On Sunday July 22nd, our company celebrated the one year anniversary of our deployment. We have been in Kosovo now for 9 months and are looking forward to the end of our time here. It is amazing to me how fast this time has gone and I am so thankful to be almost finished with this mission.
Things continue to be pretty slow here which is always good. The big news here is the weather. It has been over 100 degrees for about the past 8-10 days! Today has been a little better, there is at least a breeze keeping us cool. The attached pictures are from a trip to the French camp to tour their medical facilities. On the way back, we made our way up to Big Duke to cool down (since the elevation is around 8500 feet). The lake is commonly refered to as immersion lake. Its a little low in this picture from a serious lack of rain. The hot weather and little rain fall have sparked some fires that are now burning out of control. Our task force has been working with local authorities to help contain the fires but just like any other wildfire, they are pretty hard to contain.
I hope that all is well at home. I am looking forward to getting home and seeing everyone again. Please don’t forget about Scott. He is still laid up at home and will be going in for his ACL replacement on August 22nd. Say a prayer for him.
Take care and keep in touch. I miss you all.
Love, Jackie

I am sure that everyone knows by now that I have had my first of two surgeries on my knee. On Monday, I went into Frick Hospital and had my miniscus repaired. All in all everything went very well. My mom and dad came to the house on Sunday and took me to the hospital on Monday morning. After waiting for about 3 hours I finally went to the OR and they cut me. After waking up I received my crutches and headed home.

Mom and dad did a great job taking care of me until Jackie came home on Wednesday. There is no way that I would be able to do everything for myself if they were not here. I also finally showered today for the first time since Monday…gross I know.

Anyway, I have put a couple pictures up that are from the surgery. I will try to explain them the best that I can.

If you look at the circle on the top right you can see the screws that they put into my miniscus. The cool thing is that they are sugar screws so that they disolve once the healing is complete.

This is just a picture of the doctor doing some work. He said that his instruments are about the size of the tip of a pen.

This picture is the reason for my next surgery. This is my torn ACL. Dr. Kennen said he went in and removed the remaining strands of ligament that were attached and just cleaned up the ACL a little bit. I know, it doesn’t look good.

My knee really doesn’t look too bad. It is a little bit swollen but I thought it would be worse. The second picture is the contraption that I have to wear for the next 4 weeks. All in all things are going pretty well. Jackie is doing a great job taking care of me. She is the best wife ever (sorry other wives out there, I am a little bias). Feel free to call or come over whenever you want. I am not going anywhere