allo again bloaks and birds (or fit birds if you're attractive).

I had another chance to use the internet, yay! I'm learning so much every day. I'm learning about the British culture, their healthcare style, and about our particular mission. I'll start with British-American differences.

When you hold a peace sign up with your palm towards your body, you are basically flicking someone off. This came about because back in the day, soldiers used bows and arrows as weapons and if captured, would have their first two fingers cut off. When they held up those fingers, it meant "F*** you", and still does. Alternatively, the British often point using their middle finger... because it's longer I suppose. I have no idea what our history is behind that sign. "Dicked" means to be picked for something; Being dicked is not derogatory. When and American is drinking beer from both hands, we call it "double fisting". This is extremely bad, don't ever tell an English person to double fist, I'll just leave it at that.

On the nursing side of things, the British have socialized healthcare so alot about it is different. For one, much of their best equipment is outdated to us. Conveniently, though, all of there forms are standardized so its the same from facility to facility, and they are pretty simple and easy to understand. Everything is paper charting, which I'm looking forward to learning. I was taught in nursing school, but never actually had to do it because everything is pretty much computerized in the US now (big hospitals at least). The biggest shocker to me is that British nurses don't do Head-to-Toe assessments. Assessments are the biggest part of an RN's job in the US, to hear that we wont be doing them was startling. Nurses don't use stethoscopes! They aren't trained to listen to heart, lung, or bowel sounds. Everything is focused assessments, observation, and vital signs. I'm ok with it after the initial shock, but its still going to be an adjustment for the US nurses. We basically give meds, do dressing changes, bath patients, and turn them. I guess that's kind of what I imagined nurses did when I first decided to be a nurse anyway. Some days, if the ER is filling rapidly, we become OR holding, so that will be our more traumatic days. Everything is usually neat and tidy by the time they get to us. Coalition forces get in and out of our hospital pretty quickly, but local nationals don't really have a healthcare system so they stay with us longer. You can imagine what the majority of our patient population is...

Regarding our mission.. its what we call "high visibility". We already have 2 generals planned to come see us. I'm still hoping a certain Prince might come say hi! We are easily the heaviest trauma center in the world currently. I am sooo lucky to have been hand picked for this mission. Yes, I said hand picked. Each and every one of the nurses and doctors were combed to ensure quality and preparedness. WOW! We have with us the best trauma surgeon in the Army, LTC Oh. He is famous for finding an RPG in a soldier while performing surgery. He asked only essential staff to stay and instructed everyone else to evacuate and continued caring for the patient. When EOD arrived, he personally handed the RPG to them. I now know this man personally! I also learned today that the military has a special way of landing a plane in a battlefield. I can't say more than that, but whoa am I in for a ride of a lifetime!

Friends and family, thank you for all your support and love. Every word you write is encouragement for me. Love everyone and I'll write again when I have a chance.

Allo lads and lasses

I'm in England! Sorry I haven't blogged since I got here, the there are four computers for 200 soldiers to share... but I'm finally able to get on. I haven't really felt like I'm in the Army since I left Georgia. We flew comercial flights to England wearing civilan clothes (we do that so that we don't draw unecessary attention). The night that we got here, we had 30 minutes to clean up and attend a meet and greet with our British counterparts and were encouraged to drink with them to facilitate "bonding". The days following have mainly consisted of lectures and powerpoint to familiarize ourselves with how the British run things. The evenings we have free to wander the town of York.. go to bars, dinner, whatever. I feel like this is partly a free vacation! Next week, though, we will be on lock down and go through a validating process. They have a replica hospital that will hold real people acting as patient and we will run as if its all real. They use soldiers with amputations and use professional makeup artists so that it feels quite real. We will basically learn the facility, how things run, and what kind of patients and situations we will have. Since we are technically supporting them, we will be doing everything the British way. There will be challenges that I didn't even think of like that they use different measurements for lab values, like when we use mmHg, they use something else. Lots of terms are different like the ICU is the ITU, med surg is called ICW or the "ward", the ER is called the "causulty". Nurses mix their own meds and we don't have nursing assistants so we will be doing everything, to include fixing up patient meal trays. The way the shifts work is your on 8am-8pm, on call for 8pm-8am, off 8am-8pm, the on 8pm-8am. Basically I will a 12 hour day shift, on call for 12 hours, off for 12 hours, then on for a 12 hour night shift. It will be like this for the whole deployment. The work is heavy on day shift which is why they alternate you day and night... so people don't get burned out. If I was deployed with an American hospital, I'd work 12 hour shifts for 6 days, and have one day off a week, so I can't really complain about this arrangement. In short, based on what I've heard so far about this deployment and our mission, if I could pick any deployment, this is the one I'd pick.

I've made more friends, but still not sticking to any one clique. I have plenty of time to get to know these people, so I'm just taking my time. Sarah is doing well, busy at work and spending alot of her off time with friends. I don't know who I've told, but I will most likely have to PCS (move) when I get back to deployment. Duty stations that look attractive to me are Fort Hood, TX; Fort Carson, CO; Fort Belvior, DC; and Fort Sam Houston, TX. Jobs that I'm considering are : Head nurse, Clinical instructor, Nurse case management, pediatrics, or PACU. Any input is helpful!

Ok, that's about all I have time to write. You probably wont hear from me again until I get to Afghanistan where I will have wifi for 1 hour a day. I miss you all!!!

Love Liz

Day 1

Today is my first day away from home. I'm at Fort Benning, GA in-processing for a week. Today is just briefings, but the next few days will be filled with uniform and equipment issue, qualifying on the M4 at the range, medical examinations etc. I have met several people who I will be working with in Afghanistan and there are a few I see myself becoming friends with. I'm trying not to clique off with any particular group right now like some are doing, but continuously indroducing myself to new people to keep my options open. Does that sound bad? I just don't want to lock in on one group if they aren't the type of people I want to spend alot of time with. I mean, its 6 months with these people. I found out that I'm leaving for England on 24 September until 11 October and I heard rumors that we may have some free time there. Free time in England would be awesome. Ok, until next time!

It's sinking in..

and I'm getting that sinking feeling..
My training is done, my house is clean, and I have little left to keep me distracted from the fact that I'm leaving everything I know in 3 days. I know that once I get there and get settled in, I'll forget that I was even anxious about it, but right now I just can't shake this funk. I don't know if other people deal with this, but times like this, when I leave the people and things and tasks that I've grown accustomed to,  I feel so insecure. It's a healthy experience for sure; It forces me to find my identity in myself and in the God who made and loves me. When I'm thrown into a new environment, I'm no longer an expert. I have to start over building relationships, earning respect, and learning a new job. I don't like being a nobody, and that's where you always have to start from.
On a brighter note, I am deeply excited about doing what I joined the Army to do. When something big is happening, I want to be a part of it. Our country has been at war for 10 years now, and I finally get to go see what it looks like, I get to be part of history. I get to take care of soldiers that are risking their lives everyday for justice and for our freedom. What an honor. The biggest challenge I'm anticipating is taking care of EPW's (enemy prisoner of war)- I will be taking care of a lot of them. I will nurse the guy that blew up 5 of our guys and show him that he is still human to me, and that I still care about his needs. It will be a challenge, not doubt, but I think will be a great opportunity to practice what Jesus teaches us:
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Mat 5:43-44
I'm sure there's a lot of wisdom behind that.

one more week

I finished all my pre-deployment stuff today, so I should get some free time for my last week in Washington. All I'm waiting on is my OER (Officer Evaluation Report), but I can't do much about that except wait until its completed.

My smallpox vaccine is a nightmare. My skin has been so sensitive to the adhesive of the bandaids that I have a red rash a 6 inch diameter around the blister... and it hurts like hell. I feel like i have grapes in my armpit because my lymph nodes are swollen. I'm ready to be done with this yuckyness.

What I know about my schedule is that I'll be at Fort Benning Georgia 16Sept- 3Oct, England 3Oct- 11Oct, and to Afghanistan 11Oct. Apparently, the hospital I'll be working at is a pretty busy one- both hard to hear and exciting at the same time. It will be a good experience.