Ohhh We’re Halfway There (Wednesday, Day 4)

Hola!!

At this point, I couldn’t tell you if it’s morning, afternoon, or night given the lack of sleep, BUT I can tell you that we’re having another awesome day at Kids First!

Last night, the team didn’t leave the hospital until 11:30 once again. What can we say, we like to burn a little midnight oil. One of the most entertaining/interesting parts of our days are the car rides home. Picture the cast of Saturday Night Life smelling like a high school locker room and stuffed in a clown car. The image you have right now is probably very accurate to our nightly commute.

The night ended anything but calm. We all had an older and stronger patient that could easily beat us all in arm wrestling match wake up slightly agitated after surgery. He was the last patient of the day, so we all had to muster as much energy as possible to help calm the patient and transport him to recovery. A very special thank you to our PACU nurses, Amy, Heather, and Kathy, who are always the last ones working and help keep our patients pain free and calm post-op. They get the good, the bad, and the ugly from surgery and are the most patient and caring members of our team. Thank you ladies for all that you do!

Back to today…

We arrived at 7:30 this morning, once again, ready for another day. If there are members of the KF team who aren’t morning people, they’re certainly good at hiding it! Smiles filled the hospital as we took back our first patients. No matter how much or little sleep we get, it’s always easy to smile when you wake up and know you get to work with some of your closest friends in a beautiful city for 7 days doing what you love…well that and the fact that there’s an endless supply of coffee at the hospital. We aren’t perfect.

We have a shortly “lighter” day with only 13 surgeries as we have our annual dinner at Hank’s tonight with some of the local staff, volunteers, and government. This dinner is always such a treat and we are deeply grateful to our San Miguel friends for all that they do to honor us. YOU are the ones who deserve the thanks! This trip would not be possible without you!

Today we are doing lots of lower extremities and hardware removals (with a hand or two thrown in there for Dr. Stutz!). Compared to what seemed like a screaming match in the PACU yesterday, today has been fairly quiet in the recovery room (knock on wood).

We are hoping to head home semi-soon to go get ready for Hank’s. In the meantime, I hear “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” playing…better go intervene for the sake of all of the KF team.

Hasta luego!