Today is the last full day of surgery. We have 2 cases scheduled in each room as usual. The nasal reconstructions take about 5 hours each. The first stage microtia (ears) take 6-7 hours. I started my 2 rooms and then went to see patients on the floor with Carolina. There are many more male patients than female patients. We started with the boys knowing that the surgeons were concerned about a few of them. One had not urinated in the last 14 hours since coming out of surgery. Another had a small pneumonia and needed to be coached to do some pulmonary maneuvers. I insisted that everyone had to get up and walk either around the ward or outside in the hallway. It’s very important to not just lie in bed after surgery. These patients have had facial surgery and should be able to ambulate without problems.
We visited the female ward and found many patients out in the hallway either walking or sitting after having walked. In general, all the female patients were doing quite well. We had fun taking pictures with them.
Shortly after we returned to the OR we were told that the patient who hadn’t urinated had taken a nice walk and was then able to pee!! The boy with pneumonia was improving on antibiotics and oxygen. All good.
This evening we went to a party given by a young Guatemalan surgeon and his fiancée who had translated for me on Sunday. Her family lives in a gated community that was supposed to be near our hotel. It was a struggle to find the place and the guard asked for photo IDs. Luckily we all had passports saved on our phones. We wandered around a bit trying to find the right spot. Finally we got there! It was late when we arrived. The house is beautiful. The food was a variety of middle eastern goodies. Nice party.
The Adventures of Anne 