Chillin’ in Fallon

I drove out here last Friday and the skies were clear and blue, I arrived stopping by the commissary picking up my normal Det fare of sandwich makings and top ramen. My squadron trains F/A-18 pilots on how to fly and Fallon is one of the check-off blocks in the student pilot syllabus, my job was to provide medical support to the people we have deployed out here and side job, work on what readiness issues I could.

When I got to my room, the first thing I did was call the bride to let her know I had made it alright then turned on the weather channel. I had heard that there was a cold front moving in and sometimes Fallon got an inch or two of snow, if you look at the pictures on Google Maps Street View, they took the pictures of the local area with an inch or 2 of snow on the ground. I wanted to be prepared, clothing wise, I was fine but had forgotten my gloves, can’t get everything right. The weather channel was saying a chance of snow, lows in the single digits and accumulation of 3-4 inches. Sunday rolled around and between noon and when I went to bed there was already 4 inches on the ground and the snow wasn’t letting up.

The next morning there was 6 inches on the ground and the roads were covered with packed snow. My car was also covered with a full thickness. The night before, the Weather Channel said the low was supposed to be 7 but the current reading said -5 and the snow was falling, hard. I needed to go to the clinic to meet up with one of my guys, and my car was buried in 6 inches of snow, cleaning it all off without gloves was not great fun at all and was probably one of the closer times I’ve ever come to frostbite. No kidding, it was cold, in my civilian gear, I would have been jolly warm but in my navy utilities, long johns and jacket, just wasn’t cutting it for any sort of outdoor fun. I made it to the clinic, frozen clothes stuck to my skin to meet up with a patient. Thawing out, I never thought heat felt so good, sorry about puddles I left everywhere.

The snow kept up throughout the day, we still had some folk stuck in Reno, by nightfall, the snow was 8 inches deep but was slowing down. The next morning, the car was covered with a new 3 inches of snow and ice due to driving my car around and heating it up. I praise the folk the invented deicing fluid. This time I went out in my civilian gear cleaned the car off then went back to my room to change over and off to work.

It’s Thursday now, over the past few days, temperatures have ranged from -15 to 11, that 11 degrees was almost a warm moment. According to the weather channel, every day the low was forecasted to be 7 or 8 but each morning, so far, all we’ve seen is the negative teens. The base fix it guys have had their hands full with broken pipes across the base and probably the people out in town too. Even though it hasn’t snowed in 2 days, the snow hasn’t melted a bit and most of the roads are still covered with packed snow.

I don’t have room to complain though, most of my work is done inside of an office. The guys that work on the flight line have been moving piles of snow from one place to another and making sure the jets are ready to go just in case the airfield opens. All of this great flight time we’re supposed to have is on hold for now with another storm coming in tomorrow with more snow in the forecast. It’s supposed to warm up a little bit because the system is coming from the south but after the last couple of days, I’m not sure I trust the forecasting guys over at the Weather Channel. At least I’ll be home for Christmas, well that is if I don’t get snowed in here.

El Centro

One thing about medical, when business is slow, it means everyone is doing alright. I’m currently in El Centro this week and having a hard time finding gainful employment which is good but hate feeling like a slacker. El Centro is much like the base I was in Iraq would feel like if it had potable water and cable TV or how it would look like in a decade from now. Otherwise the countryside looks the same, there’s the same feeling of dryness in the air and deserts that stretch out into the horizon. My new unit, VFA-125, trains Marine and Navy pilots on how to fly the F/A-18 C’s and D’s, there’s also another squadron on my base that trains pilots to fly the E’s and F’s. El Centro is one of the check marks in the students syllabus and medical tags along these little detachment to make sure everyone is doing alright, taking care of sick call, first aid or part of the human factors investigation team if there is any sort of mishap.

This is actually my first time out here El Centro, I‘ve seen the sign numerous times driving Yuma, a place I‘m familiar with being with the Marines. I would have to say the housing here is worlds better then Yuma. WiFi in the rooms, cable TV, DVD player, all of the comforts of home. My ride out here wasn’t so nice though, I put in NAS El Centro into my GPS and ended out in a place in called Campesinos Unidos Region Ix Carmen Pe Nas in Brawley, 20 miles out of my way, lost in the middle of the desert on the far side of midnight. So I went to a connivance store and asked how to get to the Navy base and drove for another half hour and pulled into Naval Air Field, not Naval Air Station El Centro. At least I didn’t end up in Mexico.

I’m heading out to a Bar-b-q this afternoon and tomorrow, back to Lemoore.

Navy Ball Lemoore Style 2009

Just sharing some pictures from the latest ball that the bride and I went to last week. The last few weeks have been a blur of flu shots and filing forms, not much of interest happening on this side of the world. Busy mostly with living life instead of writing about it and life hasn't been too bad. I need to find my writing bug again and I'm sure it will come again, it's just not hitting me right now.

Where every body knows your name

I was at Naval Hospital Lemoore today, doing a meet and greet to talk over some of the policies of the OpSide clinic that I’m working out of and was walking down a hall way and was recognized as the corpsman with a blog by one of the chiefs. I then gave the Master Chief a heads up that I‘m “that“ guy, which really isn‘t that bad of a thing. Guess I haven’t fallen too far off of the radar.

Most of the past couple of weeks have been spent checking in and observing as much as I can, as a first class, I’m expected to play a leadership role. And this is where I’m taking my cues off the great leaders of my past. The leaders that worked the best were the ones that took in their surroundings before making changes. The leaders that ran into problems were the ones who came in like a bull in a China shop and laid down the law without paying attention to the situation on the ground.

My job is to take what’s working and fix what’s not. Right now, we’re having a problem with organization and accountability. Two things that I have been both horrible and excellent at. We’re working out of temporary trailers while our main clinic gets remodeled, not the best situation. It’s tight and there is a certain looseness in the knowledge of where all of my people are at given a specific time because there isn‘t even enough seating space for all of us in the same room.

I’m watching the patient care, it is getting done and the paperwork is turning out right but it sort of seems like magic. No one has sat down and told me step by step on how they’re doing it. Believe me, I know how to fill out the paperwork but there doesn’t seem to be a standardized way we do it here or at least not one that someone has set me down and told me. Another tack in my book.

Talking with the leadership, as usual, there’s a power struggle between who owns the squadron corpsman. There are good and bad with working for the squadron and the clinic. I think the only way for us as squadron corpsman to prosper is to tighten up our acts and put forth a more professional front. Every place I’ve been stationed at, we have had to walk a tight rope and it makes it a harder job if we’re not running a tight ship.

Problem with being a blogger, I’m going to publish this and everyone I work with can take a look at my thoughts, both junior guys and the leadership. Oh well, at least they’re know where I’m coming from. Aren’t we trying to be transparent?

2008 Navy Ball

I had a date last Friday with my wife to celebrate the Navy's 223rd Birthday up at the Camp Pendleton SNCO Club. I had some mixed feelings about holding the Ball at a base club but it ended up being a great show with good food and affordable drinks. Good job guys! The only think that was missing was being able to party till you stumbled back to your room. No loss for me, I’m not the party animal that I used to be. Here are a few pictures taken that night.

Debrief on the Milblog Conference

If there was an overall theme at the conference, it was that we do make a difference. When I looked around the room, I could see how much we had all grown over the last 4 years. It’s strange to think I’ve done the blogging thing longer then a regular enlistment. In that room, I could count off the people who have been involved in feature documentaries, appearances on radio and TV, here alone, we have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars towards causes like Valour-IT (voice activated laptops for troops) and Soldiers Angels. At the same time, we’re not the fresh face, CNN, FOX and the Washington Post weren’t out in the lobby waiting to interview us like last year. But there were representatives from the Pentagon and Navy and Army PAO’s who thought what we had to say was important and this time, they seemed as well versed as us about blogging. New media is taking a larger slice of the information pie every year and milbloggers offer a viewpoint that neither regular media nor the official channels can match.

LTG Caldwell was invited to give the opening speech and here it the video.

I was awarded the Navy Milbloggie for the second year in a row and believe me, I’m far from a rock star, stick a mic in front of me and my brain goes blank, seriously, I'm a total dork. I didn’t start writing to become famous; I just wanted to tell a story. I was about to go to war and having a blog would keep people from forgetting me if I didn't make it back. When I started, it was only for a few friends, I couldn’t have cared less at the time whether or not anyone read what I wrote but over the years, this little project has taken a life of its own and I have met life long friends. It was nice to know there were people out there who cared and to be voted the top Navy blogger (twice), it’s humbling because I know there are many writers who are worlds better than me, two top my list Lt Nixon Rants and Lex come to mind. I hate to admit it, I probably won because I've became a household name, in these circles people say Sean and silently add from Doc in the Box. My win probably had more to do with name recognition, networking and everyone and their dog knowing me then the quality of my written word (maybe a little bit to do with me being super friendly too). Thanks for the votes guys! I owe you and your dog a beer.

The rest of the winners are below

U.S. Military Parent Some Soldier's Mom Carla lives in my home town and she's shown me worlds of support, thanks

U.S. Military Supporter Chromed Curses LL is one of favorite blog people

U.S. Air Force OPFOR I don't actually hang out with these guys but they have a large readership.

U.S. Army Toby Nunn's Briefing Room Was a cool cat at the pre-conference party, there's pictures someplace out there, there are so many good Army Milblogs, it's hard to make a choice.

U.S. Navy Doc in the Box Of course me

U.S. Marine Corps One Marine's View it was a toss up between him and Taco Bell, both are great bloggers

U.S. Military Veteran Blackfive - The Paratrooper of Love What can I say about Matt, Jimbo, Laughing Wolf and Mr. Wolf that hasn't been said? They're rock stars of the blogging world and I'm proud to have them as friends plus, they know how to throw a mean party.

U.S. Military Spouse ArmyWifeToddlerMom She's going to have to change her blog name pretty soon, her kids are almost in school. R is a social butterfly like me, everyone knows and loves her.

Blogworld Morning Post

After a wild party at The Penthouse Club’s VIP room last night, it was an amazing time. Open bar at one of the best clubs in the city, how can you beat that? Thanks for the support Penthouse!

This morning wasn’t as fun, we all came in stumbling in this morning to the Milblogging track at the Blogworld and New Media Expo, well many of us did, I only had 3 drinks last night because I knew I wouldn’t have wanted to get out of bed. Any minute now we’re going to be getting this kicked off. Poor poor JP, I’m sure he’s not feeling good and he’s the first act. So far it sounds good, he’s giving a speech from Lt. General Caldwell on new media and blogging.

I also have to give and acceptance speech tonight, I received a surprising email earlier this week saying that I had won the Milbloggie for best Navy blog... Again. Eek, more soon and maybe pictures too.

Sean Dustman, Columnist?

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from an editor at the Navy Times asking me to do a column on their back page called Backtalk. I thought for a couple of days, wrote up a post and a couple of days later, submitted a very edited version of that post with some pictures. They liked it and it sounds like it will be in the next edition of both the Navy and the Marine Corps Time with a possibility of future articles. So welcome new readers to my stomping grounds and I hope you enjoy your stay.

Also if any of you want to see the official side of what is going on in my area. The 3rd Marine Air Wing (Fwd) just started a blog with all of the articles they’ve submitted from this area and some videos. They’re just stepping into the blogosphere and I told them I would pass some traffic on their way plus I’m their technical consultant. Some good stories that don’t reach the Main Stream Media.

It's a small world

Back in the late 90's I was stationed at NWS China Lake, a Navy base down the street from Death Valley and worked for this cranky old first class named Mark Lawrence. Mark was famous for making grown men cry, an act I had witnessed every couple of months while I was there. But for some reason, Mark and I got along like peanut butter and jelly and made a great team running the Aviation Medicine Department.

He retired and moved out in the local community but we still hung out. Mark had 3 sons who were in high school and the oldest one was talking about joining the Army which drove Mark batty to no ends. Soon thereafter I got out of the Navy and tried to find my fortune as a mechanic in Arizona and Mark and I lost touch.

Then 9/11 happened and it made me feel like I was wasting the talents that I had spent years perfecting in the Navy, so I came in and though a mix up in paperwork, I ended up at Edwards AFB, 60 miles south of China Lake, same hellish desert, talk about bad luck. Well not really, I ended up loving the challenge of my job and I had left behind some lifelong friends back at Ridgecrest(the small town outside of China Lake) whom I could visit on a regular basis.

And I found out that Mark was living next to Edwards in a town called Palmdale and was remarried to another lady named Patty. And we were regulars at visiting each others again.

This was back in 2002, now fast forward to 2008, I'm back in Iraq for my fourth tour. I was walking by the front desk and there was a visitor waiting for me. It was Mark's older son, who was also named Mark, he joined the Army and their unit was stationed here. Funny thing is, we're both the same rank now, he's now a Staff Sergeant. One thing about the Army these days, you make rank a lot quicker then the Navy.

We hung out, shared some stories and talked about home for a while. Good times, thanks for coming by Mark, it made my week.

When a sailor talks about coffee, he talks about it like he would a lover. Any Navy place you go to, there’s a coffee mess, usually with a tip jar towards supplies but it actually doesn’t matter if someone puts money in there or not. Because there is always going to be someone like me or my doc who will pay out of pocket to fill the thing up just to make sure it’s stocked.

In Iraq, I’m drinking some of the best coffee I’ve ever had. Why? Because of the soldier support folk who send out some amazing coffee care packages. Starbucks? Got it. Hand made hippy French Roast? Yup. Voodoo Child Jimmy Hendrix coffee? Got that too. Sweetened condensed milk to go with espresso? Oh yes. Thank you Doc’s sister Penny, birdlady and others, my happiness is in direct proportion to the volume and how good my coffee is.

Thank you , my taste buds are very happy these days.

You notice the espresso machine on the right? Before you go and think about how spoiled I am (I might be), let me tell you the story behind it. A couple of months ago, my mom and I were going garage saling around Prescott Arizona and saw a sign for 50% off everything at a garage sale. That espresso machine had a sticker for 5 bucks on it, I brought it up and they gave it to me for 2.50. Can’t beat that. It was a wedding present to a Mormon couple who didn’t drink coffee. Bonus! Probably the best two-fifty I spent last year and it’s going to give years of great service to this department long after I’m gone.

The French press arrived today, it was a gift for Doc from his sister Penny along with that huge sack of Gimme! French Roast Coffee out of Ithaca, New York. Some of the best coffee that has touched my tongue. Thank you!

Daily Grind

Mornings start out with a shower and shave and I try to make it out to breakfast with Gunny A and my RP1 (religious programs specialist). My normal breakfast consists of a freshly made hotdog and cheese hot pocket, maybe biscuits and gravy, some fruit, dark coffee (they have a choice between normal and mud, I’m in the Navy, we do the mud) and two grapefruit juices.

Sick Call starts at 8 and patients come in with their complaints but in reality, no one pays attention to the schedule. When they feel bad, they just find us and we try fixing them. Most of our business is upper respiratory infections, the dryness and dust make for the Iraqi Cough. People come in for this dry hack that doesn’t go away for months and really, none of our meds really do much for something that’s mostly environmental, any medical folk recommend a cure?

I have a cohort of 3-6 Staff NCO’s who come by and grab me around lunch time where we walk to the chow hall where split up to find the food that will make us happy for the day and we gather at the ends of the line and find a table that will hold us. Considering most of us have only hung out for the past month, we’re a fairly tight bunch and there is no shortage of battle buddies.

Unlike my other trips, I think I’ve eaten alone only 3 times total, sometimes I miss the solitude but at the same time, I like the feeling of always having someone there who takes pleasure with your presence. I’ve learned watching other people that being sent off to war and not finding a group of peers sucks. I can escape into a book so the loneliness demon has never hit me hard. We watch out for each other and the people under us.

Afternoon starts off with another sick call and a couple of hours doing admin stuff, mostly the reinventing of the wheel. I’m working on a comprehensive SOP for medical out here that includes all the phone numbers, emails and forms to handle just about anything that this country can throw at us. It’s a big dream but it’s one that I think I might be able to sink my teeth into. I’m a slacker at many things but I’m super at coming up with SOP’s.

The end of the day comes with my crew gathering up for chow where my roommate and SSgt B do their daily bet of 5 bucks to see who will throw a rock the furthest, Chick always wins and SSgt B never pays but we never get tired of watching. Have I mentioned my roommate was also the arm wrestling champ of Camp Pendleton? Maybe I should hold back on the prank pulling with him, he takes pride at beating Marines at almost all their games. Not to mention that’s he’s a big tattooed up biker who could probably do a fair job of crushing me like a bug.

I’ve deployed with basically a happy bunch of folk, we all greet each other with smiles and I haven’t been able to come up with a single problem that they couldn’t handle and I try. Supply, broken plumbing, heaters not working, computer fixes, electrical fixs, help moving gear, vehicle use, I ask and it appears like magic. A far cry away from the begging and borrowing that I’ve grown used to over the years.

Believe me, sometimes I do wish I had tales of some horrible torment that I was going though, other then the paint and the snow, that’s been it. I would have put it up otherwise, so far it’s been a mild trip with an alright bunch of people.

By the way, I've published some of the Combat Basketball pictures over at my fotopage.

Daily Grind

Mornings start out with a shower and shave and I try to make it out to breakfast with Gunny A and my RP1 (religious programs specialist). My normal breakfast consists of a freshly made hotdog and cheese hot pocket, some fruit, dark coffee (they have a choice between normal and mud, I’m in the Navy, we do the mud) and two grapefruit juices.

Sick Call starts at 8 and patients come in with their complaints but in reality, no one pays attention to the schedule. When they feel bad, they just find us and we try fixing them. Most of our business is upper respiratory infections, the dryness and dust make for the Iraqi Cough. People come in for this dry hack that doesn’t go away for months and really, none of our meds really do much for something that’s mostly environmental, any medical folk recommend a cure?

I have a cohort of 3-6 Staff NCO’s who come by and grab me around lunch time where we walk to the chow hall where split up to find the food that will make us happy for the day and we gather at the ends of the line and find a table that will hold us. Considering most of us have only hung out for the past month, we’re a fairly tight bunch and there is no shortage of battle buddies.

Unlike my other trips, I think I’ve eaten alone only 3 times total, sometimes I miss the solitude but at the same time, I like the feeling of always having someone there who takes pleasure with your presence. I’ve learned watching other people that being sent off to war and not finding a group of peers sucks. I can escape into a book so the loneliness demon has never hit me hard. We watch out for each other and the people under us.

Afternoon starts off with another sick call and a couple of hours doing admin stuff, mostly the reinventing of the wheel. I’m working on a comprehensive SOP for medical out here that includes all the phone numbers, emails and forms to handle just about anything that this country can throw at us. It’s a big dream but it’s one that I think I might be able to sink my teeth into. I’m a slacker at many things but I’m super at coming up with SOP’s.

The end of the day comes with my crew gathering up for chow where my roommate and SSgt B do their daily bet of 5 bucks to see who will throw a rock the furthest, Chick always wins and SSgt B never pays but we never get tired of watching. Have I mentioned my roommate was also the arm wrestling champ of Camp Pendleton? Maybe I should hold back on the prank pulling with him, he takes pride at beating Marines at almost all their games. Not to mention that’s he’s a big tattooed up biker who could probably do a fair job of crushing me like a bug.

I’ve deployed with basically a happy bunch of folk, we all greet each other with smiles and I haven’t been able to come up with a single problem that they couldn’t handle and I try. Supply, broken plumbing, heaters not working, computer fixes, electrical fixs, help moving gear, vehicle use, I ask and it appears like magic. A far cry away from the begging and borrowing that I’ve grown used to over the years.

Believe me, sometimes I do wish I had tales of some horrible torment that I was going though, other then the paint and the snow, that’s been it. I would have put it up otherwise, so far it’s been a mild trip with an alright bunch of people.

Paint Fumes

My roommate lasted less then a week with the pink walls before he went out and found some Navy Blue Angel blue and white paint for the trim and went all out with painting our room. I showed a remarkably total lack of interest in him painting, personally, I have no issues with pink, I’m used to waking up with a pillow of it next to my head.

Unfortunately the only kind of paint he could find was probably banned in most civilized countries due too the heavy metal content and how would he have known, the can was written in Arabic. So one afternoon, I get off of work and am walking home when I start smelling paint fumes in the air and I’m a couple hundred feet away from the building. I wonder who’s painting outside I think to myself. The fumes just get stronger and stronger till I step into a sauna of fumes and there is my room mate a bit glassy eyed telling me with a slight slur in his voice that our room isn’t pink anymore.

The fan is going full blast out there door and our room is now a dark blue (almost black), the paint looks thick enough to stop bullets and the smell instantly makes me feel light headed and after a minute I had to step out. That night, I cover myself in my blankets making an elaborate filter of cloth so I don’t have to smell the fumes and wake the next morning to find my top layer (the sleeping bag) stuck to the paint on the wall beside the bed, 16 hours after he painted, the walls are still tacky and the smell hasn’t gone down at all. Perhaps I should go tell safety, oh wait, he’s the safety guy!

What in the hell is this stuff? Spiderman’s evil black costume?

It takes the better part of two days for the tackiness to go away and hopefully before too long the fumes will go away too. I think I might be doing damage to my possible future children just being in here typing this, let alone sleeping here.

Blogging news is that I’m going to be going though the PAO for my pictures and letting registering my web sites which isn’t that big of a deal for me since everyone locally already knows about it anyway. I have a new camera on the way, a Canon S3 which has gone down a fair bit in price and I’ve wanted one for years, so expect more pictures and writing in the future. Sorry about the last week, I’ve been in a paint induced fog while my brain cells have self destructed from the smell and haven’t felt up to writing. Hopefully the damage isn’t permanent.

Take care and thanks for the support!

Paint Fumes

My roommate lasted less then a week with the pink walls before he went out and found some Navy Blue Angel blue and white paint for the trim and went all out with painting our room. I showed a remarkably total lack of interest in him painting, personally, I have no issues with pink, I’m used to waking up with a pillow of it next to my head.

Unfortunately the only kind of paint he could find was probably banned in most civilized countries due too the heavy metal content and how would he have known, the can was written in Arabic. So one afternoon, I get off of work and am walking home when I start smelling paint fumes in the air and I’m a couple hundred feet away from the building. I wonder who’s painting outside I think to myself. The fumes just get stronger and stronger till I step into a sauna of fumes and there is my room mate a bit glassy eyed telling me with a slight slur in his voice that our room isn’t pink anymore.

The fan is going full blast out there door and our room is now a dark blue (almost black), the paint looks thick enough to stop bullets and the smell instantly makes me feel light headed and after a minute I had to step out. That night, I cover myself in my blankets making an elaborate filter of cloth so I don’t have to smell the fumes and wake the next morning to find my top layer (the sleeping bag) stuck to the paint on the wall beside the bed, 16 hours after he painted, the walls are still tacky and the smell hasn’t gone down at all. Perhaps I should go tell safety, oh wait, he’s the safety guy!

What in the hell is this stuff? Spiderman’s evil black costume?

It takes the better part of two days for the tackiness to go away and hopefully before too long the fumes will go away too. I think I might be doing damage to my possible future children just being in here typing this, let alone sleeping here.

Blogging news is that I’m going to be going though the PAO for my pictures and letting registering my web sites which isn’t that big of a deal for me since everyone locally already knows about it anyway. I have a new camera on the way, a Canon S3 which has gone down a fair bit in price and I’ve wanted one for years, so expect more pictures and writing in the future. Sorry about the last week, I’ve been in a paint induced fog while my brain cells have self destructed from the smell and haven’t felt up to writing. Hopefully the damage isn’t permanent.

Take care and thanks for the support!

I’ve been admitted (I wrote this in the hospital)

A while back, I came down with a cold, the normal sniffles and coughing, no big deal till about a week ago; I woke up in the middle of night in a coughing fit which felt like my lungs were covered in slime. I bent over the side of the bed and coughed it all up into a trash can and felt fine. I turned on the light and the trash can was covered in blood. Yuck.

But there were no other symptoms so I went into work the next day and told them in my understated way that I had coughed up some blood in the night. Thinking maybe it was a bloody nose or such. You know us medical guys, unless we’re really hurt, we usually don’t worry about it. No problems or coughing that night and my cold had been cured (somehow the blood in my lungs had cleaned out the cold is my theory).

The next night, I got a tickle in my lungs and coughed up another couple of teaspoons of blood. Each night was like that, my lungs would get gargly and I would hack up a couple of tablespoons of blood. Thursday, I gave myself a PPD test (test for tuberculosis to you non medical types) and talked to a few of my doctors (I’m working with 8 during this training).

I told them it wasn’t a big deal, get an X-ray on Monday and follow up with someone in San Diego when I got back. Well Saturday rolls around and I had an attack that morning and coughed up about a half cup of blood into the trash can. The PPD was negative at least. Clearly, this had my doctors concerned and we debated about going into urgent care, I told them to hold off and we could handle it on Monday morning. Maybe that would be the only attack that day, I went home after lunch, was doing my laundry and coughed up another half cup.

Mildly shaken by the loss of so much blood in a day, I finished my laundry and called the doc who was covering that shift and told her, "Yeah, I think it’s time for a visit to the emergency room". I caught a ride there checking in at 3 and was put into a room, they gave me a emesis basin which I immediately filled to the 100ml spot with blood and had a new EMT stick me for an IV (which I ended up using for my entire stay). Now I had something to count how much blood I’ve been coughing up, by the end of the night I had filled 4 basins to the 100 mark. They drew 10 or so tubes of blood, then did an EKG, a chest X-Ray, filled a bottle with pee.

Being the leading enlisted medical dude and nice guy I am, I’ve had tons of visitors and well wishers. In fact, a group of my folk came by late last night and serenaded me to sleep (a very tipsy group of doctors and corpsman, it was Saturday nigh). How can you beat that?

At one that morning they decide that they’re going to admit me and I’m to have a CT scan the next day and I can’t eat solid food and eventually stick a camera in my lungs. Our theory so far is that I’ve broken a blood vessel in my lungs and every time I do anything strenuous it breaks open and blood leaks down.

Update #1

Today my boss came by with the book I wanted to buy and later (when I can eat again) is coming by to give me a carnie asada burrito. My biggest complaint right now is that I’m starving, haven’t had anything solid to eat since yesterday morning for breakfast and am eagerly awaiting a yummy monster burrito. They came in this morning to tell me I can’t eat anything at all. I’m beginning to get why people complain about hospital gowns, trying to keep myself covered while moving around seems to occupy a fair portion of my ambulatory time.
It is a bit worrying coughing up blood and being on the other side of the medical profession. I think this is the longest time I’ve ever been in the hospital. Well hopefully I have something that can be fixed. Well I’m going to take a nap till someone comes to tell me to do something.

Update #3 Sunday afternoon

Just had my first CT scan, let me share the experience with you. They set you on this sliding bench that goes into a donut, I’m sure there are pictures of them online. It pulls you in and this female voice says "take a deep breath and hold it" and you slide out. The second time it pulls you in, all of this machinery starts spinning around and it feels like you’re in a time machine. Once more you hear, "take.." and you slide out.

Before the third time, the tech comes out and says she’s going to inject you with iodine dye and the common side affects are your whole body feels warm, feel like you’re going to pee, you get a funny taste in your mouth, pain in your arm or nothing at all. She hooks it up, runs behind the barrier and power drives half of a soda can’s worth of this evil fluid into my arm, I can see the vein change color and immediately I go hot and it feels like there’s molten lead in my veins, my groin feels hot like someone poured a cup of hot pee on me. The machine has slide me in and says "take a deep breath and hold it", I do with difficulty because the funny taste that I got in my mouth was one of my mouth watering which is a precursor to hurling. The tech come out and I ask, "is that all?", she says yes and tell her I’m about to vomit. She grabs a trash can and I throw up the 2 containers of Jell-O I had for breakfast and dry heave a bit more, this causes me to go into another bloody coughing fit.

Bleh, CT scans are for the birds, hope they found something.

(Doc brought me the carnie asada burrito from a place called Burrito King and Paul, they’re not all that, the burrito was huge but I’ve had better)

Update #4 Monday night at 11

The nurse comes in and tells me the doc can fit me in for the Bronchscopy sometime in the morning and nothing by mouth after midnight. Meanwhile, I’m totally caught up in Kevin J. Anderson’s Metal Swarm. If you haven’t noticed, I don’t go crazy in boring lonely places, as long as I have a good book, everything is peachy (thanks Doc Davis for picking it up for me). I pushed because well, I’m dumb and couldn’t stop reading, it was 2 when I finished went to sleep (I was already in bed).

Update #5 Tuesday morning at 5:45

The lights go on and I imagine I’m back in boot camp again, a bright and shiny nurse comes in with the most cheerful voice says, the doctor can fit you in right now. I say wait a second, brush my fangs and use the restroom and a pair of orderlies comes in an wheel me away. We get down there and I’m talking to the respiratory therapy nurse, she belongs to the local Navy League. People are coming in, an X-Ray tech with a C-Clamp shaped X-Ray machine, there’s a craftsman tool box full of medical stuff, one of the techs gets a syringe and tells me its lidocane and squirts it into both nostrils. It goes in my left nostril and stops because that nose is stuffed up so I make sure to let him know to use the right one. Finally the doctor comes in and shakes my hand says good morning and the nurse is preparing a to shoot something into my line and I say "is this where I’m supposed to start counting backwards".

Then I’m talking to her again and everyone is gone. I look around and it’s like I time traveled and my throat and lungs are sore. I look around in bemusement and they wheel me back to my room and I finally take them up on the offer for morphine, well since they were offering, I don’t want them to think I don’t appreciate it. This is where I make a couple of phone calls and remind people I work with how to pack things and call relatives and friends. But I don’t remember doing any of it. Doc Davis visits I think but I’m not really sure about that but I do remember my mom and my sister Crystal visiting that afternoon. I’m flying high but not that high.

Update #6 Wednesday

Three of the local Chiefs come by for a visit while my mom and sister are there. One of my corpsman has packed up my room in the suburban in hopes that I’m going to be discharged. The Doctor comes in and tells me the TB test is negative from the stuff he collected from my lungs and that I could be discharged for follow up care in San Diego. Mom buys us lunch and I drive the Beast (I'm afraid to let other people drive her because she bucks) back to San Diego where I sleep in my own bed.

Things I did during my time there, I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a extremely well written post-apocalyptic book about a man and his son. I can relate, the man spends most of the book coughing up blood. It made me sad and miss my son, very bleak novel, I highly recommend it. I also asked each of my nurses for a sponge bath, sorry, I've always wanted to ask for one now I had lots of chances. No I didn't really get one, I had a private shower in my room and I wasn't having any problems with my walking.

Bonding experiences

I’ve found over the last few years that I’ve fallen from the path of being the average military party animal but having lived in those shoes at one time, it’s given me a vast understanding of the lifestyle and now coming into a leadership role. Part of my job is protecting the people around me so most nights, I’m taking one for the team and being the designated driver.

I couldn’t count how many times in my past where I wished that there was someone there who would make sure I got home (there were nights when I didn’t make it). Being in the military and in a foreign city, most of the Marines and Sailors I know go out and tear up the town. This trip is no exception.

But unlike the years when I was a junior ranker, now if you get in trouble, chances are, it’s going to kill your career. This is where I come in, I don’t condone the over consumption of alcohol but I have been there and chances are I wouldn’t be where I’m at today if some of my senior leadership wasn’t there to cover my back when I needed it. Eventually, I outgrew the party lifestyle and settled down.

So we went out on our bonding experience as a group, running into people we worked with. One of my junior guys had a bit too much proving his manly hood to his doctor and needed a ride home early.

No problem, he was standing and talking, two good signs. I loaded him up and took off back for base, the entire time his slurring was getting worse and worse. I gave him a large plastic cup and said if he needed to throw up, to use the cup. He looked at the cup and threw it out the window then stuck his arm out and laid his head on it, proceeded to barf all over his arm. Great.

He was still talking and kept telling me the building number he lived in, I went down every street and couldn’t find it so went into work and grabbed the recall roster I had typed up and gave out to everyone (and gave out my last copy from my wallet to someone else) and found his building. Took him up to his room and finding someone to watch him.

Vomit all over my black leather jacket from manhandling his large body back to the room, check. Vomit down the side of Lexus, check. Vomit on my shoes, check.

I took the car to the gas station and washed off the side and my leather jacket. Don’t think the splatter marks on my shoes are going to come out though, sigh.

You know what this is?

Karma.

I got back to the bar, told the story of the trip back to base and soon thereafter, I drove everyone home, checking a last time on the wayward one to make sure he was still breathing. He’s lucky it’s a kinder gentler Navy and I was acting the part of the responsible one or he might have woken up with a body part shaved.

In reality? If I have saved one life, one career or shown someone a better way to treat those around them, then I’ve done my job as a leader. I’ve seen lives lost and careers go down the tube over one dumb judgment call, one moment of craziness. Do I want that happening to any of my guys? No.

It’s better for me to reel that fish in now then having to go stand in front of the old man in the morning, explaining how I let my guy be such a dumb ass.

Valour IT

(this post is staying at the top till 15 November 2007)

Is an organization who provides Voice-Activated laptops to our severely wounded troops. So far they have distributed over 1500 laptops to our wounded. I know these guys personally and the entire effort is a labor of love.

This Veterans Day holiday, don’t forget the men and woman who have made the life that you live possible. Valour IT gives directly to those who have sacrificed their limbs and livelihood in defense of our nation.

When I won the Navy Milbloggie of the Year back in June and they gave a thousand dollars to the charity of my choice and I picked that the money should go to Valour IT.

Put it this way, every other charity out there gives support to people who are less fortunate, going though hard times, impacted by acts of god, have caught some terrible disease. Basically people who were just unlucky to be born where they were at, be in the path of something that swept over their home because of fire, flood or weather or made wrong life choices and need help to recover.

Valour IT is helping people who made a conscious choice to jump into harms way defending the rights of the rest of us. It doesn’t matter what your political views are or if you support the war or not, without them, the country you love wouldn’t exist. Helping these guys is really just part of taking care of our own.

I know if I had my hands blown off, I would love to have a voice activated laptop but knowing me, I would get by with a pencil between my teeth if I had to.

Changes in attitudes, changes in latitudes

Most of my Navy career, even though I was I charge of most of the medical departments I was at, I was usually following some kind of direction from the chain, there was always a higher echelon to fall on. There were tough times but usually the guy making the calls was somewhere above me. Most of my mentality was spent going with the flow but now I feel like a rock in the middle of the stream. The water is hitting me and I’m trying to wrestle it in to a smooth flow so the ripples don’t show on the surface.

There just seems to be awfully lot of water coming down that creek this week. I’ve discovered the higher you get, the more choices you have to make for those around you and most of those answers don’t seem to be the ones that you can just reply with a yes or no. I’m making it but I’m earning that raise.

Other news, I’m moving out of my place this weekend and getting ready for a small deployment to sandy desert city for 3 weeks of pre-deployment type training and in one day in the not too distant future, you’ll be reading the words that I have typed from the other side of the world.

Happy Birthday Marines!

Tonight I attended the MAG 16’s Marine Corps Ball celebrating 232 years of faithful service to our country. Let me tell you a secret, I always get stage fright going to these things. Must be something I’ve carried over from being so nerdy in high school. I always complain about going till I get there and have without fail, have had a great time.

A couple of weeks ago I attended the Navy Birthday Ball and comparing the two will have to say, the Marines know how to get down and party. This ball topped all of the other balls I’ve gone to by far, it wasn’t the biggest but it was the smoothest. Great crowd, everybody was on the dance floor and having a good time. The food was excellent and the ceremony was flawless.

Well I could tell stories but I hear that a picture is worth a thousand words, I have 68,000 words over here.

Update on the fire

Since I really don’t have anywhere to go and nothing to do, I have volunteered to take part in a rescue recovery team, I’ll be working the ambulances with some other corpsman doing whatever they want us to do. No word on my house yet but I see the sky glowing over there, hopefully it’s just streetlights shining in the smoke if not, then guess, I’ll have to start going over my insurance policy. Don't worry about me, lots of people have it much worse, I have places to stay, was planning on thinning down my load, might shed some tears over the books but it will give me a reason to start my collection again.

The team is on standby right now and I’m staying on base for the next few days with a cell phone next to my ear. No hero stuff yet but who knows what tonight and the next few days will bring, when I get back to my own internet, I’ll post the pictures from the Navy Ball.

Here’s pictures from my trip to Disneyland on Friday with my niece and Kevin the foreign exchange student. Well I'm going to go catch some shuteye while I can.