Friday - Last Post before leaving

Thursday Surgery

OK – another normal start to the day. Scrambled eggs and more fresh fruit and OJ. Back to the room to brush teeth (proper dental hygiene) and grab my bags for the bus ride. We get to our spot in the parking lot and have our quick team meeting then inside to set up. The hallways are always full of people waiting to be seen (by hospital staff, not our peeps). We get set up, the docs/anesthesiology/scrub nurses have their quick meeting while Michael and Miguel are rounding up the first set of patients.

We also screen people during the day that hear late about us. We had 4 of them yesterday. Three were operated on. But one of the ladies sat at the check in table and popped out her breast and feed her baby. Not that I was shocked, but kinda amused that she would do it right there. Why not wait the 20 minutes till you were done and sitting outside to pull the ole nipple out and let the youngin start slurping away. Even when the kid that was having surgery was in the Recovery Room, I happened to walk thru and there she was with her nipple out again. AND NO JOE PERROTTA, it wasn’t all that sexy to look at. Now if Miss Nicaragua was breast feeding a youngin, maybe I would have had to set up my computer in there (sorry Cindy – I am being bad).

Energizer boy had surgery

I have this lady who was hobbling down the hallway with a cane and her son (son or some man that is a few years younger, she seems to be 60’s or so, he seem 40’s maybe 50’s) by me, I have this 6 ft table I work at and we have a chair at the other end so my co-workers have a place to sit and do some work. She plops herself down and they are discussing something back and forth and she is whining and crying, not sure what about. This goes on for 3 or 4 minutes and then they start to go again. She says something to me, I tell her no hablo espanol and then danada (your welcome). I am assuming she is thanking me.

Yesterday we did 30 surgeries. Two that came in later on were labeled as Tongue Tied so Neil Wells did those, took about 20 minutes apiece. They were called Frenulectomy’s. The charts went into surgery before I had a chance to put them in the computer so I saw in Recovery and entered them. I did the first (remember things get a little hectic at times and the girl that just got it done was having a fit – she was having a fit before the surgery as well) and then went and sat down to enter the second. I was typing the same info for the Frenulectomy and thought I was screwing up. The names were different so I have Rebecca who was with the second child ask the mother if both the kids were related and they were cousins. Small world. The second one was a boy and he was very good before hand. However after he woke up in Recovery, he wasn’t feeling so well. So more crying.

Everyone’s sweetheart had his surgery yesterday. Energizer Boy from the first day. He was even cuter yesterday, his hair seemed to have more of a slicked back look to it, remember he has this blond really curly hair. He was all over the courtyard playing with stuff. Karen and I went out to take a pic with him, his dad had him in his arms at the time. He wasn’t having the best time at that point but did quit fidgeting for a moment so we could take the pic. We found out he was hungry and was being a tad cranky cuz of it. They are cut off a certain time before surgery from having any foods or water. It gets bad back there. Michael who is running Pre-Op, found a grandmother with her son under a wrap with a bottle in it’s mouth. He had to scold her about that. He had no other problems (that he could see, cept for this one, he figured the parents listened to him but the grandmothers think they can rule back there but he had to set her straight.
Late in the afternoon/early evening for some reason we had a grunch (there is that word again, it means a whole bunch) of skeeters. I finally couldn’t sit out in the hallway anymore as I was swatting my legs more than I could type, and my small can of spray was back in the room. Yeah yeah – I can hear you now. That does me a lot of good leaving it in the room. I thought it was in my backpack I bring daily. Oh well. I moved over into the break room, which you go thru the Recovery Room to get to. I finished up my daily surgery list, making all the changes to it and then inputting Friday’s list so I could print copies of that. Had it done and they added a late minute one on it, so made that change and printed (actually hadn’t printed the earlier schedule yet). Got it all printed and slammed stuff in my backpack and other bag (that I put the printer, paper, my scrubs so I could go into surgery) and boogied out to catch the bus as he was maneuvering it around some vehicles so they could leave. There were a few people still here that were going to take cabs back so it wasn’t like they were leaving me behind.

Oh yeah – almost forgot to post this. As I was sitting here right before the skeeter attack, I noticed something coming from behind me and here comes a dog trotting down the hallway. Remember, right around the corner from me is the surgery area. Only in a third world country.

Caught the bus back and I was going to go get some dinner with a couple of the Recovery Room and Post-Op nurses and Michael who is the Pre-Op Nurse and the restaurant was closed. So we ended up heading back to our hotel (which is about a mile away) and had dinner there.

Friday Surgery – last day.

Ahhh – last day. I think they were poached eggs, little wieners (don’t ask me what kind of ingredients go in them down here), fruit and OJ. Back to the room, teeth, bag, TEAM T-SHIRT for the team picture and on the bus at 6:30. Had our meeting, picture and then all rambled in to get the surgeries started. Someone had taken my chair from overnight, I threw it under the table and it was here yesterday morning. No probs, just grab another plastic chair from another table.

We only have 14 scheduled for today (lips or a nose, no palates as those take longer and the recovery is longer). Karen and I have been to Post-Op twice to get our data and the second trip, this one older kid was in there complaining about his nose (he was supposed to get some Rhinoplasty done with it and it hadn’t happened. He got some Dental done (some teeth pulled) but they didn’t have the proper equipment so they sent him to Recovery then Post-Op. When he was awake enuf, that is when he realized no nose job. The docs sent some people around to find the right equipment from the hospital. 2 hour surgery later and he is done.

Some of these people are like gypsies here. I just watched a lady who has been sitting out in the courtyard waiting area for her to be able to go into the Recovery Room to see their son/daughter and they have their belongings with them. She had two suitcases, a bag, her purse. Of course there are people here who help them out, but it is like a person without a country around here. They go from the shelter with whatever belongings they have for a week plus stay, to the Pre-Op room the afternoon before then they head down to Post-Op where most will spend the night. Today’s kids were easier ones to do and I think they will be released late this afternoon. Some people only have a small bag. Guess they don’t have to worry about changing clothes every day.

I had to zip down to Post-Op, which is about a two minute walk down the hallway. This guy was in the process of mopping the floor, and on the way back (he was done and gone) you could see these dog tracks on the tile. Hmmmm. Who needs some surgery done. We have also had some skeeters this morning, but not as bad as last night.

I went back to Post-Op awhile ago (it is now 2:53 p.m. and have been writing off and on since 8:30 a.m.) and saw a medium size doggie trotting down the hallway. I yelled at it and it scooted away and when I turned the corner to go down the hallway, Mary Laurie (Recovery Room Nurse) asked me what I was yelling about and I told her. She just shook her head. The local people don’t seem to care. Maybe I should just get a Rum n Coke and forget about it. Sounds good to me.

We are in the process of finishing things up. The T-shirts I have been wearing during the day (I brought a bunch that I was not wearing back home) throughout the week, I have given out to some of the older male patients (10-18) and a couple of the guys that have been helping us around here.

Once everything is packed (I am still waiting on this last guy to get his Rhinoplasty done) and I have my reports printed out, I guess we head back to the hotel to do whatever before our big party tonight. I printed out Katie’s speech for her (I have the only computer with a printer) so she has that. Not sure what will be for dinner, but I bought a bottle of local Rum the beginning of the week, so all I need to get from the restaurant is my bottle of coke the bartender has in the fridge for me (part of it is left over from last night). There will be music and dancing as well (maybe dancing for me after a few rum n cokes). Our bus leaves at 7:30 tomorrow morning for Managua, which is about a 3 plus hour trip away. The students reminded me we have a pretty sizeable layover in Dallas (almost 4 hours I think) and they already have a good recommendation on a decent restaurant in the airport. We get back somewhere after 11:00 tomorrow night.

What am I going to do without SWEATING everyday.

3:55, most people are gone and Karen and I are trying to finalize things so we can boogy back. No doubt a lot of the others are at the pool sunning, having some adult refreshments and relaxing.

I will update pics when I get back and get a couple more videos loaded.

Me down in Nicaragua

On the way back to the hotel, what a different scene. Shops are open, lots of people milling about. When we were almost out of town, there were three guys probably within 50 feet of each other. One hawking peanuts, then there was a guy holding two live geese in his arms then a guy with two puppies in one hand and a cage with parakeets in the other.

that is it for now. Going for a swim, rum n coke, come back to shower and shave and go back to the pool for the party.

L8R G8Rs