Girlpower, the Role 3, and me

Working here is sometimes like being an airline pilot-hours of boredom interspersed with moments of terror. Yesterday a woman was brought in by friend semi-conscious. She had received some bad news and took a handful of pills. She was out of it when she came in and all of a sudden the clinic was full of patients and I was here alone. I sent a "help"text to Dr. Sharp, who had gone to church. We started an IV on her and got her ready to go to the Role 3. There is not that I can do for her. Ordering lab tests, etc, here is a waste of time. If she crumps, we are screwed. I called ahead, told them that we were coming and loaded her into the ambulance. We got there and passed on what information we could. We had found the pills and looked them up on the Internet and actually figured out what they were. Sleeping pills. I passed this onto the Doc at the Role 3 and sent someone off to search her room. I came back to the clinic to finish up and see what else was going on. A little while later I got a call stating that they needed me back at the Role 3. I drove back and told them what information I knew. They told me that she will need a 24 hour babysitter and that it would be me. When I questioned them about this they basically said that they don't have the staff to keep "eyes on" and that we would have to provide the folks to do that. I called back and we started to make arraignments to stand watch. It is a Navy hospital after all. I volunteered to go first. They gave us papers to sign explaining our duties. Rule number 1-you must be the same sex as the patient. Umm, small problem. Regroup. Go to plan B. Back to the clinic I went and gathered up most of the female staff to ask for volunteers. They all volunteered. God love 'em. So I made up a watch bill and worked out the rotations. They was some confusion about vehicles and how to get there. {insert sexist comment here} We worked it out. I told them to call me if there were ANY problems. Only got one call at 0100. Had to go to the clinic to pick someone up so they could leave it for the next person. Dr. Sharp called me back three hours later. He had just read his text. All in all, smooth sailing so far. Guess what's next? You are correct, a medevac...

"NOAH, I WANT YOU TO BUILD AN ARC..WAIT, DISREGARD."

So they were predicting rain. Lots of it. So we all went in to high gear. Sandbags, food stocked in rooms, etc, etc. I checked the forecast and wasn't that impressed, but given the fact that we had major flooding previously, not a bad idea to prepare. I put on my rain jacket to walk to work. Across and down from me someone has sandbagged their room and has a dirt berm perfectly situated so he can open his door bit still hold back the flood waters. Then the rain came. For about a minute and a half. As someone said, "just enough to screw up the cars." But we were ready, damn it.  Which is probably why it didn't rain that hard.  The Afghanistan version of Murphy's law.

House cleaning, Turkey and napping. oh my...

We closed the clinic for Thanksgiving afternoon. It was lovely. I came back and scrubbed my room. I was tired of walking in and thinking,"God this place stinks." So I swept and swabbed and dusted and washed down the walls. Loved every minute of it. Call it Fall cleaning. My room no longer stinks. There is the residual poo pond smell that wafts in, but all in all and improvement. Exhausted from my cleaning binge, I collapsed for a lovely afternoon nap. Hadn't even had turkey yet. Woke up, hit the shower, changed my clothes and then we headed for the clinic, our meeting place for heading to dinner. We decided to go to the other side of the base. Less people there. We knew that there was going to be a line waiting for us, but that's what we do, stand in line. So 18 strong, we piled into every vehicle we owned and headed out. Looks like we got us a convoy. We arrived at the "flight line" Difac and got in line. Not really a long wait, and turkey awaited. I couldn't be happier. Everything but stuffing. Instead they had orange/almond rice. We all sat together, one big happy, dysfunctional family. It was all very nice. There were tons of letters from school kids that all started, "Dear soldier." I read them out loud, they were all cute and we laughed at some of the kid's descriptions of themselves. One liked to sleep. A man after my own heart.  One had a lazy dog.  Sorry that we're not soldiers kids, but we loved your letters.
Then we went to the clinic and played poker for candy. Taught Karki how to play draw poker. We tried to play Texas Hold 'em by trying to remember how it went on TV. It was described by one of the players described as"that one on TV where you show all of your cards." Yes, we are real card sharks. Karki kicked my ass and had all of my candy. Beginner's luck my ass...

Turkey day and the chase of the wild goose

Happy Thanksgiving y'all. Well it's Thanksgiving here, not quite for you but you'll catch up...
We'll see how today goes. Big dinner planned at a couple of Difacs. My favorite meal on my favorite holiday. What could happen?
Michael had his first medevac. Went off without a hitch. Totally smooth. I hate him.
A patient came in the other night very late. Dennis saw him and realized that he had cut some tendons in his finger. He was told to come back in the morning. Which he did not. He does not work for Dyncorp. He just new where we were. That afternoon, Karki and I went looking for him. We were like private detectives looking for a missing person. We went to "South Park" the massive tent village were most people live. We found hie tent and the found the tent where the "mayor" lives. He told us that he could be anywhere. Dejected we were walking towards our car when we saw a guy wearing a shirt with the guys company on it. We asked if he knew our guy. He did not, but told us where his boss was. Jumping into the car we sped off in the direction of the company's HQ. Bingo, the boss knew this guy. I jumped into the bosses car with the boss. The boss was  a little confused and jumped into the passenger seat with me in the driver's seat. I didn't know where we were going, why am I driving? The boss was not used to Japanese cars and had gotten into the wrong seat. After a quick switch we where on our way. We finally found our guy. Turns out that this company had their own Medic and he had gone there. Cool. Let's go talk to him. So back in the Van we got and found their Medic. He knew noting about this guy. Turns out that he is a new PA there and his guy was seen by his Medic who had not told the PA. PA not happy. PA promised to take care of our patient and deal with his Medic. All good. Except I told the PA that his Medic had sewn up the guys finger and it turned out that it was Dennis. Oops.
I am waiting for an email from the company PA so I can explain the situation, and drag his medic out from under the bus.

The normal abnormalities are back to normal

 Just back from the Role 3. There is a medevac cooking. The good news is that I pawned it off on the new PA, Michael. I am calling it "training." Pretty tricky, no? Boys gotta learn...
There guy needs to get out of here for surgery. We spent all day trying to figure out what was wrong with him. All were stumped. So off to the Role 3 for CT scan. They're not sure either, but they know he needs surgery and they know that they don't want to do it. So hence, the medevac.
We had a rabid dog run around a fob attacking people. Our medic there chased the dog until Vector control could trap it. The dog attacked the Medic and then the Vector guy. the Medic was in a fight for his life and stabbed the dog, who then let go of his hand. Someone eventually shot it. Twice. First one didn't take. Luckily our Medic had rabies shots prior so he doesn't need the full series. Life can be very tough here. But he'll be ok. And OHS's reaction to all this? They wrote him up. For what? I don't know. But I think an email is in order. Never a dull moment...

Took you long enough..

Well, I'm back. Back meaning that we have had our first rocket attack. Let me rephrase that, our first real rocket attack. We had one earlier but it was some sort of unannounced test. The real one happened  at about 0400, and was over at 0430. Just time enough to get up, get dressed and pee. Then back to bed.
Apparently, while I as gone, we have become more efficient rocket attack wise.
As we all know my favorite day her is Friday, Role 3 meeting day. So off we went to the Role 3 for the Role 1/3 meeting. That's when we get together to talk about problems, share information, etc. There was one thing missing this week-someone from the Role 3. Just us Role 1 types. They changed the name of the Role 2. Not sure what's going on. We took a patient to the Role 3, who said that they would have to bill him. Not an emergency, more like an elective thing. We'll just send him home instead. He is going on R and R in a week, anyway. Some definite belt tightening down at the Role 3. It has a new name too. Not sure what it its.
We have politics happening as well. All about R and R coverage and permission and crossed wires. Same old same old. We'll work it out.
We had movie night last night. Pizza and near-beer and Tom Hanks in "Terminal." Quite a pleasant evening. Set up a projector in the clinic, turn off the lights and have 2 hours of escapism. And no rocket attack. Quite nice of the Taliban I thought..

Technology..nothing to fear

Today is my Dad's 77th birthday. E was in Stockton so she bought him dinner at the hotel that she and Laura, her cousin, where she and Laura, her cousin, are staying. Then they went up to their room to Skype me at work so I could wish him Happy Birthday. He was sitting in a chair a little baffled by the technology. How could he see his son 9,000 miles away and talk to him at the same time? He wasn't impressed for long, because he announced that he "had to go." Home. Ah, Dad, we set this up so we could talk. I got everyone in the clinic to sit on my chair and wish him happy birthday. When Karki said hello and happy birthday, my father announced that he didn't know who he was."My son doesn't talk about you," he said. Thanks Dad. We did convince him to stay. If you watch any of the 8mm movies from when I was a kid you will see the Caplin family just standing there. Doing nothing. Luckily there is no sound or you would hear my mother and father yelling at each other to "do something." My Dad used it instead of the still camera. There are pictures of us standing around, all over the world. So in true Caplin tradition, my Dad just sat there on Skype. Afraid to move. My father the statue. I kept saying,"Dad, say something." He asked how the weather was. I knew the "how's traffic, it's horrible here" conversation was just around the corner, so I redirected the conversation elsewhere. They had even plied him with wine. Didn't seem to help. Just my father, frozen in the chair baffled by technology. A lot has changed in 77 years. Except my Dad...