I finished up the DDQC last Friday with a mass casualty drill. Time to practice all those medical skills we learned in the prior days. Pretty grim and grisly, even though we all knew it was fake blood spurting at us.
Monday I had my physical exam. I was so proud of myself, the med tech sucked four vials of blood out of me and I didn't even come close to losing consciousness.
Talking with the doctor was another matter, tho. Seems my bionic back is not a deployment issues. Neither is my BMI ... old pudgy guys can go into a combat zone with everyone else. The potential show-stopper? My sleep apnea. Seems CENTCOM considers untreated sleep apnea as a total disqualifier. I had to produce a copy of the results from my last polysomnogram (sleep study), and the doc hit me with his bottom line. I have to get a new CPAP machine (with a rechargeable battery pack) and demonstrate that I'm using it before the doc will clear me for deployment. Yet another hurdle in the quest to serve my country ...
So now I'm in northern New Jersey, with my wife's family, and we broke the news last night. Nobody seems overly concerned, which is a good thing. Right now, the biggest thing on my radar is ensuring that the prime rib roast gets cooked to perfection tomorrow. Afghanistan can wait until I get home. A secondary consideration is whether or not I'll be able to fire up a Christmas stogie. We shall see.
Merry Christmas, friends!
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