Chasmo’s Place
Just a biomed, ma’am, just a biomed.Archive for OpSmile
Home Again
Well the mission is over and I am home. Didn’t get a real chance to go online the last two days so here is my latest entry and a couple bonus pictures. Enjoy!
We ended up doing about 65 cases, which is great for a mission that we went in thinking about 40 would be done. The OR clean up was rather fast as we only really had 2 tables and the PACU to pack. The final afternoon was spent touring the town of Hinche, although about half of the team went to the Partners In Health’s hospital in Conch. Two days on the bumpy roads wasn’t in my plan so I did the town tour.
The ride back to PAP only took 3 hours, they seemed to have paved about 5 more miles of the road while we were in Hinche. Amazing! and a real time saver. The flight was delayed almost 2 hours because they loaded some pets in the unpressurized cargo hold, luckily for the pets they realized before take off, bad for us. Had to fly thru Miami international, as we ended up only having about 1.5 hours to go thru customs and recheck our luggage, and then thru security again. Finally got home around midnight, oh and they lost my luggage. Martines was the first on the carosel and mine never showed.
UPDATE: The luggage guy from US Air called and demanded I call him back immediately. I did, so my luggage should be at my house in about an hour.
Day 4…Almost Done
Well almost got a good nights sleep last night. Tory talked to the Father whom runs the camp to see if we could have power all night, instead of it going off at 11:00 and back on at 4AM. When the power goes off both Ken and I are woken because our CPAPs go off also, creating apnea instead of stopping it. LOL. Anyway, Tory asked the team for lights off and fans off at 11PM, the team graciously agreed, I felt so bad, because it is so hot, no fans runnn is a terrible thing to ask team members to endure. But they agreed. Power stayed on until 11:30PM and went back on at 3:30Am, so we added an hour, but not worth the heat.
Randy Sherman MD, OpSmile CMO flew in the AM, He will be helping today. Tomorrow we have our last day and there are only 2 cases per table, and they are all local. So a quick morning, and then we can pack. I think we should be out of the hospital by 2pm, if all goes well. Then we may go to Conch to see the Partners In Health hospital.
Was going to buy B/C a beautiful dress this AM, then realized that B/C may be C and not B and thus wouldn’t like the dress. Oh well. Not much else to buy here, where the market comes to us.
Day 3…Scream
Ok, sometimes you have kids that go thru the PACU with barely a whimper, today is not that day its a screaming tigers day in Haiti. No one is going thru quietly, and the first 2 days not a one cried for more than a moment. Its crazy, must be something in Kool-Aide that Arash is giving the kids, luckily Trudy is there to calm them down.
Day 2 of Haiti Surgery
So we are deep into our second day of surgery here in Hinche Haiti, and all is going well. We have decided to up the ante to 66 patients instead of the planned 40, by adding a local table. All is going well. I had my first fatherhood tingling in my stomach today. I was sitting in the PACU watching a mother and baby and it hit me how that will soon be my reality. Scary stuff. But I soo look forward to it. Love B/C already.
So our first day of surgery here in Hinche, Haiti. All is going well. The biomeds on staff were very helpful getting their Bovie up and running so that we could use it on our local table. Of course after they spent half of the day repairing it, the OR decided to wait until tomorrow to start using it. But all and all things are going very well.
I haven’t heard from Squish today, she is never logged on when I go online, and as it is surgery week, I will have little time to check. I miss her a lot and am worried about all of the crying she is doing because of her raised hormones. Read her blog today, and she says she is crying constantly, and is worried about the extra stress the baby is going to put on our lives, but that is just normal. I know its going to be quite stressful for sometime, but I also know how much love this child will have and how happy we are going to be having B/C.
Well my break is over. Hope all is well up north.
Still in Miami…
Well it seems that our flight out of Miami was cancelled last night, of course no one called us (Ken my Photog roommate, my photos are courtesy of me, and thus far my iPhone, sorry Chet), so we were in the lobby checked out at 4:30AM. Well now we are to leave at 7:30, maybe, the 10:30 flight is overbooked already and only a few of us, and I am not sure which, are on it, the next is 2PM and then there is no bus to get to Hinche so if we are on that we will be stuck in PAP, I for one would perfer to be stuck here in MIA.
On another note, if you are every traveling thru MIA, and stay at the Airport Comfort Inn, in room 316, on the window side, someone has place some glow in the dark stars on the ceiling.
Sunday…and I am in Miami
Well the day started out in Philly, and its ending in Miami, and tomorrow off to Haiti. Are we there yet? Got to PHL at noon, and finally got to MIA at 5:40. All I had to eat is 2 biscuits until about an hour ago, but then I had Ribs and Martine bought, so I guess I am going to like having her as a trainee. Although I really don’t think I will be doing much training of her. She is VP of PAMIA (the biomed trade society in Philly), so I think we will be doing ok.
After Squish dropped me off at the Airport she went and bought a new bed, much needed for us, and now we will have a king size so maybe I will have some space, she likes to hog the bed, but don’t tell her. LOL. I am a bit worried about her, she had a bad bout of morning sickness this AM, but seems to feel better now. Rissy, just says that means B/C will be a healthy strong baby, so thats good.
Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 4:45am, and its 9 now so I think I will get to sleep. Have a good night.
Feb. 28, 2008
Well its official, Squish closed on her first house sale this AM. After yesterday, she needed some happiness. Yesterday she had her first battle with morning sickness. Not fun. I only got to see a little of it, as I was at work all day, but she was in the bathroom all day. I am happy she is feeling better today, and as Rissy says (whom just finished battling the morning sickness), “It just means a healthy baby.”
I just spoke to Martine whom I am OpSmile Biomed training in Haiti next week. I have mixed emotions about going, as I know it will be my last trip for a while, with B/C on its way, and I really want to be around for Squish. That being said, I know OpSmile is for the greater good, and am happy to be going. It looks like the mission is going to be a step below Bolpur, which is really sad, because Bolpur is so poor, seeing people living like that simply hurts one’s soul. I am happy that I have the advantages and can offer what I can to help even just a few of them thru a few days. It’s true that we get back so much more than we give. It’s so sad that today not having a 60 inch TV is so important to us, and these people don’t have houses. Then I see celebrity volunteerism, which means that Oprah gives a million to someone somewhere, of course I am sure she is well reimbursed for such a hardship. She could go down to NO and give everyone that is homeless there a new home, and really not even feel the money missing, but instead talks about how others are not doing enough. Sickening. Enough about that, but it really gets my goat, so much in fact, I don’t even have a goat. And as Dingler once stated, “Can’t get enough goats.”
