Now that all of you have had a chance to read about us for a few days, we thought we'd give you a chance to test your knowledge about the group. Try and match the quotes to the people on the team!
Quotes for the day:
a. I can't imagine a better place to be during a hurricane than in a hospital.
b. Two beers and a brat ... thats what my fat ass is gunna be having in 60 hours!
c. Where the !@# are my Skittles?
d. You're not the boss of me!
e. What exactly does "Oriental flavor" mean? (referrring to Maruchan instant Oriental flavor ramen)
f. I'd give my left kidney for a Mountain Dew right now.
g. We're gunna try and do 10 cases today. Can I borrow your towel?
Can you match the above quotes with the following volunteers???
1. Tom Slater
2. Paige Saunders
3. Jessica Bice
4. Andrea Paulson
5. Beth Bard
6. Pat Yoon
7. Frank Spruce - guest contestant!
Answers (Don't cheat!): a-4, b-1, c-2, d-7, e-3, f-4, g-6.
Well, let me (Tom now) first say we knew our work would be cut out for us today. With many cases still backlogged, the hurricane coming upon us, beef jerky running low, and some of us only getting a couple of hours sleep (due to demanding blog followers), we are all hesitant about leaving the front steps of the hospital after each morning meeting.
While everyone else does morning rounds, J. Bice and myself hit the O.R., to get the days cases picked and such. One thing we learned very quickly, was that you ned to restock your own trays with implants, make sure they all have the proper jigs, etc., or the chances of you missing pertinent instrumentation is escalated. I of course had no issue, and gladly helped to a little "mini teaching exercise" to the instrument room staff. Madam Jordan (kind of like the Queen Elizabeth of the operating room), is very appreciative, and comments on how she loves my eyes...so I bat my eyelashes a couple of times, and ask if I can have the Stryker battery power ASAP.
I remember the walkie talkies Nathan was charging for us, so I get them from Amy (Nathan's way better half), and give one to Pat, and tell him not to lose it. For those of you HCMC peeps, you can attest to Pat's uncanny ability to "misplace" electrical devices. Soon, Pat and I are exchanging a few "10-4's", and I inform him we'll be ready for the first case shortly. Yeah...our first case of the day...
...Beth and Andrea tag teamed clinic on Tuesday while Tom, Jess, and I were in the OR and saw a guy with elephantiasis (yes, I know it sounds better to call it elephantitis) and an enlarged, infected, deformed leg. He actually came in wanting an amputation. Tom nearly herniates a disc holding the leg up while Jess and Frank (he's a volunteer from Napa, California and is an honorary member of our group) prepare the leg for surgery. This proves to be rather difficult, in no small part due to the sheer size of his leg, and we do encounter significant bleeding. I'm wondering to myself holy !@#, all this poor guy wanted to do was live a normal life, and here he is possibly losing his life. Fortunately it's nothing a little gelfoam, silk ties, and surgicel can't fix, Tom and Beth are a huge help in getting me through one really rough day in the OR and keep reminding me of all the fun cool things this guy is now going to be able to do with his life with his new leg. After his amputation we all need to just sit back and take a deep breath ... although today is far from over yet, this will prove to be the third day in a row of 7am till 3am days which is 20 hours a day if my math is right. We have to be realistic. Although we'd all love to help out as many people down here as we can, and return home with the satisfied feeling that we did absolutely as much as we could, we're going to help nobody out if we're so exhausted we can't function. After a much deserved rest we hit the OR again to take care of a poor woman who broke her right femur in a motorcycle accident 4 months ago and was never able to get it fixed. The last group couldn't get to her so she showed up this week ready for surgery. Detaching two ends of your femur that have been overlapped 4 inches for the past 4 months is super hard and I think this last 5 hour case turns out to be a sort of watershed moment. Until this time, Tom's been able to give 100% ... but now you add physical pain to the mix, on top of the sleep deprivation, beef jerky rationing, and the lack of any establishment nearby that serves beer and brats, and you have someone at the breaking point. Nathan Lindsey, our "boss" here, tells us this morning that there's a chance we may need to take care of any hurricane victims Friday, so all surgeries for that day are on hold for now. In the shape we're in, none of us is really complaining about it.While our spent Minnesota team continues in the operating room and some clinic today, two wonderful friends of ours from the east coast, Sarah and Chia-Ti are helping prepare the hospital for Hurricane Tomas (and no, this is't me after eating a can of chili either). Those two kick it into high gear, and get all the volunteer's gear and cots into the hallway by the administrative offices, and the volunteer lounge (it's air conditioned)...Sarah's nursing her crazy huge bug bites, while I take a much needed break off my feet (and my aching knee). Chia-Ti is sipping on some green concoction, which she says has an entire days' worth of veggies, while Beth has just finished bringing the last of the gear dow the steps from the volunteer sleeping area. They are predicting torrential flash flooding, and dangerous mudslides. Especially disconcerting in this regard are the nearby mountains to the south!
No comments:
Post a Comment