Ground Hog Day

It is very appropriate that I am writing today’s message on Ground Hog’s Day.  If you have never seen the Bill Murray movie by that same name you really don’t need to because it is about a meteorologist newscaster guy (Bill Murray) covering the coming up of Punxsutawney Phil, the famous ground hog who looks for his shadow.  He wakes up every morning and repeats the previous day over and over and over.  Nothing he does changes the fact that he continually wakes up doomed to repeat Ground Hog’s Day.  I am feeling a lot like Bill Murray’s character.  So show you what I mean I will walk you through my schedule for the past week.

Monday

Wake up: 6pm

Us e the bathroom in the last cubical, shave, shower in the first shower cubical on the left, get dressed and head to work

6:30 pm: Arrive at work, change into scrubs,  get report from the day crew, check the ORs, stock supplies, inventory the narcotics, preop the patients for the next day’s cases, all that takes until maybe 7:30.

7:30 pm: Check personal, Air Force, Army and Bagram email accounts and answer any necessary   emails. 

8pm:  Call home and chat with Cami and the kids

8:30pm:  Start my personal study of the scriptures or conference talks. 

9:30pm:  Get dressed in my PT uniform to go workout.  Monday is upper body workout.

10:45pm:  Shower and change back into scrubs.

11:00pm: Watch some rerun of a basketball game on AFN (Armed Forces Network) the military version of cable TV.

11:50pm Change back into my regular uniform called OCPs to go to midnight chow.  Walk to the DFAC (dining facility), scan your ID card get no more than two Styrofoam take-out boxes.  Fill one with lettuce and kidney beans maybe some shredded carrots and bell peppers.  Go to the sandwich  line and get a turkey wrap with four pieces of turkey and one piece of swiss cheese with lettuce and cucumbers.  Get a cup of tortilla soup, walk back to the hospital and have dinner/movie, Monday we chose Crouching Tiger Hidden Plot or something like that.

2am:  Play cards with the OR crew until I get tired of loosing

3am:  Check email and Facebook to see what real people are doing

4am:  Check prices for European travel to get ready for our trip to France in June.

5am:  Eat one of the dinners I didn’t eat during the movie.  Watch AFN some more.

6am:  Call and talk to Cami again

6:30am:  Day shift arrives, report off.  Sit around and wait for breakfast to start at 7:30. 

7:30am:  Eat three boiled egg whites and oatmeal.

8am:  Head back to my dorm room and change into my jammies, brush my teeth and write in my journal.

8:30am: Try to go to sleep

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all exactly the same with the following exceptions

Tuesday: 

9:30:  Workout is Interval running and ABS

11pm:  Laundry Day, throw a load of laundry in but make sure it is done by midnight or it is thrown in a sack and put in the First Sergeant’s (aka the Shirt) office and you have to recite the Airman’s Creed to get it back because from midnight to 2am every day the laundry room is cleaned.  It usually only takes them about ten minutes to clean it but you can’t use it anyway.

1:30am:  Brought a US soldier to the OR with bilateral lower extremity amputations from an IED blast to the OR for 4 hours.

Also no cup of soup at midnight chow because it is usually Beef Noodle.  Movie was Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wednesday:

9:30:  Workout is Lower Body

Soup is Chicken Noodle.  Movie was Willow.

No oatmeal for breakfast.

Thursday:

Same workout as on Tuesday

Soup is Minestrone and movie was Johnny Lingo.

Friday:

Same workout as Monday

Soup is Vegetable, movie was The Help

Saturday:

At change of shift we usually will have an anesthesia staff movie night.  Day shift will get the stuff for build your own pizza or burritos or cheese dip and we will watch a movie together, this week it was Bourne Legacy. 

Workout is the same as Tuesday and Thursday

I don’t go to bed at 8:30 because church starts at 10am so I study some more.

10-11:30 Church

11:30am: Go to bed

I don’t work out on Sundays and I usually have French Toast for dinner or maybe a three-egg scramble with veggies but since I haven’t gone yet I can’t say what the day will bring.

They do try to break up the monotony with random things throughout the week.  Today in the hall there was a “Fashion Show” where people had to make their own costumes.  I will include those pictures on the blog.  That pretty much sums up the week, month, quarter . . . like Forest Gump says,” life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.”  Hope your week goes well.  Be safe.

www.thebookofbrett.blogspot.com

Low clearance.  Writing in my journal before bed.

I had to include these two pictures to squelch all the nasty rumors going around that Dr Landreth never does anything.

A picture is worth a thousand words

A mustache update.  I know it doesn't look any different.  I was suppose to be able to shave it off on Feb 1 but one of the docs asked me to wait until his wife sent the 'mustache on a stick' things for a group picture.  I reluctantly consented because she sent it priority.  So another two weeks.

None of the advice I have followed has made any difference.

This is our OR locker room.  My locker is on the top with the blue towel.  The guy with the bottom locker that is open hangs his shorts on the outside of his locker door.  That isn't a big deal until he hangs his shorts up after he has been wearing them to run.  When he hangs them up they are completely soaked with sweat.  They drip dry creating a huge puddle on the floor that I have had the misfortune of stepping in and soaking my socks.  Gross!

The Ground Hog Day meal, soup is Corn Chowder.

The 'catwalk' for the fashion show.  I was coerced into coming to watch.

This is our leadership in the hospital and the honorable judges.

Everyone had to make their own costumes. Some were serious most were funny.

These guys had the most elaborate costumes made out of biohazard bags and drapes. 

This guy won for this move right here.