The daily drudgery of treating combat wounds continues, but not without periodic glimpses of positive outcomes. One of our jobs here is to treat those that have been unfortunate and been accidentally wounded by military. I wish I could share more details-and one day I will- but for now I will just say that seeing some of the surgeon’s work here is amazing. Taking the seemingly impossible and making it a reality is the daily result of the combination of talent and skill that our staff possesses. It is a tragedy that we have to witness death and injury, but knowing that there are those that can and do recover from their maladies is a positive pull that keeps us moving forward.
Toe socks, anyone? Have you seen these crazy things? They are socks, but with individual little “fingers” for each of your toes to go into, like gloves. One of my patients had her brother bring me a pair as a gift, which I thought was incredibly sweet. As I was told, Iraqi’s hate white socks. In the past (not entirely sure about currently) part of the required school uniform were clean, white socks. In a country covered in sand and dirt where it is difficult to maintain a level of cleanliness on a good day, the difficulty of keeping children’s socks clean was an even greater challenge. In the direct words of one of the interpreters, “All Iraqi’s hate white socks. Never could keep them clean, we just got a new pair every few days.” After having this conversation with the interpreter (who I shall add was wearing black and red heart covered socks) and my patient (who was wearing pink, blue, and yellow striped socks), I revealed that I was wearing the dreaded white socks as part of my work uniform. This evidentially led to my gaining of a pair of Iraqi yellow and blue toe socks. I haven’t tried them on yet, so perhaps a review will follow.
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