Tomorrow

I am almost completely packed !! It isn't my personal stuff but the supplies which require a lot of sorting and packing, trying to prioritize given that I have a limited amount of room. Though I am happy to say that Adamah (Dr. James Sirleaf) told me that Delta has agreed to allow us 3 bags each at no extra expense, so that's good. I have 3 rolling duffel bags nearly filled; less than a half of one is my personal belongings, and the remainder are supplies.
Adamah spoke to the Chief Medical Officer at JFK the other day, and he asked that we bring gauze and surgical scrub brushes. As it turns out, Waterbury Hospital is in the process of phasing out certain lines of scrub brushes, so they have donated more than I can bring. I put about 100 of them in a Space Bag, and the sucked all the air out with a vaccuum, and it is absolutely astonishing how much it shrinks allowing me to pack a lot more ! Yay Space Bags !
Speaking of Waterbury Hospital, I would like to thank everyone in and around the OR who have been so generous in helping me get supplies to take to Liberia. For example, a particular request from the Liberian surgeons was that I bring some blades for a dermatome ( a dermatome is used to harvest skin for skin grafts, like for a burned patient). Through Ro Murphy in the OR, the hospital kindly ordered, obtained. and donated a set of 10 replacement blades for me to bring over. Mary, Tanya, and Evelyn, who run the OR Supply system and who make sure we always have everything we want and need, have been so wonderful about collecting sutures, the aforementioned scrub brushes, and an incredibly useful collection of other supplies for me to bring. And a number of suppliers including Ethicon and Atrium have been extraordinarily generous in providing sutures, instruments, and other supplies! I never cease to be amazed by the goodwill of so many people who are eager to help make life a little better for a hospital and patients in a far-off land; I feel honored to work with them on a daily basis.
Now I still have to figure out how to get the proverbial 20 pounds into the 5 pound bag, so I better finish packing! Next time I think we should rent a shipping container !!
10:42 PM : I have everything packed. With the 3 duffel system, all 3 of them were over 50 pounds. So I have elected to bring a 4th duffel, and now all 4 are under the weight limit of 50 pounds with everything that I wanted to bring included!! They are each around 45 pounds, in large part because stell surgical instruments are heavy ! We will see if Delta charges for another bag; in any case it is cheaper to have one more rather than have 3 overweight.