Day Three - How to Improvize in the operating room....

OK, Day three just blew by without a moment to be able to post, so I'll do it in retrospect... We had two cases and they went very well, all things considered. Our whole team did an amazing job, and our local helper- nurses and medical students are absolute GEMS!!... They work so hard and just want to soak up as much as they can from us - and the local doctors are the same. I've had the Chief of Anesthesia in to 'assist' me with my spinal blocks and to see how I do things,  and the woman who is Chief of Gynecology scrubbed in with Dr. Davis and Dr. Bell today. They are very proud, but also very eager to learn from us. I think they're most amazed that we all do anything to help each other, since it's quite different here re: status, position, etc...

Anyway, the patients are amazing - terrified, stoic, and incredibly sweet and thankful. Their families come in to help care for them, and set up stoves and rice-cookers outside the door (pic at right) to help feed them, since the hospital provides no meals. Then they stay and help care for the patients in the post-op rooms, which are like really run-down motels with outside entrances. We were allowed to use this one small room for our post-op patients, but had to clean it first to make it look the way it does in this picture, and it was filthy! No wonder the post-op wound infection rate is 50%....

The children of these extended families are adorable, beautiful, and smile almost more than I do! - and I'm the biggest sucker ever born, so they've become my entourage when I'm out of the operating room.. Of course I came armed with (at Tessa's suggestion) FIVE pounds of double bubble, glitter pens, mini tonka toys, and Little Kitty necklaces, bracelets, and hair ties - all from Target's dollar aisle at home. Instant hit..

WAYYYYY more to tell, but I've got to get some sleep -