My first package!!

I have now been in Bagram for three action-packed days, and I am feeling quite overwhelmed. I did all my administrative inprocessing on the day I arrived, and the second day was spent in training. I haven't been able to sleep well since arriving (thank you, jet lag), so the days have seemed quite long. Today was the longest and most overwhelming of the bunch, as I spent most of the day getting to know the clinical capabilities of Craig Joint Theater Hospital (CJTH). Stateside, most hospitals have similar capabilities; at least, all hospitals have basic lab, pharmacy, and radiology no matter the location. Here we have most of these resources, although at the outside forward operating bases (aka FOBs) there may be none of these resources; for example, at Camp Eggars in Kabul (a FOB also staffed by my unit, the 602d ASMC), there is only very basic lab capability, no radiology, and very very little pharmacy. But today I tried to meet all the doctors, learn my way around the hospital, and figure out where I will be most useful. I also had to get trained on the electronic patient record system used here in theater, which fortunately bears many similarities to the system used in the states. In my 2.5 days of time at Bagram, I have learned a lot of logistics, and tomorrow I will begin to see patients and therefore learn some adult medicine.

Shortly after I arrived on Monday, my first package arrived (it was sent USPS Priority Mail and postmarked Feb 23 and arrived Mar 3 - for a total mail time of 9 days). I was so excited! It was from Liz and Jon Colleran, our good friends from college. They sent me some 'girly' stuff - like lotions, face wash - as well as magazines, candy, and a card. The coolest part of the gift was pictures from the last 10 years of our lives, which brought back good memories of times back in the states. There were pictures of Jon's parents' beachhouse (where many a beer was drank), of skydiving together, of the RV trip taken last summer, & of their visit to Maryland as Matt's first visitors. :-) Liz and Jon have been around for so many of the big things that have happened in our lives; for example, they were at our wedding(s), and some of you may remember that they flew down from the Bay Area specifically to attend Matt's California baby shower in October of 2007. We have been very fortunate to have such great long-term friends!!!