Hi Family,
I am so tired its hard to think. We have been working for 10 days straight now to get the hospital functional and ready for the full exercise. Since we hit to ground on the 7th we have been working to build the hospital, run water and power lines, inventory and setup all of the equipment in the clinical, functional, and support areas and conduct training to make sure the parts of the hospital function together. It has been exhausting. They say that tomorrow is really only a half day...but we still have to get up at 0545 and I already know we have a meeting scheduled at 0700. So a half day is relative here. I just want to take a nap.
The days are all running together here. The weekend was just another work day and really didn't feel any different from any other day. The only day that I am lookingforward to is the 27th; when we head home. On top of the training days being long and repeatitive it is cold and has been raining for the last three days. I think this only adds to my being tired.
I have some work I need to do in the hospital tonight. I am electing to do it at night becaues it is easier to get to the equipmetn after the clinicians have left for the day. In a couple days, the clinical staff will be in the full exercise and will be running day and night shifts. I am hoping all the equipment stays in good order thru the exercise.
Ok, I am going to sit and relax before I decide to go back in the hospital and work on stuff.
Love you all!!
Becky
Monday, May 16, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
It Feels Good to Be Wanted
The command definitely knows who I am which can be a good thing. This is honestly my first time performing my Biomed duties in the field...and there are a lot of Army things I did not know. But luckily, a Chief Warrant Officer specialized in Biomed has been assigned to our unit.
The Chief does not arrive until May 17th, however, he has tasked me to make sure the Medical Maintenance/Biomed section gets setup properly. He and I have been talking on the phone, emailing, and texting about what needs to be set up for us to conduct our part of the mission here at Fort Hunter Liggett (FHL). The advantage of being in a fixed facility is that everything is already in place; there is a place to work, forms, processes, tools etc, etc. Here in the field it is a bit different.
When we first hit the ground at FHL, the command decided not to put up the Med Maintenance ISO (trailer) for our team. I am the only Biomed out here currently and they weren't sure of the necessity of the ISO for one soldier. The ISO not only has all of the test equipment we need to support the hospital, it also has the power power, gas, and water requirements for testing such equipment. The Chief let me know that in order for us to perform our duties during the mission, we will need the ISO setup. Which brings me to the command knowing my name.
The request to setup the ISO came after 90% of the hospital was complete. So the Med Maintenance area will be disconnected from the hospital but in close physical proximity. A change like this obviously gets noticed by the command so now they definitely have their eye on me. But I am not upset or bothered by it. I think it is a good opportunity to show the importance of the BIomed function in the field.
For example, I worked with one of the senior RST MED personnel and they showed me a lot about the field equipment that gets placed in the hospital. When I say Field equipment, I know that can be confusing. So let me clarify that the equipment is setup inside a physical "building". It is considered field equipment because it is meant to be used in a mobile hospital. The equipment is tested to make sure it performs as expected in deployment conditions.
Today I worked on some equipment that I don't get to see or work on back home. The piece we worked on today was a new portable x-ray unit. The new unit was sent to us from the research and development team at Fort Sam Houston. The Combat Support Hospital (CSH) here at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Schoonover and FOB Ward are testing it over the next week to see how it works for the clinical and maintenance teams. Our testing today was mostly playing with the unit and seeing how it moved around the hospital. I will get to perform some maintenance tests on it tomorrow or later in the week (here or at FOB Ward) to see how I like it from a maintenance perspective.
After playing with the portable x-ray, I went with the RST MED staff to FOB Ward to look at some items there. We repaired a sink that had some leaky faucets and valves. We even found a bug in the system....literally!! (see pic below. I know a sink is not a very glamorous piece of equipment, but I enjoyed working on it. Next, I sat through an in-service on the Big Bertha sterilizers. I have seen and kinda worked on one before but this was my first time setting it up and then learning the ins-and-outs.
That was the fun part of the day. Later in the day, I had to review the SOP for the med maint area and let the Chief know I reviewed the document. Tomorrow (or later in the week) I will be in servicing the clinical areas on the SOP for med maintenance. All said, it was a fun, busy, and tiring day.
Off to the showers and bed!!
Love,
Becky
The Chief does not arrive until May 17th, however, he has tasked me to make sure the Medical Maintenance/Biomed section gets setup properly. He and I have been talking on the phone, emailing, and texting about what needs to be set up for us to conduct our part of the mission here at Fort Hunter Liggett (FHL). The advantage of being in a fixed facility is that everything is already in place; there is a place to work, forms, processes, tools etc, etc. Here in the field it is a bit different.
When we first hit the ground at FHL, the command decided not to put up the Med Maintenance ISO (trailer) for our team. I am the only Biomed out here currently and they weren't sure of the necessity of the ISO for one soldier. The ISO not only has all of the test equipment we need to support the hospital, it also has the power power, gas, and water requirements for testing such equipment. The Chief let me know that in order for us to perform our duties during the mission, we will need the ISO setup. Which brings me to the command knowing my name.
The request to setup the ISO came after 90% of the hospital was complete. So the Med Maintenance area will be disconnected from the hospital but in close physical proximity. A change like this obviously gets noticed by the command so now they definitely have their eye on me. But I am not upset or bothered by it. I think it is a good opportunity to show the importance of the BIomed function in the field.
For example, I worked with one of the senior RST MED personnel and they showed me a lot about the field equipment that gets placed in the hospital. When I say Field equipment, I know that can be confusing. So let me clarify that the equipment is setup inside a physical "building". It is considered field equipment because it is meant to be used in a mobile hospital. The equipment is tested to make sure it performs as expected in deployment conditions.
Today I worked on some equipment that I don't get to see or work on back home. The piece we worked on today was a new portable x-ray unit. The new unit was sent to us from the research and development team at Fort Sam Houston. The Combat Support Hospital (CSH) here at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Schoonover and FOB Ward are testing it over the next week to see how it works for the clinical and maintenance teams. Our testing today was mostly playing with the unit and seeing how it moved around the hospital. I will get to perform some maintenance tests on it tomorrow or later in the week (here or at FOB Ward) to see how I like it from a maintenance perspective.
After playing with the portable x-ray, I went with the RST MED staff to FOB Ward to look at some items there. We repaired a sink that had some leaky faucets and valves. We even found a bug in the system....literally!! (see pic below. I know a sink is not a very glamorous piece of equipment, but I enjoyed working on it. Next, I sat through an in-service on the Big Bertha sterilizers. I have seen and kinda worked on one before but this was my first time setting it up and then learning the ins-and-outs.
That was the fun part of the day. Later in the day, I had to review the SOP for the med maint area and let the Chief know I reviewed the document. Tomorrow (or later in the week) I will be in servicing the clinical areas on the SOP for med maintenance. All said, it was a fun, busy, and tiring day.
Off to the showers and bed!!
Love,
Becky
Monday, May 9, 2011
Attitude Check
ok, so i am better now. it was cold but it is starting to warm up.
today i was pulled away from the water team and put with the medical maintenance team to check equipment for the hospital. There is a civilian contract group called RSTMED (Regional Training Sites - Medical) that supports the Army during training missions like this. Today I was able to work with them and setup the Picker X-Ray unit. My "help" was relatively minor but it was Biomed related. After doing some initial setup, we had to stop becaues the final setup requires power to the iso which was not available yet. So after I was done in the radiology iso, I went back to the water team to help them finish.
I definately like being on the water team. Our OIC's (officer's in Charge) gave us an overview of what needed to be done. Laying out water piping is kinda like putting a puzzle together. The lines are separated into clean and dirty water. The clean water lines run from the bladder ot the sinks and then the dirty water line (aka return line) run out from the sinks to a hole in the ground that was predug for us. Our job was to figure out the apprpriate length hoses to run from the ballder to the sinks and then back out to the hole.
The longest hoses are maybe 50ft and there aren't many of them. Part of the water team kit also includes y adpaters to connect three lines togther. We used the long hoses to go from the y adapters to the pumps and used shorter hoses and y adapters to run from the sinks to the long line going to the return pump or bladder. Connecting the hoses and y adpaters together takes strength. The attached pictures show some of the team trying to put them together.
All and all, the experience on the water team was very cool. There is a 4 day class that teaches soldiers everything about how to run water throughout the hospital. I think it would be a fun class to take.
That's all for now.
Love you all!!
Becky
Sunday, May 8, 2011
A shower is a wonderful thing!
Hi Family!!
How did I spend my Mother's Day? Well today, we worked on setting up the water supply for the hospital. The first part of the day was spent inventorying the parts and then we started laying out the cables. I have never done this before so it is quite interesting. I will keep you posted on what we do as we continue to set it up over the next 2 days.
I did get a close look at how the water supply gets connected from the main bladder when I went to take a shower tonight. (Yes, they have showers....real ones...with water!!). The bladder is a large bag that gets filled water. Main hoses are run from the bladder to...well in the case of the showers...a large generator powered heater. The generator pumps and pressurizes the water and then makes it available to the shower heads. The shower was warm and powerful enough to give a nice back massage:)
There is a specific shower schedule for males and females which is why I posted the pic. The only objection I have to schedule is the time allotted to females (about an hour less) and the sequence. I would think females should go last since we tend to take longer showers but what do I know. The word on the street is that the males have more time and go last because there are more of them here. This could be true. Our commander told us at formation yesterday that there were 7000 soldiers participating in this ECT exercise. Our hospital command accounts for about 300 of those soldiers! While the medical corp may be mostly female....the rest of the Army is dominantly male.
Well, that is all for now. I love and miss you all.
Day One - Water Team Lead The Way
Hi Family!!
The blogs may be a little out of order and may lack some punctuation and capitalization if I send it from my phone. This one, however, I was able to write on my laptop, yay to the Internets!!
Today i woke up at 5AM (zero five hundred hours in military speak), to get ready for the first real day of army life here at Fort Hunter Liggett. I took in a deep breath and was greeted with the aroma of wet grass and weeds. Not the most inviting smell but it wasnt too bad. We were instructed last night to report to first formation by zero five four five hours (0545) so there was not much time to figure out how to perform morning hygiene. Luckily, I brought lots of camping stuff to help.
I psuedo showered with wet wipes and wilderness wash bought at Eastern Mountain Sports. (There are showers available but shower times for us are scheduled for sixteen hundred hours/1600). I took out my collapsable sink and used water from my canteen to brush my teeth. It worked pretty well and I felt clean and had fresh breath. It was cold this morning so after the quick wash, I rapidly put on my uniform and a fleece pullover. I then headed to formation.
Formation was quick so that we could get out to breakfast early. During formation, I was assigned to the Hosiptal Water Team and told to return after breakfast to the formation area at 0715. Breakfast was hot (eggs, bacon, pancakes...yum). They also had fresh fruit so I grabbed two pears and quickly ate my breakfast.
After breakfast we had another formation where we were separated into our respective teams and also made sure all soldiers were present and accounted for in the company. The Water Team is responsible for providing all water to the hospital. A large bladder filled with hundreds of gallons of water is centrally located in the hospital area and then lines are routed through the compund to provide water to the OR's, ICU's, and ancillary areas.
We were given an overview of the plan and then went to inventory the water hoses and other equipment.
I have now brought you up to speed to 1100 today. Our team is waiting for the conex trailers to be moved to the location where the bladder will be so we can setup and start connecting water lines to the hospital areas.
I think this is a fun way for you all to hear about what I'm doing here in CA. I will try to blog as much as I can....battery power and oppurotunity willing :)
I love you all!!
SPC Arthur
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