April 23rd, 2014
Fort Irwin, CA

People in medicine are very superstitious.  I learned as a student never, ever, to use the word “slow” in an emergency room.  Not unless you want all the nurses to hate you.

I’m out at Fort Irwin again, working at my little Aid Station in the desert, on the 3-11 shift.  Patients evacuated from the field come here unless they are a true emergency, in which case they go to the ER.  I generally bring a sandwich in for dinner and, for the last two nights, when I went to eat my dinner, FLAs (tactical ambulances) descended upon the Aid Station, disgorging evacuees from ‘The Box” (field training area which makes up most of the post).  That may be a slight exaggeration, but last night my dinner precipitated 2 FLAs with a total of seven patients, all at once.

So tonight the medics have forbidden me to eat.  I laughed when they told me this, but was told they were not kidding.  There must be something to it, though, as it has, so far, been a sl*w night.  I don’t dare even type the word.

So we got out the Flu-Glo eye exam stain and practiced staining eyes for exam with a Wood’s Lamp.  That’s always a big hit.

Ninety minutes left on the shift.  Maybe I can sneak a sandwich without the medics knowing…