Day 4: Stressing out and chilling out

Hotter and more humid today. After morning rounds and seeing a few people in clinic we go to the OR and set up for today's surgeries. Tom's already sweated through his first set of scrubs and his pores are busy at work doing their best to saturate his second. We're majorly stressed out cause we have no idea where anything is, equipment is stored in a bajillion different places, and we just had general pandemonium everywhere. We look through the shelves and find a few donated Austin-Moore implants for hip fractures (probably donated because they were expired and even if they weren't, we don't use those much in the States any more). But we make do with what we have, doing a hemiarthroplasty (partial hip replacement) with nothing more than a knife, Weitlander, scissors, curet, army-navy, Key elevator, saw, and a mallet. The overhead lights aren't the greatest so those REI camping headlights come in handy. Again, in the middle of surgery even, we have to stop every now and then and look at each other and say, "Wow, we're in Haiti! We finally got to come down and help! This is so cool." Even after a mosquito lands on the sterile field about two inches from Tom's hand, as we look up and see a huuuge strip of flypaper hanging right over the OR table, we just have to shake our heads and say "Well, we are in Haiti." Dr. Jonathas is a Haitian orthopaedist who's been eager to work with guys from the US, and he scrubs in too. Towards the end of the day we realize that scrub brushes and shoe cover "booties" are running low. Well, actually, we're out of them. Note to self for next time: bring some of those too.

In between cases we manage to run up and grab some food. Volunteers here get one free meal a day which gets delivered in styrofoam containers. Every meal is vegetarian - perhaps because the shipments end up sitting out for a long time waiting for people to eat them whenever they can spare 5 minutes to wolf down food and they don't want it to go bad, or because there seems to be an overlap in the Venn diagram between the circles representing relief workers and vegetarians. Today it's vegetables, rice and beans, and a plantain. As a bonus today there's a small sliver of avocado! Tom also takes the opportunity to refill his water bottles. He sweats so much that he has to replentish 3 liters of water a day! I just don't have the heart to tell him that all that water is just encouraging his pores. It's like buying an alcoholic a drink.

Needless to say by dinnertime Liz is hankering for a slice of pizza. (Somehow, despite eating the least of the 3 of us, Liz seems to be getting taller and taller every day. I swear we were pretty much all the same height when we started!) Tom has opted for the beef jerky and is happily munching away on good ole' USDA Grade A. Ironically the look on his face as he blissfully devours his dead animal is the same look that cows get when they contentedly chew their cud. He's just thankful he doesn't have to worry about sharing it with me. Kristi from Loma Linda explains the intricacies of heating up an MRE while Liz is off giving a free English lesson... Normal everyday people who lot their houses in the quake are trying to get back to living normal lives, and that does include kids studying and going to school. There's this one kid who says Concordia College has offered him a scholarship if he just passes this English test, so needless to say he's quite motivated. So good for Liz for helping him out!

Staying here at the hospital makes it super easy to check in on patients and kind of makes you feel like a resident again. Transfers come in at night from other hospitals and you just run downstairs and see them. Tonight Kristi as our in-house pediatrician has a transfer, a 31-week old preemie. Hope the kid is going to be ok. No time to gloat about it being Kristi's turn and not mine this time, as a few moments later one of the translators gets an asthma exacerbation and we go downstairs to the ER to give him some steroids and nebulizer treatments.

Unfortunately the incoming storm upsets our plans for pizza but then again reconstituted stew, powerade and s'mores trail mix taste almost as good when you're this hungry. It may as well be a yummy margherita Punch Pizza when you're so tired you fall asleep sitting up. Plus it's always fun watching Liz eating a dinner made of reconstituted milk, grapenuts, and craisins ... or Kenny hitting the jackpot when, as he rummages around the food bin, finds an MRE of ravioli with beef sauce! Tom, as usual, is cracking himself up about something, who knows what!