The adventure continues…

Audrey, Kathy, Linda Bielefeldt and I have renamed ourselves the “Hyster Sisters”. We did 5 (or 6…I lose count) hysterectomies and 1 tubal ligation on a 36 year old with congestivew heart failure who was told that if she had another baby, she would probably die.

Surgery count for the day: 17

Some thoughts on the day:

• patients are so accepting, grateful, and stoic!
• quote from Dr. Brockman ” we’ve taken out more poundage of uterus in one and a half days than in a year in Green Bay”
• one of our ORs has air conditioning, but no functioning suction equipment(Laurie is using a bulb syringe to suction her patients), the other room has suction but no air conditioning (the temps are in the 90s). Oh well, you can’t have everything!
• we lost a needle on one case and found it AFTER the next case
• we had a gecko in the OR

• in the other OR they had set up for a leg amputation revision, but it was decided that the patient needed a transfusion (to be gotten from one of our nurses). So, they put a table cover over the set-up and preceeded to set up and do a hysterectomy on top of it so we weren’t wasting OR time!
• Julie Bieber Fisher is in charge of triaging patients-they line up outside the fence. But Jamie Fisher was stopped by people at the fence and started bringing patients problems to Julie. He had 2 boys with porblems with their “pee-pees”, a woman with a breast mass, another with a fibroid uterus. Julie finally told him “THAT’S ENOUGH” when he told her about the little old lady who showed him the mass on her breast.
• we did a hysterectomy on a patient that Julie lost yesterday-she just disappeared. Thank God she reappeared today!
• I have never done so many spinal anesthetics in a day
• people here all have high blood pressure
• After people get past the age of 40, they look much younger than their age (which is interesting considering their hardships)
• Mike Cerkas and Jamie Fisher continue to awe us with their cuisine! We had hors d’oeurves before dinner tonight that consisted of sandines in oil or tomato sauce, smoked almonds, salsa, and various crackers. After dinner they brought out the dessert tray that consisted of Reeses bars, Hershey bars, and Dove Chocolates-we are getting spoiled!

• Julie, Stacie, and other members of the the triage team were outside teaching the people waiting to be seen how to do the Macarena dancepeople in out OR were singing the Mickey Mouse song after removing a uterus that looked like Mickey. Only the words were “M-I-C,  K-E-Y, U-T-E-R-U-S” and the remaining verses were somewhat different from the original song.

• Just when we thought we could settle in for the night we were called downstairs for 2 pregnant women in labor and a 53 year old woman with a BP of 245/144 with a massive nosebleed who was brought in by 2 missionaries from the mountains 2 hours north. The fun never stops!
• Valerie (the PA that was sick and staying in our “apartment”) was medi-vaced out today on a private jet to Miami

Keep us and the Haitians in your prayers. Peace out

Kristi Sarosiek