Sunday-
We should have just stayed up all night because the wakeup call came at 2:15am!! We had a 5:30am flight from Manila to Roxas City. The flight was less than an hour and we stepped off the plane to see a beautiful tropical island. We were greeted by a lovely welcoming committee and local rhythm. The LaHacienda Hotel is a short drive from the airport but I noticed that the main transportation is a colorful painted tricycle with a motorized bike attached to it. We were given coconuts with the top cut off and a straw to drink the coconut milk- that is probably where Danny and Ann Caroline picked up that nasty little GI bug : ( Everyone else hurriedly took a Cipro prophylaxis tablet Sunday night.
Preop clinic all Sunday afternoon. We filled up the OR schedule for three rooms for the week and had to send patients away. The hospital is a short walk from the hotel or a very short ride by a volunteer Rotarian.
Sonny hosted us for dinner at her home/compound. She owns half of the town and has fish farms for export. Now I know where Publix gets its shrimp.
Monday-
The first cases on the first day are always slow to get going but we had three rooms going by about 9:00am. John David and Fouad and Chris were fixin' a cute kid with a cleft lip. Julie, Dewayne and Danny got to work on a woman with a huge thyroid goiter. Dick, Kelli, Lorna and I saved a woman in the nick of time by removing a gigantic soccer ball-sized ovarian cyst. We saw a few more patients in the clinic, made post-op rounds and happily returned to the hotel poolside for a foot soak and beer ( no more coconut milk for us).
We will sleep well tonight.
jj
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ReplyDeleteDANG!! I didn't know everyone could see the comments!! Glad I didn't talk dirty!!
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