March Madness

This is the photo of our group which is all the people who work at Craig Joint Theater Hospital.  

This is a picture of all of the OR crew.

The night shift crew.

Me and Stacy, both CRNAs at SAMMC.

Moving a Blackhawk with a John Deere

This is the muddy path to the North DFAC where we eat breakfast in the mornings.  This shows how the dust turns to mud when it is wet.

Singing in the rain.

The horrible ice bath.

This is my brave face that I wear while soaking my foot.

The elevation of the RICE formula.

Back to the workroom.  Foot healed I ran 14 miles on that treadmill.

Afghans don't make kidney stones they make kidney boulders.  This is an example.  The kidney has to be cut open to get them out.

One night the OR nurses swapped roles with the techs.  This is Freisen driving the laproscope.

Capt Gabucan scrubbing in.

Landreth turning over one of the ORs.  Such a dedicated dude!

We play a lot of cards at night.  I have learned to play Nerts and Rummy.

Sometime playing cards with a bunch of people on high protein diets has smelly side effects.

Some of the crew playing Texas Hold 'em or whatever that is called.

I can't really believe that it is already time to write another email.  Time is plugging right along.  Today (17th in Afghanistan) marks 5 months in country.  I have started to receive information on my redeployment which to the normal person sounds like getting deployed again, re-deployment, but in the military that it is what they call going home.  We have checklists for everything.  When I got here I was handed a checklist and told that I would be strung up by my big toes if I didn't complete it in a timely manner.  Once the threats were over I talked to others that had been here longer and they ALL said "Ahh, I still have mine, they won't ever ask you for it. What are they going to do, send you home?"  However everyone completes the re-deployment checklist because they have no qualms about keeping you here another two weeks to let you think about what you should have done.  I won't get my checklist for another four weeks but I have been getting emails about it so I am moving in the right direction.  There are all kinds of meetings and briefings we have to go through with Combat Stress and the Chaplain's Office to make sure that we are mentally OK to go home.  We have to stop in Germany for a three day decompression group therapy session before they put us on a plane to fly home.  As of now, and this is all subject to change with or without informing me, my replacement gets here on April 28th.  We are required to have 4 days together for training purposes.  At that point we are placed on a list to get shipped out of the AOR (Area of Responsibility) out of harms way to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.  You can sit in Qatar for up to a week and from there you fly to Germany where you are trained how to be normal again and then you take a commercial flight home.  If all goes according to the current plan I should be home around May 12th.  Once you get back to your home base you are required to check-in and accomplish another checklist before you are released for 2 weeks of R&R.  So once I get back I will have two weeks of R&R and then we will leave for Europe on the 29th of May and will be gone until June 25th.  Not too shabby!

    Cami has given me the go-ahead to plan the majority of our European Adventure and it has been pretty fun.  I have talked to Cami and the kids about the things they want to do and I have researched the best, cheapest, safest, way to make it happen.  For those interested I will list out our itinerary, for those that are not interested, sorry, I really don't have too much else to write about this week.

May 29th Fly from San Antonio to London

May 30th arrive in London at 9:40am spend the day recovering from the flight and seeing whatever we feel like seeing on our own.

May 31st--Guided tour of London on a Double Decker red tour bus stopping at Buckingham Palace, Parliament/Big Ben, ride the London Eye, take a cruise down the Thames, London Bridge, and Westminster Abby. It is a thirteen hour day but the kids requested a ride on a Double Decker bus.

June 1st--Sunday activities, attending the ward in Hyde Park where many prophet's taught the restored gospel, and take it easy enjoying a calm day.

June 2nd--Another guided tour of Stonehenge/Windsor Castle and the town of Bath where some of my ancestors are from

June 3rd--Tour of Warner Bros studio where Harry Potter was filmed, then train to Paris.

June4th-11th--Meet up with the Texas Children's Choir group and participate in tour activities in Normandy, Notre Dame, and the Louvre

June 12th--Train to Marseilles, day in Marseilles

June 13th--Board our cruise ship and get ready to go

June 14th--Genoa, Italy where we will take a tour of Portofino and Genoa

June 15th--Rome, Italy, guided tour of the sites and possible visit to the square where the Pope will deliver his weekly message, assuming he is in town.

June 16th--Palermo, Sicily where I plan on eating pizza all day

June 17th--Tunis, Tunisia--Tour of Carthage and Medina

June 18th--Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Catamaran tour of the coast

June 19th-- Valencia, Spain hang out on the beach unless of course it is not a family friendly thing to do and then we will figure something else out. 

June 20th--Back to Marseilles, train to Geneva, Switzerland where we will stay the night

June 21st-  Train to Gimmelwald, a tiny town in the Swiss Alps

June 22nd--Gimmelwald

June 23rd--Head back to London

June 24th--Fly home

June 25th--8:13pm get home

Well that is the plan.  We are super excited.  My kids have been working very hard for nearly a year to cover their own way and I am very proud of their efforts.  I know that many of you have purchased candy bars or cards and made generous donations for which we are exceedingly grateful. 

It has been raining continuously for the last four days and I am reminded of the days of Noah.  The parking lot I normally cross to get to church was impassible being under a few feet of water.  The rain seems to have slowed the attacks so some good is coming from all the mud.  That is pretty much all I've got for the week.