Day Thirty-Three

16 September 2006
Today was the first day I went outside all week. Can you believe it? For one who loves to be outside, I was perfectly content to stay inside. Can you guess why? It is HOT. The ship has become a nice refuge from the heat, though it does continue to stay fairly warm inside. I went outside after lunch to let the captain show me and explain to me the mine-sweeping equipment that we are demonstrating the next several days. We picked up (or rather, we were landed on by) another crew of helo’s and pilots. The huge helos drag this big sled-like thing in the water to find/detonate mines. It is interesting. Apparently, there are a lot of mines out here in different areas. A lot of them are left over from the Iran-Iraq war. I also went outside to see the sunset. The air was so heavy! We were moving very slowly and there was not any trace of a breeze. It was quite stagnant and felt like I could not get a very good breath in into my lungs because the air was so thick. The colors tonight seemed to also be stagnant. Too much water in the air! Oh, well. I at least breathed some non-recirculated air!
Medical has been consistent. Smallpox side effects are decreasing. It seems to be too hot to have URI’s (upper respiratory illness) but we have plenty of skin issues. All my patients today, except two, were in to see me because of skin rashes. A few were heat rash, others were exacerbated fungal infections and some were rashes that I call just generic “dermatitis” because I have no idea what it is. Skin never looks or acts like what my dermatology book says, so often I have to “logically guess” at a diagnosis. Now it tends to be a fun game of how often I can guess correctly. Ha!