Finish Line Is In Sight

Can't believe it's been 9 days since my last post...sorry about that! It's easy to lose track of time here. As I'm sure many of you know, I've had my tour "extended" at least a week. Oh well, it's the Army way! I'm excited to come home and see my family, but in a very strange way I know I'll miss this place and the people. When you are in a stressful environment and you eat, sleep, work, and socialize with the same group of people day after day, you form bonds that are difficult to describe. Hopefully we will be able to stay in touch after this is all over with.

As far as medical cases, the flavor of the week was general surgery. Did another appendectomy and fixed a small umbilical hernia in one of the civilian's here. Actually, I let Kevin (our CRNA) and SFC Swanson (one of the scrub techs) do it; basically treated them like residents and just showed them what I wanted them to do. I also excised a cervical lymph node in the little girl with the neck mass; I'm still waiting for the path results. They SHOULD be in today (I hope). It doesn't look good for getting her to the States, though. St. Jude's refused her (they are no longer taking international cases) and I don't think we'll be able to get her to Pittsburgh, either. The children's hospital in Milwaukee has expressed interest in treating her, though, and it would make for a very nice story since most of the folks in this FST are from Wisconsin.

As far as traumas are concerned, we have had a few patients who sustained mostly extremity injuries from GSW's and rocket frags. Also took care of a little girl with a bad dog bite to her face (guess I'm a plastic surgeon, too) and a motorcycle crash victim. I'll spare you any gross pictures this week since my wife yelled at me for my last post! Instead, I thought I would include some "non-medical" photos this time. We said good-bye this week to Andrew, one of the Polish orthopedic surgeons, who went back home. He was instrumental in the early phases of setting up the new hospital. I also said good-bye to Dr. Hashim, the ANA (Afghan National Army) physician (primary care) whom I've become good friends with. He is going to Bagram for a few weeks to participate in a mentoring program with some of the American docs, and I suspect I'll be gone when he returns. The "big-picture" plan is for the Afghans to assume more of a role in caring for their own wounded, and this mentoring program is designed to facilitate that transition.

What follows below are pics of where I have been living for the past 3 months. We all stay in a B-Hut, and each individual room is about 8 X 6 feet. This photo is the sign to my room, or "hooch". It's a bit of a joke, because there is one surgeon in Bagram who is in charge of all trauma in theatre; he's called the "trauma czar". I get to be the Ghazni Trauma Czar, I guess. For the most part, the rooms are pretty nice. The last 2 nights have been very cold, though, because the heater keeps turning off. It was 46 degrees in here this morning when I woke up! I have enough space to sleep and change clothes, and that's about it. In all honesty, though, I don't really need any more than this. Kinda reminds me of my college dorm in some ways. I was gonna post some pictures of Kevin, Ryan, and I at the gym (which is where we spend most of our free time) but I don't have any. I'll try to remedy that problem later on this week. Until next time, take care!