Surgery, Day 2

Myself, Marian & Anne (wife) in front of the hospital.

A superstar kid with a new smile being discharged today

Surgery, Day 2; Got up at 0540, breakfast at the hotel with the team, on the bus at 6:35 to the hospital. Team meeting in the courtyard. Day one went fantastic, 25 surgeries, all will be discharged home today. Again the night shift nurses got everyone ready, and started sending patients to the OR at 7:20 or so in groups of 5. Since all well in pre-op, Faith Schmidt, Charge RN asked if I wanted to observe in the OR, so I did. I want to sidetrack for a minute and say again the Faith is an amazing nurse. She talked about visiting the northern US; our house will always be open to her and her family. She told me today her husband in a doctor in a small (12 bed hospital), he does it all from childbirth to taking out your appendix. If something more serious, the patient is sent about 30-45 minutes away to a larger hospital.
I took Faith up and went to the OR, I haven’t been in the OR since my nursing school days. I watched two surgeries side by side. On Table one was my roommate, Walt Peet from Billings, Montana. He is retired after working 31 years as a plastic surgeon. On table two was Dr. Juan Carlos, the plastic surgeon from Columbia. Both are gifted surgeons, enough said!!
When I first arrived at the hospital, I went to visit the 3 y/o that I had my picture taken with the day before, he was sleeping. When I went to his room after spending an hour in the OR, he & his family were already discharged. Marian will try and get a family picture on his follow up appointment for me next Monday. We had a special bond.
Again, a busy day in post op. I tried to be there as every patient was delivered from the OR. My goal today was to keep the IV’s patent (open). We had a few problems with the IV’s on Monday, today was a much better day. I resecured the IV’s with tape and made sure there was no kinks in the tubing.
I was also requested to speak to about 20 high school students who came to the hospital today to learn about Operation Smile. They listened to my every word that was translated. Hopefully, they will become volunteers for this great organization in the near future.
In closing, we made a lot of families happy today. One family requested to have my picture taken with their son. That one moment made this trip worth my time and effort. I ended my night by having supper with Mrs. Wonderful aka my wife, Marian and Regi at the same restaurant we were at last night. It’s now 10:30 and 5:45 comes up pretty soon. Life is good.