Day #32 - BOOM!

Christen called me via Skype this morning at 6am (well morning for me, it was 10pm for her). We were chatting away when suddenly there was this enormous boom. My entire CHU was rattled and I felt the shock wave travel through my body as I was sitting there at the computer. The explosion lasted only 1-2 seconds and then everything was silent. I quickly asked Chris to hold on as I threw some clothes on and ran outside. It was a beautiful sunny day and all was quiet. A bunch of us were gathered outside of our CHUs speculating about what was happening. A few had their body armor in hand and were heading for the bunkers. Then came the all clear signal as we noticed a thick cloud of black smoke rising from the city about 1/2 mile away. I quickly ran back inside and resumed my conversation with Christen as she nervously asked what was going on.

It wasn't until later today that I found out what had happened. A suicide bomber had driven a truck carrying explosives into a courtyard between a busy train station and an Iraqi police department. He detonated the bomb killing seven and wounding 25-30 others. None of the injured were U.S. soldiers but I am begining to see first hand the horrible toll this war is taking on the Iraqi people. Most of whom are just trying to re-establish their country and start living a normal life again. I found this link to the N.Y. Times article with more details about the attack.(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/world/middleeast/01iraq.html)

Day #31 - Clean Shaven

It was a slow day in the ER today and when you leave a bunch of guys alone, with a pair of hair clippers and nothing to do ... things are going to get ugly. My boss (the guy with the glasses and bushy mustache in the photo below) convinced everyone working in the ER that as a sign of unity and camaraderie we all needed to shave our heads and grow a mustache.

Now, I normally wear my hair pretty short so the haircut was not really a big deal for me. The mustache on the other hand is going to be a challenge. Dad ... I really wish I had gotten some of your facial hair genes for this one. Those of you that know me realize that growing facial hair is not one of my strong points. I anticipate looking like a cross between a 12 year old boy going through puberty and an old grandmother in need of an upper lip waxing ... with a few whiskers scattered here and there beneath my nose.

But a pact is a pact, and there is no backing out now. Oh, and yes ... in case you were wondering the mustache is within army regulation as long as it is not covering the upper lip and does not extend past the corners of the mouth. I have been informed that growing a mustache while deployed has become an Army tradition and has been unofficially termed the "Combat Stache."

Fortunately for me, a beard is not within Army regs so I won't have to worry about growing one of those. Besides, my beautiful wife is over 7,000 miles away and I am not trying to impress anyone while I'm here so this may be the perfect time to do it even if it does look ridiculous.

Well, the next few weeks will be interesting. I'll be sure to post a lot of pictures so everyone can get a good laugh.

The "BEFORE" picture ...

First up ... CPT Cuniowski

We started off by shaving a line in everyone's head so no one could have any second thoughts and try to back out of the deal.

The "AFTER" picture ...

Now I'll I need to do is grow the "stache" ...

Day #30 - A Tour of my Batchelor Pad

I have attached a little video tour of my CHU (Containerized Housing Unit for those that haven't been keeping up with the blog). Recently my roomate was sent to Baghdad to help out at the Army hospital there. So for now I got the whole place (an overwhelming 120 sq ft) all to myself. I am living large compared to the usual Army deployment conditions so you'll hear no complaints from me.

Day #28 - Random thoughts

Not much going on the last couple of days here ... which is always a good thing for our troops. Nothing too exciting to talk about today and I am a little tired. Got woken up in the middle of night to sew a guys foot back together after he got it crushed in the door of his armored vehicle. So here are a few random thoughts ...

I came across this poster the other day. Apparently Chuck Norris is on a diplomatic mission to bring peace to the Middle East and serve as a role model for the Iraqi police force.

These two pictures were taken by a guy I know when his unit was out on patrol in Mosul. They were only about 5 miles from where the hospital is. You can see that not all of Iraq is sand and lifeless desert. In northern Iraq there are a lot of mountains and parts that are very similar to Colorado and the Rocky Mountains.

Below is the Tigris River which runs through Mosul and Baghdad.

Below is a date palm tree growing on our compound. They grow wild here. All the brown clumps up near the tops of the trees are dates (the kind you eat not the kind related to calendars or romantic dinners). Yes, these are the same dates you get in the grocery store back in the U.S.. In fact, dates used to be Iraq's top export before their economy was destroyed by the war. The downside is that the dates fall to the ground and get crushed making a sticky, tar like substance that sticks to everything especially your boots as you're walking by.

Day #27 - Prayer Time

Everyday there is an erie sound that can be heard coming over the walls of our compound. It occurs just after sunrise and just before sunset. It is the sound of hundreds if not thousands of muslims chanting their prayers in the nearby mosques. The prayers are broadcasted from loud speakers on the tops of the mosques and can be heard outside of the hospital,which is nearly a mile away from the city. You can't make out any distict words or phrases by the time it reaches us, it simply sounds like a monotone muttering or chanting. However, it is enough to creep you out and everytime I hear it I am reminded of how we truly are outsiders in this foreign land.

This is the Umayyad Mosque. Oldest mosque in Mosul, built in 640 AD. It has a minaret that is a 165 feet high and leans like the Tower of Pisa in Italy. The minaret is called Al-Hadba (The Humped). However, most soldiers refer to it by another name related to its resemblance to a certain male reproductive organ.

This Mosul Mosque is enormous. You can see how it towers over all the other buildings in the city. It was being built in 2001, but construction was halted at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom and it remains unfinished to this day.

Thank You

Just wanted to throw out a quick thank you to everyone for their comments and words of support and encouragement over the last 4 weeks. I have been amazed at the number of people that are reading this and leaving comments. Glad you are all enjoying it and keep the comments and questions coming ... it gives me something else to do on those boring nights with no patients to care for.

Day #26 - Walking Blood Bank

Mike Z recently asked about how our hospital's blood supply works and I actually had a meeting about this today so I thought I'd share with everyone. We go through a huge amount of blood here since we see a high number of trauma patients with very bad injuries. And recent research has shown that people who receive blood transfusions immediately after their injuries do better than those that don't. At any given time we usually have 130-150 units (or pints) of blood that we can use for transfusions at the hospital. Each unit is only good for 30 days and after that it gets thrown away if it isn't used. We are resupplied by helicopter from another hospital in southern Iraq where the Army's central blood bank is located. As long as the weather is good we can have new stock within an hour.

A couple of weeks ago we had three patients that arrived at the same time, all with very bad injuries. We used all of the blood in the hospital resuscitating these patients. The weather was bad and the choppers couldn't fly to resupply us with the blood we needed. Whenever this happens we initiate a protocol called "Walking Blood Bank." Every soldier in the Army knows their blood type, has it printed on their ID tags, and has it stored in a centralized data bank. When this protocol goes into effect, the unit commander notifies all soldiers with whatever blood type is needed to get to the hospital ASAP. When we did this it was amazing how fast people started showing up. Within 20-30 minutes there were over a hundred people lined up to donate blood. In some cases, our lab techs were literally drawing the donating blood from a soldier and then running it back to the ICU to begin transfusing into the patients. It was an incredible sight to see but hopefully it is something we won't have to do too often.