We have been working hard again this week. I am again in the world of general surgery (mainly consisting of hernias again haha). The staffing has been a bit better this week as we are down one surgeon and have more nurses to go around... although there has also been a bug going around and we have had 2 people sick both yesterday and today.
We did have to do a masectomy yesterday. It was a young woman and was very sad because the tumor was quite advanced (it was about the size of a golf ball). The prognosis does not look very good. This reminds me how blessed I am to live in a country where we have easy access to primary health care and early detection is much more the norm. Here in Africa the norm tends to be palliative due to the advanced stages of disease when they are diagnosed.
If you are wondering how we do our pathology here on the ship, the answer is... we don't. Some lucky person (ie. any crew member the lab can get a hold of as they leave the ship) gets asked to take the specimens with them in their suitcase to be dropped off in a lab (I believe they are usually taken to England). From there the specimens are taken to a lab and the results are forwarded back to the ship. This means that the results may take longer for a patient to receive depending on transporation!
Here is the room that I have been working in last week and this week
For all you SickKids people, here I am with the "casecarts" for the morning. For all non-SickKids people this is how we organize all of the sterile supplies for each case
Looking through the port hole, you started with a big smile but your face turned green at the end; not envious at us, are you? Soon you will be back with us; in the meantime, keep up providing help and hope for the very needy; you are our Florence Nightingale out there. Papa
ReplyDeleteYour case carts pictures look like you are showing door #2 to contestants in the Price is Right...if you get tired of nursing maybe you should be on TV....mummer
ReplyDelete