Older And With Less Body Parts

Today is Halloween. Happy Halloween! And, also, today is James' birthday. Happy 24th Birthday, James!

 

He is celebrating his birthday with one less body part this year. James had emergency surgery 3 days ago to have his appendix removed.

 

It all started on Sunday. He could barely get out of bed because it stomach hurt so bad. I thought he was just hung over from going out the night before for his birthday/Halloween. So I paid little attention to him until the evening, when I finally started investigating. I gave him Tylenol and Tums and he immediately leapt out of bed and vomited. What a great medic I am, right!? He stayed in bed all day.

 

On Monday morning while we were getting ready for work, he told me his pain was just as bad, but it had shifted to just his right side. Upon being seen at sick call, James was redirected to the Emergency Room to be evaluated for a burst or rupturing appendix. He was put on a morphine drip and awaited a slot in the surgical suite.

 

His surgery went well. No complications at all. His appendix had not burst yet. He was able to have one of his junior medics sit in on the surgery to watch as a learning experience. James never passes up the opportunity to train a Soldier, even at his own expense! He's a good NCO.

 

The surgeon managed to hide his incision in his tattoo on his belly:

 

 

James was discharged the same day and I took him home. He was able to walk out on his own. He said that he felt a million times better even though he had just been cut open. I guess that little, useless primitive organ was causing a lot of terrible pain if that was the case.

 

He's on convalescent leave for the next two weeks. So he's spending his birthday recovering with Picasso at home. He says he's still sore, and he's slow moving around the house, but he's getting better every day. Thank goodness he's ok. And thank goodness we have free healthcare!

 

Happy Birthday, James! I love you with or without an appendix.

Worth It

I work ridiculously long hours. I work weird hours. I work weekends. I work 24 hour shifts. I work when I'm told to and quit when I'm told to. I go to work before the sun comes up, and I come home after the sun comes down.

 

I'm exhausted. I'm worn out. I'm frustrated. I'm all around broken down and tired.

 

But you know what makes my job worth it? When a former Soldier texts me this:

 

 

I'm appreciated. I'm needed. I'm a role model. I'm a mentor. I'm a leader.

 

Worth it.

Silverfish

It's beginning to get cold in Clarksville, Tennessee. We've had frost adversaries all week which has lead to the tragic death of my giant geraniums I managed to keep alive all summer. That, in itself, is something to celebrate. I kept a plant alive all summer in Tennessee!!! Woot! There is a first time for everything!

 

So, in recognition of cold weather setting in, Nature from OUTSIDE has decided its time to move INTO the house. I know what you're thinking; you have mice again, Jackie, it's normal for you. No. I wish it was mice. Instead I have an overwhelming invasion of silverfish. The name silverfish doesn't sound like it could possibly be a scary thing. It sounds aquatic and rich.

 

Not. At. All.

 

This is what has been invading my home:

 

 

OF COURSE, that is not a picture I took. That picture is compliments of Google Images. Any time I see a silverfish in my home I am too busy running away from one or killing one in a frenzy to take time to photograph it.

 

I had a particularly horrific incident with a very resilient silverfish a few days ago.

 

So, I am pretty ghetto, and instead of having a laundry basket that I throw my dirty laundry into, I use the floor of my closet. I am well aware that I am housing dirty laundry on the floor where I keep clean laundry on hangers. However, I have yet to be told that I smell terrible while wearing seemingly clean clothes. Don't hate.

 

I went to do laundry, finally. As usual, I laid a used towel on the floor and pawed a bunch of dirty laundry out of my closet onto it. I was doing a load that was heavy in the military clothes department. I like to wash my Army clothes and my regular/delicate clothes separately. All the Velcro on my uniforms tends to destroy my underwear.

 

So anyways, I had a big load of Army laundry clutched to my chest in a towel that I was taking to the washing machine from the bedroom to the kitchen (where my laundry machines are located). I held the laundry as tightly as I could so I wouldn't drop anything. As I was stuffing the laundry into the machine, one of these horrible silverfish came scurrying out of my laundry.

 

Now, do you recall my verbiage? I had just been clutching this laundry to my chest. A silverfish had been hitching a ride. Essentially, I had been hugging this silverfish. I HUGGED A SILVERFISH!

 

This silverfish emerged frantically from a fold in the clothing, waving all it's legs and antennas at me. It stopped along the fly of a pair of my pants. It froze. I froze. And then I think my heart froze. I couldn't muster up the courage to catch the silverfish. You've seen what they look like! I wasn't trying to put hands on that! Instead, I poured detergent over it and slammed the lid down.

 

"You will die in suds", I decided aloud.

 

When it came time to change the laundry over to the dryer, I was cautious, but certain 45 minutes in soapy water killed the culprit. I carefully placed all my laundry into the dry and shut the door. I set the timer for an hour. I figured the silverfish had a fragile body that had disintegrated in the water and soap.

 

Boy was I wrong. As soon as I stepped away from the laundry machines, I saw that silverfish hanging out right in front of them. It wasn't nearly as agile as it had been. No, he was definitely stunned; yet still alive. IT HAD LIVED THROUGH THE WASHING MACHINE. I immediately flipped out and called for James to do the slaying. He took care of it and I immediately made him take the garbage bag (which was the silverfish's final resting place) out to the garbage can.

 

I loathe outside critters coming in to visit for the winter. YUCK!

 

October PT Test

I took my biannual PT test today, and let me tell ya, I was a little concerned about what I was going to score. First off, I completed a 20k last week and was still feeling pretty sore. Second off, I've been working in the Blanchfield Army Community Hospital (BACH) for the past week and a half. I've been working a combination of day and night hours in the ER and have not had a lot of time to prep myself for this PT test.

Let me explain prep. I stay in a general state of physical readiness at all times. And just before I know a PT test will happen, I start preparing my body to be tested: I do push-ups and sit ups like a crazy person for about a week before my test. That's all it takes to condition an OK body into a PT stud's body. Well, that's all it takes me to get a 90% or above in those events. The run is always iffy and really depends on the day and weather as to how I will score there.

So let me tell you about the weather today. It was cool. About 58 degrees; which is beautiful weather to run in. But it was also raining. Cold rain: the first cold rain of the Fall. I got to the 1 mile turn around point in 8 minutes. Which is totally awesome for a 30 year old chick! I thought for sure I'd finish my 2 miles in 16:30. Until I actually turned around and realized the wind was pounding in my face and all that icy rain was accompanying it.

I was much slower than I anticipated and crossed the 2 mile finish line in 17:15. I was so bummed out because that was 12 seconds slower than my run time in April's PT test. I was so worried I was going to lose promotion points in the PT category.

So I went to the locker room super bummed out and calculated my score:

 

 

After I saw the score, and realized I scored a 272 again, even with different scores in 2 of the events, I calmed down a little. I did not lose any promotion points. That's the first thing I was concerned about. The second thing I was concerned about was attaining 90% in each event. And I totally blew that.

 

Push ups: 93%

Sit ups: 92%

2 mile Run: 87%

 

I'm taking another PT test in a few weeks to try to improve my score. I need promotion points like it's going out of style. I need to be a Staff Sergeant ASAP.

ER Rotation

So I've been on an Emergency Room rotation at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital (BACH) at Fort Campbell for the past week and a half. I only get a total of 2 weeks of training/experience in the ER to prepare me for my deployment to Egypt in January. In case you were wondering, that is not nearly enough time in an ER to get prepared. Unfortunately, because of our unit's training schedule and the upcoming EFMB, that is all the time we have been afforded.

 

Also, unfortunately, BACH is the worst ER in Central Tennessee. When I say worst, I mean, when people have free health care (like you do in the Army), they will go to the ER for EVERYTHING. EV-ERY-THANG. When someone checks into the ER, their chief complaint, name and SSN get entered into a tracking system that you can see on the computers. Just so you know whose it each bed and whose waiting to be seen in the waiting room. Some of the chief complaints that show up are absolutely ridiculous and should under no circumstance be considered ER worthy. Such as:

 

o possible broken toe

o scabies x6 weeks

o rash

o child in fight x2 days ago

o abscess x4 weeks

 

I feel really bad for all the civilian health care providers out there who are waiting to see if ObamaCare is passed. Once health care is cheap/free for the general public, the ER waiting rooms are going to be packed for the same dumb, time wasting bullshit that military ERs see.

 

Just because it's free, doesn't mean you need to abuse it. Go to sick call. Suck it up. Be responsible.

 

On another note, one of the cooler things I've gotten to do in the ER is remove this toenail that was stubbed so hard it ripped the toenail up:

 

 

Gotta love toenail removals. Unless, of course, you are the removee. No one likes to be on the receiving end of that mess.

Dirty Thirty

Well, I'm 30 years old today.

 

 

I had to work in the Emergency Room all day. And yesterday I had to complete a 20k road march in under 3 hours to qualify to go to EFMB in November. Needless to say, I felt like I should have been a patient in the ER, not an employee. My body is crippled. So my big awesome birthday plans are to eat a ridiculous amount of Mexican food, watch ghost stories on TV and drink Whipped Vodka and orange soda all night while wearing orange sweatpants on the couch with Picasso and James. I am an exciting lady.

 

Happy 30th Birthday to me.

Shooting

James and I went shooting at the Montgomery County Shooting Complex a few days ago. James goes all the time but this was my first time. He's invited me to go a bunch of times, but his friends were always going to be in tow so I never tagged along. This time is was just the two of us.

James recently built to AR15s and needed help zeroing the EOTECH sights.

We decided to shoot hand guns first since I've never fired one of his Glocks before. To tell you the truth, I wasn't very comfortable not having a safety on the weapon. But I fired it pretty accurately considering. I shot a thousand times better than the 2 army dudes beside us at the range. One of them called me a killer, jokingly. When I brought my paper target up from down range I put him to shame and proved to him it's not just cute to call me a killer.

Turns out, I'm a killer on the AR15 as well. Firing the AR15 was basically the same as firing an M4. Except I've never used an EOTECH site. That site was so easy to zero and so accurate! I wish I had one on my M16 in the arms room! This is my zero progression:

 

Me walking in the zero.

 

I really enjoyed myself out on the range. I always say nothing makes me happier in the Army than firing weapons. And this was so much more relaxed and faster than any range I've fired at or been a safety on for the Army. I hope James and I go again soon.

Oktoberfest 2013

James and I went to Oktoberfest with a few friends on Friday night. This year it was held at the Clarksville Speedway which is just up the road from our house. We rode with some friends to the Speedway and intended to walk back so we could enjoy ourselves the way you're supposed to at Oktoberfest. I even wore my PT belt around my waist so I wouldn't get ran over on the way home. But, luckily, one of the girls we were with was 19 (is that really that lucky though?) so we had a sober ride home and didn't have to walk.

 

Oktoberfest in Clarksville, Tennessee is probably the lamest Oktoberfest in the world. Especially since there are so many Soldiers in the area who've been stationed in Germany and know what a real Oktoberfest is like. We went to get out of the house, drink big plastic steins of beer and to eat delicious bratwursts.

 

Yummy! Brats on hamburger buns!

James brought his own BIGGER plastic mug from home.

 

It was an unseasonably warm Oktoberfest this year. We probably would have stayed longer if it hadn't been so warm in the tents. I'm sure we'll go again next year if I'm already home from Egypt; those brats were super yummy and I'm not the kind of girl who turns down cold beer served in plastic.