Alive and well, and living in ... Kuwait

Well hello there!!

Time flies when your having fun, and even when you may not be having fun. It is nice to be halfway through November. It doesn't seem like I have been gone that long, but looking back to July, it has been awhile. So here is an update for all my family and good friends.

First, we cannot complain about the weather anymore. It is about 55-60 in the morning, and about 70-75 in the afternoon. No humidity, Usually bright sunny days. It has only rained three times, and only once during the day. Since it is infrequent, the rain is more like mud, or dirty water, because of all the dust/sand in the air. Surprisingly enough, the sand does a very poor job of absorbing the water, so puddles are a problem (hence the drainage ditch I showed you in the last posting). We said that if the ditches ever fill up, we will all go swimming. It would be a muddy experience. With the nice weather, we are happy to be able to spend some time outside without sweating and otherwise being in misery.

I usually get off base about two to three times a month. On my last trip down to our larger base to the south we passed this group of camel herders, just off the side of the highway. Pretty cool. Not sure where they were headed, but they were going in quite a hurry. There were a few baby camels, but I didn't get a good picture of them. (We basically stopped on the side of the highway, and didn't have a bunch of time to take pictures).

In terms of the "work " that we do these next two pictures show the more exciting aspect of our job. I didn't include a picture of our facility, which is comprised of a fixed wooden structure and three tents, but we have our helo pad just out the front door. We average about one helo medevac a day. We have a Navy Air Ambulance detachment on base, and they do the vast majority of our evacuations. It is a long bumpy ride down in the ground ambulance, but we use it sometimes. We have a decent medical capability, but are limited by our lack of a surgeon, and advanced laboratory, and radiographic capability.

We are able to take care of the vast majority of patients we see, but some get to take a ride in helicopter. It is fun to take the patients out to the helocopter and I usually walk outside and watch it take off. I have riden in helos 4 or 5 times, so have let some of the other providers here ride along when we need a doc on the helo. I may take a ride before we leave. Most patients are stable enough to fly without a doc. We have a good crew of SAR corpsmen (Search and Rescue) who usually ride along. They do a good job.

We have scheduled trips out into Kuwait every two weeks or so. We can wear civilian clothes and don't have to carry weapons. I went on a trip two weeks ago to the Kuwaiti Towers (you can google them) pictured here. You can go up in the big one and get a good view from the little ball up on top of the big tower. The big ball pictured here has a nice restaurant in it. Both balls spin so you get a good view of the Gulf and of Kuwait City, the largest (only) city in Kuwait. The vast majority of Kuwaiti citizens live in Kuwait City. It is fairly modern. I also went to a shopping mall (didn't buy anything) and to the Kuwaiti Science Center. The trip was a good diversion...

Many folks here refer to the daily grind as "Ground Hog Day" referring to the Bill Murray movie where he is forced to re-live Ground Hog Day over and over until he gets it right. Point being that without much variety, every day seems to be the same. To counter this problem, we have tried to stage some social activities.

Two of our nurses planned a "Trailer Trash" party, which was alot of fun. We live in trailers, so getting the Trailer park atmosphere wasn't difficult. They ordered some mullett wigs, and of course we obliged by putting them on, smoking cigars, and drinking non-alcoholic beer (the only beer available). Anyway, here is a picture of yours truly, with mullett, cigar, and sleeveless shirt playing my part. It was a fun evening.

We also recently had our "Over the Hump" party to celebrate the passing of our 1/2 point in the deployment. Some folks from the two other outlying camps came up, as well as people from the "mothership" to the south. We grilled some food, but many of us decided to go to the DFAC for a healthier alternative. This picture is of myself, our psychiatrist and one of our nurses. We have three DFACs (dining facilities) on the Camp, affectionately known as the Uno, the Duce, and the Tre. They all have their own charm, but basically all carry the same food. Again, to break up the monotony, we try to never hit the same one twice in the same day. I prefer the Uno for lunch and the Tre for dinner, but I am not sure why. The Tre is a good mile or so from Medical, so we don't get out there all that often.

For the "Over the Hump Party", we turned our sick call tent into casino and ran a Spades tournament. We actually thought only a few would sign up, but ended up with 14 teams of two. We also had horseshoes, basketball, and water balloon fights. It was a good time. My partner Jake and I did well, but we didn't get to finish the tournament with all the teams that ended up playing. We do see patients in this tent, and have three others just like this one. At first, we couldn't imagine seening patients in such austere conditions, but the tents are now a source of some pride. You definetely know you are not practicing in the states! The downside is that it is hard to do much of a heart and lung exam because the generators are pretty loud. We have no permanent power source on base, so all power is diesel generated.

This final picture is one of me and one of my enlisted staff. HM2 Prass is our Radiology Tech. We had hoped to get two or three, but ended up with one. As such, he is on call 24/7 for all radiographs. He is a good guy. He also organizes most of our athletic activities. We have a flag football team, and last week participated in a softball tournament. The flag football didn't go so well. It is hard to play football on the sand/gravel surface we have here. Lots of injuries, non serious but a few fractures. The Army command re-thought the idea and I think they curtailed the season a bit...

Well, that is all for now. Later this afternoon, I am headed to Qatar for 5 days of R+R. It is a scheduled trip thru the Army for anyone in the middle east longer than 180 days. There are watersports, malls, markets, and GOLF! Also, each servicemember gets three beers a day! I have heard some folks pay up to $100 to buy one of your drinks. Maybe I can make some extra money.

Oh, and I almost forgot the biggest morale booster of all (second only to the passage of time). My college roommate Mark Wood, who I am sure most of you remember, is currently one of the VPs for Keurig Coffee. He was generous enough to send me one of their commercial brewers and a load of K-cups. I installed the brewer in the Clinic break room, and we have a herd of loyal coffee enthusiasts. Good coffee in the desert is a good thing. Thank you, Mark!

Okay, I will check in on my arrival back in Kuwait!!

Kris