Never ending story...

Another great week down.  Very eventful too;  just when I think things are going to get monotonous or boring and I have nothing really to blog about, something new and interesting pops up.  It's like the never ending story! (I used to love that movie..)

I officially met my patient this morning from yesterday.  She's a very nice girl.  You should've seen how many visitors came to see her-the hallways were full of people!  The nurses had to limit the number of people in the room and the amount of time for each visit.  I also got a chance to speak to her dad, sisters, and her fiancee too who all seemed pretty cool.  Everyone is so supportive of her and she seems to be dealing with things well so far.  I'm going to see if I can't arrange for her to get a counselor-may also be helpful.  I asked her what the last thing she remembers was and she said that it was running from the car as it was swerving out of control chasing behind her.  She said the car actually hit her and afterwards everyone was standing around afraid to touch her b/c they thought she was dead.  It wasn't until she reached her hand out to a neighbor that people realized she was alive-told you she was a fighter.

This morning seemed to be spinal cord injury day in the ER.  One guy was rendered quadriplegic after he was swimming in a creek and inadvertently headbutted a log headed downstream.  Another young boy came in with a similar presentation after cutting down a tree when a branch fell onto him. Only difference was that his pupils were fixed and dilated...on to the OR.

I did a surgery on this little girl today who had a fracture of her femur 9 months ago which healed in a bad position and left her with a 90 degree flexion contracture of her knee.  She couldn't bend or straighten her knee more than a few degrees and was basically hopping around everywhere.  I was able to do some soft tissue releases and get her leg almost completely straight, which was really rewarding-her mom was so happy!  The other cases today were straight forward and went well.  It was a nice ending to a pretty tough week-so far...

I went out this evening to hang out at Groovie's again and grab one of those good steak sandwiches.  As I was walking to the area in front of the hospital to get picked up, there was a mob of people in front of the ER all worked up crying and screaming over something.  I've kinda noticed by now that when you see something like that here it usually means that someone has been in a really bad accident.  I would've felt remissed if I at least didn't go investigate the situation to see if there was anything I could do.  Apparently this gentlemen who was well known in the community was driving his car and didn't see a disabled semi-tractor trailer in the middle of the lane (no hazard lights on, no reflectors, or flares-remember there are limited street lights.) and smacked right into the back of it full speed.  He laid flaccid and expired in the back of a taxi that had rushed him to the ER-there was nothing I could do.  It was quite a sight-and way to start my weekend off too.

Hanging out in Monrovia.  Guy asleep in back works at club!

I finally made it out and got my sandwich which was just like I had remembered from the other weekend.  It was nice to be out.  Listening to live music and trying to relax.  I actually stayed out pretty late and ended up falling asleep in the club!  On my way back to the dorm we came up on a traffic accident that had just happended a few seconds prior.  A truck had hit a motorcycle carrying three people!  2 guys were just trying to crawl around, but were moving, and the other guy was face down motionless.  I couldn't just breeze past the scene and not stop, so I got out of the car and ran over to assess the situation.  2 of the guys had fractured their legs, but were stable; I helped pick them up and stuff them into a taxi off to the hospital.  The other guy who wasn't moving looked a lot worse than what he was.  He was knocked out for a brief moment, but came to himself and was able to talk to me after a few minutes.  His face was bloodied, but he didn't appear to have any fractured limbs from what I could tell.  I helped haul him into another car and everyone made off to JFK.  It was a weird feeling going through that at 3am.  As I was crossing the street walking towards the accident scene, everyone just let me through as if they knew who I was-it didn't dawn on me until I had gotten back into the car that that indeed was the case.  When I got to the ER behind the rest of the cars, I walked into the trauma bay to give everyone a heads up and found them sleeping!  Another story... I gave instruction as to what each of the patients needed and then proceeded to make my way home.  As I was walking out, some of the people were asking for my number to call me, but I just told them that the nurses know how to contact me if they need to.  I don't even remember falling asleep with my thoughts-the last thing I remember is putting my mosquito net down and taking off my shoes...

You can't make this stuff up man-I'm just living it.  Everyday is a whirlwind of an experience.  It's a good ride though-definitely not for the faint...

"Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."
-Newt Gingrich