I'm going to work on the photo situation in a short while, but for now I'll give a brief rundown on what I've been up to over the last little while. I scrubbed in on some surgeries last week, the most interesting of which was a woman who had a broken elbow, where the piece had then been dislocated such that her arm was unable to bend or to properly pronate and suppinate. We worked on her on Friday afternoon and she was looking pretty good this morning when they changed her dressings. Actually, probably the most interesting thing that I did last week was to sit in on consultations on Monday morning. We had 38 patients come in over the course of 3 hours...it was great! Unfortunately, that afternoon I decided that I hadn't been properly sick yet while in Cambodia (everyone else I've been traveling with has been sick at least once) so I got sick, and well! I had to go home with nausea, diarrhea a fever and general achiness. The next day I was feeling better, except for the diarrhea, so I went to a clinic, where I (embarassingly) ran into our chief surgeon (who woulda thought it possible?!) and got Cipro, which was a godsend. I was better within hours. Then I caught a cold. But that's almost gone now, and life is pretty good.

On Saturday I decided to walk over to the Independence Monument from our apartment but was being hassled by anyone with any mode of transportation to use them! to go anywhere! Lady!! My patience for these guys has been dropping exponentially. I'm not a tourist!! So I placed myself in the middle of a throng of monks and lost the moto drivers. The monks and I started chatting and it turned out that they were headed towards a Wat right by the photo shop I was headed for, so they walked me to my destination. Then they invited me into their apartments, where we had tea and a nice chat, before one of them took me on a tour of the Wat ;) A very random morning, but very nice nonetheless. I think there are a couple of pics below on the blog from this Wat.

Then I drove around with a friend taking photos of the city. I now know my limit is about 2 hours sitting side-saddle on a moto. We both got off at this point and stood stretching...bunch of old farts that we are! :)

Yesterday Geni and I decided that it was long overdo that we run the Hash, a run that is held once a week outside of the city. Supposedely this is a worldwide phenomenom, but it was the first I had heard of it. This week's hash ended up being relatively close to the hospital, but it was still good fun. We ran through Wats, people's yards, piles of sand, markets, fields and along roads and the river. There is a trail marked out and you have to find the right way...sometimes there are false trails. Oh, and at the end there is unlimited beer made available. Geni and I got good and drunk (think 30+ degrees, dehydrated and needing to drink at least 4-5 beers to get your money's worth, as the run costs 5$) Plus we were virgins to the run, so we had to be brought into the centre of the circle, introduce ourselves and then chug beer. And they found all kinds of other excuses to get us to chug beer...so by sunset we were sloshed. We left the group at this point and went to a favourite, quiet restaurant to end our evening (drinking mango-passionfruit shakes....drooooool.)

Some stupas that lined Wat Langka.
A jackfruit tree in the grounds of Wat Langka. I met up with some monks and there are some fabulous pictures from this, but the internet connection is being quite awful right now, and I have a run to get to, so I am going to leave the blog as it is for now, wish you all my best and get the heck out of this café!!! Gah!!!!

A garden in the temple I was visiting.
This is a picture taken from the alley that leads to our apartment. If you turn right where the blue garbage pail is you'll be on the main floor of our building.
Cyclo drivers. These guys have it pretty rough. Generally they leave their families, who live in the provinces, and come into the city to try and make a living pedaling people around. They live and sleep in their cyclo when they aren't using it during the day. Some will try and make it back to see their family over the weekend, but they can't always afford it. They don't always make enough to even eat every day. There are NGOs set up in the city who specifically cater to this population.

A more modern looking shopping mall right near the central market in Phnom Penh. Tony wants to go here sometime to try their pizza.
This is a peace monument that I pass by every day as it is relatively close to the hospital. For the longest time I didn't understand why it was a peace monument if it was a gun. It took me about a month to notice the knot in the barrel of the gun and then it all made a bit more sense ;)
What they ended up doing was have as many guns as possible be brought together and melted to actually make the monument. These are photos depicting the making of the monument, which is in the centre of a roundabout.
Squish the guns!
Yesterday a friend of mine picked me up on his moto and drove me around the city so that I could get pictures of Phnom Penh. This was taken from the Olympic Stadium, where children were flying kites in the wind. The area was being well used with many soccer and volleyball games going on, as well as people running around the track.
A little further out of the city I noticed the trees had funny nest-like things hanging in them, and I wondered about them. Turns out these trees are Dragon Eye trees (a type of fruit) and the "nests" that I was noticing were actually there to protect the fruit from various animals and bats.
My obliging friend stopped and let me get a better picture. You can see some of the fruit that is uncovered in the tree as well.

World Cup fever!! One week ago! I have never watched so much football (aka soccer) in my life, and by that I mean I watched maybe 3 whole games over the last month! Whoo! I find it quite boring compared to hockey and will let anyone who is watching but willing to listen to me, know. But I actually enjoyed this game! It was pretty exciting, though I really wish France had won.
This was when France scored their first goal against Italy.
Um, right. So the game started at 1 am our time. What happened was I went to a wedding celebration for dinner, ate lots of food and had a lovely time, then crawled into bed around 9:30. The alarm went at 11:45 and I crawled downstairs to Geni's room where she dutifully poured me a beer and woke me up. Then we headed off to the bar down the street to watch the entire game. This is to prove that we were indeed up to watch the game at the actual time it was being broadcast in Phnom Penh. I know the picture is blurry, but you can read it! Oh, and I made it to work for 8 am the next morning...and then left at lunch to go get some sleep!!! :)
I know it's a bit blurry, but I don't have a tripod (yet) and it was taken without a flash. Still pretty, if I do say so myself.
Xray of a dislocated arm in a 4 year old boy. He had fallen out of bed 8 months ago. It was decided to let him be for now, as fixing the dislocation might cause more damage than good, as it might compromise the growth of his bones. He had a slight reduction in range of motion but no real pain.

Cutie pie with a dislocated arm. I was told that it is most likely that he actually fractured the ulna bone and dislocated the head of the radial bone (I think) but we couldn't really see the fracture on the xray. He giggled so hard when he saw these pics.
He could actually hold out his arm for me and it would look like this, but as soon as I broke out the camera he just couldn't hold his arm the same way for me!
Some of the school children I visited with on Thursday afternoon. One of the girls and I had a nice chat. It went something like this:
Meghan: What is your name? (in broken Khmer)
Girl: My name is X. What is your name? (in good English)
Meghan: My name is Meghan.
Girl: Are you married? (with much giggling from the surrounding girls)
And then they followed me around to the next two classrooms. I got 85 children on Thursday afternoon...props to me!
Geni after a long surgery on a cleft lip on Friday afternoon, that didn't go as well as planned. Everyone was exhausted by the end of it. People have gotten used to me on Fridays. I go around the hospital and yell "It's Friday" to anyone who will listen to me... ;)

So the next several pictures are taken from a surgery I assisted with on Saturday afternoon at the clinic. This picture is taken from the rooftop of the clinic, where I arrived (after being woken up at 8 am) at 8:45 am for a quick breakfast before scrubbing in on a cleft lip surgery. Now several things might strike you as strange with that sentence. Saturday morning? Clinic? Surgery? Add to that my having gone out dancing the night before and having only got to bed around 3 am, my being woken up by the neighbour's dog at 6:30 am (I could kill that dog!) and you're starting to get the whole picture. When my phone rang at 8 I thought Hey, I'm awake, why not? When I got there, ate and scrubbed in I thought What am I doing? I should be at home drinking water and sleeping, not making light conversation over a bloody lip (literally)! After we finished the cleft lip I sat outside, drank some much needed water and contemplated the meaning of life...then 20 minutes later, without any time for lunch (who am I kidding...I couldn't eat lunch!) we were back in the OR working on the fractured arm. The following pictures, as per usual, are graphic. This was the coolest surgery I helped out with this week, but honestly, they are not for the weak-stomached. And you'll be happy to know that everyone's moods were much better during this second operation ;)
Two fractures in one arm, between the wrist and the elbow. This is us trying to free up the two ends of the radius. Notice how white our gloves are at this point...
Working on the ulnar fracture.
This is our second surgery of the day. I left at 5 pm, after two people had separately commented on how tired I looked (hey, I got 3 hours sleep!). Dr. Ngiep scrubbed in for a third surgery after I left, which had him at the clinic for about 13 hours on his Saturday.
This is not normal.
Pretty in....purple? The top was purple too...it was a lot to look at when I wasn't scrubbed in. This surgery occurred at the clinic, because the patient could afford it. Most of the profits are turned around and invested into the Children's Surgical Centre, where I normally work.
Xray of the fracture we were working on. Dr. Ngiep was saying it was like a new joint had formed in the arm where the fracture had occurred (the fracture happened about 4 years ago). Certainly when we saw the patient in the consultation room I described his arm as having two wrists...
Notice how we've drilled aaaalll the way through! This brought back fond memories of breaking my own elbow, once upon a time. Wonder if they did something like this to me? Definetely had two pins in my elbow for a couple of weeks...
We used a drill to make a hole for the pin that would keep the ulna bone straight. Dr. Sy, the anaesthetist, in the background with his adorable shirt!
Plate being placed to keep the radius bone in place.
That's the radial nerve you can see over the plate. We were being sooo careful to this nerve, trying to keep it from being damaged, hopefully that effort paid off.
Harvesting bone from the hip to be used in a bone graft to fix this man's arm.
Pieces of bone to be used for the graft.
Taking the piece of bone and putting it in the arm, between the fractured ends of the bone.
Suturing it up, after four and a half hours of surgery. Afterwards, I gave Geni (our star photographer, who also had been out dancing but was smart enough to sleep!) a tour of the clinic and then we walked home, had a very-much-needed dinner and then I was off to my hammack (which needs repairs...again...sigh).

Two of you have asked whether I have some kind of permission to be posting pictures of the patients, the way I have been, and I thank you. In fact, I'm surprised more haven't voiced a similar concern. Anywho, the answer is yes, the patients consent to our taking pictures before, during and after the operations, and to having them published, so dontcha worry...Meghan isn't all bad. ;)

I was eating some delicious Indian food on my balcony with Danica when I looked over and saw this sky. Rainy season hasn't been too bad so far but I hear it's going to pick up soon!
Isn't this a crazy picture? I found it etched into the wall of a friend's house.
Pros with his smile! And this guy has the nerve to call ME smiley! Geni in the background getting ready to enter the OR.
Anaesthetist chatting with Tony in the OR. He speaks excellent French and we've had some really great chats while waiting for the surgeons to show up in the morning (!)

She had a burn contracture and I think I posted pics of when we placed the pins in her fingers. What a gorgeous girl. She belongs to the ethnic minority of Muslims known as the Cham.

My boyfriend. He's actually been discharged, which is a shame (only for me!) as I could always count on him being around when I wanted to escape the office or the OR. He actually squished himself between me and the wall the other day so that his mother woudn't take him away. So cute!

This girl has a sad story, but we're hoping that she is on the road to recovery and a better life. She was born with a meningoencephalocele (MEC) and her mother sold her to a begging ring in Thailand for something like 10 US dollars. She was rescued sometime this year, at the age of six, and she's the size of a normal three year old. She was operated on for the MEC but it was found that she had severe ulceration of her right eye and it had to be removed. Here she is sitting one day after she had surgery for the placement of an artificial eye. She and I hung out for a bit while I was on rounds but I couldn't get much from her, even with my superbly stunted Khmer! But right before leaving that night, she was out walking about, and she found me and sat down beside me and I got a killer smile when I told her her necklace was beautiful (sa'an). I'm looking forward to seeing her Monday.

Here I am taking out the stitches of this boy who had a burn contracture, if I remember right. It was SO much easier then the last time I removed sutures :) This kid and I were counting in Khmer, and I helped Geni with the scabby ones that are a bit harder to get at. And Mr. Yinna helped me with my technique ;)
Working hard at a young age. Look at the concentration!
Adorable! We took a picture of her with a survey plunked down beside her too. She was so excited to use the pen.

Bilateral cleft lip (and palate, but that's another surgery!) before the surgery....
And afterwards! Little drugged up but looking better.
Today we left Phnom Penh for the relative peace and quiet of Oudong, one of the old capitals of Cambodia. There are two "mountains" here and we decided that the best time of the day to see all the structures would be at noon. Silliness. It was an enjoyable experience but it was so hot! I drank a litre of water at the bottom of the hill in less than ten minutes. Dehydrated...whoops!
You know it's laundry time when the orange "Pop Cowboys Mood in Love" tshirt gets broken out. I won this tshirt earlier this summer. Not high quality and absolutely huge on me, but it does the job :)
These kids were gambling and really wanted me to join them. I spent most of the time trying to remember how to say "I don't understand" in Khmer (Kniom muhn yuhl te). I actually couldn't figure out the game but they kept patting my pockets to get money out and have me join in.
Pretty.
A king was buried here, awhile ago. I know, I suck, but there were a lot of structures and a lot of kings and it was really really hot!
This area was hit pretty hard during the war and hasn't been completely restored yet....
Though they're working on it! This Buddha was absolutely gigantic!!
You could see it from the next hill (phnom).
And at the bottom look what awaited us...
Hammack in one piece! Imagine that! Yeah, sense the sarcasm? My hammack broke AGAIN this morning...that's the third and last time! I'm going shopping tomorrow!!!
Geni and some friends she made at the base of Oudong mountain. These guys started hanging out with us because they wanted our water bottles. By the time we left they were shaking and kissing our hands and yelling out "ch-koo-ut" and giggling histerically. The next couple of pictures below are quite graphic from some "ch-koo-ut" (craaazy!) surgeries we did this past week.