18 June 2025 – Wednesday – Day 3 in the OR


I realized this morning that I am posting photos of surgeries that you may think are simply cosmetic rhinoplasties(nose jobs).  Nope!! 
These teenagers had cleft lip and palate repair as babies and the flattened bridge of nose is a result of that early deformity. These children have lost normal septum which separates the nostrils so that their breathing may be impaired. These children bridge of the nose is flat and the tip points to one side. As you have seen, even with early photos of the repair, it is a  pretty dramatic improvement. 

For those of you who have seen my previous posts from medical missions, you may wonder what happened to the ear surgeries? We actually have one room of microtia( ear surgery) and 3 rooms of noses. This mission trip is mostly for nose repair. September trip does cleft and microtia. I guess it’s based on which surgeons can come to work. Other mission locations like Vietnam do only microtia surgeries. 

In the meantime, several people who are part of our working group have had to be given intravenous fluids, antibiotics and anti-nausea medications. Somehow this always happens. The surgeons keep working no matter what. Personally, I plan to stay healthy…if I can. It’s hard to know what has caused the problem because there is no common thread. Oh well we do what we can.  I think the secret is to drink margaritas! 

I finished around 7:30 tonight and walked back to the hotel. I was invited to join the microtia surgeons group for drinks at Charleston, a speakeasy in town. A few of these places are around and great fun. We had drinks and then went onto dinner at a different spot. A good part of the fun of these trips is getting together with people you sort of know in the OR and then get to know by going out. We had a fun evening. Now again it’s time to sleep and get ready for another day.