52...and still a kid at heart!

Ok, really my last case...

It was quiet in the hospital today with the holiday and everything.  I went in at normal time so I could get rounds completed quickly and get on with my day.  I thought it was tough getting a case started on time during a regular working day-forget about holidays!!  No one wanted to do anything!  I had scheduled that one case for today for 9am-we didn't get started until 11!  The anesthesia and OR staff was trying to find any reason to delay the case.  I ended up bringing the patient to the OR myself so we could get started.  It all worked out though.  The case only took about 1 hour to complete and afterwards we all took a bunch of photos and danced around in the OR-I'm gonna miss being able to do that at work.

Still a kid at heart!!

After spending the entire morning at the hospital I went to a water park!  I know that sounds funny, but I did-a Liberian waterpark.  It's just one of those big playground sets with the monkeybars and slides in the middle of this big shallow pool.  It was fun though!  They had a volleyball court, 2 trampolines, a lake where you could go on a boatride, and a nice little restaurant.  The kids were loving it.  And so was I-I was all over the place!  I know the people were like-"ain't that the surgeon from the hospital?! Now he know he too big to be in that little pool with those kids!!"  All the little kids surrounded the trampoline I was jumping on asking me to do more and more flips-I think those little guys were trying to make me dizzy!!  They all came onto the trampoline with me after I was all flipped out!  I was like a big kid out there-haven't done that in so long.

Afterwards I headed back to the dorm to change-the OR staff had a little get together at this local spot.  We had a good ol' Liberian time!  I even learned a couple new dances!  Everyone was so friendly (except for that one girl who almost got into a fight with another guy!!  She was ready to take him too!).  We ended up heading back out to Myrtle Beach later on because another group of friends was there and they had a live band playing old school music.  Everyone got to meet each other and we all spent the time there hanging out on the beach-it was a nice time just talking and reminiscing on all that has happened over the last 6 weeks. 

Learning a new Liberian dance...

As I walking around a guy came up to me and introduced himself as the uncle of the young lady who had the traumatic amputations.  He said he had recognized me and wanted to thank me for all I did for his niece.  It was so unexpected meeting him there-told you L.I.B. is small.  We spoke for awhile and I gave him my information so they can keep in touch with me-they're going to try and bring her to the states once she recovers.  He kept telling me that she talks about me all the time and mentions how comfortable she feels when I'm around, which I was glad to hear.  The family continues to be so supportive of her.  The gentlemen even brought me a drink.  He was very thankful-as was I...

I ended up making one more stop at Groovies before I landed home.  The place was already packed by the time we arrived, and my friend who owns the place grabbed the microphone and made another announcement that I was leaving this weekend and made everyone give me an ovation-it was a warming gesture.  I only stayed for a little while because I was getting a bit tired, but I had a great time there as always.

A busy start to my last weekend here.  I'm going to be in the hospital tomorrow and Sunday morning wrapping things up and making sure everyone is tucked away for the last time.  It's going to be tough saying my final goodbyes...

"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."

-Jonathan Swift