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!
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