A view from one of the windows of the hospital tower
This morning I headed to formation in ACUs because I have a 0700 appointment. As I was waiting in the parking lot, I received a text from my squad leader telling me that now formation is at 0730 in ACUs (probably because it’s Thursday which means sergeant’s time training). I was happy to text him back stating that I will not be there because I have an appointment. I headed to my 0700 PCM appointment and let her know that so far the pain clinic is going well. I had her order refills for my pain medications and then took off. I got a call from my NCM as I was heading to her office for my next appointment. She asks me if I know about an appointment at 0930 today. I said no, then I get a little pissed because I hate it when appointments get added without my knowledge. Luckily I was here already today or else I would not have made it. I let my NCM know I’m on my way to her office and she can tell me about it when I get there.
When I meet up with my NCM, I find out my 0930 appointment is for CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) and is part of the pain clinic. By this time I’ve calmed down a bit, no need to get all worked up over stuff that is out of my control. At least I am already here and the new appointment is in the morning, so I will not be hanging around all day just waiting for an appointment. After my NCM appointment I head down to the SFAC and check my army email, but cannot log into AKO because it’s down.
I go back to my car and listen to the radio to pass the time. The guys on the radio were talking about a guest they had for one of their podcasts. The guest was a stripper that works in Seattle and I guess she has a lot of interesting stories. She keeps a blog (seattlestripper.blogspot.com) and she also has a twitter feed you can follow (@RED_stripper). So I started reading her blog to pass the time.
At 0930 I have my CBT appointment. There is a group of about 8 people in this meeting and is a combination of army and air force personnel, but lead by a navy officer. We find out it’s actually an orientation for a group of classes that we can sign up for. The navy captain talks about chronic pain and how it affects daily life. We each go around and introduce ourselves, our pain and how long we’ve had it. We also say what we do to relieve the pain…if anything. There was a wide range of different issues people are dealing with here. Everything from a guy who was shot in Afghanistan to parachute jump injuries. The navy captain goes through a number of PowerPoint slides discussing what chronic pain does to people physically and emotionally. The class lasted about 90 minutes and then we are split into two groups. There are two types of classes that each meet once a week for three weeks. These are the behavioral and the cognitive class. Each group will go through one of the classes, then switch after three weeks. I had to choose the cognitive class because it is scheduled on Mondays and I already had appointments that conflicted with the behavioral class that will be meeting on Wednesdays.
After that I headed home, but didn’t quite make it all the way there. About halfway home a Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard was screaming my name, so I took a short break and had lunch with that awesome dessert. I then made my way to the mall and picked up a Seahawks jersey for my nephew. A little present my in-laws wanted to get him and mail it so it arrives before the Super Bowl. I have to take advantage of the military discount while I still can! Once finished with that I headed home and…you guessed it…did schoolwork! I’m looking forward to the days where I can go home and do whatever I want. I am ready to be done with school!!
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