Really... Pig Tails?

I know it has been awhile. It has been quite busy here. We were down to only two providers for the entire clinic for a bit, but we thankfully have our wonderful female PA back from Kabul. And she's female which helps the gender ratio a bit.

So I have to vent about a incident that occurred last week. There are somethings about the military I appreciate and others I really don't. I love the crew I work with in the clinic. They keep me laughing on my bad days. Last week, however, I was walking out of the core class at the gym and was ordered out of the gym by a first sergeant (sort of the enlisted member charged with keeping their troops in line). She absolutely laid into me about me wearing pig tails in the gym as it is out of regulation. She claimed I had been warned before (which I never have) and that I should know better after nearly 4 years in the military (3 of which were residency and a completely different story) as well as threatened me with an LOR (Letter of reprimand - very bad on the military record) if I ever wore pig tails again. Let me remind everyone here that I have short hair now and I was in my PT uniform, not ABU's and it was the best way to wear my hair to keep it out of my face during my workout. I was so thoroughly taken aback by being accosted in this way that I didn't remember her name. However, just yesterday I had a soldier come to me about a profile for chronic knee pain. He probably shouldn't have been sent to theater, but since he was there I was going to do my best to keep him pain free and able to do his job which meant yes - on profile for a little while until we determine if the therapy (steroid injection in the knee included) would help. He said his first sergeant would want to speak to me. No problem of course. His first Sgt could call or come in anytime during clinic hours. Guess who the first sgt was? My pigtail lady of course. She recognized me and I surely recognized her, but nothing was mentioned of the pigtails or my current hairstyle. I made my argument for the soldier and she left only to call back asking again if the soldier would be able to do his job. I repeated for the 3rd or 4th time that I didn't know and that we would have to wait to see if the plan of care worked well enough or not. She said that wasn't good enough. Her command wants to know if he will be able to work or not. You can see how frustrating my job can be sometimes. Granted this might have been a little harsh, but I told her I forgot my crystal ball and that she and her command will have to wait. After I hung up my techs gave me a high five.

Was that too much?

Enough about that. I've also started teaching yoga classes once a week at the gym and I think I'm going to like it. Last night went very well and I got several compliments. I'm looking forward to creating another routine for next week and choosing the music. Jen, got any good celtic albums for yoga tempo?

Anyway, I better get going. I have to shower and go to a quick meeting with our new hospital commander - another female family doc I know from the States. That's the nice thing about the military.

Hopefully more pics soon.