Can't Sleep!! 3-6-10 @ 0430

It’s 0430 and for some reason, I can’t sleep- so I think I’ll write.

Today I went to the small clinic here at Manas to see a nurse anesthetist that I know from Yokota. I saw him at dinner the other night. I was surprised to see him here because this is such a small base- I was wondering why they would put someone with his skills here as a clinical nurse. When I got to the clinic, he wasn't there so I asked to meet the doc- Turns out it was a resident that I trained who stayed on at Offutt to teach. i found out that the Manas clinic has a small surgical capability because they are so remote from medical care.

The clinic was very nice by deployed standards- it was just built a couple of years ago. Before that it was in a tent. Dr Cooper says in the two months he has been here, he has assisted with an appendectomy, a serious leg fracture, treated a woman who was unconscious from a car crash, and treated a serious case of pancreatitis. They also had a visit from local Kyrgyzstani doctors who wanted to come see a modern American hospital. A modern American hospital! It was a dinky little clinic with one OR bed and one "inpatient" bed. But to them, it was incredible. It was a good exchange program.

Speaking of exchange programs, the nurse anesthetist suggested that he’d like to come to Bagram a get some more experience and be a bit busier for a couple of weeks and maybe his counterpart there would like to do the same thing. That sounds like an interesting idea. I’ll have to check it out. I think the logistic will be a challenge- the Bagram provider will have to come here first because they can’t be without one here, and the air travel will have to be worked out, but it seems like a great idea right now.

OK- going to bed. This looks to be a bit incoherent, but what do you expect at 0430????