today

Well another day another dollar is the phrase that comes to mind.  The weather has changed somewhat since I posted last and we have even seen a few raindrops.  Yesterday and today were windy and cool.  By cool I mean low 100's…I think we were 107 degrees today, which is basically a cold front when you have been having 120+ days since May.  Our team out in Ramadi was hit by a mortar but fortunately for all of us it did not explode so no one was hurt.  SGT DeLuna who is out there filing in for people told me that they heard a loud noise and went outside to find an un-exploded mortar.   I guess Al Anbar province isn't all the cupcakes and flowers that Fox News would have you believe.  We had another suicide here in Balad today this time it was one of our patients.  I'm not going to report much other than to say that it was a senior NCO from an MP unit that is scheduled to go home shortly.  These kinds of events are very hard for us mental health professionals to deal with especially since this one came right in the middle of the Army's suicide prevention week.  Oh well, I guess we can't save everyone even though we would love to.  My old friend MAJ Shea, the psychologist from New York is finally going home.  After involving his congressman and making multiple attempts through the appropriate channels his application for resignation of his commission was finally accepted and he gets to go home very soon.  He's been hanging out with us up here in Balad checking his final boxes so to speak before leaving.  He and I and LTC Banuelos are going out to dinner tonight, not that we have much choice or many options.   Liz sent me a DVD of Jacob, which she recorded during August and it was very cool to see.  I can't believe that he can crawl and sit up by himself since the last time I held him was a cold morning back in Washington in April when he could not even hold up his head.  I have no idea what it is like to live with my own son who will soon be 9 months old.  What's worse, I was just looking at my resume to update it and I had to figure out a word for "two- time Iraq veteran."  It really sucks to have lived two years in this god-forsaken place so far from home and the ones I love.  Yesterday SPC Antonich and I did a briefing for some medical logistics soldiers here on the base.  Our topic was stress management and sleep hygiene and following our discussion, a sergeant stopped me to ask me some questions.  Ignoring the normal uneasiness of soldiers when talking to a mental health provider, I could tell that this guy was suffering from some serious anxiety.  Complete with facial tics and a quiver in his voice he proceeded to tell me that he is only able to sleep 45 minutes at a time.  He tells me that he has been given klonopin and ambient and that without them he cannot sleep.  Can you believe that we are giving soldiers Klonopin in the combat zone?  This guy proceeds to tell me that he is on his fourth tour over here and that he has a 9-year-old at home that he has not seen for half of this child's life.  Anyway, I had no easy answers for this sergeant and I hate that.  In my opinion, this is a normal guy who has been put through an extremely abnormal event or series of event s for the past four years.  How can we ask people to do that???