Sunday, December 6, 2015

Fair Winds and Following Seas

Most of my pharmacy rotations this year have gone by quickly, but this one was by far the fastest. I could hardly believe that my last week had already arrived.

Monday was low key, working mostly on assignments. During lunch, I went on a chilly trail run, only to realize that hunting season had begun; mental note to steer clear of the woods the rest of the week.


After clinic on Tuesday, April (HS2 Mitchell) opened my world to Thai food. How have I gone all this time without this wonderful cuisine?


Wednesday was warmer, but raining. While I was in the pharmacy talking to Liz (HS2 Coombe), we heard an announcement for the ambulance crew to report immediately to the ambulance bay. Mr. Cronin had told me previously that if I wanted to ride along on an ambulance call, I would need to run when an emergency was reported. There was no telling if or when this might happen, so I was caught off guard when it actually did. But Liz encouraged me to go, so I joined Ryan (HS2 Boatman) and the paramedic, Mike, on the ambulance. Typically, the clinic ambulance crew serves as a first responder to emergencies on base. The USCG Corpsman drives the ambulance to the emergency, and assists the paramedic in performing necessary first aid, basic life support, etc. If warranted, the patient is then taken to the Falmouth Hospital. In our case, the patient was a young child with a congenital heart condition. His mom called the clinic when she noticed that he was experiencing a fast heart rate. Luckily, by the time we arrived on scene, the boy's heart rate had returned to normal. However, we still took him to the hospital to be safe. It was such a rush to ride along on an ambulance call. From experiences at my job and previous rotations, I was used to caring for patients that came to the hospital for a variety of reasons, but I never actually saw how they arrived. Now it's as if I understand one more part of the cycle. Plus, I enjoyed finally seeing what the Corpsman do when they're on "duty" (on "call").

That night, it was round two of trivia in Woods Hole. This time I was joined by (starting on my left) Tai, Andrea, Ed, Zach, Tanner, and Andy/Devin. Everyone apart from Tai's girlfriend and Tanner are enlisted HS2 petty officers at the clinic.


My last day of rotation was Thursday. I accompanied Ed (HS2 Hodges) to Woods Hole
 in order to conduct an influenza clinic for the active duty aboard the USCG Tybee. It only took us about an hour to vaccinate everyone, so Ed gave me a tour of the cutter afterwards. Makes me wonder how I would fair working on a boat for any given amount of time!



The afternoon was filled with many goodbyes; always bittersweet to end a rotation. That morning, Ed told me he'd show me the airfield on base, so I met him there after I left the clinic. Inside the hangers sat several USCG planes and helicopters ("helos"). I learned where everyone sits in the helo during a rescue, and even jumped in the pilot's seat! Similar to the Corpsman that are on duty to receive ambulance calls, Corpsman trained to respond to an emergency at sea join the flight crew to care for the rescued patient. I admit that the movie, "The Guardian," kept playing over in my head.





That night, I started packing. The nice thing about traveling by car is the fact that I can ultimately just throw everything in there instead of worrying about size, weight, and how many liquids I'm taking.

I spent the rest of the night with friends from clinic. Eric (HS2 Henninger) lives on base, so we went to his place for food, drinks, and Cards Against Humanity. We were joined by Eric's girlfriend, Jill, April, Ed, Tai, Zach, and the cat. All in all, a great way to spend my last night on the Cape.

Friday morning, I woke up to see my last Cape Cod sunrise. I went for a run before packing up Red. En route to pick up my dad in Andover, Red decided to take a tumble on the interstate. I felt like I was in a plane that was going down; all of the dashboard lights started flashing and the car gradually came to a stop, despite my efforts to push the gas pedal. Luckily, I pulled to the side of the road because he did not start up again after that. As I waited for the tow truck to save us, a guy just a few years older than me, driving in a car almost identical to Red (his cousin, I suppose), pulled over in front of me. Turned out, he was a Saab repair specialist. What luck! Mike truly was an expert, and fixed old Red up faster than it took the tow truck to get us to his house. Definitely envious of his expertise. All patched up and back on the road, Red and I strategically by-passed Boston on our drive North to Andover. Although we got a later start than planned, my dad and I made it back to Pittsburgh just before midnight.





What can I say about my rotation with the USCG? It was certainly a unique experience. While perhaps it was not a vigorous test of my pharmaceutical knowledge and skills (like a few of my previous rotations), I learned a great deal about the military lifestyle and system. It's difficult to say whether or not it sparked my change of heart regarding my career direction; during the past few weeks, I decided to forgo the residency path and instead pursue a job in the community or in the Airforce. I believe that I would be better suited for this path, at least at this point in my life.

On top of that, I met a number of awesome people during the past 5 weeks. It always makes a rotation easier when you mesh well with your coworkers, especially when you're away from home. I have the utmost respect for everyone at the clinic, and admire their decision to serve. I learned a great deal from them through their health care knowledge, as well as through their personal journeys. Several of them came from difficult childhoods or situations, but have grown as individuals through their service. Even though I see them all as a bunch of kids, they are incredibly mature, and made my experience more meaningful. I hope that my path crosses with theirs again someday. But in the meantime, as the sailor saying goes,

"Fair winds and following seas."