April15

 This is our last day of operating on this trip, and we did more than expected. I saw a 68 yr old woman yesterday who had been told that she has breast cancer and needed a mastectomy. Thru acquaintances Mrs Cooper, retired from the JFK Admitting Offuce and living in Maryland, asked if I would see her to render an opinion. So she came to the hospital yesterday and I found that she had at least a locally advanced breast cancer and probably metastatic. She is not a candidate for surgery, but she is willing to take palliative chemotherapy. She and had a good discussion, and I told her I would contact Dr. Dehdeh Supuwood, a young Liberian physician who has done medical oncology training in Cairo. She and I talked about this woman in particular, and the challenges of being a medical oncologist in Liberia currently. At the end, I agreed to bring the patient back today so I could do a biopsy and bring it to Waterbury Hospital for faster evaluation so today she came, and we did the biopsy, and later as she was leaving she gave me a big hug of thanks. Other cases today included several hernias, and Becca assisted Dr. Mabenza on a thyroid. It was a good ending day on a successful trip. Santiago and Sam and Chandra Joshi left in the afternoon for the airport. The drive took over 3 hours because of a football match and it being Good Friday and who knows what else. They were concerned about missing their plane, but the made it in time.