And its a wrap!

Saturday is the last day for most team one members. Several patients will be discharged today. I spent most of the morning shadowing the ward nurses as they checked in on their adult patients before the physio nurses hauled them out of bed for some exercises. Those who did their exercises satisfactorily will most likely get discharged today. Before they leave however, they attend a discharge class which basically tells them how to take care of themselves so they don't end up dislocating their new hip/hips or opening a wound etc. They are given pain medication to take home with them and then it's asta la vista baby! Hopefully, they will recover fully and within weeks, be walking normally with zero pain.

Maria getting some excersices with physiotherapist aide, Justine.

Pedro climbing some steps with the help of Justine and Adam.

Erika (with her mother) is all smiles as she prepares to leave.

Physiotherpaists, Krystle and Rachel (with translator Consuelo) 

hold a discharge class for the patients.

Two little girls Dayana (2.5 years) and Danna 1.5 years) will also be discharged today. Both had hip dysplasia and so each had one of their hips replaced (pelvic osteotemies). Dayana is a serious little thing. Her mum on the other hand just can't stop smiling and saying "Gracias". She will be in chest to feet cast for weeks to keep the new hip in place.

Dayana (holding a play doh) recovering in her room.

Little Danna (with her parents and nurse Sabrina), waving goodbye.

On Saturday night, team one and team two meet for the first time at a banquet hosted by CAMTA to thank everyone for their hard work. And what a night it was! We were entertained by Ecuadorian dancers, had great food, speeches and conversations. I am truly blessed to have worked with such an amazing group or people. Most of team one members will depart on Monday as team two takes over for another busy week.

With Janet Roberts (med student and my roommate) and Sandra Henkel (CAMTA blogger)

Sunday is my day off. After such an intense week, the fatigue finally caught up with me. I slept in till noon and after a quick lunch, went exploring old Quito. The pictures below speak a thousand words. Quito (considered one of the top ten places in the world to retire) really is one of the most amazing places I have ever seen my entire life. (See pics below uploaded just for your viewing pleasure!)


Monday morning: Off to Peru to meet my sister, Dorothy and my oldest and dearest friend, Shiko. Machu Picchu, here we come!

Thank you all for your support and for stepping into my world by following my blog! I could not have done this without your support! 

Muchos Gracias!

Basílica del Voto Nacional is a Roman Catholic church located in the historic center of Quito, Ecuador. It is sometimes also called the Catedral Consagración de Jesús or the Basílica de San Juan. It is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas.

Loved this windows!

Close up shot of the guardian angel also known as the Angel of Quito.

Look at how the clouds literally roll into the hills!

Almost at the finishing line...

By Wednesday, the mission is progressing like a well oiled machine. Most of the little hiccups we encountered the first couple of days we were at the hospital have sorted themselves out. I am still spending most of my time in the kitchen cleaning instruments or at the admin desk attending to the numerous requests that come my way. We had a busy day today. 3 Peds cases and 4 adult cases. Little Jeremy and baby Scarleth also came to get their legs recasted today. 

 

Baby Scarleth with a fresh cast. We'll see her again on Friday.

 

Sandra Henkel (our blogger) and I taking a breather.

 

 

Every morning, (as part of my lay person duties), I do an inventory of all the scrubs, towels, bed sheets and wrappers that have to be laundered. The clean ones are brought back as dirty ones are collected. Very messy business. Thursday, was a shorter than usual day; only 2 adults and 2 peds cases. One of the kids being operated on is 8 and a half year old Galo Cordova. A lot of work is being done on him, 5 different procedures in total!  He can't walk and is slightly mentally challenged so he is probably not aware of what he is about to undergo. His mum is anxious but also relieved that her son is finally getting help. She just wants him to have as normal a life as possible.

 

Counting clean laundry

 

 

 

In the kitchen cleaning OR instruments. People take a course to do this!

 

 

OR Nurse, Melanie carrying Galo to to prep for his surgery.

 

 

In the evening, we headed to the Canadian Ambassador's residence for cocktails. She has a very lovely home and is only 2 months into the job. Much as I appreciated and loved being there, I really just wanted to get back to the hotel and crash. These long days are a killer!

 

With April (left) and Wendy (right) at the ambassador's residence

Friday is a beautiful day! The sun is out and I finally get to take some nice pictures on the way to the hospital. (See below). It is also the last day for team one surgeries but there is still a lot to do. Team two (which left for Quito early Friday morning) will take over on Sunday morning. The transition is expected to be smooth (hopefully!). 16 patients have already been discharged and 2 more are expected to be discharged today. We have 1 adult case and 2 peds cases today. Teodora Pazmino's surgery, had to be cancelled because they discovered she has serious heart problems and it would be too dangerous for her to undergo an operation. The disappointment on her face was heartbreaking. On the bright side, they discovered something no one knew she had and she will be seeing a cardiologist right away.

 

One of the many statues around Quito. A few years ago, the Ecuadorian government committed 10% of their budget to art and culture projects. How cool is that!

 

 

View from the bus while stuck in morning traffic.

 

 

A guardian angel perched on top of a hill looking over Quito city.

58 year old Ramona (the dancing lady) had a Total Hip Replacement (THR) on Tuesday and was discharged on Thursday. She was in tears when she was told it's time to leave because she fell in love with her nurses and didn't want to leave them yet! It amazes me how quickly the patients are ready to go home. They barely take pain meds (Tylenol 3 at most) and the physiotherapy team usually has them up exercising the very day they are out of surgery. I figured that the adults, having lived with pain most of their lives, the pain of undergoing major surgery to replace a hip is no big deal. They are just happy to finally be getting help. Next time I complain of a backache, I will try not to do it so loudly!

 

Ramona with Nurse Marina and Translator Lucina in the recovery room post operation

To read more about this mission, check out our official blog at https://camta.com/blog.

Still going strong!

This altitude sickness symptoms are crazy! I woke up last night at 3 am with my heart racing like I had just finished a marathon and was about to get a heart attack on top of that. Apparently, that is one symptom of altitude sickness. Not pleasant.

Sunday: It's election day in Quito so no clinic or ORs are scheduled today. Spent most of the day sightseeing the outskirts of Quito. 13 of us took a bus to Otavalo, a small town 2 hours away from Quito to visit the famed Otavalo market. On the way back we stopped at Cotacachi which I call leather paradise. Friends, if you love all things leather, (shoes, handbags, wallets, coats) this is the place to come!! Prices are crazy cheap and the stuff is so well made. If only I had known...

Monday: The day started very early: Breakfast at 6 am, board the bus at 7 am, arrive at the hospital at 7:30 am, change into scrubs and start working immediately. There is no time to waste and everybody seems to know exactly what they should be doing. There are four surgeries scheduled in the morning and a clinic in the afternoon.  There is also a non-surgical procedure which happens shortly after we arrive. It's for a little 5 month old boy called Jeremy (see pic below) who has Bilateral Clubfoot that can be corrected very easily using the Ponsetti method. His feet will be casted every so often for 4 - 6 weeks with the angle of his feet straightened slightly each time a new cast is put. The final step is a tenotomy, a tiny incision to cut the Achilles tendon which provides the final release. He screams throughout the casting process which is over in less than 20 min. Poor baby. We leave the hospital at 7 pm. Now I know what a 12 hour shift feels like!

Tuesday: I got to view my first surgery!! My first concern was whether I could stomach it. The head OR nurse told me to sit down on the floor if I felt faint. I suppose she meant to to tell me that they will be too busy to catch me if I indeed faint! The procedure was a Bilateral Pemberton Osteotemies on a 16 month old girl called Scarleth (see pic below). She has Cogenital Hip Dysplasia. Basically, she was born with both her hips dislocated. The ball joint on her thigh bone does not sit properly in the socket. If not corrected, she will live with pain all her life and will most likely have a severe limp. To correct it, I watched the surgeons cut through her skin to the bone, cut a little bit of the bone on the socket off so that the ball joint will fit into that area. Then they casted her from her chest down to her feet in a way that she cannot move those joints for 6 weeks.

I am in awe of those surgeons and nurses!! And yes...I finally understand why nurses are so particular about everything. They have to be super organized and super intuitive about everything. The rest of my afternoon was spent in the "kitchen" washing dirty OR instruments.  Yuck? Yes, but somebody has to do it!

Quito, finally!

The first thing that surprised me as we descended into Quito at appx 8:30 pm Friday evening was just how low the clouds hang. Quito happens to be the highest elevated city in the world. Meaning that sometimes you wake up in the morning and you can almost touch the clouds.

The flight here was so exciting! It was great to finally meet everyone. At Houston Airport, the Edmonton crew met other team one members flying in from Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Victoria, Vancouver and the US and we all headed to Quito together.

Quito is a beautiful city. It's random architecture reminds me a lot about Kenya. It sits on a valley and runs about 10 miles long and two miles wide. The people are super friendly and very hospitable. I just wish I understood what they are saying. I quickly discovered that "Si" and "Gracias" accompanied with a smile will take you a long away!

 

Sunday is elections day which means that we have to go straight to work on Saturday morning to set up the clinic. (By the way, the government forbids any sale of alcohol or any club/bar being open the entire election weekend. No drunken votes please. Everyone must be lucid as they head to the polls).

I have never seen a bunch of hardworking people like this lot. We arrived at Hospital Parde Carollo "Un Canto a la Vida" at 11am Saturday morning amidst cheers from the waiting patients, changed into scrubs and immediately started unpacking the countless bags of equipment and supplies we brought with us. We set up the Ward, Physio rooms, OR, "Kitchen" (where the instruments will be cleaned and where I will hang out most of my time here). And of course set up the Clinic where the patients will be assessed by the doctors and nurses.

 

 

 

 

At around 1 pm, the first patient is seen. A little 9 year old girl called Maite who needs surgery to straighten out her left leg. She is the most curious and delightful child who is clearly thrilled that the doctors are going to fix her leg so she can walk and run just like the other kids. She has travelled from the "jungle" about four hours away to get here. There are around 50 patients who must be assessed during this clinic. Some will get surgery, others are told to come back in a year or so and others leave disappointed (sometimes in tears) as they are told that they (or their children) will never be operated on. Their situation is beyond help. That just broke my heart.

At 6:30 pm, I flee to take the first bus back to the hotel. I am knackered and starving. My feet hurt like crazy and I fantasize about my pillow throughout the half hour ride.

Checklist

One day to go!

To do list before I leave

Cook and freeze food for the boys ✓
Do Laundry ✓
Fix hair ✓
Grocery shopping ✓
Buy suitcase ✓
Pack X
Fold and put away laundry X
Vacuum X
Banking and Currency exchange X
Find passport X (Don't know where the damn thing is!)
Book 3 am  taxi ride to airport X
Buy a proper backpack X
Clean house X
Clear my office desk X
Get some sleep X (Well I would if my mind would just stop churning!)

Officially on panic mode! I need a clone!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I feel a migraine coming...

3 days to go!!

ECUADOR!

I have travelled to many places but I do not remember being this excited about a trip! I initially thought it's because I finally get to visit the one continent I have never been. For two weeks I would live amongst a culture and a people I have never encountered before. My own, personal "last frontier" I suppose.

But that was not it. Because you see, the more invested I became in raising funds for the trip and the more I got to know the team of wonderful, down to earth, dedicated, 90+ individuals I would be travelling with, the more I realised how serious and life changing this trip was going to be for me. We were going down to there to change lives! I know that sounds so...corny but it's true! Imagine someone who has been afflicted with years of pain because of a damaged hip or knee who is unable to work to support his/her family, or a child born with club feet (an easily corrected procedure out here in the west) whose parents cannot afford to pay for an operation that would change the course of their lives.

This year, CAMTA (Canadian Association of Medical Teams Abroad) is sending 94 medical (doctors, nurses, anesthetists, physiotherapists) and non-medical (translators, lay people, IT, logisticians etc) to literally set up a "hospital" to perform orthopedic surgeries on about 30+ people, many of them wee little children. Its a logistics nightmare I tells ya but it's worth every minute.

I have worked in the non-profit world for well...forever but never have I been involved in work that has such direct and immediate impact on individuals. They walk in broken and walk out with renewed hope!! That is the stuff that gets me excited. It's not about being in a city/country/continent I have never been before. It's about seeing the hope and joy in the faces of these people when they realise they can finally walk, pain free and shame free, just like the rest of us.

Share my journey...to Ecuador and back again! (Yes...I am a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit fanatic!!)