some time at home, some time at base

Hey everyone,

Hope you are all staying cool and having fun during the hot summer days. I have been doing well and have been having some fun in-between all of the work.

I have spent some time at home last week and just relaxed, and took days trips to tel aviv and jerusalem. It was nice to stay at home for two days, but at the same time i really wanted to be at base with all of my friends and hang out with everyone. I went and picked up my kindle that I had my friend bring back from the US. So i spent some time loading books and reading. Having a kindle here in Israel is truly amazing, I have access to so many more books and books are so much more cheaper than in the books stores here. I have been buying books here for anywhere from 20-30 dollars a book which is ridiculous for a paperback so most of the time i trade book with my friends and try to read really slow, which is hard for me. Now i can buy all of my books from Amazon for less than $15 and have it on my kindle in less than a minute. It is great! much better option than a bookstore.

Anyway, returned to base in the middle of the week and this week we had a refresher course for all of the medics, paramedics, and doctor in the unit. It was a lot of fun. We had some class lessons and then we set up scenarios where we had volunteers with "injuries" that we had to treat. It was stimulation of triage in war. I learned so much about treatment in the field, how to work under pressure and that I really did understand more in hebrew than I thought. Plus since i haven't gone to a medics course in the army, this week was a good time to learn about how the army does things differently than in the US. I also got to practice my skills on actual "victims" I was able to splint fractures, start IV's, assist with putting in chest tubes, and various other medical procedures. All of these were performed on soldiers that have volunteered, and we had ways to actually perform the procedures so that we could do the procedure without hurting the soldier. It was amazing to watch and perform in something so amazing. The one procedure we actually did perform on the soldiers is that we did actually give IVs to all the soldiers. We timed each other to see how quickly each person could get an IV in someone and it also improved our skills.

Having this skills lab was important to us. If something like a war or other mass casualty event occurs we all can work together and know what to do. Yes it was hard, we were in the heat, but at the same time it was fun and important. most of all i think that we bonded as a team.

This weekend i am spending at home. It is hot and I haven't left the house because it is so hot outside. Next weekend i am on-call at base. hopefully it won't be as hot as it is this weekend so i can hang out outside for a little bit.

Hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Roxanne

Two weeks on base and all the joys with it!

Hi to everyone,

The past two weeks I have spent on base. It has been filled with some pain, a lot of work, and a lot of fun. I have been working hard, and have been taking on more and more responsibilities of the clinic each week learning more and becoming more independent. I am becoming more fluent each week in my hebrew and find that even when talking with my friends in hebrew I will sometimes throw in some hebrew words. It is not so hard to just carry on a simple conversation in hebrew and that is giving me more self-esteem that I am succeeding and will be even more fluent soon.

so about a week and a half ago I was on-call on the base by myself. It was after dark and everyone was returning back to the base, I was headed into the clinic to finish up some work before I everyone returned. Outside the clinic there are no lights and there are two steps to get inside. As I was opening the door I slipped and fell off the steps. I cut my right arm open. since I was the only medic on-call I went inside to see how bad it was. Since it wouldn't stop bleeding I asked one of my friends to come help me clean it and call the doctor and medics that were returning to base. She came and helped me. When the doctor came to base it was decided that i needed to stitches and so i was taken to the hospital to get evaluated. When we got to the ER we waited for about 2-3 hours to see the doctor. When we saw the doctor he said that i didn't need stitches even though the cut was deep, long, and still bleeding. I told him that i came here to get stitches so that is what i wanted. So he leaves the room and comes back with something in his hand. He takes my arm and puts staples in my arm. I was surprised and in more pain. they hurt. He didn't clean the wound, anesthetize, or bandage it after. i was really surprised by his poor manners and poor skills.

I got back to base and told my doctor that even though i was in pain i could continue to work and didn't need to go home. So i spent the week and the weekend on the base. During the weekend I was the only medic on-call at the base which meant if anything happened or if anyone got sick or injured, I would be called. Luckily the weekend was pretty quiet and I got to hang out with my friends and watch movies, talk and have a relaxing shabbat on the base.

This past week has also been pretty nice. A lot if work, but also the chance to spend time with friends on the base and hang out at nights. I left early on wednesday with one of my friends so that we could go to a ceremony on thursday. I spent the night at her house and we went out to see a movie which was a nice break to just be in civilian clothes and get to hang out. then on thursday i met up with some of my friends from basic training including one of my commanders and we went to the ceremony for the new group of soldiers from the US and other countries that are joining the army through garin tzabar. I surprised one of my friends that is joining and that was great. after the ceremony I spent time with my boyfriend and had a great time just hanging out and relaxing with him.

This next week I will be spending most of the week on-call by myself at the base. This is a huge responsibility in many ways mostly if anything major happens i am the only medic there and i am in-charge of all the injured. I am looking forward to this responsibility and know that I am capable of handling this. I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer and enjoying the sun and weather! keep in touch, it means a lot to me to hear from everyone!

Love,
Roxanne