Friday September 30

Friday September 30

We had a full morning in the OR with several hernias and a burn debridement. Ly also worked with Dr. Muvu on the open dislocated ankle. We finished in the OR around 3 and then went to have lunch, but got stopped at the Administration Building by Dr. Macdonald and Mary ( I referred to Mary in an earlier post as our angel social worker, but she is in fact the acting assistant administrator. No mater what, she is still an angel !) to see several patients. One was a young woman with caustic burns on her back and neck whom we saw in the clinic twice. She can't seem to accept the fact that her keloids can't all simply be removed so she will look perfect again. She has a contracture of her left neck which can be released, but that is really all that can be done for her. Another consultation was a young girl with a burn from last February of the left side of her face and shoulder which has a big keloid scar. Ly felt it is too early to do anything surgically with the keloid, and recommended massage with Vitamin E to soften it up; the mother was clearly disappointed, having expected a miracle fix. The final patient there was a young man with a small but symptomatic inguinal hernia who is a member of the Presidential security detail. Mary will arrange for him to be admitted Monday for surgery on Tuesday.

Oh, one other consult: an American ex-pat named Nate who had a hernia that he was concerned about since he is heading off not the bush for a few months. I reassured him that he has a small ventral hernia which can be repaired at a later date. It turns out that he is from Beverly, Ma and has lived in West Africa for the past 10 years. I'm not sure what he does for a living, but clearly he enjoys living in West Africa.

For dinner a group of us went to Tajj and had a good time. then many of us went to Groovie's where we met up with Adamah and Chris. Ly and I came home around 12:30 as it appears we will have a busy day at Redemption tomorrow. Apparently they have 6 cases on the list for us to do; I'm not sure if we will get through that many, but we can try.