Goodbye DC

Good Ole Honky Tonk
My last few months in DC were a mixture of work, work, school, presentations, and goodbye's. I was so incredibly fortunate to have the most amazing group of friends and so many random people that i hung out with that i had to stagger my goodbye parties in order to hang out with everyone. The hardest part of leaving was leaving all of them. It is not often that you find people that you click so easily with and i miss them so much already.

I also was able to go to Nashville to see one of my Besties! I hadn't seen Kaye since her wedding and she and i were both in desperate need of a girls weekend. She because Bobby was deployed and I because my life was insane. It was just what the Dr. ordered! Live country music, BBQ, warm summer nights and my girl..what more could i ask for :)

Yooper Girl
Somewhere in the midst of all my goodbyes and work, i squeezed in a quick trip back to the U.P. I was so happy i was able to make it back for my Friend Desi's wedding. I had been 3 YEARS since i had seen her, and hadn't even met her adorable daughter Liv! Desi is what i consider my best friend from college and i didn't want to miss her big day. Though this meant i would miss my former roommate and nursing student buddy Abby's wedding..i knew i had to be there for Desi. My college memories are primarily of our hilarious times together and she is still the girl i can call whenever i need to talk..no matter how long the time is between the conversations!

This trip also allowed me to hang out for an entire week with my absolute favorite person to be around...FAREN! Faren picked me up and was basically my taxi and travel partner for the whole week, providing her usual sense of calm, serenity and happiness. I never have a bad day around Fare-bear. Love you girl.

I was also so happy that i was able to spend a day with my other amazing friend Heather. Heather and i will go months without talking and pick up right where we left off. I love my friends to death and am so darn blessed to have all of them in my life.

I also got to see my family for a quick minute at my aunts camp in Hermits Cove. The short recluse captured a little piece of my heart as it always does. Something about being around my family and lake Superior makes me not want to go back to my every day life. :)

Cali!
After i finally said all my goodbyes and all the stress of outprocessing and packing my entire life into my brand new Xterra and moving boxes, i headed to AZ for some much needed R and R. In true Kara fashion..i was packing 3 hrs before i left for my flight at 3 am...and when i arrived in AZ i still had three papers due for my masters. :) I am a professional procrastinator! Luckily my sisters are amazing and set me up to get everything done and still have a killer time. The best part of the entire trip was getting to visit California for the first time! Spending the weekend with my Mom, and sisters Mona and Deanna in Ocean side California was a breath of fresh air. WE kayaked, swam in the surf, ate delicious dinners, and i tried stand up paddle boarding for the first time! It was a blast. I love my family so much and this vacation re-affirmed the fact once again. :)

Year in Review

So many thoughts are swirling through my head and i only hope i can put all of it into a coherent paragraph. It has been an incredible 3 years and 3 months since i joined the Air Force. I don't think i realized just how much I've changed and become my own person until i re-read all of my blog posts from the beginning...how fun for me! And so enlightening! But before i touch on that...it has been almost another YEAR since i've written and a very eventful one at that. Though most of you have probably followed it all on Facebook, i feel i should do it justice by at least summarizing the craziness. :)

13.1 Been there, done that!
I did it! I ran my half marathon with my girlfriends and had a blast the entire time. I actually enjoyed the outfit as well. When they first told me that i had to wear a blue shirt and a hot pink tutu over my running tights i was horrified...turns out it made the whole experience even better. The "princess" theme was overwhelming and every single runner had some princess aspect incorporated..we were UNDERdressed! The best part was running through the castle which is usually closed to the public. For a girl that had never been to DisneyWorld, i relished my inner child and had a blast exploring everything Disney. :) It was a much needed breather from my daily routine of work, eat, sleep, Trauma.

Cherry blossom 10 miler-take 2
Finally! From the first year i arrived in DC i knew i wanted to run in the cherry blossom 10 miler. The first year i volunteered and got an automatic entry into the next year which i wasn't able to utilize do to my heart complications. Luckily for me, Rich and I won the lottery..literally..the race lottery is highly competitive and for some reason we both got picked! We had so much fun running together, though if i'm being honest, he ran circles around me. The half marathon was amazing but my quick training resulted in a huge PAINFUL heel spur making running much more difficult. Rich didn't train at all and still managed to "jog" next to me..lol! He was amazing and i'm just glad we were able to do something like this together. Afterwards we stopped by a city hot-dog vendor to celebrate :)

New York, New York!
With Rich deploying for the second time in two years, we made a point to see each other chance we got. In true Kara style..i wanted to make it super special :) Even though i had experienced a TON in DC while living there, i still hadn't been to New York...and neither had Rich. I managed to plan an amazing trip on a budget..complete with a bus ride from DC, a military hostel, a bus tour around the city, times square, statue of liberty, empire state building, and a lazy afternoon in Central Park. It was so much fun to truly get lost and experience the city with my love!

Roughing it
In addition to New York, Rich and i wanted a little taste of nature as well. We ended up hiking Old Rag mountain..a STRENUOUS hike in the beautiful Shanendoah with my wonderful friends Tiffany and Alex. We stopped at a vineyard afterwards and tasted the best wine i've EVER had...a bottle later and dinner at the beautiful rustic resort..we slept the night in a tiny cabin overlooking the ridge. Well Rich slept. I don't know what was going on with me but i was seeing creepy shadows and lights and COULD not sleep! i had to laugh..finally i turned the lights on and made Rich wake up! hahah...this girl is such a wuss when it comes to certain things. The next day we ate an amazing breakfast overlooking the hazy blue ridge mountains and I was reminded how much fun i have with Rich...though our times are few and far between. I was so excited to introduce Rich to another of my favorite activities..horseback riding! We went on a trail ride, which in all honesty was less than stellar as i had a horse that was a bit feisty and Rich had a horse that was practically asleep! All in all ...it was a fun experience :)

Only in DC
I have had my fair share of surreal experiences in DC but this spring i had two of the most amazing opportunities. 1.) I met President Obama..shook his hand and got my picture taken with him when he visited some of the wounded warriors to hand out purple hearts. For specific reasons i can't post the pic here. 2.) I got to randomly attend the spring garden tour at the White House with my friend tiffany. It was a random spring day and we happened to be one of the limited # of people handed tickets. what an amazing experience to tour the gardens and actually be able to TOUCH the white house...and see the snipers on the roof. LOl :)

life as i know it

Wow...has it really been an entire year since i wrote last? I guess it just goes to show that i have been incredibly busy. Since there is no way that i could ever update everything in the past year, here are the highlights of whats happening right now:

TRAUMA
I see a lot of it. WAAAAAAYYYY more than i thought i would see. I work all the time, often ending up with 16 hr days due to medevacs arriving late plus a slightly ridiculous commute. Some days i feel like i've become a bit jaded as now when i read the injuries a triple amputee with frag/shrapnel/5+ woundvacs doesn't even phase me...it's expected. Pretty much all my patients are IED Blasts and though they look terrifying attached to every type of cord, machine, and monitor possible i've become incredibly comfortable with taking care of them. In a sad way, they're all the same. The brain trauma is the worst. I've seen quite a few gun shot wounds to the head and many many blast trauma head wounds where we remove most of the skull and place a catheter in the brain to drain excess cerebral spinal fluid and blood and to monitor increasing pressures. In a sick way i love the neuro patients but they are also the hardest to deal with. I can handle any patient with wounds if at the end of the day, they are still themselves....families are around 24/7 here in the ICU and it's heartbreaking to explain that their son is not going to make it or that a hand squeeze doesn't really mean that he's responsive but rather a reflex meaning his brain isn't functional. I've had some pretty rough days where i wonder why i chose/beg to have this position...days when ive had to explain to a four year old why his dad isn't responding to him...days when a neuro-surgeon tears up at the side of the bed after trying for an entire shift to stabilize the bleed in a previously responsive soldiers brain..nights where i didn't leave a patients bedside because they were to afraid to close there eyes and see the blast that took their friends over and over. Even to me, this sometimes sounds a bit melodramatic...i feel like you become slightly hardened on the inside when you deal with this day after day and must be a source of knowledge and support to grief-stricken families. Sometimes the long ride home after work is all i really need to just be alone and think...and sometimes i do lose it...usually when i least expect it..:) it's impossible to not be affected by all of it, no matter how strong i may be.

But enough with the depressing talk! For all it's stress and emotional drain, i couldn't ask for a better job. I am doing EXACTLY what i wanted to do when i joined the military and i am a far better nurse for it. Nowhere else can you see the kind of trauma and new interventions/studies than right where i'm at. So though the days are long and i feel like all i do is eat, sleep and work at times...i feel incredibly blessed and so thankful for the opportunity.

Moving on
All that being said...it's about time for a change. I've been here in DC for over 2 yrs and in the Air Force for almost three! I went to talk to my chief nurse about my next career move and i was really psyched to go to Germany. However that was out of the question at this time because i need to ground deploy and then become CCATT certified (all good things but not happening at this time). My next choice was travis afb in california as they have a new open heart cardiothoracic icu opening and lets just be honest..it's california! ;) However, that also was not in the cards d/t military considerations such as TOS (time on station). To keep it short and sweet, i was just informed by my lovely chief nurse that this AF LT is starting a new adventure in Anchorage, Alaska at the end of the Summer!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sooooo excited and trying to not get ahead of myself until i see my actual orders. It is quite official as of now, but as ive learned in my short military career...everything is subject to change. :)

I think i can, i think i can
In addition to my daily repertoire of "eat, sleep, work," i've decided to add "RUN" to the mix! I've been desperate to get back in shape again and really would like to enjoy running. I don't know how many races i've signed up for in the past and found an excuse not to run. Not this time! My friend Tiffany and i have been training for the Disney Princess half marathon for the past several weeks and i can finally say that i feel like i can do it! I've had a few great 8 mile runs and for the first time in my life i feel as if i could be an actual runner some day! :) Race day is fast approaching: Feb 27 and we are running through the Magic Kingdom in hot pink tutus and running tights! It will be a much needed break and i'm so excited.

In addition to the 1/2 marathon, I was INCREDIBLY lucky to win the cherry blossom lottery entry! Hundreds of thousands of runners enter a lottery to run the DC cherry blossom 10 miler every year where they shut down the streets of DC and you run around all the fabulous sights. Rich and i put our names in on a whim and both got selected! April is going to be an exciting month for us because we have both the run to look forward to and another week of just exploring DC...it will have been four months since we've seen each other last. Rich is then deploying to Qatar yet again and i will most likely be in Alaska by the time he returns. :) Our life is ever full of surprises but i wouldn't have it any other way.

Well that's the meat of it...i will try to be better with keeping everyone updated on my life in the coming months!