Sorry about the week long absence

I feel like around this place the day to day tends to be the same, so there hasn't been much to write about.  I went to church on Saturday night after work and attended the longest service ever.  It was an hour and 45 min, all about adultery and not succumbing to it while deployed.  Definitely not applicable to me.  Thankfully the chaplain said most services are just over an hour.  After church I went to "the Bra" which is a place to hang out and where they serve alcohol.  A little weird going out for drinks after church but I was with one of the other nurses I work with and she hadn't eaten so we stopped for food and drinks.  

Work has been getting easier and I am working with a good group of nurses.  The two majors who are our element leaders have vowed that once everyone learns their job, they will make it a priority for us to get workouts in.  Including them, there are 4-5 nurses on the day shift which is plenty to take care of our usual patient load.  The last few days we had  Brittish soldier as the only patient in the ward.  He was pretty sick and they had to do an emergency exploratory surgery to see if he had a small bowel obstruction.  He didn't and the surgeon couldn't tell what was really wrong.  He was airevac'd out last night back to England.  I got pretty mad at the surgeon though because this guy was in so much pain and the surgeon blew it off at first.  He thought maybe in OB, we didn't expect our patients to feel pain- Ha!  These women have had major abdominal surgery too, I told him of course I expected my patient to feel pain but not as bad as he was going through.  Finally he upped his morphine dose but this guy will not accept any ideas from the nursing staff and I thought he needed something stronger and longer lasting than morphine, which he finally wrote for the next morning. 

I had today off but I had to get up early to go to a 7am commander's call.  After,  I went and saw a movie at the theater and then  lounged around all day.  It is amazing how tired I am after six days of work.  There will be pictures coming soon as I got my camera in the mail and will take pictures of all the places I go to.

Love, Megan

Lazy Days Off

While I had great intentions to get up at a reasonable time, I woke up much later than I had planned.  Unfortunately this means I probably won't be able to go to sleep at a reasonable time tonight.  I laid around all morning and watched Charmed on DVD in my room and then went up  to the BX and had some Starbucks.  I figured since it was my day off I could indulge.  The coffee over here is like $2 more expensive though.  Ugh, good incentive to not get starbucks very often. 

 I had to go into work today because I told my flight commander I would give a tour of our unit to the vice wing commander.  I then realized it was on my day off and I was only on his schedule if there ended up being time.  I spent an hour reading my book in the staff lounge just in case he had time, even though I had been told it would be very unlikely there would be.  Oh well, all I would have been doing anyways was reading my book somewhere else.  In fact after the vice commander left the hospital I went to the "hang out" spot that the chapel runs and read my book.  I had to rest up for the Commander's Cup dodge ball championship.  My team one our first game but lost our second.  I had a couple good plays in the second game and it even went into overtime but we still lost.  It was a lot of fun. 

 It is hard having a day off here because everyone else I work with on my floor is at work.  I need to meet other people who's day off is Tuesday as well.  Looking forward to 6 more days of work.  It's not as bad as I thought it would be.  Hopefully I will have a chance to work out during my shift tomorrow.  I have not been going to the gym as much as I thought I would because I am so tired for working so many days.

Thanks for the cookies grandma.  They were delicious and I will be taking them into work tomorrow to share.  

Love, Megan

work, eat, sleep

Working six days a week isn't so bad as there isn't all that much else to do.  I get up and go to the chow hall, go to work, go to the chow hall for lunch, and dinner, go home and go to sleep.  I got all settled into my new dorm and it is amazingly nice.  I have a sink and mirror in my room and I share a bathroom that has a bathtub and a kitchen with a dining room table with a roommate.  I have yet to meet the person I share a bathroom with, but my sponsor, who lived here before me, said she should be leaving in a couple of weeks anyway.  

All of the other nurses that I will be working with have finally gotten here.  They all arrived about six days after me, but because I had those six extra days of one-on-one orientation, I am pretty far ahead in the orientation process.  In fact, my sponsor left yesterday so I have been working on the ward on my own.  However, there are still a few nurses who are on slightly off rotations and will still be here for a few months.  They do this so that not everyone is new at once.  I have been taking care of same day surgery patients the last two days; yesterday we had 4 same day surgeries.  Today my patient had a case of appendicitis.  He has only been here in Qatar for 8 days and ended up in the hospital.  It has been hard getting used to the way things are done on the ward here, often I am told "that's how it is in the AOR." AOR: area of responsibility.  

I know that pictures would be fun to see but I cannot find my camera cable  and my roommate can't find it for me at home.  I will have her send me my other camera, I think.   I want to thank all my readers especially my grandparents.  My mom says you two are faithful readers and it makes it fun to write this blog knowing that you are reading it.

Hopefully something interesting happens to write about for my next post but until then I hope that everyone is doing well.

Love, Megan

I am enjoying my first day off of work.  Each week I will be off on Tuesdays.  I got to sleep in until almost 9:30 but it was on accident.  My room has a window that is covered in foil and heavy curtains, probably to keep out the heat, but it means that it is pitch black without the light on.  I am hopefully moving over to my permanent dorm today since they made my sponsor and all the people leaving this week move into tents.  I feel bad for them, I would have stayed where I am a few more days if it meant they could avoid tents, but I didn't have that option.  

It seems to be even more hot today than usual and much windier than it has been.  It is still really bright outside but there is a constant haze here which makes the sky and horizon this tan color.  It is very odd to look outside.  There is hardly any color here; everyone wears some version of tan or grey, all the buildings and tents are some version of tan and there are no trees, grass or even weeds.  It is all sand or rocks.  I was wondering why they have pebbles covering all the areas that don't have sidewalks or asphalt and today I realize it is probably to keep the dust blowing around at a minimum.  I need a shower after all of my walking around, I am covered in grit.  

I am taking my flight line driver's test tonight.  I have to do it in the day and night so we are going around 1830 so I can drive around when it is still light and then be driving as it gets dark.  I am pretty excited, this will mean that I can go get patients off of the C-130s by myself soon.  

Tops in Blue are performing tonight.  For those of you who don't know, they are the performing arts group of the Air Force and they put on a musical production. From what I remember, it is a great show.  They have been walking around base and working out in their special PT uniforms for a few days here at Al Udeid.

Hopefully once I move later today I will have better internet access.  Right now I have to go sit outside my trailer and can only do that in the evenings when it is cool but I am so tired then and that I just want to go to bed.  The other problem is that the wifi gets really bogged down in the evenings with everyone on.  Right now I found great access just outside the BX.  They have tables and a fountain and it is nice and cool.  And as an added bonus, this is the fastest internet speed I have found yet.

Off to the gym...

Love Megan

Wow- I went to open the page to post a new blog but everything on my screen was written in Arabic and I had to reopen the page to get English (for a while I didn't think I was going to be able to post).  My face book page has a paragraph in Arabic when I open it but everything else is in English.  Over here on base everything is written in both Arabic and English.  Probably for the third country nationals who work here, however, all of which seem to speak excellent English.  I haven't had any problems talking to them and they have also been very nice.

I was going to open this posting with my excitement over getting to go to the flight line this evening to pick up 2 patients off of a C-130.  Flight nurses seem to have the coolest jobs, although both of these patients needed no care as they took their own meds and walked on and off the plane.  We took the ambulance out there because we had heard one would be on a litter.  I have gotten to drive the "Talivan" all over base so that I could get to know where things are and because some days I will be driving it to get patients off the flight line and check on our patients staying in billeting.  I passed the computer and written tests for flight line driving and tomorrow I will probably get the flight line tour and test on actual driving at both day and night at the flight line.  

I am heading off to bed now; I finally got six hours of sleep last night and tonight I am aiming for 8hours.  It isn't fun waking at 3:30am when you know you have to work all day.

Megan  

 

I'm Lovin' It

Amazingly, after 24 hours of travel time over who knows how many thousands of miles and only a few hours of sleep here and there, I'm doing great.  We left Norfolk about an hour late because it was determined that we could make it to Germany without stopping in Maine because the plane wasn't full, but they had to add more fuel to the plane first.  I spent about 4.5 hours in Germany in a city called Liepzig in what had to be their military terminal.  They fed us free lunches and most of us laid across rows of chairs and dozed because at that point we had been up all night.  Thanks to earplugs, a face mask , benadryl and a great reclining seat in first class, I think I slept for about 3 hours while going over the ocean on a 7hr flight.  After leaving Germany, we had a 5 1/2 hour flight to Qatar; we used the same plane with a new crew of civilians from North American Airlines.  I am kind of disappointed that I didn't get to ride in a C-130, but I know it was much more comfortable this way.  

It took about 2 hours to in-process the base and go through Customs but I have a great 1st Shirt who had already gotten me a room in billeting and handed me the key right there.  Then she loaded my luggage, and the 4 other medical people who came in, on a truck and van and drove us to the dfac (dining facility).  I loved just swiping my ID card and getting to pick out what I wanted (I got an omelette and banana since it was 3am).  I finally made it back to my room just before 4am after stopping off in the Cadillac (the bathroom and shower trailor) to try to go to sleep.  It is easier said than done!  I have a tiny little room in a trailor with two beds and two storage cabinets but no roommate as of yet.   When my sponsor leaves on or about the 15th, I will take over her room which is right across from the hospital and gym.  So far I haven't had to walk anywhere because it seems there are vehicles everywhere and people have to offer rides.  I will be driving one of the hospital vans (nicknamed the "Talivan") to get patients off of the flight line.  Thankfully I can drive a manual!  My sponsor had to run over to the flight line side of base and I got to tag along and see the base.  It is huge!  You have to take the shuttle or drive to get to the different sections of the base.  They have 11 inpatient beds where they recover OR patients (there is only 1 OR).  Three of these beds are ICU beds, which they hardy use as such but use them for isolation rooms instead.  I am the first of the new group of people arriving, most will come next week.  I have a lot to learn to get spun up on my jobs but it is exciting to be doing something different than Labor and delivery.  They also have about 25 outpatient beds for military members throughout the AOR (African Horn, Iraq, and Afghanistan) who need to have care or minor surgery but can be expected to return in to duty in less than 30 days.  

I got to go the gym during the duty day today and they say most days you can do this.  I went with my sponsor, the chief nurse, and one of the physicians, as the chief nurse teaches a spin class.  It was my first spin class but it was a crazy workout and I did make it all the way through it.  

Right now I am sitting outside my trailer with about 10 other people on the sidewalk because you can't pick up the wifi from inside the rooms.  They temperature now is great, weather.com says 102 and feels like 101 but the breeze is great and I was surprised to see what the temp was.  Earlier it was hot and windy with dust flying so much it looked like it was snowing.   

I will post pictures as soon as I find my cable for my camera; hopefully I didn't leave it at home!  I know this is a long posting and most won't be like this but so much has happened in the last day and a half.  I am about to go to the cadillac to get ready for bed and then take an ambien so I can actually fall asleep.  I have to be at work at 0645 in the am.  

  You'll hear from me soon.

Love, Megan

Hurry up and wait and wait some more...

    The last 24 hours have been a real test of my patience, especially considering my severe lack of sleep.  I left San Antonio on Monday morning around 0930 on  a commercial (Jet Blue) jet after having to be at the hospital at 0400.  My wonderful friends Erin and Sara took me to breakfast at Denny's at 3am- it was crowded considering it was essentially a Sunday night.  Then they hung out with me for an hour at the hospital until they were kicked out and my briefing started. We eventually were driven over to the terminal at Kelly Air Base.  Even though it was a family day on base, the wing commander came and so did my Squadron commander.   There were only about 30 of us on a plane that probably seats around 200 however, that only lasted to Dallas as we stopped at the Carswell Field, a Navy Base to pick up more people.  We sat on the tarmac for over two hours waiting for who knows what.  All I know is they didn't let us off the plane.  Then we flew to Little Rock where we picked up a few more people at the Little Rock AFB.  We sat on that tarmac for about two hours there as well.   Grrrr.  Then we finally flew into Norfolk where we landed just after another plane full of people and I stood in a 90 minute line to recheck my bags for my flight out over the Atlantic to find out that I actually don't leave for another 48 hours.  It took another 2 hours to get checked into a hotel room but I have not appreciated a bed so much in a long time.  

    I plan to enjoy the next 48 hours relaxing and enjoying myself until my long flight tomorrow night.  I went to the gym this morning and will look for a place to eat after my shower.  Not too bad, but I am still getting used to not having a car and walking everywhere.  

Megan

Flexibility is the key to Airpower

I found out yesterday morning that I am going to depart San Antonio from  a military aircraft instead of a commercial flight and that it will be on Monday instead of Tuesday.  I have been so excited about going and then all of a sudden it was one day sooner than planned.  The good news is that my friend found out that she is leaving on Monday as well instead of today, so we will get to travel together to Qatar (at least we hope that is what will happen).

Yesterday was my last day at work and I unexpectedly got teary.  I got a rose and chocolate from one of the airman who is doing the sunshine fund and that set me off and then a couple other times I got to crying for no good reason.  Wilford Hall gave me a day yesterday that would make sure I wouldn't miss it too badly; it was so busy and hectic that I was ready to go and do something different. 

I'm almost done packing, all I have left are a few things that I need until I leave.  I will spend the weekend hanging out will friends and going to the gym.  Saturday we may go to Six Flags for the 4th of July.   Just trying to spend the last few days as a normal American before life does a complete 180.