Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Hump day

This morning started off with ability group PT. My group was led by a CPT cadre member that used to be a cross-fit trainer so of course we did a cross-fit workout. It was lots of lunges, push-ups and sit-ups. I am already starting to feel those lunges and I am hoping with enough stretching tonight it won't be too bad tomorrow.

My platoon then had Optometry at 0730. This went very smoothly actually. We divded into glasses and no glasses. If you were already in medpros you got to leave. Basically I gave them my prescription and then they did a quick snellen test with my glasses on to ensure the prescription was good. I then go to try on some BCGs to wear out in the field and I was out of there. I will also be getting a second set of inserts for my eyepro. I was out in under 10min.

I then had my second opportunity to donate blood. After eating bacon all week my iron was a go :) I did great, ate my cookies and as I was walking out started to not feel so hot. They got me before I passed out but I had to stay an extra hour, and eat tons more cookies. I made it to class around 1000 and they had been doing presentations for a while. We broke for chow around 12 and then had 2 lectures. I did not get to do my presentation so I guess I'll go tomorrow.

They told us we had to be at the O-club at 1645 for the CG (commanding general) reception. We get there and they do the whole receiving line and they told us we would get chow. Well it was finger foods and not enough of them. The dean of health sciences academy gave a brief speech and then I thought we were done. But nope. The Captain's career course had a bunch of trifolds set up for each of the duty stations and we got to go around and ask questions. The Walter Reed questions were mainly about where to live and parking (there is a 6 month waiting list to get a parking permit) so basically metro in. They also talked about the combining for Bethesda, belvoir and meade.

Finally they had all the AOCs break off and we got to ask questions of all the nursing captains. There was a bunch or OR nurses, 2 med/surg, a couple OB, and one ICU. They definitely gave me a lot to think about. The OR nurses were very passionate and talked a lot about the power they held in their OR rooms. I was told that yes I can do my preceptorship on a peds floor since it is med/surg however, they will quickly pull me off since I am deployable and peds is not a skill used in theater. So....I am back to the drawing board and really have no idea what I am going to focus on in the army. Also if you do a specialty course which you are guaranteed a spot for one in your contract you automatically owe the army another year. Even if you only take 1 one week of the course and decide you don't like it, it is another year of commitment. If you do complete the course you will be that specialty for the rest of your army career. ...lots to think about.

On another note, Combatives training is open to all those who passed their PT test however only 5 from each platoon are allowed to train for level 1 certification. Originally this was only allowed for 70B since it is 2 hours training during the day the last 2 weeks we are here when we are in our tracks. So the top 5 PT scorers that were interested and 70B got put on the list. However we had a couple nurses in our platoon go above heads to complain and they got permission to do it. Well they had higher PT scores so 2 70B got bumped. This is quite upsetting not only because they jumped chain of command but it is pointless for them to be certified. Unlike 70B they have no use for combatives! Plus the 70B that got bumped was very excited and passionate about this certification.

Well, I am EXHAUSTED from donating blood and just a long day in general. So glad I get to sleep in tomorrow until 0700 :)

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