A Letter from Karin
Hi there!
Just a quick hello to remind you that although temporarily in another galaxy (or so it feels to me sometimes), I am still alive and well… J
I have been deployed for a little over a month, and quite honestly, the number one thing I would say is that it is not bad at all and really pretty amazing sometimes… of course, I miss and love home, and of course I will be so happy to return to it… but right now I am proud to be part of the mission here and so thankful to be able to bring some of the bravest and best home to heal….
The news… we are flying once or twice a week back to Germany or around Iraq… our patients are usually critically wounded soldiers, but sometimes we end up taking civilian contractors that have heart attacks and pneumonia and such… I find the flights themselves exciting although a little exhausting… sometimes they run so smoothly that the most stressful part of it is making sure that all the paperwork has all been completed… but sometimes these kids try to die on us, and it’s a memorable moment when you are thousands of feet in the air with no code team and no back up… we have gotten them all safely to Germany, and I know with our angels and with good preparation we can keep it that way…
The folks fighting here on the front lines are an unbelievably brave and committed crowd with the strength and faith to move mountains… sometimes I find myself brought to tears… two stories that I have to tell… one 20 year old Marine who spent over fourteen hours in the operating room in Balad getting put back together (he will make a full recovery, by the way) woke up on the ventilator and was together enough to make motions that he wanted a pad and pencil… the first thing he wrote was “I want to go back to my unit”… and the second thing was “how are my buddies… was I the only one injured”… another 21 year old Army soldier from Ft Hood woke up as we were dropping him off in Germany (lost both legs and had blast lung injury)… I leaned over his bed and told him gently that he was safe in Germany and we were leaving now to go back to Iraq… he took our hands and held them to his cheek as if to say thank you… he was well aware of the injuries he had sustained and what he faced in his recovery and still said thank you…
It’s very inspiring… it can be tragic, too, but even in the face of tragedy these young kids don’t flinch… there are so many anonymous heroes out here… I wish the next generation of kids back home could see them out here and what they go through… please keep them all in your best thoughts and prayers…
Being in Balad is not bad… I really have fun hanging out with the other CCATT teams… there are movies and card games and just hanging out chitchatting… we keep each other entertained… three of us are doing a biathlon in a few weeks and have been keeping each other motivated about working out… I have found myself a little pastime for our off days as well… I got credentialed in the hospital in Balad and have been working the twelve hour ICU doc shifts every few days… that’s been very rewarding, and most importantly, I GET TO GET BACK IN SCRUBS…
I have been pretty worn out by the time we land in Germany, so thus far I haven’t really done much traveling there other than out to dinner and around the base (the Langstuhl BX and commissary have become our little oasis for stocking up for the desert)… but we had quite an adventure a few weeks ago… on the way back from a mission our plane broke down during a refuel IN CRETE… that’s right… it turned out my “tropical vacation” joke for a day and a half was a reality… we ate in restaurants along the Mediterranean, shopped our credit card limits out, and soaked up the scenery of blue water and white sand…
And I think we will be able to do some sightseeing around Germany once we get a few more missions under our belts… I would like to see Heidelberg and some of the nearby castles… will be sure to take some pictures for next month’s newsletter…
I appreciate the emails and snail mail and news from home so much… I send my very best to all of you and hope you are enjoying the summer…
Love,
Karin