Day 181

A new week with a new plan. We received two new soldiers to our office this morning, much needed and very welcomed, and we spent time today figuring out a new work schedule. I won't bore you with the entire plan, but I will bore you with my new work schedule. Starting tomorrow I will begin my work day at 2 in the afternoon and leave the office at 10 in the evening. Also, beginning this weekend I will start having Sunday's off. For the rest of the deployment. Yeah me! I got here on the 30th of November and have had one day off in that time. I know I was just in Germany but I don't count that, because it'd make me seem less needy for a day off. So, ignoring Germany, this coming Sunday will be my second day off since arriving here. I don't know what to do with all of this free time. Maybe I'll begin by improving my grooming and hygeine practices. Start your goals low and work your way up I always say. I'm pacing myself; I've still got six months to go and I don't want to peak too early.

Day 180

Back in Iraq, making another tax-free dollar a day. It turns out that Iraq does NOT use Daylight Savings Time, so I am to remain at an eight hour difference between here and Central Time in the States. I went to all that trouble not to learn to convert to the eight hour difference and now I have to. Of course, last week while in Germany, we were two hours difference from Iraq, which was confusing, because I'd look at the clock, add two hours, then take back nine hours and then add an hour to make it right with the central time zone. But even that was problematic as every time I looked at the face of a clock I added nine hours and then took back an hour, I was taking back the hour by mentally moving the hour hand back an hour in an anti-clickwise direction. (Well, not really using my thoughts to move to the hand itself. It was more of a move-it-with-my-minds-eye sort of mental thing) However that wasn't taking back the hour, just making it a nine hour difference again. So I never really did think of it as a nine hour difference with a one hour adjustment to make it eight hours, but in fact it was a nine hour difference with a one hour non-adjustment to make it nine hours. But, now that we're not going on daylight savings time it'll always be an eight hour difference, so I have to learn how to look at the clock and do the math all differently again. Add eight hours and change the 'm'; either to 'a' or 'p'. I think I've got it.

Day 177 - 26 March

I was released from the hospital this morning. Check out at 0445, breakfast at 0530, bus ride to Ramstien Air Force Base, 20 minutes of comfort riding with a German driver who spoke halting English but loved to use it. I checked in at the counter to be told there were to flights to southern Iraq or Kuwait today, but there was a flight tomorrow at 1:30 in the afternoon. What to do with me until then? Turns out, the Army has a plan. I was picked up in a van and driven to R.O.D, don’t know what it stands for, and given a bed. Oh, what lovely accommodations we have here. I am in a warehouse. Not kidding. There are a total of 400 beds here, most of them used storage for our stuff, with about 60 of us in total sleeping here. Bare concrete floors and room dividers to keep the men and women separated. There are free Heater meals and MRE’s and some snacks just outside of the TV room. If you have ever been inside the USPFO warehouse in Bismarck you’ll get an idea of the size of this place. My flight tomorrow is supposed to take me to Kuwait where I’ll have to wait, again, for a flight back into Iraq. Thank goodness they’re paying me.

It is now Sunday the 29th and I arrived safely back in Tallil yesterday.

Day 176

Still in Germany. I have to check the flight roster in about half an hour to see if I'm listed. If so, I leave here at 0445 tomorrow. If not, I wait another day. I have cable TV in my room. The Armed Forces Networks play. Some channels in English, some in German. It's odd to watch an episode of the Simpsons over-dubbed into German.
The staff and facilities here are great. But better than they are the other patients. All of us here have been flown in from either Iraq, Kosovo or Afghanistan. We are Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. To be flown to Germany means there's something wrong with you, so you don't meet anybody that's not banged up a little bit. My knee seems to pale in comparison with some of the soldiers I've met here. One guy is being shipped home because he has Crone's disease; one guy was sent here because they thought he had MS. Turns out he doesn't have MS, but they're looking for the cause of his problems. One guy told me he had to go back to his room and lie down as his head was killing him. He said his brain is sloshing around in his skull. I met a guy that had his pinkie finger caught in door of a hummer. It was 30 seconds before anybody believed him and opened the door. It crushed his knuckle and he's going home to get a plate implanted. More than one guy is here with a broken leg or foot received from exercising. Several guys are here because they were caught in an IED blast and suffered a concussion. I am fully aware that it is not 1863 and it is not the Civil War, but I keep on thinking of "Red Badge of Courage". Left, encountered the wounded, go back. Maybe a bit of a stretch?

Day 175 - Evening

First off, we had snow. Not much, but it snowed. Last week it was 85 and we were having dust storms. What a wild swing in weather.
I finally saw the doc again today. I am not going to have surgery. I am going back to Iraq. I have something called Patellofemoral Syndrome. That's what's causing the pain in the front of the knee. I also have a Popliteal synovial cyst in the back of my knee causing pain in the back of the knee. I also have an extremely tight hamstring that's causing pain on the side of my knee. Word of advice; Don't deploy when you're old. They slapped a knee brace on my right leg and showed me the door. I have to wait a few days for a flight, but it's back to Tallil to finish my tour. It'll be good; with the desert heat pounding on us for the next six months I should be able to sweat off that last 40 pounds of water weight. I should come home a lean, mean, pink fighting machine.

Day 175 - morning

The barracks are at far end of the hospital, on the east side. The easiest, and shortest, route to anywhere in the hospital is through a door about 150 feet from the barracks. We wander through the halls to get to the Dining Facility, the Shoppette and our appointments. As in every hospital there are signs labeling all offices and hallways. There is one sign that I keep noticing, even though I have no need of either office. I suppose it makes sense, from a medical point of view, but as a layman I don't undertand the connection. Why is the Urology office and the Lactation room in the same area? They don't seem to be in the same area on the human body, so why would they be in the same area in the hospital? I don't get it.

Day 173 - evening

Other than not having anything to do but to sleep and wait for my next appointment, all here is well. I am at the MTD(Medical Transition Detachment) and being treated very well. The rooms here are two-man rooms, with two rooms sharing a bathroom. Oh, the joy of not having to walk 100 feet to go to the bathroom, or another 100 feet to take a shower. And here, no combat showers. The first shower I took here lasted only 4 or 5 minutes, but today, I know I was in there for at least 10 minutes. Hot water; steam; privacy. The things we took for granted. When we arrived here, we were all given a voucher for up to $250 of clothing from the local PX. I bought a new pair of shoes, two pairs of blue jeans, four shirts, socks and underware. I haven't bought this many clothes since, well, I think, in my life. We eat in the hospital dining facility, and if it isn't the best food in the world, at least it is free. I am in my room, using the free wireless internet service, watching 'Ben Hur' on the TV, and drinking a Gatorade kept chilled by the in-room fridge. Carpet on the floors and a blanket on the bed; who needs anything else?