Weekend Wrap-Up (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Days 308 & 309

This weekend was all about spring cleaning. We still had boxes in our garage from the movers that had stuff in them. Saturday we cleaned out the garage, washed the cars and cleaned up the house. Of course when Sunday rolled around I found out I did too much once again. I woke up in quite a bit of pain. I always think I can do more than I really should. We spent the day at the in-laws just doing laundry and hanging out. It was a pretty laid back day to try and recover and feel better. I really hate that I am so limited in what I can physically do now. I have to remember that even though sometimes I may feel like I can do anything in my head, I am limited and will be paying for decisions that I make.

New ID Card (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 305

This morning I woke up in extreme pain and nauseous. I’m not exactly sure why, but I’m guessing all the activities yesterday was a little too much. One of the games I was sitting in was a little jerky as I was flying around, but I didn’t think it was too much at the time. I just have to remember that I have to take it easy at all times. I have to dial my activities back a bit…forever now because of my injuries.

I dropped my son off at the ferry, then drove to Ft. Lewis. I out-processed from the ID center. I had to get a new ID card. At first I thought that was pretty stupid and redundant, I’ll be getting a retirement card soon enough. I guess it’s smart though to get a new active ID card with the new expiration date though. I then received a text from my platoon sergeant stating that I have a retirement briefing tomorrow. I told him I already attended one on the 27th of last month and if I have to go and sit through another 3.5 hour brief I’m going to be one very depressed individual!

I then went to my last PCM appointment. My doctor put in 90 day prescriptions for all my meds to hold me over until I start seeing the VA. She also gave me a hug and wished me well. I went from there straight to the pharmacy to pick up all the meds. I had quite the bag full leaving there! I took some because I was still feeling pretty bad all the way from this morning. On the drive home they started to finally kick in. When I got home I worked on schoolwork for a while.

A Bad Night’s Sleep - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 256

Last night I slept like total crap. I was in quite a bit of pain, but didn’t want to take a muscle relaxer because it was already too late. I didn’t want to be groggy and tired this morning because of it. I tried using ice, but nothing seemed to help. I didn’t sleep much at all, so when I had to get up I was extremely tired and in extreme pain. I took my pain meds and got ready. Morning formation was at Keeler Gym. Once accountability was over, the appointments went to the rear of the formation to have the first sergeant go over each one, everybody else headed into the gym and I just headed straight to my car. If anyone would have said anything I would have told them I was getting my pain medication, but nobody did. Once in my car I drove to the WTB parking lot, ate breakfast, and was able to sleep now that the pain meds were starting to take affect.

After a couple hours I got up and went to the SFAC and checked my army email. I then went to the pain clinic and attended my TMC Sleep and Headache class, ironically I needed help with both today. We went over the acupressure points in our feet and hands from our last class. We then went over the pressure points in our ears. After that the class was over, it only lasted about a half hour which was fine with me. I got a call from JAG stating they received all my medboard paperwork and wanted to schedule a review appointment. I headed to their office and filled out some paperwork and scheduled an appointment for this Friday. My PEBLO told me it’s always a good idea to have them look over everything before signing. I’m OK with my findings, but I’m curious to what they have to say.

On my way home it was just pouring down rain, which made traffic a bit slow. Sometimes I think people forget we are in Washington and how to drive in the rain. When I got home I did my schoolwork and then started searching the job boards. I’m going to really start searching for a job now that I know my time is limited in the army. I’ll take anything to bring in the money, but I really hope I can find a decent place to work.

I spent the rest of the night relaxing, using the heating pad on and off again trying to get myself feeling a little better at least. I’m glad I have my pain meds, but I hate taking them everyday just to feel somewhat normal and live without pain for a bit.

We watched another Netflix DVD that arrived called “Boarding Gate”. I can’t even remember adding some of these movies to my Netflix queue, and this one was no exception. The movie was pretty slow at first and just kept dragging on. Finally about 3/4 of the way through there was an action scene, but that was about it. I wouldn’t really recommend this flick to anyone.

Lefty Pain - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 238

In the chiropractor's office...a lot of solar powered dancing flowers...lol

This morning I woke up and the entire left side of my head was in pain. The entire left side of my brain was killing me! Not only that, but the pain went down the left side of my neck and then my shoulder. I’ve had one side or another hurt before and it basically just sucks. When I’m in pain like this, I really don’t want to do much of anything because life in general just sucks bad! Today I had an appointment with the chiropractor though, and I thought maybe he can do something to help. With this in mind, I didn’t take any pain killers…I just got up and got ready to go.

Morning formation was in winter PTs and I pathetically tried to do some of the warm ups with everyone. I think most of the time I just stood there and perhaps moved my arms around a little. After warm ups I was going to just head to my car, but the first sergeant was right behind me. Instead I walked around the parking lot once with everyone and then broke off from the group. I went and used the bathroom first, just in case someone asked…and I really did need to go. After that I went straight to my car, but it was too cold to sleep and my head was still killing me…so I just tried to relax and listen to the radio.

A little after 0800 I headed into the SFAC and checked my army email and then my medboard status on AKO as usual.

Here’s today’s results for my medboard status on my AKO:

218 days remaining
Start Date: 6/26/2013
Goal Finish Date: 4/17/2014
Estimated Finish Date (No Appeal): 8/8/2014
Estimated Finish Date (W/ Appeal): 9/06/2014

My current step in the process is VA Ratings. My actual time waiting for ratings is 157 days. The army average is now 143.01 days. Current days I am over the army average is 13.99

I then went to my 0945 chiropractor appointment early, normally I can get in to see him early if I happen to be there. That was the case today, I only had to wait about 15 minutes before he brought me back. I let him know what was going on and where the pain was. He did a little manipulation and then massaged my neck and shoulders. Everything was pretty tender everywhere he touched. I was hoping I would at least feel a little better by the time I left, but I still felt pretty much the same. I went back to my car and drove home.

Once home I took my pain meds and broke out the heating pad to place on my left shoulder and neck. I watched a college basketball game on watchESPN and waited for the pain meds to kick in. After about an hour I was feeling much better thankfully. Once the game was over, I did my schoolwork. The rest of the day might turn out OK now!

Later at night my wife and I went to watch our former high schools battle each other in basketball. Unfortunately my Bulldogs fell a little short to her Trojans. It’s always fun to watch high school basketball. The energy and the atmosphere are always a lot of fun. The band, the cheerleaders, the students, and the coaches all made it a great night.

Saved by the Pee - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 233

The chiropractor's office where I get manipulated...he has a nice view as well!

This morning I headed to Ft. Lewis in winter PTs. I did the warm up exercises with the group, but when we broke and headed to the parking lot to walk, I headed straight inside. It was pretty freakin’ cold out and I had no desire to walk around in it. I had to pee, so if anyone stopped me and asked, that was what I was going to tell them. Luckily for me when I finished relieving myself there was nobody around…I just headed to my car to eat breakfast and listen to music. I tried to nap, but even with my blanket it was too freakin’ cold!

I went inside to the SFAC a little after 0800. I checked my army email and surfed the web for a while. I did get a reply from my PEBLO saying that the VA is still running 4 months behind. I continued to surf the web for a bit, it’s too cold to hang out in my car. At 0930 I had my chiropractor appointment. I had some pretty crappy sleep last night, so I started off the day in pain. The chiropractor relieved some of the pressure and pain. At 1000 I had an acupuncture appointment. I did the usual walking on the plastic rocks in my socks. I laid down on my stomach, then got poked in my wrists, down each side of my spine, on each of my ankles and the tops of my feet. My neck got the mixture of cinnamon oil, peppermint oil, and dragon’s blood rubbed on it. I then listened to the relaxing music for about 15 minutes or so with the lights off.

After acupuncture I was done for the day. I headed to my sister’s house to pick up my son and take him to the ferry so he could head home. When I got home I did my schoolwork. I had to take some pain meds because the pain was starting to make a comeback. 

A Turn for the Worse - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 222

A view of the Staff Duty desk where I spent one of the worst nights ever!

As of midnight, I’m still on staff duty along with the beginning of a new day. My headache just continued to get worse last night and into today. It eventually got to the point where I felt nauseous. This is quickly turning out to be one of my worst staff duty shifts ever. I still have a long time to go, I have a migraine coming on, and my pain medications do absolutely nothing when I am getting a migraine. I do have special migraine medication, but I left that at home because I don’t get them as often. At about 0200 as I was sitting at the staff duty desk I could feel my mouth starting to water. I had been feeling nauseous for a while now, but this was more than just feeling it…it was coming…and soon. I quickly got up, head pounding, and made my way quickly to the bathroom. I then assumed the position…kneeling to the porcelain god…and proceeded to throw up in the toilet. There goes all that good teriyaki from earlier.

After throwing up, I made my way back to the staff duty desk. This wasn’t going to cut it, so I moved to an area right next to the desk. This area is used by the soldiers in the barracks to hang out I guess. It has a few computers, a TV, and most importantly a leather couch. I got comfortable on the couch, watched some news on the TV and fell in and out of sleep. The entire time my head continued to kill me…this is misery. The pain in my head continued no matter what, but any movement made it worse…so I tried to stay as still as possible.

I headed back to the main staff duty desk to join my squad leader at 0630. I must have been looking pretty bad, because he told me I could just head home instead of staying there until 0800. I was glad to be able to leave, but the drive home was horrible. Traffic was fine, but my head felt like it was going to explode. I hated every minute of the almost hour long drive. When I did get home I quickly climbed in bed and actually did fall asleep until 1300. When I got up, I was still in extreme pain. For any of you that have never had a migraine, you are very lucky…just imagine the worst headache you’ve ever had and multiply it by 100! Life just sucks when a migraine is happening.

I couldn’t do much of anything the entire day because of the pain. I just continued to lay in peace trying not to do anything to make it worse. My wife came home and we went to dinner at her parents. My father-in-law tried to massage my shoulders because they were so tight. Once he got tired my wife picked up where he left off. It felt good, but the pain never went anywhere. When we got home I took muscle relaxers and NyQuil before bed. Not only is my head feeling like it’s going to explode, I’m also coming down with something. I’m coughing and my nose is stuffed up. I dread each cough because they bring with them lightning strikes going through my head. Life is miserable. 

I slept until about 0300 thanks to the drugs, but when I woke I was still in a lot of pain. I took migraine medication Maxalt and laid back down. After about an hour I could feel my head start to get better. I was able to get some more sleep, but my neck and shoulders are very sore…and I’m getting sick.

DRMO - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 220

A view of all the old computer junk that we returned today.

Send my squad leader a text “MOU Today”, then headed into the naval shipyard in Bremerton this morning. I do the usual and check both my army and navy emails, then surf the web. The internet speed seems extremely slow today for some reason, but that wont matter too much because I’ll be doing physical labor today!

We loaded the TMP van up with a bunch of old equipment that we have been accumulating once again in the office. There were rack servers, desktops, various cables of all sorts, mice, keyboards, scrap metal and some other odds and ends. We filled up the TMP and by the time we were finished, the back was sagging down quite a bit from the weight. When we finished up, I took a quick early lunch. I knew this was going to end up going through our normal lunchtime and didn’t want to have my stomach growling all the way through it.

A co-worker and I took the van to the naval submarine base located outside of Silverdale. As we approached the gate, I was half expecting the guards to have us pull aside so they could thoroughly inspect our van. In the army whenever we did training for guard duty, a low riding vehicle was always considered suspect because it could indicate an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). We had no such problems at this gate though, the guard saw we were in a government vehicle and inspected our badges, then sent us on our way.

We headed to the DRMO site on the base and I backed up to the loading dock. My co-worker took in the pile of paperwork and a few minutes later a lady drove out some pallets for us to load everything onto. I took everything out of the van and put it on the loading dock, then my co-worker played Tetris and piled everything carefully on the pallets. Once we finished we found out that in addition to the paperwork we turned in, we had to attach additional copies onto the actual equipment. Luckily this was just one piece of paper for each type of equipment (i.e. rack servers). We completed this easy enough, then took off and headed back to the naval shipyard in Bremerton.

Once back in the office, I surfed the web for a while. I also searched around for some other online training I can do besides SkillPort, because the Linux training on SkillPort will not work on these government computers. Near the end of the day I could tell I did a little too much because I was already starting to feel the pain. I think this is the last of the old equipment we’ll be moving while I’m working here. Once my shift finished, I headed home and took my pain meds, by this time the pain had already started to come on pretty strong.

I then started working on my schoolwork. This class “Business Policy & Strategy” is a lot more involved than any of my previous classes. There is quite a bit of reading involved and then a lot of short answer questions and case studies have to be completed each week. The teacher is a stickler for grammar as well, if you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time I’m sure you’ve caught more than one error. With all that said, I will have to work a lot harder to finish this class and get a decent grade. I’m so close now…after this class I have two more before I graduate.

With the holidays, my pain, or my wife tired, it seems we have not gone to the YMCA and done any kind of workout in quite a while. We’re gonna either have to commit or cancel our membership. I want to go, but there always seems to be a reason we don’t end up going. Today the reason was definitely me, even though I took my pain meds I was still in quite a bit of pain and in no mood to work out. I feel myself getting bigger and heavier. I’ve past the point where I could eat whatever I want and do nothing, but still stay as skinny as a toothpick. I have to start eating healthier and getting a workout at some point.

Home Early - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 198

This morning I headed off to the naval shipyard in Bremerton without sending a text to anyone. My platoon sergeant informed me that he is going on leave. My guess is that there is probably hardly anyone even at the morning formation anyway during the holidays. When I arrived at my office, there was nobody there and hardly anyone in the building at all. I did the usual checking army and navy emails and then surfing the web until 1100. I decided to just go home at 1100, I’m still in quite a bit of pain in my neck, shoulders, and head. This month has actually been a pretty bad month for pain. I can usually just deal with the chronic pain I have, but it seems to have stepped up a bit and I’ve been feeling it.

At home I took my pain meds and laid down on the heating pad for a while. I did get up for a while and worked on my schoolwork for the day. I then took it easy getting back down on the heating pad off and on for the rest of the day.

One Bad Step - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 194

Now that I have my platoon sergeant’s number I sent him my morning text “FYI: I will be at my MOU with the navy again today”. I then headed back into the naval shipyard in Bremerton for today’s “work”. I started off as usual checking my army and navy email. My army email usually doesn’t have much, perhaps two or three a week, but I do receive items from the WTB, so I have to make sure there is nothing waiting for me such as my checklist. The army email is checked via a web page using Outlook Web Access. My navy email also doesn’t get a lot, usually a few each day of which most are group emails sent to everyone. As mentioned in an earlier post when I surf the web I always start with a quick check on AKO checking out myMEB/PEB status. I’ll try and post numbers up once a week, or at least once a month so you can see how things progress. Here is my status as of today:

212 days remaining
Start Date: 6/26/2013
Goal Finish Date: 4/17/2014
Estimated Finish Date (No Appeal): 6/30/2014
Estimated Finish Date (W/ Appeal): 7/19/2014

My current step in the process is VA Ratings. My actual time waiting for ratings is 114 days. The army average is 146.80 days. Current days until I reach the army average is 32.80.

Nothing new with those numbers, so I continued to surf the web for a while reading the headlines from around the world and locally. I then found out my legacy system account is now setup and active. I logged into the legacy system at my desk. I was then shown what server to connect the event viewer to and what logs I’ll be looking at. I save the settings so I’ll be able to get back to that easily next time, because they are going to show me what I will need to do at a later date…probably after the holidays.

One of the lady’s in another office brought back all the required paperwork for the machines that we will be getting rid of. This is all the equipment we cleaned out of the SIPR room. The process to get rid of it is called DRMO which stands for Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office. Everything gets shipped off somewhere else, where they decide what to actually do with all the crap. Everyone here just says “dermo” sounding out the acronym when talking about the whole process.

I had lunch at my desk. I have to mention that I am always only one step away from being in a lot of pain for a long period of time. Usually my pain comes and goes, there are certain triggers that can make it worse. Last night I made one misstep where I didn’t see a curb and stepped off of it, which was a slight jarring experience. Before I had any issues back when I was a young lad something like this would never even be cause for a second thought. I knew then that it was going to cause me some serious pain these days though. The funny thing is that the pain just starts to continually build up like a snowball rolling down a mountain. I could feel the muscles in by upper back, shoulders and neck start to tighten up as the night went on. By the end of the night my neck and head were in some serious pain. I took a muscle relaxer to ensure a good night’s sleep, but I was still in quite a bit of pain all day today. I decided to leave at lunch for the day and go home to lay down on my couch with the heating pad on my back and neck after taking some pain medication.

After a while of resting and falling in and out of sleep, I got up and did my schoolwork for the day. I then continued to take it easy laying down and using the heating pad throughout the night. Usually I’m pretty careful about where and how I walk because I’m always only one bad step away from being in a lot of pain for a long time…it sucks!

Manual IT Labor - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 151

Sent my squad leader a text as usual this morning reminding him I'll be at my MOU today. I head into the office at the Bremerton shipyard and spend the morning checking my army & navy emails, then surfing the web to pass the time. I sure do keep up on the news, world events and technology news! Once I got a little tired of surfing the web, I decided to start a SkillPort. The SkillPorts cover technology, take some time to finish which helps pass the time, and I can use them as training that can be added to my CompTia continuing education.

A co-worker and I then loaded the TMP with a crapload of old computers, servers, and monitors. We had the TMP van so full that it actually sunk down a bit in the back and the tires were a little flatter with all the pressure. I drove slowly and carefully up to the other naval base outside of Silverdale. We headed to a warehouse where all the old equipment is turned in. Despite my co-worker gathering up and filling out all the required paperwork and calling in advance to make sure someone would be there, when we arrived we found the entire warehouse empty. We decided to unload all the equipment on the loading dock and then sit and wait, there was no way we were going to leave there without dropping off all the equipment.

About a half hour after we arrived a civilian worker came strolling up, then asked a question "Have you been waiting long?" My co-worker was nice and said "just a little bit". The warehouse civilian then brought out three pallets with a forklift and helped us load everything on the pallets. She drove them back into the warehouse and then had us come back with her. Evidently the massive amounts of paperwork that were done in advance was not quite enough, they needed a piece of paper attached to each device that basically stated the hard drive had been taken out and it's ready to ship. We decided to head back and take our lunch break. My co-worker was going to talk with our supply person and get everything straightened out. The amount of paperwork and processes required just to get rid of old equipment for the government is out of control. It's one of the reasons there was so much stuff just piled up in our office to get rid of, nobody wanted to take the time or effort to get rid of it all.

I headed down to my car and had lunch while listening to the radio for a bit. Once I went back to the office I finished up the SkillPort I was working on earlier. After that I spent the rest of my day there just surfing the web trying to pass the time.

After work, I headed home and started my new class "Business Ethics". It looks like it will turn out to be as exciting as my previous class of "Business Law"…yawn.

By the end of the day I started getting in some serious pain, I think I did a little too much with all the equipment moving today. I took my pain medication, but it didn't seem to help much, but the muscle relaxer never fails to knock me out for the night…so I slept very well.

Bad Head Day - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 81

This morning I headed to formation in summer PTs with the jacket. I had made up my mind that I wasn't going to do PT because my head was hurting pretty bad. My name was called along with several others stating we needed to get with our squad leader to sign some paperwork. After that each of the platoon sergeants were told to take charge of their platoons…our platoon sergeant said "do the right thing", then walked off.

I gathered around one of our squad leaders along with a few others to see what paperwork I had to sign. It starts to rain and the squad leader states "we should go inside to finish this up". One of the typical brainwashed soldiers said "if it ain't raining, we ain't training". I say "let's use some common sense", then turned and walked inside. Give me a break…we're trying to read and sign paperwork using ink, that doesn't work well in the rain. Once inside I get my paperwork and find out it's for a Kindle. Amazon is giving away a large number of Kindles for free to the WTB. Nice to see a local company doing some good, in fact it's pretty awesome of them!

After I finished with the paperwork, I headed to my car to eat breakfast. My head is still killing me! I go to the SFAC to check my army email and print off some resumes for the job fair this afternoon. I then head to my optometry appointment at 1000. I guess there was a doctor who called in sick, so they were a little backed up. Even when I did get in to have my eyes checked, my doctor was taken away about 3 times. I finally got out of there at almost noon. I should be getting my new glasses mailed to me in a couple weeks.

I grabbed a snack from the shoppette and then while getting ready to head to this military only job fair, I get a text stating that 100% attendance is required for a sensing session at 1300 today. I'm pissed off and my head hurts like crazy. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing that I didn't go to the job fair because I was in quite a bit of pain. I was looking forward to chatting with some local employers though.

I head to the sensing session, which should be called "bitch session". A sensing session is where the command (in this case it was the brigade command sergeant major) gathers everyone together so he can get a sense of how everything is going under his command. Various people stood up and bitched and moaned about various things or people. I just waited through it…a little high on Percocet.

After the session I headed home. I was notified by my PEBLO that my paperwork has gone through the PEB and they have sent it off to the VA for ratings. This means the PEB (Physical Evaluation Board) decided that I am indeed not fit to stay in the army. This is a good thing because if for some reason they found me fit for duty, I would have to basically stop this medboard process and go back to work for the regular army…I can't imagine a worse fate at this point!

Weekend Wrap-UP - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Days 63 & 64

Just another photo of the Pacific Northwest

An old co-worker of mine took this on his ferry commute

When I woke up Saturday, my head was still pretty messed up. It wasn't as bad as yesterday, but I still didn't feel like doing much. I hung out with my family for a bit, but that is about all. Sunday I was feeling quite a bit better. I wasn't back to normal yet, but I was able to operate close to normal. In the evening we even took the bike for a ride to my wife's cousin's house. They were having a Chamorro barbecue and I didn't want to miss that! Good food and good people…I can't complain.

Texting in Sick - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 62

This morning I woke up at 0300 with a killer headache engulfing the entire left side of my head. I got up and took a couple aspirin and laid back down in bed. At 0600 I tried to get up and take a shower, but as I was in the shower I felt nauseous and my hands were shaking. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this, but I was in so much pain I really couldn't think too well. I just got out of the shower and laid back down. I knew I would not be able to make the 45 minute drive to Ft. Lewis this morning. I was in way too much pain. I texted my squad leader letting him know and tried to lay still in bed. I'm sure he thinks I was just trying to get out of the change of command ceremony, but there is no way I could drive in this condition…let alone be part of a change of command ceremony.

I took my percocet, which is the strongest stuff I have, and laid back down. I did this again a few hours later as well. I didn't get out of bed until 1500, but I was still feeling a lot of pain. I headed downstairs and hung out on the couch for the rest of the day. I ended up just watching some TV, but that was about it the entire day….it sucked!

Shot in the Butt - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 51

PT this morning was pretty intense, especially compared to what we usually end up doing. The NCO focused mainly on our upper body doing things like overhead arm claps, push-ups against a wall, and sitting down doing the military press with a partner giving slight resistance. What made it such an intense workout was the sheer number of repetitions we did…I'm going to be sore for a while after today.

I did the usual and had breakfast in my car and then headed to the gym to change. I made the mistake of arriving at the gym during rush hour and it was a total sausage fest! There were naked dudes everywhere, I'm going to have to adjust my time and arrive a bit later from now on.

I headed to the SFAC to take an ACAP class. It turned out there were only two of us in the class, so it went by pretty quick. It was basically an overview of the ACAP process and giving us a bunch of websites to view. This class is supposed to be the first one you attend, but I had to reschedule this one earlier because of conflicting appointments.

After the class I went out to my car for some rest…listened to the radio and maybe even nodded off for a few minutes here and there. I headed back into the SFAC and ate my lunch. I ended up just staying in the SFAC using one of their tables and their WiFi with my laptop.

Finally I had an appointment with my PCM. We went over my issues as usual and I asked for something quite a bit stronger than my current pain killer to deal with the times I get major headaches. She prescribed me some Percocet, which should do the trick. Since I actually had a moderate headache she had the nurse give me an injection in my butt. I forget what the actual name of the injection was, but it was described to me as a dose of "Super Motrin". Because Motrin hasn't done much for me in the past, I wasn't expecting much from this at all. It turned out that it actually did help relieve my headache pain. In fact my head didn't hurt at all for about 6 hours! Usually I can feel the pain in my neck and head every time I take a step, even when I don't have a full on headache. With this shot, I felt normal for the first time in a long time…at least for 6 hours.

I waited around for evening formation at 1600, which ended up being an informal gathering where we were told there is nothing to report. I then headed home.

Edit: I did finally look back at my medical records and found out the shot was Toradol. I have since requested shots from my civilian doctor and it helps a lot with the pain

Weekend Wrap-Up - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Days 21 & 22

About as Pacific Northwest as you can get...

The Sonics and Starbucks!

The weekend consisted of mostly cleaning and organizing our house a bit. We still had some stuff in boxes from our storage and the unaccompanied baggage delivery. We took some time to clean up and put some stuff away as best we could. We also took time to visit both sides of our family. This is one of the things I really missed while being stationed overseas. I tried to soak it all up! Unfortunately I was also in quite a bit of pain for the majority of the weekend. The pain medication "Tramadol" seems to do nothing when I'm in a lot of pain. I'm hoping maybe my doctor will be able to find a replacement that actually works no matter how bad the pain is.

Getting Taped - (MedBoard: Joint Base Lewis-McChord) Day 12

I arrived to PT this morning only to find out all the new folks had to get their height and weight measured. So no PT for me...I then find out I'm actually 2 pounds over the maximum amount I'm allowed according to army regulations for my age and height. When this happens, you have to get taped to measure your body fat percentage. This involves taking a measurement of your neck and belly. I was well under the limit, so I was good to go. I've never had to get taped before, I guess I just had too much schnitzel, beer, and ice cream while in Germany. I think it also didn't help that I haven't done PT consistently for a long while now. I'm starting to wonder if I ever will until I actually get out of the army.
For some reason this was another high pain day, my head was just killing me all day long. The new pain medication (Tramadol) which I had hoped would be a silver bullet is turning out to be just your normal average bullet. It does help, but it takes a long time to start working and it doesn't last long enough.

I headed to my car and relaxed, taking a nap for a while and listening to music. I then headed to the SFAC and finished my in-processing with them. After I finished I used their computers for a while. I take more of my pain killer and I finally start feeling the affects, but as I mentioned earlier it is not strong enough and doesn't last long enough...or I guess my pain just outlasts it.

I then hang out more in my car, take another nap, listen to the radio and play games until 1600 end of day formation.

Prayer & Paintball - (Germany) Day 422

The chaplain starting off the prayer breakfast

This morning I didn't go to PT, instead I headed into my office to get ready for the prayer breakfast. The chaplain and I gathered the paperwork and headed over to the German Cantina on post. There was a side room reserved for us and I setup each of the bulletins in front of each chair, then waited. The chaplain offered to purchase me breakfast, but I had already had some at home…I didn't know exactly how much time I would  have to eat, but I did grab some coffee and orange juice. When the prayer breakfast actually started only 3 people actually showed up, not counting the two chaplains, the singer and myself. I guess I didn't need to have so many bulletins printed off! The event still was nice, the singer played his guitar and sang a few songs. The guest chaplain gave a little speech about personal courage, then our chaplain said a prayer. I used my camera to take a few snapshots during the event for the chaplain, then we packed up and headed out.

I headed home, hung out with my wife for a bit then took her to work. I went back to my office and did the usual administrative type stuff until about 1100. Now it was time for the Adventures with the UMT Paintball event. We had reserved the paintball field for the soldiers to use and play paintball on from noon until 1600. We arrived along with a TMP full of soldiers from Landstuhl. Unfortunately the place said it was too cold to use their compressor to fill the guns, so we had to cancel the event. It was snowing and well below freezing, so I guess it was probably for the best. Our platoon sergeant said everyone could go to Patton gym and play basketball as a consolation. We headed over and I shot around with everyone. It felt awesome to play around again, I was in the groove nailing 3's from all over. Everyone decided to play a game called "bump", which is basically a shooting game. Two people start at the three point line and shoot, the object is to make your shot in before the person in front of you to knock them out of the game. If you miss, you can chase down your ball and still try and get it in before the other person. As soon as you make it, you throw the ball to the next person in line. This process keeps going and going until one person wins. We played a number of games and I was able to win a good majority of them, it was a ton of fun. It really made me miss playing basketball all the time.

I then went back to my office and ended up doing my schoolwork. At about 1600 I heard the HHD company was having their safety brief and then getting released for the day. The chaplain never came in, so I decided to just leave as well. My wife was at work, but still feeling pretty sick and wanted to be picked up…no problem. Not too long after I got home, I started feeling the affects of playing basketball today. I thought just shooting around wouldn't be a big deal, but I was wrong. I guess the "jumping" part of the "jump shot" really got me. My back hurt, my knee was throbbing and my head was killing me. It was one of those times I wish they prescribed me some heavy pain killers. Instead all I could take was some Excedrin, some muscle relaxer, and some scotch. I learned my lesson and I will not being doing anything like that again!

The singer offering up a little entertainment during the prayer breakfast

Back Ache - (Korea) Day 340

SPC Roy checking out my iPad while the KATUSAs are getting their
safety briefing for the weekend.

Work call this morning was 0900. Today was a little strange at work. We had no meetings at all and didn't have any side work to do either. Our NCOIC ended up telling us to go ahead and leave at 1100 which was pretty cool!

When I got back to my room, my roommate was there and asked if I could go with him to the military clothing store. He wanted me to purchase some souvenir army sweatpants and sweatshirt for him. He's going to be out of the army for good soon and wants a little something to remember it by. Military service is mandatory for Korean males and is sort of like a right of passage for a young man. He'll now go back to civilian life and return to school at the university.

I purchased myself some icy-hot at the PX while we were out. I guess I worked out a little too hard at the gym on my back. It just started hurting pretty bad, I must have really strained a muscle. Back in my room I lathered on the icy-hot and then ended up taking a long nap. The nap helped, but I ended up lathering on some more and taking some aspirin. Hopefully it will get better soon, I need to keep working out because my PT test is on the 18th. I'm taking today off of course to give it some time.

I watched the movie "Shaolin" that PV2 Charlie let me borrow. It's a Chinese movie with Jackie Chan as a supporting actor. It was actually pretty good if you like martial arts movies. I was a little skeptical before I started watching it because it was a foreign flick, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's about feuding warlords and how some Shaolin monks get caught in the middle. They end up taking a stand using only martial arts against guns and cannons.

The rest of the night was spent doing schoolwork and taking more aspirin…my back is so sore….grrrr.

Security Breach!! - (Korea) Day 172

Yellow Dust! This is our office car the day after there has been a lot of yellow dust in the air.
When it's in the air you don't really notice. The city just looks like there is a lot of smog.
When it all settles is when you really notice it. Makes me not want to go outside
and inhale all this crap!

Work call this morning was at 0800. For some reason Special K wanted us in that early even though our first meeting was at 0945. Usually we come in an hour before the meeting or at 0830 whichever is earlier. We all arrive a bit early and by 0810 we had everything setup and prepared for the 0945 meeting. After that we just sat in the conference control room watching TV and waiting for the meeting to start.

I stayed in the control room during the meeting and watched the NBA playoffs once again. I watched all the way until lunch time and then headed to my room. My roommate was still asleep because he had CQ last night, so I made sure to tip-toe around and be extra quite. I know it sucks to have your sleep interrupted.

When I got back to work I checked my email, surfed the internet, and printed out my 10 SkillPort certificates for my sergeant. We had another small meeting that went on in our conference room, but we didn't have to do much except flip slides. I came out when the meeting had just started and didn't think much of it, I thought it was just another meeting….boy was I wrong. We were told that after the meeting was over we could clean up and leave early for the day. SPC Mick left for a CQ briefing and was gone for the day. Special K had me go with him to the shoppette to purchase some beer for him. I had our KATUSA take over flipping the slides for the meeting. Special K had met his allotment for alcohol this month, but still needed a couple cases for a trip he was planning this weekend. So I purchased some for him since I don't buy too much alcohol and never hit my limit. Special K took off for the day.

When I got back in the office I was confronted by our IMO and the air force sergeant in my office. They asked who loaded the slides on the computers for the last meeting. I said SPC Mick did before he left. Well SPC Mick didn't ask if it was classified or secret material and it turns out that it was. In this case they have to bring their own laptops to display this information. It can not go on our unclassified computers in the conference room. Now I had to take out the hard drives and put in a trouble ticket to have them securely wiped and re-imaged for the machines. Until this is done the hard drives have to be stored in a safe with the other classified and secret material. What a pain. Let's hope this can get done first thing Monday morning. I called SPC Mick and politely reminded him not to put classified or secret material on our conference room computers. Grrrrrr.

I then went back to the office and found out that someone had broke a key off in a door to a very small conference room in our building. Normally this would be a project for Special K, since he was already gone they gave it to me. I had to find a building on post and take the pieces of this key in hopes that they could create a new one. They printed out a piece of paper and told me to go to another building. I took it and left heading off to this other building. When I arrived the guy looked at it and signed the paper and then told me to head off to yet another building. He had to copy a map of the post and show me how to get there. I arrived and handed the locksmith my piece of signed paper and the broken key. He made two copies and then met me back at my office to test them on the door. Success! What a pain in the butt though!!

I cleaned up the office and left at 1700…so much for leaving early, but I can't complain at least I wasn't leaving late. When I got to my room I ate dinner and watched a movie. The movie is called "Locked Down". The movie is totally a "B" movie with pretty bad…errr terrible acting, but I wanted to watch it because it was presented by TapOut and had a number of UFC fighters in the movie such as Kimbo Slice, Rashad Evans, Cheick Kongo, & Forrest Griffin. The plot is a little silly as well, but that of course is not why I wanted to see it. I wanted to see the fighting action. The story is about a cop who is framed and sent to jail. This jail happens to have cage fighting events and the cop happens to be a great fighter. Throw in a couple half naked chicks and you got yourself a "B" movie. Funny to watch for the MMA fan, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else.

After the movie it was schoolwork time. I spent a while doing schoolwork and plan to spend a lot more time tomorrow as well. I am glad I only have two classes left this year, I'm looking forward to a break. I'm starting to get a little burned out.

I am also getting a lot of headaches lately. I think it's from the sit-ups I did during my PT test a little over a week ago. I know i was yanking on my neck a lot. It could be because I'm sleeping wrong on my neck or something as well. Whatever it is, it's causing me to eat Excedrin like they're candy. I hate it. I felt like having a beer tonight as well, but I've already used up my quota when I purchased all that beer for Special K earlier. I don't feel like going out to a bar either. Let's see what tomorrow brings.