Monday March 18

  It’s hard to believe that we are halfway thru this trip already. As usual, I feel the press of time entering this second week, where it seems like we have more to do than we have time for. We will have a very busy week.

       This morning was typical for a Monday in our second week. When I woke up this morning, I started wondering how Larry had fared over the weekend. There was no reason to think he wouldn’t do well, and yet we know that the unexpected can occur, so I wasn’t at peace this morning until I saw him. Rob Kimmel and I made the Pediatric Ward our first stop; as we were walking down the hall, he was standing in the doorway of his 6 bed room and he started smiling brightly when he saw us coming. He is fine, and he will be discharged today. ‘m so happy that we were able to do the surgery that has changed his life for the better.

      Santiago and the others joined us, and we went to the second floor to see the woman he had operated upon on Friday night. He had the same anxiety, only worse probably because there was a strong chance that she had succumbed. Fortunately she was alive, and feeling better; she was dehydrated because no one could get an IV in her. Drs. Nowicki, Kimmel, and Clark put in a central line, and we are hopeful.

      Between the Liberian residents and our team, we have more surgeons than rooms available to work in, so while Santiago was extracting a thyroid, and Dr. Kimmel Sr. was removing a large ear keloid, and others were doing hernias, I spent much of the morning in the Outpatient Clinic with Dr. Albertha Clark. She is one of the stellar residents coming up, and it was a real pleasure to work with her in the clinic, seeing all sorts of interesting problems, many of which we will try to get on our surgery schedule for this week.

       As I was leaving the clinic, I saw the uncle of Francis, a patient from last year; the uncle works in the JFK Dental Clinic. Francis was the young man who had multiple Schwannomas in his left axilla and extending down his left arm. We took out 13 of these tumors in September, relieving the pain and burning symptoms he was having. The pathology was benign, and we hoped for a longer term relief, though we knew they were likely to recur. A few weeks ago I received a photo of him, and it seemed likely that the tumor had transformed into malignancy. The mass was huge, and was ulcerating thru the skin. Dr. Gbozee saw him and said the tumor was fixed; I hoped to be able to see him, although there was little we could offer in the way of palliation. I never did get to see him on this trip; his uncle informed me this morning that Francis passed away on March 5. He will live in my memory forever.

    We did more surgery in the afternoon, and finally finished around 6:30. then as usual back to the hotel for showers and dinner.