Dandy in Afghanistan

Hey Gang,

 So I know it’s been a couple weeks since I last wrote.  I think I was off last Thursday.  Hopefully by now most of you have heard that JW and I got orders to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho!  We are super excited!  I’ve already done some research on Boise and it sounds like the perfect town.

Plenty of shopping and dining opportunities and the outdoor activity list is pretty much unlimited.  We are really looking forward to our new chapter.

 Now on to a typical day.  So what is my typical day?  I get up at 4:45pm and take a shower and then I head to the dining facility (DFAC) to get food to go to take back to work to eat.  But after I get my food, I have to stop by my room and pick up my backpack and walk to work.  I eat my dinner in the break room watching “The Brady Bunch” or sometimes “Days of Our Lives” or whatever else may be on.  Then I change out of my PT gear into my scrubs and start our checks.  We check our equipment to make sure it works, and the oxygen tank levels, and make sure the supplies are set out accordingly to accept up to six traumas at a moment’s notice.  Then we have shift change- basically a quick five minute report on what patients we have what we are expecting.  We have four medical patient beds and six trauma beds.  If I’m the shift leader I make assignments.  If I’m not, then I get an assignment.  So for example if I was given bed 7, I’d introduce myself to the patient and find out if they need anything done. (i.e.- labs, xrays, IV fluids, etc.)  I follow that patient until they are discharged and then I get the next patient that’s put into bed 7 and the process starts again.

Some nights I have a full room all night- others I may not even get a medical patient in my room.  Then we’re also assigned to a trauma bed.

We’re either on the primary trauma or secondary trauma.  If you’re on primary trauma, then we get all of the one patient traumas throughout the night.  If you’re on the secondary trauma you’ll get a patient if there is more than one patient coming in.  If we get more than two traumas then we get help from the other departments in the hospital.

Some nights we’re get up to 13 traumas total and other nights we’ll have no traumas.  Every day if different. 

 At 11pm we send a first group of people out to the DFAC to get food.

And then when that group gets back we send the second group.  If we have traumas between 11pm-1am we don’t get hot food.  We go to the DFAC and get cold sandwiches, fruit, etc once we slow down.  Then at about 5:30 am we stock our rooms and get ready to day shift to come in and start working at 6:30am.  Once I get off of work I go to my dorm room and drop off my weapon and backpack and head to the gym.  I spent anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours there depending on my schedule for the day.

After my workout, I go back to my room to get my weapon and back to the DFAC to get some food.  If my roommates are sleeping I eat at the DFAC, if not I take it back to my room.  Then after I’m done eating I take a shower and go to bed.  And then ground hog’s day starts again!

 Dandy 99.1 miles to go Aaron