Random thoughts:MREs and ear wax

Today I had a MRE for lunch. Reported you can buy them in the market in Kabul. How they make it to the market is a good question. We were told that when they “fall off a truck”, the boxes are taken to market to be sold. It was the coolest experience. In a box of 12 were a variety of dinners. It was like a full menu of choices and even a vegetarian could be accommodated with a hot meal. There was chili, sloppy joes, spaghetti, chicken and dumpling and quesadillas. Mine was meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I figures out how to open the blessed packet, I took stock of all it contained. Sizing up the portions and menu, I am sure if I had been able to eat every bit of it I would have had double, even triple daily weight watcher points. But look who they are cooking for!

So the scientist in me was totally enthralled with the exothermic heating process of the meal. All the necessary equipment was present: a special bag, water and the foiled seal meatloaf. Just pour a bit water in the bag, stick the meatloaf in and in 10+ minus you have hot meatloaf that didn’t taste too bad. I heated to the mashed potatoes just to taste and they weren’t the greatest. There were crackers and jelly, a cookie, tootsie rolls, hot chocolate and instant lemon flavored tea. An interesting fact is that MREs also contain an after dinner mint. It looks like a chicklet piece of gum and you’re thinking, “great I can clean my palate!” Truth is the gum/mint contains sorbitol, which is meant to act as a laxative. Good to know before I ate them – which I didn’t mind you!

I saw a little 10 yo boy who said he had headaches and was dizzy. Dizzy is one of the complaints I truly don’t like to see because it is so vague and individual. This can make it hard to work up. My gestalt of the child was he was overall well. No murmur or tachycardia and a quick neuron check was normal. I did though find a R ear that was cerumen impacted. I washed that ear out and got the satisfaction of removing one large piece of hard ear booger! I pray this was contributing to his dizziness and now he will be cured. If not, at least his hearing will be improved.