Finally back online

the generator to our internet cafe was down for a week or so and now i'm finally on the 'net again. the cafe is the only access for many of the marines and soldiers here and they weren't able to communicate with anyone back home. apparently, a lot of ppl were starting to get worried, esp. since sadly we've been taking quite a few hits in the past couple of weeks. anyway, they made some calls and it got all the way to the general here who put the crackdown on the kbr contractors who are supposed to be taking care of these things. kbr runs this place. these civilians, who subcontract with local nationals and third country nationals, do everything from electricity to a/c to road repairs to running the fire department. and guess who kbr is a subsidiary of? yup, you guessed it...haliburton! the sad part is they don't even do that great a job.

so i finished teaching the psych course which ended better than i hoped. everyone passed with only 3 c's and the rest a's and b's. for 16 students, i was pleased. i just started teaching my second college course, the human body. this one's a bit easier for me in terms of knowledge, but it's pretty hard to teach anatomy without a lab or models or props to play with. and there's no getting around the fact that there's gonna be A LOT of memorization. makes me a little nervous for my marines, but maybe i'm just not giving them enough credit....we'll see, i guess.

it really does feel like i've been out here forever and i keep thinking we're almost done, but there still is another 3 months to go. it is frickin' hot out here, too (125 just the other day). there are some nice moments though...the views of the lake are still pretty incredible (when there's no sandstorm blowing dust in your eyes), and that sunrise above ain't too bad.

btw, i just jumped on the bandwagon and joined facebook. look for me on there if it's your type of thing.

What's wrong with universal health care?

i just watched sicko the other day. it was actually a pretty good movie and makes a good point for universal health care, comparing us to some other countries who have more "socialized medicine." i know that some of the basic arguments are that the quality of medical care will suffer or that doctors' will be more regulated and get less pay. but the movie points out that our quality of medical care is already at one of the bottom rungs and among industrialized countries, we have the lowest life expectancy, the highest infant mortality, the highest number of people who don't have access to care, etc. etc. supposedly, some of the homeless in these other countries have higher life expectancies than the average american. and there's a government employed doc on there who has a fancy car, million dollar home...obviously not suffering.

as a doc, it's hard for me to argue against having health care for everyone, but i do have to admit that my knowledge of the area is not that sophisticated. so tell me, what are the biggest arguments against a nationalized health care system? one funny point that's brought up is that there is one place where there is universal health care in america, and that's at guantanamo bay, cuba. the movie basically reiterated what my buddy saw when he was deployed there...that these known terrorists...major major bad guys, get better care than most americans. there is one provider for every 4 detainees! they have all sorts of specialists taking care of them. we bend over backwards to make sure they are medically taken care of. why don't we do this for everyone else?

the military is prolly as socialized as it gets when it comes to health care. in theater it's a little different, but back at home, i can order an test i want, any xray, ct scan, mri, pet scan, you name it. i can pretty much get any drug i want to try, any lab or study i think i may need. and of course, my patients don't pay a dime. and i'm not even specialty trained! true the board certified docs get paid less than they would in the real world (although i get paid way way more than my resident counterparts...i'm def not looking forward to that cut in pay), but the all def live comfortably.

just as i'm thinking it's a great though, there comes the occassional snag and you begin to see the bureaucracy and short-sightedness of a system that has no competition. i still have barely touched all that stuff i just got, you know, the over $20k of brand new computer equipment (3 ibm laptops, 10 hp ipaqs, and various accessories for 2 ppl) all for ONE software program to maintain electronic records. a complete waste when the program could have simply been added to existing computers. retarded!

obviously, the powers that be really do not understand what the situation is like for many of the providers out here. either that, or the contractors are promising goods that they can't deliver. i don't know. but when there's only one system around, one mistake is a big and costly one.

Redeployment 06-08

we just had the first of our redeployment meetings and although we have just barely passed the halfway point of oif 06-08, i can't tell you how great it was to be planning our trip home. the other docs said it would happen and i didn't believe them, but i'm actually excited to be getting back to cherry point! apparently, i'm gonna see it in a whole new light and now i don't doubt them one bit. can't wait!

we had a near mishap yesterday and thank god everything turned out ok. it would have been a major headache for me. an example...each person that is involved in the mishap has to give 16 vials of blood. a complete physical has to be done, interviews recorded, and a 72 hour history logged. it would have been a nightmare. and that's with no major injuries!

other than that, nothing major. work continues to be annoying. we received about a whole new computer system worth about $20k including 3 laptops and 10 pocketpc's all for one single program. a huge pain in the arse and talk about fraud, waste and abuse. no wonder we are spending $12 billion a month here and in afghanistan. it's unreal. making sure that the troops have enough supplies and equipment is one thing, but this was pretty ridiculous. and not only that, i'm supposed to be getting a brand new printer specifically for this program because it can't use the printer that i already have in my office. is that awesome or what? seriously, though, my work space is so cramped that i don't even have any room for this stuff. whoever is making these decisions to get this gear really has absolutely no clue about what conditions are like out here. i mean, i have a 3 room clinic that only has ONE 110 volt outlet!

anyway, mr. and mrs. p...thanks for the second care package! it's always great to get something in the mail and i and my guys def appreciate the goodies! pops, i got the candy, the kho bo, and the ruoc (sp?). awesome! hope your vacation to yellowstone is going well!

Happy 4th!

so for some strange reason my computer at work is allowing me access to my blog site which is great! it's the fourth of july and i just came back from our celebratory lunch of crappy steak, bbq chicken, mac n cheese, green beans, and corn on the cob. at least they try, i guess.

i am almost at the halfway point. can't say it hasn't gone by quickly, but it does feel like i've been here forever. we had the first of our redeployment meetings and i have to say that it was great talking about going home.

but there's been a pretty good amount of stuff here that's kept me busy. we've had tons of physicals. lots of rashes, lots of minor aches and pains. ortho was big...lots of sprained ankles and jammed fingers. iraqi crud (myself included). we had two army mishaps that i had to deal with. i sent pts to other bases to get checked out of aub, testicular masses, vision problems. I sent a pregnant marine home and another for avh. had a heat casualty and gave out tons of iv fluids. gave 4 medical briefs and did 3 shot fairs...overall, not too bad, i don't think.

i'm wrapping up my psychology class. turned out a better than i feared. those guys hunkered down for the final exam and i ended up giving 3 a's, 3 c's, and the rest b's. i was pretty happy with that. glad that no one failed. and i didn't even have to curve it.

i realized that i never showed you guys our birds. that's me with scaneagle, our boeing uav. our other one is the pioneer and i promise pics of that one soon as well. they're pretty cool. the scaneagle is all by joystick on a monitor, but pioneer has a remote control portion that's just like flying a toy plane. pretty fun, actually.