Tuesday March 6th - Surgery Day #2 was a lil wild & crazy!

Today came in 3 parts 6 am-noon, noon-4 & 4-9,,,,,

The first part was fairly "mission normal". I slept well - the cold I am battling is still here but manageable so I was up at 6 & at the hospital by 7:30 with all of the team. I have figured out it works well if I pack up all my stuff at night so I roll out of bed get dressed & am ready to go.

I went to visit the Post Op ward to see the patients from yesterday & the first round of patients for today (they stay over night so there is no delay in starting the morning surgeries). That is truly one of the best parts of the day.....I get to see the patients from yesterday awake & ready to go home & their happy parents, give hugs & smiles & take photos. I can't post a lot of the post op (after photos on social media - it is an op smile rule) But I take lots of pics :) I also say hello to the morning cases - introduce myself to the moms & tell them I will see their child in the recovery room after the surgery & bring them in to see their babies. I LOVE this part of the day.

Then I change into scrubs & go to the OR & Recovery Room (PACU) . Today the first patients were going on the surgery tables by 8:15 which was wonderful. we got the PACU re-set up, prepared our medicines for the day etc. There are 20 children on todays schedule with 4 surgeons. We got a quick patient back before 9 am - a baby who was "tongue tied" - Sharily & I gave her a doll. The next patient I took - Sandy was a 7 month old boy of a mom I had met this morning. He was having some troubles breathing after surgery & needed a respiratory treatment & was fussy so I got him settled & held him until the mom came in. I had some cute clothes for him from a friend & the mom was so happy. I got some fun photos of him!

Things were still sort of normal - the OR needed help with a specific IV so I went in there to help, more patients came out including Emerola who I also saw this morning before surgery.She was a lip repair & had a tooth sticking out that disappeared with her repair. I got & posted great before & after pics of her sweet new smile. She was sleepy but washing her face woke her right up!
By 11:45 we had 5 patients in & out of the PACU and it seemed like just a normal day.

PART 2 - noon - 4 pm was a bit of a blur....we had palate after palate most all had some sort of issues, they had been difficult intubations, difficult IV starts, had some bleeding, breathing issues, crying, scared parents & a baby with this crazy medical history of sleep apnea & a heart defect but was cleared for surgery & had a rough go of it afterwards & so did we! It was complete chaos & at one point we had 5 patients on 4 beds. In those 4 hours I probably gave 8 breathing treatments, a whole lot of meds, inserted a nasal trumpet, placed kids on oxygen, managed pain and lots of screaming. At some point when there was moderate chaos Orquidia was at lunch, Jacob was helping in a room & it was just Alma & me. I didn't at all feel the chaos but I knew it was going on....seriously though I just went from one "event" to another because the international nurses cannot always draw up meds - it's not in their normal scope where they work so I was helping with a lot of that. It was a lot of coordinating multiple needs all at the same time. Finally at 4 pm the PACU was empty. Literally those 4 hours were one continuous event....and I feel like I came up for air after 4

I went to eat lunch after that & took one look & walked away...it was cold fried rice, fried plantains & potatoes. Peanut Butter, crackers & my diet coke never tasted so good! It was after that I realized how crazy it was because just about everyone who had come in the PACU during that time period came in to see if we were okay...The nice Australian nurse brought us special chocolates that were exactly what we needed! At this point we had 7 patients to still come in....I took care of 2 of them and that was when some of the magic happened.

I met 2 sweet families....baby Maria whose mom is 16. Mom sold her clothes to have money for the bus fare here & the 23 year old dad got angry about that plan & it sounds like that was not a pleasant event so she is here alone - 16 with a baby having surgery & not sure if she has enough money to get back home. Through kind friends tomorrow morning we are going to quietly help her with her transportation, food for the baby and getting replacement clothes once she gets home. She was overwhelmed with gratitude :) We will slip her the money in the morning.

My last patient was Samuel - he was here with his young but very attentive & loving mom & dad. They are Haitian & live right on the Haiti/DR border in the DR so it was a 8 hour travel for them and cost them $25 per person each way on many buses. The dad does construction but he left a job he had because he speaks better Spanish & the mom speaks Creole or Haitian & he was worried she would not be able to communicate with anyone here (which is somewhat correct). So they had many concerns about the basics: food, transportation and baby formula - again because of friends we will be able to help them also in the morning (I have to get US dollars changed into Pesos tonight at the hotel).

After this CRAZY day I thought about how everything falls into place...the surgery schedule today was all moved around & we got patients randomly not in the order they were scheduled. I don't know when these patients were scheduled originally but had it been during the 4 hours of chaos...I may not have ever met them & certainly would not have had time to talk to them & hear their stories. BUT...they were in the last round of patients & they came to me at a time that was calm & when I could sit and with a student translator really talk & listen to them....I cant wait to see them tomorrow morning & discreetly give them this help.

Back at the hotel about 10 different team members said to me in a variety of ways "wow you had quite a day!" I guess I did in many ways :)