Feb 17

2/17..... I always know what the date is since its the first thing I write on every wound I dress and every surgical dressing we fashion. They are starting to get pretty fancy around here with patient wristbands, walkie-talkies, and fancy i-phone apps that track all the patients and new admissions but for the most part, and for our purposes there are still no functional patient charts. Op-smile is extremely well-organized in its accounting but charts we create do not make it past the PACU and there's no easy way of knowing the story of a patient who you come across in the tents. For every surgery we complete I leave "Wound Care for Dummies" instructions complete on silk tape of the surgical dressing with a sharpie (shout out to Budge- thanks for properly outfitting me).

Dr. Hauck and I did not have any scheduled cases today in the plastics OR other then some dressing changes with sedation so we avoided the boiler room ORs for the bulk of the day. We joined the masses in the trenches and went row to row looking for patients in need of reconstructive surgery in the tents. It is super hot being out in patients tents during the day, I can only imagine what it's like for them. We were able to follow-up on a bunch of the flaps Shane and Jay performed and I'm pleased to say most are doing quite well. I'm pretty sure I saw some of Dr. Reids handy work too since I saw some Ilizarov-esque fixators. We did find plenty of people who will need surgery in the upcoming days. We also followed up on the first batch of skin grafts we did 3 days ago and low and behold despite the dirt, dust and heat the wounds all look immaculate with 100% graft take. Can't beat that!

Some of the team (ortho) went over to other hospitals in DR today to scope out options for performing more complex cases beyond our capabilities here at other facilities. We also had a visit from a couple of pediatric orthopedic surgeons from the USS Comfort to see about transfer of some of our more acute ortho patients to the ship for definitive procedures and transfer back. That sounds more hopeful than us being able to operate outside this camp site. Some of the team members went into Port-au-Prince to pick up some medical equipment and came back with some treats for a canteen of our team this evening- all it takes is PB, jelly, bread, salami, cheese, and a bit of bubbly for a few malnourished medical personnel to have a good time- a much deserved respid! I actually downloaded the pics one of the docs took from port-au-prince onto my Mac and we had movie night watching a slide show of all the stunning pictures. The photos with the untouched heaps of rubble and cement take on a whole new meaning when captured by a colleague and not just broadcasted on CNN. I can't imagine what it's like in person.

Early morning tomorrow but wanted to share a bit of the day. It is a priviledge to be here. If there are any radiology techs that want to come down the radiology tech now is leaving this wkend and we are going to be in dire sraights. Just a thought....