Throwing Sutures

As a Staff Sergeant, I don't do a lot of patient care anymore. That's entirely fine with me; I'm over it and ready to be past that. But, while I'm in Army schools like Advanced Leader Course (ALC) I have to go through a Medic portion of class. A lot of the stuff we are going over are 10 level tasks (to put that in perspective, I am 30 level). But, most of us in class don't put hands on patients any more so it's a good review.

 

I think the last time I did sutures was when I was a Specialist at Fort Lewis. My PA had me suture up some punches we had done while removing moles. So it's not like it was even doing cool sutures. I don't want to put an age on me, but lets just say I wasn't quite 25 when I did that.

 

Given a pig foot today, I was told to throw in some sutures. I was really worried I was going to be remedial and need a lot of help. But, as luck would have it, the skill came back to be pretty quickly. I surprised myself at doing a real life Medic thing!

 

Sutures

Staples

More skills to be tested and 2 more tests to take before I can check the box on this Army school. Only a week left of ALC!

Finally, I'm in ALC

Finally, I am in the Advanced Leader Course (ALC) at Fort Sam Houston.

7th Platoon GAMBLERS

 

The weather has been crazy. Either 20 or 70: sometimes in the same day. Gotta love San Antonio in the winter.

 

My platoon is full of some really cool peeps, but I'm so ready to be done with Phase II and move onto Phase III and get into the Medic training. Just a few more days!

Their Paws

 

Their paws seem to be completely harmless. But James and I have come to realize that they are anything but. French Bulldogs have weaponized paws that will instantly lull you to sleep. A sleepy-time secretion is released through the paws and enters your body through skin on skin contact. You are utterly defenseless against it.

 

I think it even works on each other.

 

Be warned. Naps are inevitable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catching Up

I've been redeployed back to Fort Campbell and my home for a little over a month now. Transition back into the normal grind has been a little tough for me, so blogging about being blah seemed blah. I'm feeling less blah now so here goes a little blog post to wrap up the last month.

 

 

 

We are proud to announce a new member of the family. Gertrude the Impaler. We call her Gertie or Gert for short. She's the cutest thing in the world. She's so sweet... when she's not biting. We got her so Picasso would have a companion. After a few rocky days of getting territory (food bowls mostly) settled, the two frenchies are best friends. Currently we are in the middle of potty training her, and she is probably retarded and unable to learn because this is a venture not going well.

 

 

James started terminal leave from the Army. First matter to be taken care of was growing a beard. His beard is still in its infancy, but it's already starting to look good. He's happy to be getting out of the Army and start a new career. I'll hold it down in the Army for the family. 

 

 

For Thanksgiving, James and I took the dogs with us to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, to see our friends Ashley and David. It was great to see them. You don't find friends like them often. I wish we were all stationed closer together again (we all met at Fort Lewis, Washington). Maybe someday we will be able to work that out. The dogs were amazingly well behaved on the 11.5 hour drive both ways. They were less well behaved at their house, but Picasso won their daughter Jayla's heart, so I can't complain.

 

I am on my last day of 23 days of block leave. 23 days is too long to be away from work. Even though I've been going to the gym and have been doing hot yoga, I still managed to put on weight while on leave. I swear, if I could be paid for gaining weight quickly, I'd be a rich woman. So I have a little bit of work ahead of me to get into shape for ALC (Advanced Leaders Course) in January.

 

That brings us up to speed I believe.

 

I'm gad to be home.

Warrior Medicine

The Dispensary OIC (Officer in charge) tasked me a few weeks ago with painting the MEDCO logo on the wall. This logo was chosen by our rotation, so she wanted us to leave our mark on the place before we left.

 

I procrastinated like a boss. I waited to put the work order in to get the paint. I waited to locate a projector so I could transfer the image onto the wall until yesterday. I didn't even have a plan to get tiny paint brushes: I just kind of fell into acquiring those from a very nice Captain. We are here for approximately 2 more days and I did it all in the last 24 hours.

 

 

 

I'm awesome.

 

My Company Commander thinks this is the shit, so it's good enough for me. I had wanted to fill in the circle with black paint but I'm worried it would be too dark and muddy looking. So it's staying the way it is.

 

Maybe if I had planned this out a little earlier, I could have found gray paint for the center of the circle. That would have required way too much forethought.

Chiller Scary Good Film

This short film is so scary; it's been keeping me awake at night thinking about that face!! Ahh! I'm such a wuss!!

 

It's nearly Halloween!

Transit Barracks

I had to move out of my barracks room in order to make space for the new people. On one hand, this is awesome because it's a sure sign relief is on it's way. But on the other hand, it sucks because transit housing is bad.

 

Now I have to share a bathroom with 13 other females of varying rank. And the smell of the bathroom is overpowering. It's like a sewer in there. I don't believe it's the other females' fault, however. That's how I made it sound. Whoops. I'm absolutely sure it's a drainage issue. As soon as the FX opens, I'm going on a pilgrimage for air fresheners. Because I just can't brush my teeth in a room that smells so foul. There is a serious lack of hot water in the showers, too.

 

This building is more like a giant trailer, so it echoes in the hallway. And I think the walls are made of paper mache. I can hear people using electric toothbrushes in the bathroom, and I live across the hall and two doors down.

 

 

The rooms are much smaller than the NCO room I had been living in. And there are basically no drawers to put my clothes in. So I am living out of my duffle bag, and I hate living out of my duffle bag.

 

Also, the wall sockets are different. Of course they are, why would they be the same? So I had to find a converter to go from the British socket to the European socket to the US socket so I could charge my phone. It's probably a fire hazard. Shh, don't tell anyone.

 

 

My room smells too. Nothing like the bathroom (thank god) but there is a smell. I blame the air conditioner because it smells musty and old in here like a basement. I will purchase more air fresheners for my room.

Although this is a temporary living situation, I am still not very happy about it. I am having trouble seeing the bright side. Perhaps when the new people arrive I will finally get excited about leaving. It just doesn't seem real yet, even though it is very obviously real.

 

I have trust issues with the Army and time lines.

Force Skills Competition Again

Lucky me, I got to be here for another Force Skills Competition. I graded the Combat Life Saver lane again. The competitors were much more competitive this go around.

We put a patient under the vehicle this year. He wrapped his leg up in there and then went "unconscious". Every single team hated that patient. I thought it was great. Some of the methods to free the patient were a little rough, and one team decided to not free him at all and did all the treatments wedged under the vehicle. To each their own, I suppose. I wasn't grading on the ability to actually MEDEVAC the patient so they didn't lose any points.

 

 

 

I had fun grading the competition again. I feel very important here as the unofficial official Combat Lifesaver director of training. That's the title I gave myself. No one has challenged it, so it made it real. I'm not going to be nearly as special when I redeploy and my title is squad leader again.

Motion Sick

I took the bus to South Camp. Almost immediately upon leaving North Camp, I became extremely motion sick. I mean, we couldn't have been 2 miles away from the gate before I started sweating and feeling nauseous. 

I took a Dramamine and waited.

I wasn't getting better. In fact, I was getting worse. I had to puke. So I started looking around for things to puke in, but without really looking around because looking around make me feel more sick. 

There was a box full of boxed lunches close by. I grabbed a boxed lunch and opened it. The smell of sandwiches didn't do much for my nausea. I gripped on to that little cardboard box for about 15 minutes saying little silent prayers that I wouldn't have to puke in it. 

But I puked. I puked 4 times into that little cardboard box. 

Something funny about cardboard boxes, they're not very water tight. I ended up with water/puke all over my jeans and on the floor of the bus. Thank god I didn't have time for breakfast, so they only thing I had in me to throw up was water. 

This is where my vomit ended up. At least I missed my cute shoes.

 

I felt incredibly better after I puked. Good enough to close my eyes and let the Dramamine take me to sleep. 

Party Animal

 

I may or may not have just feasted on this small pizza and order of onion rings while watching Big Bang Theory season 2.

I know how to party.

I have an awful stomach ache. Because, of course, I was clearly obligated to eat all the food I ordered. Obediently, I tore it up in record time.

So now I'm laying in my little bed with a distended belly, lamenting on my poor decisions. I don't think my planned 4 mile run is going to be long enough tomorrow morning to make up for the damage I just did.

I'm going to go to bed early now, on the first night of the weekend.

Like I said, party animal.