CASREC

Casualty Reception was my assigned area. Basically, we were in charge of greeting the patients, getting a basic history, making sure vital signs were stable, got radiology tests, poked for blood, and sent them to the wards. The people I worked with were hilarious. A Lt from Australia and Canada joined us with the navy nurses. We often had a lot of down time and would sleep, eat, read, or sometimes have pure moments of crazy. Kayla Horton quickly became one of my favorite people. We took crazy pictures and watched a lot of the olympics. Loved these crazy crazy people. 

My favorite part was playing with the kiddos. I found a remote control car that was a hit and used frequently. I got pretty good at hitting people with it too!

Cross word puzzles kept us busy for a while. 

 

Lots of crazy Wheelchair races! They may or may not have been secured due to our adventures. There were a few anti-fun people on the ship. But we just got more creative!

We were inspired to perform our own version of the Gymnastics Competition. A few muscles may have been pulled. A great deal of dizziness and insanity were involved as well. 

Every Morning and Every Night we swept and cleaned the bathrooms for "sweepers" 

 

We were also in charge of clearing for TB and Lice Checking. I put that loverly outfit on a few times. My head still itches just thinking about it. We debugged about half of the patients and their escorts. Just part of the spa services provided on the ship. 

Yeah in Cambodia we had patients squatting in the sink. We got a little creative--I blame sleep deprivation--and decided to pose as well as draw pictures. Isn't Kayla's Artwork beautiful?

My Favorite Casrec Nurses

Kayla eventually got over her bubble with me by the end. I promise!!

USNS MERCY

Some how I got it in my head that being on a GIANT boat again would be a great idea. Especially if I was traveling halfway across the world. I joined up with LDS Charities and traveled from July 4 to August 12, 2012 in Vietnam and Cambodia. We teamed up with the navy and many other nations and groups to perform medical, dental, optho, engineering, and veterinarian services.  I don't know how I get myself into these things. 

 There was a few long flights from Salt Lake to Los Angelas to Korea to Manilla. The longest being 15 hours of a straight flights. Luckily,  I had Hunger Games and various other movies to entertain me because sleep was close to impossible. Seriously, who can sleep sitting on a plane! I also sat next to Jan JOhnson and Whitney Johnson for the entire flight travel. A great way to break the ice and dive in. Jan Actually became Auntie Jan. 

 The ship itself is about 3 football fields. It may look big but after 6 weeks trust me its actually quite small. It use to be an old oil tanker they converted over. The helicopter and flight deck quickly became my favorite part of the ship. I loved sitting up on the deck--when they weren't doing flight quarters--and feel the breeze and just think. I had a lot of time to just sit back and think. The flight deck was perfect for it.