It Is Hard To Let Go

This is most of the OR staff. These are the nurses and scrub techs who are assigned to the unit. Most of them are on a 15 month tour. They are scheduled to go home early Jan after their second set in a row of spending the holidays in Iraq.



This is most of the other doctors who I work with. All the other providers are full time active staff. They do a 6 month rotation.

These 2 are my closest friends. CAP Tom Chenowith and CAP Peter Brandrup, both from anesthesia. They came here a few weeks after I was here. They are here for 6 months. They are so close, you almost need a crowbar to separate them. We have spent a lot of time together. In the early morning I would make coffee since I had a great supply from Starbucks. Both of them would come into my CHU for 20-30 minutes before the day started. We would have coffee and talk or tell jokes. I really looked forward to that every morning. I will miss these 2 great friends the most.




Well, it is official. My replacement is here, although he had a tough time getting here. I had a few scares that I might be here a bit longer than originally planned, but it looks like we are back on track. When he arrived at Kuwait, the bus that picked up the group got into an accident. The lead bus stopped, but the second bus did not. Fortunately, he received just some bumps and bruises, nothing serious. For a while there, we didn’t know who was coming or when. Eventually, he got here a bit late, but better late than never.

I really have mixed emotions about leaving. Don’t get me wrong, I am ready to leave. You get a little tired of always running to the bunker when the C-RAM (our PA system) goes off. In fact, just last night, it went off during the middle of the night. I was in a deep sleep (which doesn’t happen that often) and when it went off yelling “Bunker, Bunker, Incoming, Incoming”, I reached over and tried to turn off my clock radio which I thought was going off. When I finally realized that I don’t have a clock radio and realized what it was, I threw on some pants and went out to the bunker. By that time the “All Clear” sounded, so I went back to bed. Of course then your adrenalin is flowing and it takes a while to go back to sleep. In the past 3 months that I have been here, we only had 2 mortars that actually hit the base. One hit the airfield, they aren’t real good shots. The other hit one of the T-walls and sprayed the area where the ambulances are parked. The back of 2 of the ambulances look like somebody shot them with a machine gun, but a little bondo and they were back in action.

Anyhow, back to mixed emotions. When you are here for a while and you are the only Orthopod in this area, I feel personally responsible for the care of these soldiers. I really feel like these kids are part of my own family for the sacrifice that they are doing. I go to the EMT whenever there are any injuries, whether they are orthopedic or not, just see if there is anything I can help them with. When you do that for awhile, it becomes engraved into you and it is hard to let go. When my replacement came, I held onto the pager. He had a tough time getting here. He didn’t get much sleep for a couple of days. I know he was new to all this, just like I was 3 months ago. I didn’t want to just dump all this onto him and say “Adios, good luck”. So after the 2nd day, he was getting broken in, he half jokingly said to me that he was wondering if I had separation anxiety. I guess I did. I was hesitant to let go. I didn’t want to acknowledge that my job here was done. My replacement is here, I can go now. I am not really needed anymore. After 3 months of always wondering when they call, how bad is it going to be. Hopefully, it will only be superficial wounds. Hopefully, no more Angel Flights. Now, after 3 months of riding that emotional roller coaster, all of a sudden, it is over. So I showed him the pager, showed him how to clear old messages, and gave him the pager. It is his turn now.

He seems like a good guy. His name is Dr. Magdiel Mayol, from Puerto Rico. I feel comfortable now leaving the orthopedic care in his hands. Ironically, I guess I timed giving him the pager at the right time. I told him the battery was low. So he had it for a while, the pager went dead and they couldn’t get a hold of him this morning. They know where I live, so they knocked on my door. They needed me for one more case. It was the EMT with just a little finger injury. So I took care of it. Now I am really done.

I am working on trying to see my son, Mike. He is out in Al Asad. It is not like I can go buy a ticket from United and show up at the airport. I have been working with our headquarters. One time there is a flight, then next time it is cancelled. It is sort of like standby. They call it Space A (space available). Mike is a marine out there. He will be moving to another base soon. So I hope to see him before I leave or he moves.
One of my first blogs that I wrote after I arrived here included this sign. Now on one of my last blogs before I leave I thought I would include it again, only a little different. They gave me an award. Someone must of liked what I was doing out here so they gave me a medal. It is the Army Commendation Medal. I think they liked that I stepped it up a bit and was always there when they needed me. I am just grateful that the medal wasn’t a Purple Heart.


Well, I am scheduled for the Freedom Flight on Oct 25th out of Kuwait. I should be back at Fort Bennings, Georgia then hopefully home by the 31st. I don’t think I will dress up as an Army man for Halloween this year.

Tom