Surgery Day #2 - 16 Cases Completed & a night visit to a CRAZY Bazaar Market
Even though
I only slept about 6 hours I woke up feeling the best I have since I left home.
It was wonderful & I am 100% good to go! It was as typical morning…breakfast,
meeting at the hotel & off to the hospital at 7 am. Yesterday we shared the
PACU w/ the hospital staff – they had 3 beds & we had 4. Today we have all
5 OR tables & the entire PACU. We got it all set up & organized exactly
how we wanted & it is fabulous. We took a picture of the 4 of us in the
PACU once it was “ready”.
Knowing it
would be a while before patients got to PACU Chris & I went upstairs to
Pre-Post to see the patients. That is always my favorite part of the mission;
when you get to see the moms & kids the next day, wide awake & happy,
feeling better & their moms are excited to see you again if they had come
into the recovery room. We saw that all of todays pre-op patients were in 2
rooms so we went in there w/ a translator & told the moms we would be the
nurses taking care of their children after surgery. We hoped that would be
reassuring to them.
We are still
missing quite a few medications & some supplies so we made a “wish list”
for Morag & Rania &t hey went out & got quite a bit of what we
needed. There are “medical supply stores” all in this area where 2 hospitals
are at. It was our “Christmas in July”
when we got some of the items we needed- just simple stuff like gauze to
wrap around IV’s .
We had a
rapid fire return of 5 palate patients from every table starting at 10 am &
stayed busy all day with our 16 patients. Three of them didn’t receive their
own bone grafts so they had a “donor” site in their hip. Fortunately there were
no trues “bleeders” – some oozers that needed pressure on their palates but no
“true bleeders” perhaps because all the patients are getting Tranexamic Acid
which helps with clotting. We did tend to bring more moms back today and it was
fun to see them after having met them briefly in the morning. A few come in very anxious & tearful,
concerned if their child still has oxygen on or is restless waking up & the
translators assure them for us & I just put my hand on their shoulders for
reassurance. So many of them are so grateful, putting their hands together over
their hearts & blowing a kiss of gratitude, which always melts my heart.
Somehow no matter what country or situation you are in mothers’ hearts even
without strong verbal communication are always closely knit together…
Serendipity
my lil pt. #19 who had the tearful dad at screening had surgery today &
without even knowing he was on the schedule today he became a patient I
recovered. He did well & when I took him up it was his mom there with him!
I had my
standard mission peanut butter on a sandwich thin for lunch and went into the
breakroom to eat. The mission sponsor was in there & I just watched him as
he cleared the break table of cups & plates that had been left & saw
him making coffee. Clearly, he is a “Servant Leader” & leads by example. I
understand that he had canvas bags made for all of the patients & filled
them with the typical “Smile Bag Contents” for home care after surgery but alo
wanted the age & gender of each child & got them clothes as well…such a
wonderful man! Truly all the needs at the mission for thee children &
families were being met by him down to the smallest detail; which further
confirmed to me that the “sacred funds” I brought were not meant or needed for
the mission but for the children in the Arabic Nile River Branch who will now
get to go to school & for some adults who needed help in participating in
the Don Bosco skill training. It is always such a testament to me to see God is
in charge always & a lesson I need to remember in my everyday life not just
when I am 7000 miles away from home in a foreign country.
We finished
by 6:30 & were back at the hotel at 7 & Chris really wanted to go to
this “largest bazaar/market in Cairo” The Khan el-Khalili. It says on line it
is a bustling vibrant market that has been around for centuries & is a
“must see” for anyone visiting the city. So how could we skip that???? We got a
cab at 7:30 & took our lives in our hands getting there – a 15 min drive to
go 2 miles. It is in the heart of Islamic Cairo & literally has all sorts
of winding “streets & alleys” & even a tunnel that takes you across the
street. There were some different sections – spices, LOTS of gold “ish” jewelry
shops, handicrafts oils & incense, rugs, clothes and a whole lot of
souvenirs made in China 😊 It was super crowded, loud & so
so many smells!!! None of the 3 of us bought anything but it was an quite
experience-more hectic & chaotic than any other international market I have
visited & I have been to quite a few in many countries. While getting there was easy getting a taxi back was 4x the price
(mind you that meant $12 instead of $3 to get there – but of course we
haggled??/ until I finally said this cab is clean & really girls we are
talking about $2 more from what you are trying to get 😊 The car was decent but the driver was another story…as we left the
market he pulled by a street food vendor then pulled over across the
street -he was getting himself some food
– it looked not appetizing &then offering it to us. I was pretty pleased I
was in the back seat! Mostly I was happy we got back to the hotel safety! A few
Op Smile friends who know I am her have messaged me about this being the worst
place for driving & chaos – I must agree!
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