One week down...

Yesterday was a great day-super long, but still great. We did 2 lower extremity amputations (1 BKA for a litlte girl with a tumor on her foot and an AKA for an infected knee), a debridement for a guy with osteomyelitis, and another for a man who had the worst arm infection i've ever seen-words can't describe how bad it was, just take my word for it. Maybe I'll tell some of you about it when I get back. Just know that it was so bad that when we got in the OR with the patient Justin almost vomitted-that's never happened to him!  Imagine pouring out a gallon of water into a sink-now try and imagine that being pus pouring out of someone's entire arm...sorry, that's the best I can do.  I'm still trying to get a grasp on how so many of these patients can go so long with these conditions and only come into the hosptial when it's too late.

The day moved rather efficiently considering the amount of stuff we had going on in the ORs. We had 2 more surgeries scheduled for the day, but we couldn't get them all done b/c the visiting Ob/Gyn team here was doing a lot of fistula reconstructions for the past week so between the 2 teams we were exhausting all of the OR resources. In between cases I gave a lecture to one of the med students and some of the surgeons here-it was pretty cool.  They're very interested in learning.  I think one of greatest things here is the ability to teach as well as learn from the people you work with.  One of the guys was like "you guys in America have so many advances and research in medicine." Interestingly enough I'm envious of their experience here-they have some real serious pathology out here! After our surgeries were completed we went in to watch the Ob/Gyn team finish up their fistula repairs and then a little girl came in with a ruptured tubo-ovarian abscess and pus in her abdomen. There seems to be a lot of that here. I've been documenting and taking pictures logging my cases-I'm making a running power point presentation of my experience.  The Ob/Gyn team has been here for one week doing surgeries and is leaving this weekend so next week it probably won't be such a strain on the system.

I got my first pelvic ring injury today in the ER. This lady was in a car crash and has an injury to her pelvis and a hip fracture as well. It would be a big deal in the states at any trauma center, so you can imagine what that means here-and guess who gets to fix it next week?....thank you for your prayers.

We were so busy today that we didn't get eat lunch, but it was worth it. We ended up having a late dinner at the casino here-The Palms Springs Resort. It was really nice too-I'm always intrigued by the social stratification that can exist in some of these places-you can have a really nice place or area right in the middle of the hood; of course it's gated off though. The place is right next to the Chinese Embassy here too which is sick!!! The Chinese got it on and poppin' out here-their embassy is off the hook!! We had pepper steak at the restaurant which was delicious then we checked out the casino. It was pretty cool. They had blackjack tables and roulette as well as some slot machines. It was pretty crowded too. I didn't gamble though mom, don't worry! Afterwards we went to this other restaurant/lounge place where we met some new people. They were nice. I left there with like 3 new contacts. There's a small network here and everyone knows everyone-some really good connections to have. A lot of the educated people have come back and tried to give back to Liberia since the war-they have so much pride in this place. I've noticed that in my travels-though impoverished, many have so much pride in their home; I don't think you see so much passion back home-sometimes it's taken for granted. We all were just hanging out in this place and were sharing stories-I've been learning about the political history of Liberia which is rather interesting to say the least. One lady actually told me "welcome home" last nite. Another woman told me that when I visited South Africa in 2003...

Justin and I were dead tired, but we made it out and enjoyed the evening. We were falling asleep in the car and the people we were out with were laughing at us. We're going to try and do some fun stuff this weekend, but we'll be in the hospital Saturday morning rounding on patients from yesterday. I don't know what to tell you guys about this whole picture thing. I really want to post some, but this internet computer deal isn't working out for me. I'll send some whenever I can.

To my friends in NYC, I hope the weather is not so bad. Someone was saying that a winter storm was coming through?? Be careful.