Day in the Life

BURDASH: Right now, we’re at our nine millimeter weapons range. So we’re getting ready, we’re getting all set up for the day. All the safety staff are getting here, and we’re starting to get all the ammo ready, and what we’ll be doing is firing at these, actually. They’ve changed the regulations, so now the way we fire, not only we’ll be standing and firing at the targets, but we also get to walk towards them and fire that way. So, that’ll be a new adventure. Like you see, you can see all the range; these will actually pop up and pop down. And then we’ll have multiple firers going at once. So I’ll be one of those firers. We’ll actually be changing magazines while we walk forward towards the firing line, from the back. So it’ll be a little bit more dynamic, a little bit more realistic.

This is part of our annual qualifications. We have to make sure that we are proficient in whatever our assigned duty weapon is. Last time I shot, I shot expert. So, that’s my goal. And if not, at least we’ll have a good time, and try to hit as many targets as we can.

MALE: Firers, at this time, go ahead and move out. Cease fire there, cease fire. Clear off make sure that it’s clear.

BURDASH: So, not quite as good as I did last year, but still not too bad. You know, sharpshooter is OK. I would have preferred expert like last year, but considering it was the first time doing walking, not too bad. Next time I’ll practice up and try to beat these guys.

NGUYEN: The best of my job is, people come in with a wide range of knowledge about their skin. Some people know all about gentle skin care; other people are like, “I don't even know what moisturizer to use.” So it’s exciting for me to be able to see where patients are at, and then imparting them a certain amount of knowledge and then having them come back and continue to layer knowledge. Hi, good morning, how are you?

PATIENT: Good morning, how are you?

NGUYEN: Good to see you again.

PATIENT: Good to see you as well.

NGUYEN: Petty officer is here to treat PFB, or pseudofolliculitis. Because of the thickness and curliness of the hair, when the hair gets cut, it curls back into the skin and causes a keloidal papule, or a scar. So this is extremely tender, painful and itchy and cosmetically disfiguring. So we’ve found that use of the laser hair removal to target the hair follicles to actually decrease the thickness in the caliber of the hair. How did you feel the last treatment went? No side effects?

PATIENT: No, ma’am.

NGUYEN: OK, so maybe we can be more aggressive then. So the hair bulb, which is below the skin surface, is the target, and that’s where the origin of the hair is from. And — so you’re not destroying the hair itself — you’re trying to target the origin of the hair, which is the bulb or the bulge. I currently serve as the sole Navy dermatologist for the Pacific Northwest. Because of the Military, I had the best dermatology education in the country, and I want to ensure that I take great care of my patients. So I teach them how to take care of themselves, and then they come back to me to fine-tune their regimen.

FORSBERG: After finishing up at Walter Reed and attending morning rounds, I go to the Naval Medical Research Center to touch base with the basic science team. And they’re engaged in pre-clinical research, benchtop research, if you will. So I’ll meet with them and go over the projects and make sure everything’s on track.

I serve as department head for the Naval Medical Research Center’s regenerative medicine department. So we focus on complications like heterotopic ossification, which is the formation of bone in soft tissues. We focus on wound healing, and we also focus on improving the lives of patients with amputations.

So let’s go take a look at the lab. One of the experiments that’s ongoing right now is to determine whether a nerve injury commonly seen after a blast requires surgical treatment. If the nerve doesn’t recover, it requires surgery to be replaced. If the nerve is going to recover or has the capacity to recover, it’s better off if it were to recover on its own, without surgery.

So the purpose of this experiment is to differentiate between nerves that have the capacity to heal from nerves that don’t. The ultimate goal would be to use this technology to help guide surgical decision-making in the early phases of wound debridements.

One of the biggest benefits of being in the Military is being put into a leadership position relatively early in your career. I’ve had the opportunity to do that, both on the clinical side and on the research side. And this is not something that would happen in the civilian setting until much later in one’s career.