“Hey, Jaded Julie, Mack is back safe and sound.”
“Hooray! We’ve been waiting a whole year for that to happen. Does that mean that we won’t have any more postings with the Afghanistan ER title?”
“I don’t know. He was planning to accompany the troops on at least two more missions before the end of their deployment, and I haven’t heard anything about them. Perhaps he’ll have something to say when I see him in about a week.”
“Curmudge, I’m concerned about how the transition will be for one coming from the horrors of war back to the relatively peaceful U.S. No more patients with legs blown off and ghastly pelvic wounds. No more wearing a uniform soaked with (other people’s) blood. No more wondering if your next step will be your last.”
“It will certainly be a relief, but probably much more. We tend to think that to a physician it’s all in a day’s work, but they can’t avoid being affected by what they are seeing and doing day after day.”
“Do you suppose that it might be somewhat like grieving, where one’s sense of loss—and possibly in Mack’s case, outrage—will subside over time?”
“A big similarity will likely be that although images of persons and events will fade, a portion will be indelibly etched in some far corner of one’s mind. Apparently that has been the case with veterans of World War II. The rate-limiting step in healing is how long it takes for one’s mind to accept that what once was reality is no longer the case.”
“Interesting thoughts, Curmudge. They remind me of the Kaizen Curmudgeon blog where we often discuss topics about which you know little or nothing.”
