Synchronized Swimming Video

As described in my last post, our group of docs shared our unequaled talent with the rest of the base two weeks ago during the monthly Talent Show. Somebody had a camcorder and our EMEDS commander put his new MacBook to good use by making a good video out of our synchronized swimming event, complete with credits and special effects! After many requests from back home, I was finally able to upload it to this site. So, here it is (for reference, I am the third person in line as we walk in).

I'm still trying to find some pics of the popliteal artery injury that I worked on last week, just to prove that I occasionally do have a purpose here.

Missin' you tons, my Bella!

Busy Is a Relative Term

Desert life has actually been somewhat busy over the past couple of weeks. It began with a Hawaiian Luau party two weekends ago that was a blast. Unbeknown to many of us, the Communications squadron this summer is primarily made up of reservists from Hawaii. They spent weeks planning and preparing for a traditional party and didn't spare any expense. There were free Hawaiian shirts for EVERYONE (about 500 people attended), leis, tropical drinks (not what you think, alcohol is forbidden among us troops in Iraq and Afghanistan), lots of decorations/paintings, male and female dancing groups and enough traditional food to stuff every hungry Soldier and Airman! We were even allowed to wear civilian clothes while inside their compound (flip flops and cargo shorts galore). For a brief while, many of us forgot we were in Kirkuk. We're still saying "Thank you" every time we see them around base...it was THAT good!

Then, there was the monthly Talent Show last weekend. Knowing our relative lack of talent, our Orthopod found a funny skit online and convinced the rest of us docs to join in the show. We did a synchronized swimming spoof, complete with a blue sheet (held up by two "maidens"), swimming caps and goggles (courtesy of Amber, Jake's wife) and some quality tunes by Andrea Bocelli. As you might imagine, the crowd got REALLY into it.....enough to land us in second place overall (the video is in the mail, Darlin')! I felt pretty badly though, because we beat out some people with a lot of ACTUAL talent (an amazing pianist, some very good vocalists, a beat-box guy and a phenomenal robot-dancer dude). To top it all off, another EMEDS group (with a great female singer) took first place, allowing us to maintain our dominance in most of the base events. Now, if we can just continue to take down the key Army players at our twice-weekly poker tournament....

-Alex (FP doc) preparing for the Show

We followed up that craziness with some awesome rides in our MEDEVAC Blackhawk helicopter...naturally, in the name of "training" that I helped organize. These took place over the course of two nights and everyone got a couple of rides in different seats in order to better appreciate what our patients experience during evacuation. Our base Commander even came out and became a "patient" for one of the flights. In the highlight of the evening, the flight medic decided to take the "practice" as far as possible and stuck an IV in the Commander's hand DURING the flight...without warning him first! He came back into the ER with blood running down his fingers and was STOKED to see us making good use of our time (he's like a kid in a candy store whenever toys are involved...I think he's turned on one of the Fire engine sirens at least a dozen times now)!!

And last but not least, we had our second official running race of the Summer this past Saturday: the Labor Day 10K. I was proud to see 13 of our 44-member EMEDS group running that morning. It was a beautiful morning and almost everyone met their goal for the race. How many times now have I said, "Thank God for running and the gym"? Here is our group with our new t-shirts after the run...of course we can't wear these until we get back home:

Thanks to Mom and Pop for hosting CJ and Braden during their most recent Portland trip. They both had a blast!

I love you my Bella!!