Do all patients have such impeccable timing?

i came back from my sunday afternoon run all tired, sweaty, and out of breath and just as i'm about to sit down and veg in front of the a/c one of the guys comes running up to me. "sir, you have a phone call." unfortunately, that's usu not a good thing. it's never fun phone calls you get and such was the case here as well. hm3 was on the line and there were 3 patients who had just walked into the clinic waiting for me. now, hm3 is very capable and competent, but there are some cases i just have to see...and these guys...well they had to be seen. so i hop on my bike and ride in to work. ugh. i'm gonna have to get these guys to start sticking to my actual sick call hours!

but beak, so far the weather hasn't gotten so bad yet. it's cool at night (and actually pretty cold when i get up in the morning...i have to wear a fleece), very warm in the day....but not quite hot yet. i think the hottest it's been is in the low 90's. they say it was way hot this time of year last year so i feel pretty lucky so far. little victories, my friends. the dust storms still suck. that's a pic of a couple of old broken down jets sitting in the desert in the middle of one. everything is that nasty brown color. you can barely tell sky from ground. and each breath is like taking a mouth full of sand. well, not quite that bad, but unpleasant to say the least.

The Office

so here it is...that's my clinic up top and that's the view outside my door. that small road you see there is the runway. yup, i'm right on the flightline. usu it's the tiny uav's that take off from here, but occ we'll see a huge c-130 or c17 taxi on by. there was even a jet that landed there the other day. makes for a pretty loud work place. we do have to be careful about what pics to post but i think these are ok. i'm using the 'net during the middle of the day, and when there's less ppl on, it actually works decently. pretty sad, huh? the last squadron had wireless in the alamo, but my skipper hesitated and now it's a grip of $$$ to start up. i think some of the guys are looking into sponsors to help defray the costs of setting up, but it's like in the thousands.

i left cherry point a month ago, but have only been here for a little over 3 weeks. the time seems to pass fairly quickly, but it does feels like i've been here forever. work is fairly steady so not quite as boring. i do have a lot of collateral stuff i'm supposed to be doing but they're no fun so i put them off. about to get my class started. gotta prepare my medical brief for the month of may and a bunch of other random stuff as well. and i have a good amount of studying to do as well. this is way more fun, at least when the 'net works properly. more pics to come....

What's a weekend in Iraq?

i was up late last night working up an army mishap so i slept in today for the first time since being here. all the way until 0800 and it felt great. of course, as soon as i came back from hitting the head i get a knock on the door and it's the duty telling me i've got a phone call. "doc, there's someone you need to see. you wanna come in or should i send the patient to you?" how did they know that i was hoping for a lazy sunday morning? needless to say, it put a little damper on my plans. no rest for the wicked..isn't that how the saying goes? or is it no rest for the weary? well, both applies i guess.

i did make time to go to our weekly softball game which was cut short when skipper found some live ordnance on the field. had to call in eod (explosive ordnance disposal for you less military minded) to take care of it who of course got lost trying to find the field (go army!). the guys went to shoot some hoops instead but i headed for chow and then back to work. funstuff.

oh but i did have my first combat latte, a mocha frap. not quite starbucks but there's a little coffee trailer on the mainside that does those froofroo drinks. a little bit pricey but a whole lotta goodness. not too bad.

tried a couple more pics but no go...will try again later...

You couldn't pay me enough for this

or could you? i had lunch with 3 of the half dozen or so civilian contractors we have out here with us today and it was interesting to get some of their perspectives. of course, they all volunteered to come out for anywhere between 3 months (1 guy is leaving today) to upwards of a year. they all say it's not bad and in some cases, their work here is much better than at home (i can tell you now that i'm way way busier at home than i am out here). but they don't carry weapons. they don't have to wear flak and kevlar everywhere they go. they have their own car out here to share. and i'm sure they get paid handsomely. some in the military take this as an example of maybe it would be better to hire more civilians or third country nationals or even local nationals to do more of the work out here. i read an interesting speech that was just given to members of congress by a retired army colonel about how many of our logistics, our food service, our vehicle maintenance, our sanitary services, are all being run by contractors now. fact is though, we're relatively safe. you can bet your asses that if things started to heat up here or in iran or syria, those civilians are gonna high-tail it outta here. then we'll really be in the shits...literally and figuratively.

i'm trying to post a pic again from out here. the problem is the 'net is so slow it takes frickin' forever and i just don't have the patience. if it works, though, i'll def try to put more up. this is the view of the lake from the little gazebo we have atop a bunker.

Tour de TQ

i took my bike for a joyride today. rode the 13 mile loop that goes around the entire base. i was tempted to take a detour on some of the dirt roads but also a little nervous bout going into random places. did stop at a medical clinic and met the doc who works there. he's from camp lejeune so right around the corner from me in nc. seemed like a good guy. one doc and one sorta pa (we call them idc's in the navy) for 1100 marines. makes me feel pretty lucky i only have 200 to take care of. i actually had a bunch of real patients today for some reason...

had dinner on the mainside yest and randomly met up with a couple of docs from flight school and internship. it gets a little lonely sometimes when you're the only doc around...sniff sniff...so it was great seeing the familiar faces and talking shop. also a chance to swap sea stories and catch up on other friends as well. good times....

it's been great to hear from you guys back home as well. mrs. skinnee, congrats on the new job! j esq., i got your invite...thanks so much for thinking of me. i'm sad i won't be able to make it. i know you guys have been asking about pics, but the net is so slow, it takes forever to upload and i've never been patient enough. one of these days, though...until then, you'll just have to wait for the slideshow when i come back! talk to you all soon!

Comm block

almost hard to believe that it's been a week since i last posted. so slightly in my defense, all non military outgoing message traffic (internet, phone, email, etc...) had been put on hold for almost 48 hours and was just started up again late last night. unfortunately, that happens every time there's a death or tragedy on the base until family back home are notified. that and the flares that were going off just south of the nearby lake indicating operations were being conducted are sobering reminders that no matter how slow and easy things may be on a daily basis, we are still at war in a country that may or may not want us here and against an enemy that definitely wants us out.

i take care of some of the guys from 3 army units here and you prolly all know now that all deployed army units have been extended for 3 months, from 1 year to 15 months. and i think i have it bad? not even close. 1 guy said that 80% of his squad is here on stop-loss, another, 50%. these are young men and women who are supposed to be getting out and they're being involuntarily extended. how's that for a morale booster? being here and seeing what we do and our missions...they make sense. but seeing what's on the news and in the press and hearing about funding cuts in areas like health care and research and you start to wonder.

luckily, my job is easy and there's no questioning involved. i take care of these kids (and most really are just kids) and i try to do it to the best of my limited ability. i think about what i did at their ages and realize how privileged i have been. while i was partying in college and galavanting across europe, these guys are living in the desert. and we actually have it pretty good. scary!

Steroids anyone?

so army challenged us to a friendly easter softball game yesterday. apparently this is an ongoing rivalry and we've been kicking their asses the past few deployments. with them finally going home in about 10 days or so they wanted a rematch and this time, they brought out their secret weapon. pretty much every single one of them was huge and jacked! and although we had a strong early lead, they came back and got their revenge. i think the final score was like 17 to 10 after 7 innings and we walked away with our heads hung low. gunny joked that we should've made them take urine tests. it was a good time, though, and nice to see us finally interacting with some of the other guys out here. i do take care of soldiers from a couple of army units (esp. the ones on flight status), and we share space, but other than that, everyone pretty much sticks to themselves.

but now it's monday and work is starting to pick up. just found out i have to implement a new vaccination program. i'm trying to set up the college courses i'm going to be teaching (intro to psych and human anatomy). and i gotta work on some navy stuff as well. blech. looks like no movies for a while (although i did just watch the new tmnt and it wasn't too bad)....

Weekend? What weekend?

this could be any other saturday afternoon. i'm sitting in the internet cafe trying to cool off after hitting the gym and going for a short run (hey, i gotta start slowly!). except, i worked this morning and in a few hours i'll be headed back in to work again (and oh yeah, i still have that weapon strapped onto my shoulder). that's the beauty of deployment and 24/7 ops. saturday is just like any other day. and sunday? same thing. no more weekends, no more holidays, no more days off for the next 7 months.

i may be bitching and whining, but really, it's my marines who are the workhorses. i'm just here for emergencies and to make sure everyone stays healthy...a fairly easy job, actually. it's my squadron that has to do all the real work, day in and day out, with little fanfare and little recognition. it's not much, but here's my props to them...

enjoy your weekends, guys...go outside, get some fresh air, make sure you get some qt with loved ones. have a drink for me. that's it, i'll get off my soapbox now.

1 week down, 30 to go...

someone made this excel thing called the 'donut of misery' and if you put in your dates, it will count down how long you have to go. you just adjust as your dates adjust. i hear that it really is miserable though as it just seems that time never passes. i only look at it occasionally :).

so i've been here a week now and what's life like? well, all things considered, it's not too bad. work has picked up (mostly admin bullcrap, but better than nothing) so quite a few people come through medical daily....still time for movies and tv shows though so that's good. my room is pretty nice. it's set up so that there are these makeshift walls so that my roommate and i each have our own little space and one big common area. my tv/dvd/gamecube are set up. our mini fridge is well stocked with diet sodas (yeah, i drink diet now), water, and gatorade (made up for by the diet sodas). the chow hall is pretty decent. i eat way too much but i've been exercising a bit more, too, thankfully. i hear the heat is a great means of weight loss though. i'm pretty used to the portapotties. but we also have these "comfort trailers" where the showers are and where there are pseud0-real toilets. i usu try to wait to go there for no. 2 (i know, tmi).

the base is fairly bleak...not much on here...driving to mainside, you can see the town of habbaniyah off in the distance and it looks like any other city....so close and yet so far away. on southside where i am, there's a beautiful blue lake that looks so incredibly peaceful, you have to remind yourself that a rocket attack could come at any time. i got my first haircut (they usu come every other week now) by a local national who gave a mini massage afterward for 3 bucks. we take out our own trash (mailing labels have to be burned) but laundry is done twice a week. weather's still pretty nice from the winter. still cold at night and early morning, but warm during the day. they sky is so clear at night it reminds me of those nights in small town new england where the moon and stars just light up.

so 7 months, 210 days, 14 paychecks (tax free will be nice!), and 95% of deployment left to go. not that i'm counting or anything....

4 days later....

finally! it's been fairly frustrating when you want to keep on going and the internet slows you down, but here i am back again. imagine going back to dial up again...ugh! anyway, quite a bit has happened in the past few days. but before that, i just wanted to thank you all for coming to visit and leaving comments and emails...it's so cheesy but it really is impossible to imagine what it means to hear from home when you're stuck in a place like this.

anyway, the past few days....the people we replaced are gone and my squadron has fully taken over ops. it was a little sad to see them off and let go of the other doc who was a security of blanket of sorts....but you should have seen the looks on their faces as they boarded the bus knowing they were on their way. i was there last summer when my squadron returned home and met their families and that is the only comparison. i've started a new sick call schedule and my corpsman and i are getting the clinic set up the way we want. lots of cleaning and getting rid of old junk. we had our first dust storm which shut down everything and blinded everyone for the better part of a day. i hear the sandstorms are even worse...just like in the mummy! scary! we had our first code red (thankfully, it was just a drill). i had my first late night sick patient. just a little exhaustion and dehydration (taken care of by my corpsman). and i finally got to move into my room where my shipmate, bull, and i are gonna get to know one another quite well.