Home!!!!

There is not much more you can say other than home at last!!!!!! After a world wide pub crawl- Australian Lager in Al Udeid (Limit 3), Coffee and Baileys in Bulgaria, Guiness in Ireland; I finally landed in BWI at 1600 on the 29th of Dec. After a couple of calls to the airline I was secured on a flight out at 1645 thru Dallas to San Antonio. All the CrossFit paid off because I was able to easily run at top speed, weave welcomers and hurdle small children with 2 bags and scurry through security to make the flight (with some help with DFW tardiness!!). I was able to give Julie one quick phone call at 2300 from Dallas letting her know that I would be home in one hour! Home never felt so good...

The next morning the kids were very surprised to hear the voice of a somewhat familiar man coming from their mommies room and came running with two Texas Tech Defensive size tackles. We are all still adjusting to the realization that I will not be leaving again, although by as much as Dylan and Spencer are hanging on me one would think that they are indeed worried about that occuring!!

Thanks so much for everyones prayers, thoughts, well wishes, and actions over the last 5 plus months they were greatly appreciated.

Weekend in Baghdad

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Baghdad. I was asked to lecture for some Iraqi dentists and Army dentists on Oral and Maxillofacial Trauma Reconstruction. It was real nice to be able to leave the 10 mi x 10 mi Joint Base Balad confines to tour the Victory and Liberty Base which used to be Saddam's playground. I was able to tour some of his palaces, one of the interesting palaces, which the US bombed, was "Victory Over America" palace. The palace does not look so great after a couple of bombs were dropped on it!!!! 

During the conference I had the opportunity to visit with some of the young Iraqi dentists and discuss the state of their country and the difficulties of rebuilding and educating their students. As you can imagine this was a memorable experience. 

For some reason the trauma has picked up around here, mostly Iraqi civilians. My replacement is suppose to arrive some time after Christmas, so I hope to be in San Antonio by the New Year!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I hope everyone's day will be filled with family, great food, and some entertaining football. Here is a picture from this past weekend, Lopez and Fuentes wanted to have a little bon fire and make some s'mores. We also enjoyed some great NA Becks beer.  It is starting to get colder here so the fire felt real nice...

The Guys Who Make My Life Easier

This week has been extremely busy with trauma. Lots of late nights and early morning operations. My assistant Fuentes and the ENT assistant Lopez are the guys who really make anything I do possible. They too have no back up and like me on call 24/7 for facial trauma. Not once have these guys not been on their game and ready to operate at any time any day. This is us finishing up one of our recent traumas after 4.5 hours of surgery this day it was time for Lopez and Fuentes to close things up!!!!

We are hoping for some down time this weekend, maybe do some grilling. This week lived up to the saying when it rains it pours....

Next week is Thanksgiving I only hope the Cowboys can win their football game.

Happy Veterans Day

Thank you so much to Julie, Spencer, Dylan, and Woodridge Elementary for supporting all of Alamo Heights Veterans. Yesterday, Spencer's school had a very nice program like many schools did all across America. Thank you to all the Veterans that I know (way to many for me to name) thanks for all of your sacrifices, and more importantly I would like to thank your families for all of their sacrifices which allowed you to help the U.S. achieve its current level of success around the world.

Thanks for the well wishes, the support many troops receive from friends, family, and even strangers at home makes a huge difference to our daily lives.

Farewell Dr. Coppit

For the first 3 months of my deployment I have had the wonderful opportunity to be matched up with Dr. Coppit (ENT) . We had an excellent working relationship but an even better "after hours" friendship. Lots of thought provoking discussions over cigars and non-alcoholic beer. He should be on his way back to D.C. tonight, to be united with his family after six months. Thank you George for a memorable time in Balad. 

The t-barrier that we are standing in front of is a classic Air Force Theater Hospital landmark. People are still trying to come up with a catchy acronym for the Surgical Society established here.

It is nice to be starting the month of November, finally it is starting to seem like July was a long time ago. The temperature change is becoming quite evident. Very cool in the am and evening with highs of about 80 during mid day.

Happy Birthday Dylan: 5 years old!!!

Happy birthday Dylan James!!!!!!! Today is a big day at the Farrell house, besides celebrating the half way point of my deployment we are also celebrating Dylan's birthday. We are also celebrating the fabulous baseball games both boys had over the weekend. Congratulations to Spencer for his great hits he had and for getting one of the game balls!!! Dylan had a great game as well. Judging by the amount of dirt on their uniforms they had lots of fun!!! Nothing to new to report here. My ENT partner is about to complete his 6 months, I hope that his replacement is as compatible as George.