Merry Christmas!!

After 11pm mass on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day had arrived.

I was very excited about another holiday feast in the galley but first we had to say goodbye to a good friend from NIACT. 

Here I am with Anna, Senior Chief Eusebio and LCDR Reinke.

Dinnertime!!!

After the meal, we went to try our hand again at BINGO.

It was super crowded this time.  And I didn't win again!!!!!  The only thing to get excited about was when they said O-69.  And the crowd says Oooooohhh!  If you don't get it, you are a good person;)

A Day in the Life

Here are some pictures of the EMF so you all can see where I go and who I work with on a daily basis.

Here are two of our corpsmen manning the front desk.

Here is the OIC of the clinic

Here is our medical admin officer and our chief, AKA the hardest working people in the clinic

Here is one of the corpsman presenting a patient to LCDR Miller

Here is our lab

Here are two of our nurses on the ward, which is usually empty unless we have post-op patients, or those who need iv fluids or prolonged observation

Here is the ER/physical therapy unit and here is our PT tech and radiology tech, AKA the busiest people in the clinic

Here I am in the OR.  We average about 1-2 cases/month.  Most of the work for the surgeon and myself takes place at the local Djiboutian hospital where we go three times a week

But here is where you will usually find me, the second OR, AKA the office for the surgeon and myself

And here are my anesthesia toys.  I know the machine is not the Mercedes-Benz of anesthesia machines.  But it gets the job done just the same.

But then, lo and behold, I got an early Christmas present.  Brand-new anesthesia machines!!  I didn't even know they were ordered.  So once the bio-med tech finishes the assembly, I have two new anesthesia machines to play with.  Yea!!!

And here is a pic of the whole fantastic Djibouti EMF 17 crew.  (I'm in the second row all the way to your right).

Lac Assal

Today some of us officers from the EMF took a field trip to Lac Assal.  It's the lowest point in Africa with a salt lake that lies 156 meters below sea level.  It is said that the lake has a salt content of 35%. 

But first off, we stopped to buy some souvenirs along the way.  I bought a hand-crafted helicopter from this man, Abdullah.  Even though we questioned what the souvenirs were made out of, they couldn't tell us.  No, literally, they did not know the correct English word.  We bought them anyway.

And after a two hour drive, we made it to Lac Assal.  It was so peaceful, serene, and absolutely beautiful!

We're here!!!!

The shore was made of huge salt clumps, no sand.  And it sounded like popcorn as you stepped on it.

Here's a salt crystal that I collected

And this is what the salt floor looked like for miles and miles

Here's a pic of me floating.  As soon as you lay in, you float.  I don't think there are any drowning stories at this lake.

And here's a better pic of the internal medicine doc, LT Harrell

Here's a pic of how I looked after a dip.  All salt, no sand.  It took four bottled waters to rinse off with to look halfway presentable.

After that, we went to the hot springs.  Here we found boiling hot water, which is heated by geothermal activity.  It was REALLY hot!

I found some fish that can survive the heat

And of course, while trying to get the perfect shot, LT Harrell lost his shoe in the boiling water

Luckily, the OIC (officer-in-charge) of our clinic, CDR Brenner, "manned up" and walked into the water to retrieve his shoe...He then requested anesthesia from me for his burned foot.  All in all a great trip!

Happy Thanksgiving!

B-I-N-G-O!!!  Yes, I was super excited about playing bingo on Thanksgiving Day.  There were some great prizes that were up and I was determined to win.  Up for grabs were iPods, DVD players, and a 32" flat screen TV!!!

Unfortunately, there is no strategy involved in bingo.  And despite numerous games, I didn't win a thing!  Well, next up is Thanksgiving dinner...

What is this?  Well just as I was getting ready to enjoy the feast, our surgeon and I were called to help out with an emergent case at the French hospital.

Here is Rachel with the French surgeons (after the surgery was completed).

And here I am with the French anesthesiologist.  Notice how he and I managed to stay clean. 

And yes (thankfully), we made it back before dinner was over.  Here's some of the spread.

And they had everything.  Turkey with gravy, ham, mashed potatoes, corn, collard greens, cornbread, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, etc.  But my favorite was...

...the ever so traditional Thanksgiving lobster tail.  By far, my favorite dish!!!

It's Ladies Night

Tonight the female officers from camp got together for a "Girls Night Out."  I had been looking forward to getting a little dressed up and going to a restaurant in town.  We decided on La Paillote, a Yemeni grill.

It was such a beautiful restaurant, right on the water.  They let you pick the fish you want then they grill it on this special grill.

Here was the finished product

 

I opted for the beef skewers which were delicious, but the fish was amazing!  I will definitely get that next time.

Me and Anna

The rest of the female officers

We also found some of our fantastic corpsmen from the EMF there

And this lovely gentleman was the live entertainment

At first, he reminded me a lot of my late grandfather but then that similarity got a little weird when he sang, "If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right."

Anyway, a great night out on the town in Djibouti!

I Get my own CLU

A bunch of us doctors from the EMF had gone out to eat at a pizza place with some of the French doctors who have a hospital here.  And it was also a goodbye dinner for the outgoing anesthesiologist and ER doctor.

In case I didn't mention, EMF stands for Expeditionary Medical Facility which is where we house a clinic, an ER, two OR's, a patient ward, radiology services, lab services, physical therapy capablity, and dental.

Here is a picture of the EMF doctors, old and new

Then, I got my own CLU!!!!!

Note the bathroom!!

Note the phone and TV!!!  Life just got a whole lot better!





I Get to Leave the Base!

The surgeon, CDR Rachel Burke, asked if I would be willing to take a field trip with her.  Of course I said yes even before she said where because I wanted to see the city.  As a humanitarian gesture, the Swedish Army had raised money to donate to Peltier Hospital, which is the Djiboutian hospital.  Their surgeon had requested that the money be used for drugs and supplies that their poorest patients could not afford.  So since the Swedish Army Major had no medical knowledge, he asked Rachel to come along to help to buy the supplies.  And since she needed a buddy to go off base and I speak some French, she asked me to come along as well.

When we walked from the car to the pharmacy, we were surrounded by children who were saying "My sister, my sister, do you have any money?  Do you have any food?" It is definitely a third world country but oddly enough, there are some resort hotel areas with casinos which I hope to get to soon. 

Here is my first picture of the city

Here is the surgeon, Rachel, with the supplies that were bought

And, here is a not-so-good picture of the Swedish Major and in the back you can see a woman who was begging us for food for her baby.  The women do not like to have their picture taken from what I have been told.  She didn't hide her face but she did hide her baby.  Luckily, the Major had a bottled water to give her.

That weekend, the Major got to present the surgeon at Peltier hospital with the supplies.  Mission complete!