Boredom...............NOT!

You might have thought I got injured or worse since I have not posted anything lately...… NOPE!  Still here.  I think the Iraqi internet was blocking us for a while and then, well, I have just actually been busy!

I was worried that I might get bored after a few weeks here.  Definitely not!  Between my 3 a day workouts (before and after every meal), instructing spin and yoga classes (shout out/thanks to my spin instructors Cheryl and Jordan back home for sending me some of their playlists!), writing a book chapter on emergency care for working dogs by non-veterinarians, teaching/training with our folks, teaching the Iraqi medics, reading, and occasionally sleeping and seeing a patient with a minor injury or illness (no sick traumas, thankfully), I have been quite pleasantly busy.  I was also recently selected to be the Specialty Leader for Emergency Medicine for all of Navy Reserves so now I can add a monthly newsletter to my busy days.

My roommate recently bought a smart TV, with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and soon to be cable, so I got to have a nice movie night last week when he was on call in the hospital for the night.  I watched the old version of Murder on the Orient Express.  Drank an O'douls and ate some corn nuts!  Nice night. I can't wait for college football to start.  Go 'cats!

We also have pancake breakfasts every other Saturday (the hospital group does, as I don't eat pancakes-  I just go to socialize and tried a hookah the other day with one of my corpsmen).  Not sure if that was worse than a pancake but I think it might have been!

Our kitchen where we cook the pancakes is a weird connex box on the outside but the inside is a normal kitchen (my fellow ER Doc and one of our OR corpsmen were cooking:)

It's way past my bedtime (it is 9 pm and I usually go to bed about 8 but I figured I needed to put something in my blog since I finally got it working after almost a month of silence), so I am going to sleep. G'night!

Happy 4th of July from Iraq!

Happy 4th of July from here in Iraq!  It was actually hotter here than it was in Phoenix today (over 130 in the sun).  My run at 0430 was still cool in the 80's, however.  I also had the opportunity to make a quick flight home to support my sister-in-law Kelli in the Arcadia parade.  Luckily the fast military flights got me there and back before I was listed as AWOL!

We are able to remain social here as well as keep up the Navy tradition of drinking to celebrate events, both social and ceremonial.  For example, we enjoyed a beer pong tournament tonight at our 4th of July celebration…..

We also enjoy Friday pizza nights (made in an actual brick oven out in back of our hospital) followed by a movie.  Our first movie was Jumanji (the remake) three weeks ago followed by Black Panther last week.  Steph commented that it "really does look like M*A*S*H !"

 

Movie/pizza nights on Fridays are followed by Pancake Saturdays, which, of course, include wonderful and delicious Mimosa's!

 

 

Finally, as I said at the beginning, even Navy ceremonies, such as the promotions we had this week, had to includes drinks.  A nice refreshing beer float in my case!

 

 

It is nice to remain social and keep some semblance of the normalcy of home, even where we are across the globe serving our country.  Everywhere around the base were patriotic flags, letter, colors, and reminders of what our families are celebrating back home.  Please remember those in harms way over here and around the globe and keep us in your prayers that our medical skills will never be needed, but that if they are, may we be ready and able to skillfully take care of those who risk their lives everyday so that everyone back home can enjoy the lives we enjoy and all too often take for granted.  Happy 4th of July and God bless America!



 

 

 



 

 

TEACHING AND, WELL......... MORE TEACHING ☺!

Well, just like in Afghanistan, it has become like Ground Hog Day for me and my daily routine.  Luckily, I have regular things to do to keep me occupied during each consecutive day.  My days consist mainly of working out, reading, sleeping, eating, teaching, and, well...…… teaching!  Not necessarily in that order.  I am enjoying teaching the nurses, my corpsmen, and even some of the physicians as well.  As I teach in my civilian job at both Maricopa Medical Center as well as in the Navy, it dovetails perfectly with my interests.  It also helps to keep both me as well as the whole group busy and focused on our mission- to be ready at all times to take care of our men and women in harms way as well as any other patients that come to our hospital with significant injuries and/or illnesses.  It is nice to have a mixture of both skills training as well as lectures going on.

Besides a significant amount of time dedicated to teaching and training, I spend a lot time as well working out- not just stay in shape, but to try to get in the shape I got in while in Afghanistan!  While I don't know if I can achieve that (I AM almost 50 after all!), I will be making a valiant effort to do so, averaging about 5-6 hours a day.  Combining reading (Kindle on my phone) while doing the elliptical 3 hours a day (before and after every meal) certainly helps, while allowing me to read a book or two per week.  In addition, I add weight lifting, P90X weight training, P90X YogaX, P90X KenpoX, P90X XStretch, and a daily 4 mile run around the perimeter of the base. I missed my spin classes from home, so I showed up to take the spin class listed in the posted cardio gym schedule but was sadly disappointed to find out there was no such class.  When I asked the gym manager from KBR what the deal was, she explained that the instructor for yoga and spin had gone to another base instead.  At that point, she suggested that I teach the classes I wanted to participate in.  Since my Navy colleagues were also asking about when I was going to do my YogaX as well, I reluctantly agreed to lead (not really teach) the YogaX.  We project P90X YogaX off of my computer onto the white gym wall with the lights down low and a loud speaker and Tony Horton leads us all in YogaX.  Since the projector version does not show up well in a picture, the one below is from my first class when we were all still trying to see in on my computer screen. At that point, I figured I might as well lead the spin classes if I wanted to add cycling to my workouts.  I don't really "teach" the spin classes like a traditional spin instructor, but I do spin at the front, provide the music, and occasionally tell the class to stand up, sit down, and increase or decrease the resistance on the bike.  Morgan suggested that I add a Hamilton spin mix to give everyone some history and culture along with their workout.  Will let you know how that goes.  I have also reached out to my favorite spin instructor from back home, Cheryl, to send me some more music so I don't bore my classes to death. So, now I am leading 6 hours of fitness classes a week on a voluntary basis.  It helps to keep the Navy in good graces with KBR (the company who runs the gym, the dining facility or "DFAC" as well as the MWR/USO tent).  They give us the ingredients for our pizza night, pancake breakfast, and other baked goods so I figure it is an even trade :)!  More on our social agenda in another episode.