Doing Time

So I realized it's been about a week since I last posted to the blog.  On one hand, it's hard to remember exactly where the week went, on the other hand it seems like it was a long time ago...

It's very easy to lose track of time here for many reasons.  First of all, everyday is pretty much the same routine - we start at 6:30 in the morning reviewing X-rays and then make rounds in the ICU.  This is followed by a quick breakfast and then off to the "No Issues" meeting - so named because all the departments in the hospital meet to discuss issues, but nobody ever has any.  We then round on the ward.  Once rounds are done, the rest of the day consists of (not necessarily in this order) cases in the OR (if there are any to do), going to the gym, taking a nap, either dropping off or picking up laundry, reading, waiting for the pager to go off, checking the mail, dinner, and often times a movie in the "Doc Box" (the room in the hospital where we spend a great deal of time).  Everyday I tell myself I'm going to get to sleep early, but invariably I either end up chatting with Greg on Facebook, or reading, or both, and don't quite get to bed as early as hoped.  (This explains the necessity for the daily nap.)  The one day of the week which is different is Sunday because instead of starting at 6:30, we start at 7:30, but as you may well guess, this isn't a very big distinction.

The second reason it is difficult to keep track of time is because I'm also trying to keep track of time back home - so when it's today here, it's yesterday there.  And when it's today there, it's tomorrow here.  I still have my watch set to San Antonio, I guess I sort of did that as a way to feel connected to home, and maybe to deny the fact that I am not there.  But invariably I still look at my watch and end up having to do complex math to figure out the local time.

The math is complex because Afghanistan is one of those few rare places in the world where the time is off by a half hour.  So when I look at my watch, I have to subtract 2-and-a-half hours and make it tomorrow to have the local time.  For those of you who I have spoken to about this half-hour difference, I have to correct myself regarding the number of countries in the world that are not on the hour.  I thought there were only 4 countries on the half hour, but I looked it up on Wikipedia and actually Newfoundland, India, Iran, Venezuela, Burma, the Marquesas (in the South Pacific) and parts of Australia are also on the half hour.  And to take it a step further, Nepal and the Chatham Islands of New Zealand are on the quarter hour.  And, China is just in one big time zone.  (Oddly enough, we don't observe daylight savings time here, so it's getting very bright in the mornings.)

To further complicate the time issue, the patient charts are supposed to maintained in Zulu time.  This is to help standardize things as the patients move through the system from Afghanistan to Germany and on to the US which has it's own variety of time zones.  So, some of the clocks in the hospital are local and some are Zulu, and some people are adamant about doing everything in Zulu and some aren't.

Despite all this confusion, one lesson that I first learned as a medical student and fully appreciated as a resident is that no matter what "they" try to do to you, they can't stop the clock.  So every minute spent here is one less minute that I have to spend here.  I'm fairly certain that I'm at about the halfway mark, so the time ahead of me is less than the time behind me, and the light at the end of the tunnel is shining a little brighter each day.

Regarding the daily activity of checking the mail I have to say again the support that I have received from everyone back home has been incredible and has made all the difference in the world.  Thank you.

And, for one more exciting update, earlier this week I was reunited with my missing laundry bag after three long weeks.  I now have so much clean underwear that I'm tempted to change it in the middle of the day just because I can.