What a GREAT first day of surgeries!!! The first day is always a slow start by the time each area does final set up & each surgical table starts in sequence. The child life area where the patients wait right before their surgery is just outside the Recovery Room so that gives me a chance to go see which patients are going into surgery - we have a schedule but they are just pt numbers, names & ages & I like to see who I remember from screening. One of the first patient today was my "pink princess" - I know I have a pre picture of her but took one this morning too. She was such a cutie & a great way to start my day. I found out she was the 10th daughter in this family...I cannot even imagine!!!! Her mom was so sweet & so grateful. Amram was 5 & I was able to give her one of the cute dresses the girls from church made & some fun disney socks! The next patient was also 5 years old Yasmin - she was one who had traveled 2000km from the Somalia coast - I gave her a cute striped drsss & she wanted to out it on before she left the recovery room. I snapped some photos I will share later.
After lunch Addisu a 1 year old rolled thru the door - I put a photo of her & her mom in my collage today. At the last mission 6 months ago she came & at 6 months of age was morbidly malnourished & weighed 5 lbs. She was not eating with her cleft lip & palate but was too sick & small for surgery. That team admitted her to the hospital & worked with the mom on feeding even suggesting they add a bit of sugar to each feeding. This mission she came back at 1 year of age weighing 10 lbs (still small for her age but basically doubled her weight) & was able to get her bilateral cleft lip repaired - she looked so good & her sweet mom was so HAPPY!!!! She is one of the Op Smile miracles.
Hdami was an 11 year old Muslim girl who also traveled a great distance to get her cleft lip fixed. She was very concerned when she woke up that her head scarf wasn't on properly (I tried!) so I helped her fix it & then also gave her a dress that she immediately put on. We also had quite a few boys today that i gave some socks or shorts to & also some CHOC Walk T-shirts - yes there will be children walking around Ethiopia with CHOC T-shirts on - I think that is AWESOME!
My friend Wendy's daughter had made a little dress all by herself in addition to the ones her class made - I gave it to our tiniest patient today a 4 month old who had her lip repaired. Her mom smiled so big when I told her about Lexi & that she had made it for her little girl.
In the afternoon the cases started coming off a little more regularly & we had a backlog of some that needed more time or treatment in the recovery room - a few that we gave respiratory treatments too & others we just needed to watch a little longer so we had some chaos for a few hours. Later in the evening there was another 10 year old girl Bishara, she too had traveled far with her dad & when she came back she was still very sleepy but we let the dad come in & sit by her bed. He immediately was crying & while that does happen & is very tender to see the love & bond between father & daughter I wasnt prepared & perhaps becuase of my emotions being at the surface I got teary too - he grabbed my hand & told me thru an interpreter these were "happy tears" & said "Thank God and Thanks to all of you for changing my daughters life". I was glad to have some "happy tears" myself. When Bishara woke up & we handed her a mirror to see her new smile she held onto the mirror for a good 5 min & just kept looking at herself - that is also in my photo collage. Then she would put the mirror down for a minute or 2 & pick it up again & stare & smile. I opened her chart & each patient has a "pre surgery photo" & showed it to another nurse & Bishara looked at it and pointed to the picture then to herself & waved her hands saying that picture wasn't her anymore. Her life really was changed by this surgery & we could see that already.
At 7:30 there were still 3 cases to finish but since I am "on call" tonight I was the one to leave in case I get called in tonight (which s very unikely fortunately) I normally would decline leaving early & stay but since I only got anout 4 hours of sleep last night, & not great sleep the night before I agreed to go & just got home & got showered & wanted to do a quick blog post before going to bed. I am hoping for 7 hours of sleep tonight!!! We did 20 cases today - all lips -there are a few palates tomorrow & another full schedule. I am getting "in my groove" & appreciated many moments today & really felt good being busy, connecting with families & hearing their stories & sharing the clothes that I brought with me. Julie & Aziza are the other 2 recovery room nurses & they are great to work with as is the entire team. I am looking forward to a good week & the opportunity to positively change the course of these childrens lives by giving them new smiles.
Heading to bed now...GOOD NIGHT & THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE & SUPPORT!
After lunch Addisu a 1 year old rolled thru the door - I put a photo of her & her mom in my collage today. At the last mission 6 months ago she came & at 6 months of age was morbidly malnourished & weighed 5 lbs. She was not eating with her cleft lip & palate but was too sick & small for surgery. That team admitted her to the hospital & worked with the mom on feeding even suggesting they add a bit of sugar to each feeding. This mission she came back at 1 year of age weighing 10 lbs (still small for her age but basically doubled her weight) & was able to get her bilateral cleft lip repaired - she looked so good & her sweet mom was so HAPPY!!!! She is one of the Op Smile miracles.
Hdami was an 11 year old Muslim girl who also traveled a great distance to get her cleft lip fixed. She was very concerned when she woke up that her head scarf wasn't on properly (I tried!) so I helped her fix it & then also gave her a dress that she immediately put on. We also had quite a few boys today that i gave some socks or shorts to & also some CHOC Walk T-shirts - yes there will be children walking around Ethiopia with CHOC T-shirts on - I think that is AWESOME!
My friend Wendy's daughter had made a little dress all by herself in addition to the ones her class made - I gave it to our tiniest patient today a 4 month old who had her lip repaired. Her mom smiled so big when I told her about Lexi & that she had made it for her little girl.
In the afternoon the cases started coming off a little more regularly & we had a backlog of some that needed more time or treatment in the recovery room - a few that we gave respiratory treatments too & others we just needed to watch a little longer so we had some chaos for a few hours. Later in the evening there was another 10 year old girl Bishara, she too had traveled far with her dad & when she came back she was still very sleepy but we let the dad come in & sit by her bed. He immediately was crying & while that does happen & is very tender to see the love & bond between father & daughter I wasnt prepared & perhaps becuase of my emotions being at the surface I got teary too - he grabbed my hand & told me thru an interpreter these were "happy tears" & said "Thank God and Thanks to all of you for changing my daughters life". I was glad to have some "happy tears" myself. When Bishara woke up & we handed her a mirror to see her new smile she held onto the mirror for a good 5 min & just kept looking at herself - that is also in my photo collage. Then she would put the mirror down for a minute or 2 & pick it up again & stare & smile. I opened her chart & each patient has a "pre surgery photo" & showed it to another nurse & Bishara looked at it and pointed to the picture then to herself & waved her hands saying that picture wasn't her anymore. Her life really was changed by this surgery & we could see that already.
At 7:30 there were still 3 cases to finish but since I am "on call" tonight I was the one to leave in case I get called in tonight (which s very unikely fortunately) I normally would decline leaving early & stay but since I only got anout 4 hours of sleep last night, & not great sleep the night before I agreed to go & just got home & got showered & wanted to do a quick blog post before going to bed. I am hoping for 7 hours of sleep tonight!!! We did 20 cases today - all lips -there are a few palates tomorrow & another full schedule. I am getting "in my groove" & appreciated many moments today & really felt good being busy, connecting with families & hearing their stories & sharing the clothes that I brought with me. Julie & Aziza are the other 2 recovery room nurses & they are great to work with as is the entire team. I am looking forward to a good week & the opportunity to positively change the course of these childrens lives by giving them new smiles.
Heading to bed now...GOOD NIGHT & THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE & SUPPORT!
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