Return to the Mesopotamia...

Good Evening,

The internet is slow tonight so I will make it short. I made it back to Balad yesterday. Everything went well and only spent one night in Kuwait which was a relief as anymore than a night there is too long.

We had three new physicians arrive when I was gone which is wonderful for us. We are now provider heavy and we are praying that the Army doesn't figure it out otherwise they will start taking them from us to send them on some ridiculous mission to nowhere.

My time at home was wonderful. It was nice to see my family and to meet with friends. We are still looking at coming home for good in August but that is always a fluid situation as the Army could keep us longer if they have a need. I enjoyed getting out to work and saying hi to my co-workers. It was nice to see Lori and Vanessa. They are our office managers and really they are the one's who make our clinic function smoothly. Lori was worried that I would play a prank on her for April Fools Day, because I pranked her last year. But I told her that war has matured me and I don't do such childish things anymore. I am hoping that by now she has started to smell the lovely aroma of the open and full tuna fish can that I taped to the underside of her desk. :0) Good Times.

It was also nice to see the nurses. They are an awesome team and always help me when I have no clue as to what I am doing. I learned a long time ago to be nice to nurses as they can make things go well or go badly for me depending on their mood of the day. So, I try to keep them in a very good mood.

It was nice to get back with my family here. I couldn't ask for a nicer group of people to work with. They were ecstatic that I returned. In fact, I think the best comment I received when I returned was from Spc. Buchmeier. When I told him I was back, he said, "Oh, Sir, I didn't know you were gone." So they were very excited to see me. ;0)


Tomorrow, Travis and I will be going to an Iraqi conference that is being held here on Balad. I look forward to learning what has been going on in the Iraqi Health Care System.

I did find a little present that Andy left me when he left. A few days before I left for home, I kept finding a few flakes of oatmeal on my floor and on my bed. I would clean it up thinking maybe I spilled them out of the package when I made a bowl of oatmeal in my room. But this morning when I woke up I noticed that I had oatmeal on my socks. I wear socks to sleep. (Not that you need to know that it is just useless information that I throw out there to fill up space on my blog.) Anyway, I picked up my sleeping bag and turned it upside down and about a quart of dried oats poured out all over my bed. I hope that he is proud of himself. This is a man who went to medical school and yet he has stooped to such levels as this. I thankfully, have higher standards of conduct. I just hope he enjoys the super glue that I squirted into his toothpaste. That should keep him quiet for a while.

We had another sand storm yesterday. My room was so full of dust that I used an entire roll of paper towels and a bottle of Windex to clean my room.

Well, I will write more soon. I will need to do an update of all areas of my blog and get my medical minute, quote of the day, and scripture of the day up to date. Also, I am going to start another blog that will be independant of this blog and will deal with more political matters. I am a conservative but because of my military status I have been unable to speak of my views due to military restrictions. But I have given a great deal of thought as to the nature of this blog and will construct it in such a way that doesn't violate military protocols yet allows us to have discussion of current issues of the day. I will link the site with this one when I get it up and running and will continue with it once I return from home. At that time, I will end this blog and transition over to the new blog. So, I hope you will follow along.



I pray that you are all well and I thank you for your prayers and support.

God Bless,

Jeff