Apparently, one of the hazards of living and working in the Yucatan peninsula are the thunderstorms. We had quite the lightning show the evening after writing my last letter which then caused the phone lines to fail. No phone, no internet. No communication with the outside world aside from traveling to a neighboring town or using the two private phones with satellite service. According to the girls, it is not uncommon for the phone lines to be unavailable for over a week after such a powerful storm. Once, they were not available for nearly a month! I guess we can call this a quick turn-around.
Since my last letter I have also discovered three new insects in my house and had my first “long day” medical experience. I am currently running on three hours of sleep after a 22 hour day. I am weak in the knees and constantly have to fight off drowsiness to avoid going to sleep in the middle of the day and ruining my internal clock (therefore, if this letter seems a bit more disjointed than usual, please excuse said disjointedness). All those who were involved in the surgeries yesterday are going about their tasks today with a composure that reminds you of the walking dead. Of course, medical personnel never plan for such a long work day but sometimes they occur.
Rule number 1: Don’t schedule four surgeries in one day. Jam scheduling surgeries in small clinics with travel time in between leaves no room for complications. The following is a summary of my day.
0600 – Wake up, prepare for the day, do some household cleaning.
0700 – Breakfast
0830 – We prepare the surgery room and set out proper equipment
0900 – Total laparoscopic hysterectomy scheduled to begin. Delayed by special laparoscopy team’s late arrival.
1030 – Surgery begins
1300 – Surgery scheduled to end. I step out of the surgery room to warm up and eat. (In case you did not know surgery rooms are kept very cold to keep the surgeons, who wear several layers of sterilized equipment to prevent infection, comfortable. Nurses who do nothing during the surgery are not so comfortable.) I do not return to the surgery room for sake of not using another set of clothes which must be washed by hand. I occasionally return to watch the screen through the surgery room door between times of chatting with the family.
1400 – Laparoscopic cholysystectomy [lap choly] (gallbladder removal) scheduled to begin in Valladolid, a neighboring town 40 minutes away. The neighboring clinic is notified and put on standby notice.
1630 – Surgery finally ends. I help with post-op patient care and down a couple of spoonfuls of soup before being called to leave for Valladolid.
1930 – We arrive at the clinic in Valladolid.
2030 – Surgery begins. Delay due to anaesthesiologist being in another surgery at the time.
2330 – We arrive back at the clinic in Xocempich.
2415 – Second lap choly begins.
0200 – Second lap choly ends. We eat “dinner.”
0245 – Third lap choly begins.
0430 – Third lap choly ends. I help with basic clean-up.
0450 – I hit the sack and set my alarm to wake me up at 0600 for breakfast, devotionals, and another surgery at 0900.
The first surgery was a hysterectomy. The surgery was complicated by the fact that she had multiple large non-cancerous growths on her uterus and ovaries, her uterus was unusually large and hard from growths inside, and the team had only performed this cutting-edge type of laparoscopic surgery three times before. By the end, everyone involved was worried about her well being because the longer someone is under general anaesthesia, the greater risk there is of various complications. I was increasingly concerned with hypothermia, one of the common complications of surgery and anaesthesia. I quizzed the girls on duty on heat therapy which was the topic of my lecture to them a couple of weeks ago because they would help take care of her afterward. Dr. Estrella was increasingly worried and kept going in and out of the surgery area to watch the progress on the screen. After surgery was over we nurses got to work. Directly after surgery Femia, Louisa (wife of Dr. Federico), and I were the primary nurses taking care of the patient. Goal number one was to raise her core temperature. We covered her in blankets, shined a lamp on her, and put hot water bottles around her. Femia reported to me after returning from Valladolid that she continued shivering for three and a half hours. Dr. Federico told me later that part of the reason the surgery was so delayed is the technicality of the new procedures.
She and the other lap choly surgery patients went home today. Yay for no complications!
There is really a lot more to say about yesterday and today, not to mention the couple of days before that including the consistent mention of bugs at the beginning of this report, but I am sorry to say that my brain has completed functioning. All I can think of right now is a shower and bed. Perhaps I will go to the little store a block away first and see if the report of ice cream is true.
Prayer:
For a quick recovery for Dr. Estrella. He had surgery this morning (which I missed witnessing because I woke up at 8:30 right when it began and I do not remember turning off my alarm at 6:30)
Other than that… continuing prayer for general health… safety… especially from the spiders of unknown lethality (shall I call them the S-U-L-esses [think Princess Bride] from now on?) in my house (wow, what a thought pattern… I hope you understood that). Two of them in the last couple of days were I kind I have never seen before. They are bigger than my hand and run REALLY fast (yes, I did kill them with Raid… beautiful Raid!). The girls do not recognize the descriptions so they cannot tell me how dangerous they are.
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