Well, the good news is the cake worked. It all disappeared at some speed. That was after the program reporting which happens every Friday. This week though was the turn of OR and its report consisted of 2 stories - one a case that was not going well - a 4 months old airway was proving very difficult to manage as a tumour was being removed from his neck so much so that the translator asked if she could pray for the infant. It proved a pivotal point and from that moment there were no more problems. The second story was about a flood in the department caused when a sprinkler was accidentally knocked. 60 gallons of water per minute causes something of a flood. Teamwork by the whole crew of the ship sorted out the clear up.
My first case this morning was on a one year old who had managed to fall over and break his two front teeth. The remaining parts just had to come out. there is a crew dentist on board from Norway who came to complete the deed. it took longer to anaesthetise the infant than for him to pull the roots out. The nappy on the child nearly defeated me. There were 4 layers!!! The state of the child's teeth were not good, probably had never seen a toothbrush so the dentist took the opportunity to teach the father about the importance of brushing his son's teeth.
Outstanding paperwork had to be completed and involved a trip down to the eye clinic on the dockside. I had hoped to be able to stay and watch the YAG laser being used but quite a few patients were "no shows" so I missed out on that today - maybe next week.
The rest of the day was spent with a plastics surgeon who in the UK specialises in treating cancer. Seeing half a mandible removed and a plate put in place is quite something. I then had to introduce a new canadian anaesthetist to the mercy ships style of anaesthesia. Here they have to collect together their own tubes, airways, laryngoscopes and anything they think they may require. There is no ODP or anaesthetic nurse to do it for them. There is an anaesthetic tech in the department but she was having a well deserved day off. I helped him as much as I could and everything was fine. I think he was a little surprised when I mentioned that he had to clean down his own machine at the end of the list and restock what he had used. Imagine that in the UK.
Tonight I walked 3 miles in my bid to add to the total miles walked to Benin. After supper I went to watch a film called "Iron Ladies". it followed the first year of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's first year of presidency. She has several women in high positions and is keen to move the country on after 14 years of civil war. She came to power 3 years ago and is still the President. Things are improving in Liberia so she is beginning to make progress.
With coffee came singing and a small group of us got together quite informally. Dutch, Brits, Ozzies and US. Amazing number of songs in common, some translated into other languages. But the common theme of Christ threaded through it all. It was good fun and very relaxed. I'm on call tonight but I very much doubt I'll be called..
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Well was there ever any doubt that the cakemyster would not succeed! Hope you had a coffee with it too. Sounds like you are just as busy as you were last time, but adding the walking too. You are always fitter than me, why do I think I might have difficulty keeping up with you in Venice? Hopefully you'll be so tired you can go at my turtle pace!! Sent in three reservations for meals, one confirmed, one site not working, and one no response. So will have to get the hotel to work on that for us when we get there. Hope your cold is gone and you are feeling good. Having second and third thoughts with Paddy, we really don't want him to go, but he is such a, well you know what he is like. Keep thinking we should be able to lick this. Will keep you posted too. Take care, love from coffeemate. (as if you didn't know that already) Hope you got my earlier email. :)
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