Haiti Mission Trip: Day 1 Surgery

After a good night sleep, we wake up fresh and energized and ready for the day’s work. Patients arrive and line up in front of the clinic. We get a souvenir picture with Russ then we have breakfast and we start the day working fast and furious.

Here is our souvenir picture of Russ and the two of us, bright and early before we start our workday.

Then a breakfast for the hungry warrior. Farm raised eggs, pancakes, and mangoes.

Then we head to the operating room. Patients are now marked with a piece of white label above the eye we are going to operate on there is no question which eye we are going to operate on and which procedure we are going to use. The morning starts out with a strong group of hard white cataracts.

It’s our first case of surgery and Chrisnord is being trained here to assist Dr. Kondrot. They go over the instruments trays and set out the instruments the way Dr. Kondrot wants them.

Next, we begin the day’s first case.

And done! The large size cataract is extracted out without complication.

Then the day continues.

We keep on working until 1 PM. Time for a lunch break. We have muffins, bananas, and bread to build ourselves a sandwich.

We raid the kitchen fridge in search for some protein and got some lunch meat for the sandwiches.

Hungry warrior doctor eating a monster of a sandwich!

Afternoon shift begins with more exam and pre-op for the afternoon surgery cases.

And here’s a little boy with optic nerve problem.

And here are our cases for the afternoon surgeries.

Cataracts as white as can be.

WHite cataract is seen under the light. Ready for surgery.

And out it goes. What a big one!

After all the cases are done, we go back to the front clinic and do more examination on the people who are waiting in the waiting room.

We work late into the night. By 8 PM, we are hungry. We will eat anything now. And here you see this rare photo, I just have to show it. This is a once in a rare blue moon, the good doctor Kondrot pouring himself a cold soda pop to drink. He deserves it. It is a very good day. He is very tired, hungry but also very happy. You can tell by the smile on his face.

Now, what’s for dinner? Red beans with rice, lettuce, fried potatoes chip and plantain chip and bake chicken thighs! Wow, what a treat! All that food was gone in a few minutes.

 We ate fast. We are also running against the generator clock as we want to brush our teeth and clean ourselves before the generator shuts down and the water pump goes to sleep for the night.

As you can guess, both Dr. Kondrot and I fall fast asleep, not minding the crack in the two twin mattresses in between us. In fact, we look like two logs, still but snoring away like two trains chasing each other to nowhere land.

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