshot wound to the right hip (head of femur).

20 JUN: 1. Washout left arm (previous graft patient). 2. Washout right hip/gluteus, antibiotic bead placement. 3. Incision and drainage neck wound, tracheotomy placement, left shoulder dressing change. 4. Tracheostomy placement. 5. Tracheostomy placement. 6. What a way to end the week, another 18.5 hour work day. We had a 9-liner (that’s how casualties are reported to us through a succinct 9 line message describing who they are, where they are coming from, their condition, etc) around 1900 or so. We had about a 2-3 hour break before coming in and working until 0130. Again the overtime question comes into play! Haha. We did two exfixes on the femurs, an exfix on the right ankle and also he had massive vascular injuries to both legs, near the groin, not good. He ended up having 60+ units of blood and he is still kicking as of this morning. Very strong guy. Unfortunately he is a coalition fighter, non-US, I hope he pulls through.

Well that brings our total surgeries to 60 since 16 May 09. Not too busy, not too slow, just right! Shayna I miss and love you very much, I think that you made the right decision. HAPPY FATHER’S DAY Dad, thanks for all that you have done for me and raising me to be what I am now. Happy Father’s Day to all of the other father’s out there! Everyone else take care and I’ll be writing more next week.
Dave

Multinational Nurse at the Multinational Medical Unit

2009-06-13T03:17:00.000-07:00

Okay so the picture looks weird, but it was funny doing it. I’m wearing the shorts from a Danish military uniform, a blouse from the Canadians and a hat from the Netherlands (Dutch), my name tag from the Army ACUs and of course some good old American firepower! Woohoo. As I’ve stated before it really is a cool thing to be able to work with so many different countries here, an opportunity that I will never get again. There are small differences on how the OR is run, but overall it is amazingly very similar. That was one of my main concerns coming here, would I be able to function with all new equipment in a foreign environment, literally! Everything is working out fine. Shayna and I have already been invited to visit Denmark and Amsterdam, Denmark we can do right away but Amsterdam will have to wait until I retire from the Navy so we can enjoy it to its fullest! Just kidding. I can’t believe that a month has passed already, time is flying and I’m certain that it will continue. It makes a huge difference being surrounded with so many top-notch professionals that all want to be here to help make a difference, or at least to help get the trigger pullers back out into the field! After 15 JUN I’ll have 9 paydays left until I’m home, piece of cake.

8 JUN: Washout of abdomen, bilateral legs, drain placement in neck. Had a casualty come in, coalition forces (Canadian) unfortunately, mine injury, leg amputation, had to do a thoracotomy in trauma bay, patient passed away. Very sad day.
10 JUN: Washout of everything on same guy. 5 US Army guys post IED (Improvised Explosive Device), did surgery on one of the guys, open tibia fracture, placed an exfix (external fixation), the rest were stable.
11 JUN: We were called in as the second OR team today. We washed out a GSW (gunshot wound) that entered the right side of the neck and exited through the right scapula (shoulder blade). He is in the Afghan Army and is a very lucky man, the bullet didn’t hit any other organs! Someone was on his side today!
12 JUN: We did a minor 5 minute case (EGD) on a US Army person today, that’s it! Good to be bored in the medical field.

I wanted to recognize the military presence of a couple more countries, I apologize if I’ve already mentioned them in the past, Scotland, Belgium and Romania. It’s nice to see all of the countries that are here with a common goal, kick the $#@$%$ out of the Taliban!

Today, 13 JUN, is a very good day, relaxing. I couldn’t run because the ankle is swelling up again, so I biked for 7 miles, it’s amazing the different muscles that are used, I’m sore in places that I shouldn’t be! Haha. That’s about it for this week, Shayna I love and miss you very much and I’m glad the surgery went well, thanks Ray for watching the cat it’s helping Shayna out tremendously, couple more weeks and he should be good to go to come home with Shayna. Everyone else take care!
Dave

Power on.....Power off!

2009-06-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

The new place we are staying in is fantastic, but all places here are at the mercy of the generator. The great thing is that the barracks were built to withstand a direct hit from a 105mm mortar round, the walls are between 6 and 12 inches thick, so the cold air from the air conditioning actually stays in the rooms while the power is out. Very nice. The windows are about an inch thick, looks like bullet proof glass, so needless to say I’m sleeping much better since moving into the NATO barracks! Shayna had her surgery on one of her legs on Thursday, it went very well. She said that she really didn’t have any pain afterward, just a lot of nausea, not fun. I’m glad the surgery went well, I was more worried for her than I was about being here! Haha. I told her that she had a host of nations thinking about her on Thursday and wishing her well, I guess it worked. I’m finally back in full swing and able to run without pain from my ankle that I twisted in training. I’m hitting between 6 and 8 miles every other day and feeling good. My weight is between 145 and 150 depending on which scale I use, not too bad. I’m on quit smoking day #11 as of the 7th of June, it’s going good. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAYNA, you’re getting more beautiful every year, I’m very lucky! I also ran a 10K for the Canadian Air Force this past week, went well, finished it in 55 min. Well here is a brief synopsis of what we encountered this past week:
2 Jun: A local national died in the trauma bay, motorcycle accident, 9-line message 7 Afghans wounded, sent to another base.
4 Jun: 5 hour case, close abdominal wound, incise and drain other abdominal wounds, amputation right big toe (it actually fell off when we removed the bandage!), washout both legs (removed shrapnel), amputation left index finger, washout and close the neck wound. The next case was an anal condyloma (anal warts) case, don’t ask don’t tell! Haha.
6 Jun: 4.5 hour case, I scrubbed! Same as above without the amputations! Called in at 2330 (11:30 PM) for an appendectomy, got home at 0230.
That brings the Danish surgical team total to 35 surgeries since 16 MAY, not too bad.
Well that’s about it for this week, enjoy the pictures and I’ll be writing more next weekend. Shayna I love and miss you very much, happy birthday again, take it easy and heal well, everyone else take care and keep in touch.
Dave

Catch up!

2009-05-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a long one! 10 paydays left! woohoo. Day 4 of not smoking, hopefully many to follow. All of the pics I'm posting here were taken in Bagram, Afghanistan on the way to Kandahar, I'll update with pics from here on the next entry on next Sunday. The following are some things I wrote about when I didn’t have my own access to the internet. Now that I do, I’ll have plenty of time to update this blog frequently. I'm actually sitting in the Dutch restaurant called "Echos" where you can purchase internet access while you eat Dutch Frikadel on a roll, I'm getting internationalized now! If that's actually a word, if it isn't I'll have it added to Websters! haha. So far to date our surgical team, the Danish team, has done 27 surgeries. Some have been very interesting. The longest day has been 19 hours straight in the OR, but we've been steady more than insanely busy so far but we know the long days are coming. I hope everyone is doing great. Shayna is now officially done with school, her Bachelors Degree is complete and she starts her Masters studies this summer, how can someone so smart end up with me? haha. Well that's about it for now, I'll also be adding pics to the gallery so check them out. Take care, I love and miss you Shayna, and lots of love to everyone else! haha.

Dave

Rolig…….Rolig……Rolig!
I’m writing this on 18 May 09, we’re still waiting on yet another move into our new barracks where we will have internet access and the chance to update the blog. The trip out here was one that really tested one’s patience. We ended up spending a total of 2 weeks waiting in Kuwait. Our mission was cancelled to Farah so we were sitting in Kuwait being told that we were either going home, going to Bastien or going to Kandahar, obviously we got the latter of the three. We were very happy to finally know where we were going but the test of patience didn’t stop there. We flew to Bagram, Afghanistan where we were only supposed to be waiting for a day and then off to Kandahar, that sounded way too simple and we were prepared for the worst. We went to the airfield with all of our gear and were met by three guys, out of our total of 6, that were supposed to leave 4 hours earlier for Bastien through Kandahar. Come to find out they were bumped on to our flight, which made us happy because we got pretty close with the guys, that was until we found out that they were assigned to take our seats, rolig, rolig, rolig! Rolig is the Danish word for patience! To make a long story short we ended up spending the next six days waiting on a flight to Kandahar, all the while staying in transient tents that held 100 personnel (see video below). Now I know for a fact that I can survive in a homeless shelter or a natural disaster tent. Haha. I have nothing to complain about being stationed in Kandahar, the living quarters are fantastic and the Canadians, Dutch,
Kiwis and Danish are really fun to work with, it’s a great group. So far I’ve been part of 5 surgeries, all of which were ANA (Afghan National Army) personnel plus one US Soldier that was in for an elective surgery. Some of the cases have been a GSW (gun shot wound) to the face, a revision of a foot amputation, a dressing change to a open head wound including exposed brain tissue, a burn case and several more. In the Navy an Officer working as a perioperative nurse only circulates the cases and a scrub technician does all of the scrubbing, or working in the OR field directly with the surgeon. Upon arrival to the OR here I was told by the Canadians that I would be scrubbing, granted I’ve watched many surgical procedures over the last 4 years, but I’ve never scrubbed. I’ve scrubbed 2 of the previous 5 cases with no problem, at least I don’t think there has been a problem, the surgeons were probably calling me an idiot in Danish! It’s very interesting seeing all of the countries that are represented at this camp, here are a few; Holland, Estonia, Denmark, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Czechoslovakia, France, Scotland and obviously Afghanistan! It’s relatively safe here, they have had some rocket attacks in the past, but they have been very sparse. I guess that the ammunition that they are using is really old, so the chances of one going off are very little and they are just taking pot shots at us, no aiming involved. We have been wearing our body armor for the past couple of days, I guess the threat level is up right now but we know very little. I’ve got our address if any of you are interested in sending anything. The base I’m at now has several exchange shops so all of the basic needs are met, but here it is anyways:
LT David Davis
Task Force Med South
APO AE 09355
Well that about brings everything up to speed up to the 18th of May, only 11 paydays left in this “beautiful” land! Woohoo. Shayna I love and miss you very much, hello and take care to everyone else.

Another update

It’s now 26 May. Yesterday was a long one, 19 hours in the OR, which brings our surgical teams total to 20 surgeries. The only good thing about that is that the days have been flying by. So far we’ve worked on everything from an open appendectomy to massive face and brain trauma. I’ve been telling people that our location shouldn’t be called the MMU (Multinational Medical Unit), it should be called the Multinational Craniotomy Unit! We have the only Neuro Surgeon in Afghanistan, and the forces are keeping him busy. He is a great guy, he has a long white beard and people say that he is Santa Claus when he isn’t a British Neuro Surgeon! I asked him if it was true and he said that he does take up some side work in the winter. Haha. I’ve been running on a treadmill 6 miles or so every other day, which is good for the stress and to keep me from coming back to Shayna looking like a whale. Shayna asked me not to come back looking like I did from Iraq, I left for Ramadi 155 pounds and came back home at 173, and believe me it wasn’t muscle. So with help from Shayna and her diet plans, I’ve now lost 11 pounds by eating smaller portions, sweating my you know what off and by running. I’m allowed one cheat day for ice cream. Last week I did great by running and eating correctly just waiting for Sunday, which is now Sundae since I eat ice cream that day. I walked up to the place that has soft serve and the machine was broken, that was not a good thing! Well there’s always next Sundae! I love and miss you Shayna, everyone else take care.

And another...

It’s now the 28th of May at 2030 (8:30 PM) and I’m in the new barracks. Wow! It’s better than all of the barracks I’ve ever lived in, I feel guilty sleeping in here while most of the other nations are in tents, not that guilty though! Haha. It certainly beats the heck out of the wooden box 4 of us stayed in while we were in Ramadi. Sorry Carl! Haha. Obviously I don’t have a solid internet connection yet either, the people that run the barracks say that it’s coming soon, so far Afghanistan “soon” is much slower than American “soon”, must be because we are on the other side of the globe! I decided to stop smoking yesterday, days one and two went fine, hopefully I’ll be able to hold out. We are running a 10K race this weekend for the Canadian Air Force, should be a lot of fun, at least something more to write about. So far our surgical team is up to 23 cases, I’m predicting a total of 360 when it’s all said and done, we’ll see how close I am later on. As always I love and miss you very much Shayna, everyone else take care and I love you also. Haha.

Quickie!

2009-05-27T02:44:00.001-07:00

Well I'm in Kandahar, Afghanistan now and have been since 16 MAY. I have limited internet access right now so I haven't been updating the blog as much as I'd like to. I will be moving to a new living area in a week or so that will have internet access and I'll be updating promptly. I have a couple of articles that have been written but no way to post to the blog. It will be catch up time soon! We have seen some massive injuries come through our OR. We are the only facility in Afghanistan with a Neuro Surgeon, so we get many head traumas. I'll write more later, but all is safe and well. I love and miss you very much Shayna, everyone else take care.
Dave

514 Steps

2009-05-06T02:32:00.000-07:00

When you want to make a phone call you probably just reach for your cell phone or your wireless home phone. When I want to make a call I have to take 514 steps to reach a phone. Believe me I’m not complaining, being able to call Shayna every day is fantastic. Yes, I’m very bored, if you can‘t tell by the fact I‘m counting steps! Haha. We have been sitting in Kuwait for 10 days now wondering what the heck is going on. We received some information today at least. The word is that we will be going to Kandahar or Bastien, don’t know when or how but we know we may be going to one of those two places. The 6 of us that are stranded here on the island of misfit toys are still very psyched to go, but the waiting does take a little toll on your motivation. Our buddies that left for Afghanistan a couple of days ago were met with rain, mud and a fallen soldier ceremony, I’m glad we missed that evolution. Things always work out though, it looks like Farah is heating up, the Police Chief was assassinated and according to the Stars and Stripes a US air strike killed 30 civilians and the locals are in an uproar. Probably not a good place to be right now! So our day consists of getting up to the sounds of the bugle call at 0600, going to eat breakfast, going to the phone center to call Shayna, let my food digest and then hit the treadmill at 0900, shower, relax, go eat lunch at 1115, relax, go eat dinner at 1800, call Shayna, relax, read and then sleep. That pretty much covers my day, at least I’m not getting shot at! That’s about it for today I’ll write more as we find out more info. Shayna I miss and love you very much, everyone else take care!

Tattoine

2009-05-02T22:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone. I'm now in Kuwait and have been here since 26 APR, not as bad as I thought it would be! We are in 9 man tents, vice the 300 man tents I was expecting. It's very hot but tolerable. We have been doing some training but basically just climatizing. The picture is of me standing at the Udari range, I called the blog entry "Tattoine" for all of you Star Wars fans out there. I was just waiting for C3PO and R2D2 to come over the sand dunes! The training was very interesting, of course we started with some good ol' shooting in 110 degrees wearing the full body armor and then off to convoy training. We drove through a 17 Km course that was laden with IEDs (improvised explosive devices), not live IEDs! We had an 8 vehicle convoy, I was in the first vehicle, aka target! haha. We did a good job overall, only "blown up" twice. I have new found respect for the Soldiers, Sailors and Marines that do this every day, with the added pressure of the well hidden IEDs. The only bad thing about the Udari range was the fact that we didn't have showers or running water, ate MREs (meals ready to eat) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had a sand storm the first night out there, wow! It actually hurt when the sand hit your skin, nothing like a free dermabrasion! We also slept on the floor of the buildings where our classes were taught. When we returned back to Camp Virginia, Kuwait we were actually happy to see our cots and our showers, when before there were some people complaining about the cots and showers! Well we will be leaving here in a couple of days for our next destination, can't wait to see what's in store for us there. The good thing is that we'll be given the official word of where we will be ending up, nothing like the unknown to make things a little exciting! Hopefully I'll be able to do another entry next weekend, if not, I'm still very safe and healthy. Shayna I miss and love you very much, everyone else take care and I'll be writing soon.

Another One Down

2009-04-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Another training week complete, although it was a short one. We did land navigation and convoy ops on Monday and Tuesday. Today was basically check out paperwork, etc. I can't believe that basically a month has passed, no problem only 7 or so to go, or 13 paydays! woohoo. Just got off the phone with Shayna and she is hanging in there, I told her that soon it will be her turn to do this "fun" stuff. Next we're off to our next training destination, I can't tell you when or where due to OPSEC (operational security) but once I'm there I'll hopefully have a reliable Internet connection so I can keep you informed. Overall the training has been very good and relevant, basically training for the worse case scenarios which we all hope and pray never happens. It all goes back to the training I completed with the Marines in Camp Lejeune in 2007, the Gunny made one simple statement, "We're training you for the worst, I'll tell you now if all that is left is a bunch of docs and nurses with weapons God help you because we're all dead!". That puts it into perspective. I spoke with an Army officer today at lunch and he stated that Farah is a really nice place to be stationed with good sleeping quarters, hospital, and chow, you can't beat that. I thought that I was getting the short end of the stick when I was first told that I was going to a FOB (forward operating base), but it turns out that the six of us going there actually hit the lottery. He stated that it is a very secure place in the middle of nowhere, the good part about that is that you can see any threats coming from miles away unlike Ramadi where we were in the middle of the city. It's a bitter sweet feeling when some of the friends that I've met have left for their destinations this morning, one that will happen again when we all leave for our final destinations. Well that's about it for now, I love and miss you very much Shayna, everyone else take care and I'll try my best to keep this updated. If nothing is posted for a couple of weeks, it just means that I'm in a tent in the desert doing some more training! Take care.

Home, Home On The Range

2009-04-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

"Home on the range" must have been written by an Army guy because that's exactly where we spent this entire week! I didn't know that there were so many ways to shoot a weapon. We did many different types of shoots with the M16 and the M9, we also did some damage with a 50 cal (pictured), a 240B machine gun, and a 249 machine gun. I love to shoot so I was obviously in heaven! All of this week was filled with 13+ hour days, many of which was spent in full combat gear, I could tell that I was 40 years old! The Motrin bottle made it's rounds in our barracks, many of the guys are in the same age group. The Drill Sergeants had a blast with us on our last shoot yesterday called a "stress shoot". You started in a Humvee in full combat gear. One of the instructors would bang on the door and asked the driver and passenger to get out, actually it was more yelling at the top of his lungs than asking. You then ran full speed, which is more of a fast walk with the extra weight on, to pick up 2 magazines of ammunition. After that you headed to 5 different scenarios of taking cover and firing. The "stress" came from the Drill Sergeants screaming at you the whole time, plus the heat. I thought I was in pretty good shape but quickly learned I was mistaken after that evolution! Overall the training has been great, but I'm very, very tired right now. I got a room at a local hotel, I'm icing the ankle and getting room service for the last time before we get cots, tents, and sand for a week or two. I really can't wait to get to the final place of deployment so I can relax! haha. That's about it for this week, a lot of hurry up and wait, but overall a lot of fun. Shayna I love and miss you, everyone else take care!

Above is a video of the firing line at the crew served weapons range. I was shooting the video, so I'm not shooting the machine guns!

Turtle Roll

2009-04-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

What a week! All of our days have been 14+ hours, we did have one that was 12 hours and it felt short. We did a lot of courses, death by PowerPoint, and also did a lot of shooting, the M9 pistol and the M16 rifle. It's good that they are focusing their training on shooting techniques, you never know when you might have to be a "killer" as the Army calls us here. When we do go shooting we have to go in full "battle rattle" which means full gear, helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, body armor, ear plugs, ballistic glasses, and gloves. Which brings me to the title of this entry, Turtle Roll. We were walking in a patrol formation, two lines with about 5 meters between each person. I was watching the person in front of me and thinking, he better watch where he's going he's going to turn his ankle and then BAM! I went down like a sack of potatoes, turning my ankle while wearing 75 pounds of gear, not good. The person behind me said that the outside of my left ankle hit the ground and my foot turned inward. I looked like a turtle with the gear on, thank God that Sam came back to help me up, I might still be there if he didn't. haha. That happened Wednesday and it's swollen to about the size of a grapefruit with some bruising. I'm just taking Motrin every day and trying to keep it elevated at night. I just don't want to get it looked at and be placed back in training, should be okay. Tomorrow we are going shooting again, this time doing something called flexy-fire, you start in the down position and then bring the pistol up quickly and letting two shot loose, should be fun. After that I have a room at a hotel in town where I am immediately going to drop off my laundry, place my foot in a bucket of ice, watch movies and order room service. It's going to be the last time to spoil myself for a long while to come. Well that's about it for now, take care and Shayna I miss you and love you very much!

Ready to Rock

2009-04-07T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well day 2 completed, about 16 or so to go! woohoo. Yesterday was a very, very long day. Gear issue, classes and standing in lines took up most of the 16 hour day. Today started with Army physical training (PT) at 0545, followed by weapons issue and yes, more classes. So far the training has been well organized and mission specific, not too bad at all. Sorry about the picture being canted to one side, I couldn't switch it for some reason. I'm wearing the Army protective equipment, about 25 pounds, the M16 rifle, and a Beretta 9mm pistol on my right leg. Not comfortable at all, I can only imagine how it feels for the young Army guys and Marines that are kicking in doors wearing this equipment in the heat, a lot of respect goes out to them from all of us here! The first night I was complaining to Shayna about the living arrangements, but she cooled me down by saying that Afghanistan will be better! She's great. Tomorrow is our PT assessment, 1 mile run, and then a 4 hour class on something, the Drill Instructor said it's going to be death by power point, hopefully I can stay awake! That's about it for now, love and miss you Shayna, and everyone else of course. Take care.

Smokey the Bear

2009-04-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

Well we're in South Carolina now. We arrived last night and were welcomed by Army Drill Sergeants! Looks like I'm now going to go through Army boot camp! Shouldn't be that bad, although we are having a barracks inspection in a couple of hours, complete with hospital corners! The game starts.......again. I think that I'll be able to gauge how the next couple of weeks will go by how this barracks inspection is handled by them, oh please let it be good. Today was spent eating breakfast and lunch and that's about it. I've met some really good people here so far, so it looks like I shouldn't be stuck with a Mr. Depression like I was on the last one, that is always a downer. Well that's about it for now, Shayna I love and miss you much, everyone else take care! I've also posted some more pics under the photo gallery link.

Hoorah to Hooahh, the Transition

2009-04-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I have hot water! Now an explanation on the title of this entry. Hoorah for the USMC, who we normally deploy with and Hooahh for the Army, who we're deploying with now. Chris K. a friend of mine from Lemoore asked me before I left if I knew the difference between the two. He said that Hooahh is what Hoorah sounds like when you have something in your mouth! It's been a great week catching up with two old friends from past deployments and work, Dan McClure and Anne Ashton, they definitely made it a tolerable week. I have their blogs listed under links if you'd like to follow what they will be doing in different parts of Afghanistan. Of course since we know each other we aren't deploying to the same place! Figures. I'm loving that I can contact Shayna so easily right now, that is making the time go by much more quickly than I imagined. Next week I'll be with the Army in South Carolina doing some training for a couple of weeks and then off I go to my final destination. Speaking of that, change 2 revision 5 on where I'm going to end up. I don't know if you noticed but I changed the weather and clocks on this page to denote Farah instead of Kandahar! As of now I'll be going to SW Afghanistan instead of the SE, not a bad deal. I was going to be close to Pakistan, now I'll be close to Iran, I guess I don't get to choose my poison! There are only 8 of us out of the 190 currently training that will be going to Farah, so it will be similar to when I was in Ramadi, Iraq. The advantage is that there will not be a lot of "busy work" that usually accompanies a deployment with a lot of personnel, thank goodness, I can't stand busy work! I'll be able to do some more entries while I'm in SC, after that it may be sporadic at best, I'll make it work though. Overall the gear issue and briefs were painless and well organized, which is a plus! Shayna I love and miss you much. Take care everyone, and you should be able to leave comments now even if you are not registered through blogspot. See ya!

No Hot Water

2009-03-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

Well I'm in San Diego now for the week of gear issue and training. The day started with Shayna dropping me off at the base at 0700 so the duty driver, HN Brandon Potters, could drive me down. All was going well until we were 1/2 hour into the drive and I realized that I left my orders, medical records, etc. sitting in the back seat of Shayna's car! Not good! So we turned around and I had to say "see you later" to Shayna all over again, so I had the worst part about the deployment, for both Shayna and I, happen twice, again not good. After the 6 hour drive back to San Diego and a long wait at the billeting desk, I was informed that the room I'm in will not have hot water until tomorrow afternoon, woohoo! Who needs coffee in the morning, I'll take a 40 degree shower anyday! haha. Over all it was a good trip and the room is really nice, less the water situation. Well that's about it for today, Shayna I miss and love you very much. Take care!

168 Hours

2009-03-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

168 hours until my journey begins, doesn't seem like a lot of time. I was just talking to Shayna about the deployment and telling her that I'm proud to go and help. The job I have here in Lemoore is satisfying, but nothing compares to being where people need you the most. Basically you forget about the dangers and become completely submersed in the situation at hand, which is helping people survive. How will I react to being in another situation much like Ramadi? I don't know, but what I do know is that when it's all said and done I will really feel like I've accomplished something, which is a feeling that very few people get to experience in their lives. I know that it all sounds a little corny, but it is the absolute truth. The worst part is, obviously, being away from your new bride and all of your family and friends, but what is absolutely fantastic is all of the support I have and will receive from everyone, heck of a change from what you read about the Vietnam war participants. Again thank you for the support and keep on reading! Take care.

Cement

2009-03-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well this past week has given me plenty of images that will be cemented into my memory for the upcoming deployment. It's very important to have images in your mind, as well as hard copy, to get you through the times when you've had enough of the "game" and would like to return home. Trip to Florida, marriage to your dream girl, and family, what else could you possibly need after that? Maybe a lottery winning, that's about the only thing that could've made it better! At times when by myself watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico, all I could think was, I can't believe that I'll be standing in a line getting 4-5 sea bags of gear in a couple of weeks. That was a definite buzz kill, but it gave me the opportunity to really take things in while I could. The whole experience also made me realize how sweet it's going to be when I return home, that's going to be a good day. Well that's about it for now, take care.

On a dime

2009-02-28T13:10:00.001-08:00

Isn't it amazing how life can change on a dime, or maybe a quarter due to today's economy! About a month ago I had my life planned for the next 3 years with Shayna, and my budget complete. Then the word came about the deployment, and wow how things have changed. For those of you not in the service, just imagine getting word that you'll be gone for a year starting next month and you can only take a limited amount of "stuff" with you. What would you pack into your sea bag? What would you do with your car, finances, home, family, etc? The weird thing is I like the challenge, and also love to help injured people the best I can. I've heard in the past someone describe a deployment to a war zone as, "long bouts of boredom interrupted by short moments of extreme chaos", that's exactly what it's like. My life changed again yesterday when I received my orders. I have been fully prepared for a year deployment to Afghanistan, the orders state that it's only going to be 220 days, bringing me back home sometime in November 2009 instead of July 2010. It doesn't seem like a large amount of time, but it affects the car, finances, home, family, etc.....again! Don't you love it? Well that's about it for now, my brain hurts from thinking about something to write about! haha. Take care.

First entry

2009-02-25T08:52:00.000-08:00

The first entry! woohoo. I wanted to start this blog prior to being deployed to try to take you through the emotions, etc. that accompany being a US Servicemember facing a looming deployment and beyond. I'll be adding a weekly message with the occasional pause due to training and travel. It will be a learning process at first, but I'm sure that I'll become a blogging pro as time goes on, as my friend Carl undoubtedly did in Iraq, good job Carl! Well that's about it for the "big" intro, I'll be writing more as time hopefully flies by! Take care.