I admitted a patient on the 16th with new onset atrial fibrillation (a-fib - an abnormal heart rhythm where the upper chambers of the heart are not contracting properly).  He needed to be sent back to Germany and then to the states for further management and he needed to travel with oxygen and a monitor, so he needed a medical attendant.  Cool, a chance to get back to Germany.

I submitted the AIREVAC paperwork on the 16th.  On the morning of the 20th I found out that there would be a flight that evening.  Later that day, the Air Force started asking questions about this patient and needed the answers before he would be approved for AIREVAC.  What a quick response time to my initial request...  Our personnel people responded to their questions and when the EVAC flight arrived at around 1800, the patient and I (and several other patients we had here) loaded and left.  Unbeknownst to me, the Air Force had not given the final approval for this guy to fly.  Imagine that.

We flew to Kuwait where we were taken to a Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility (MASF).  There was a physician there who was an oncologist.  He gave me a bit of a hard time for sending the patient before he received official approval.  Oh well.  The docs job was then to check on all the patients.  He examined the guy with the a-fib, and the first thing he did was do a complete lymph node exam...  To a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Noting that there were no lymph node abnormalities he listened to the heart.  I guess he agreed with my decision because we were allowed to continue our AIREVAC adventure to Germany.  We left the MASF about 3 hours after we arrived and were loaded on a C-141 which took us to Ramstein Air Base in Germany.  From there we were taken by bus to Landstuhl Regional Medical Facility. 

After I dropped the patient off at Landstuhl, I caught a shuttle back to Ramstein and rented a car.  I had to provide some assistance to another soldier, then I was off to Wuerzburg to see my family.

What a great feeling it was seeing my wife and newborn.  The first and only time I had seen him was for a brief period when he was 6 weeks old.  Now, at 5 1/2 months he had changed quite a bit!  So I spent 5 days playing with Jake, it was so awesome.  What a great break, I cannot explain how emotionally refreshing those 5 days were. 

Yesterday, after waiting around 4 hours at Rhein Main Air Base, I boarded a flight to Kuwait.  Arrived in Kuwait around 2100 (9 pm) local time.  Finally got to sleep at around 0100 (1 am) today.  Was awaken at 0400 so someone could tell me that there was a flight to Mosul today and formation time was 0700.  Five hours later we were boarding a flight to Mosul.  Arrived here about 1400.  Quite a long day for a relatively short plane ride.

The good thing is that there is only about 3 1/2 months left in this deployment; and I am seriously looking forward to getting back to my wife and son.

Enjoy the pics, a lot more can be found here.

Daddy's Home

One of our first family pictures

Story Time

Nittany Lion Fans

Jake's first Oktoberfest

Schwimmen