Proof to those who needed it that yes I am working on my project. I hit up two international schools last week and I tried to get to a Khmer school, but the children were too young to read my survey, so Danica will be going in my stead this coming Thursday, while I am in Battambang.
They all wanted a chance to read! So cute!
Ok, this was definetely one of the coolest surgeries I've been able to help out with. I'm holding open the wound so that you can see one end of the fractured radius of this poor guy. He had broken both the radius and the ulna but only the ulna was fixed originally, for some reason. So when we saw him one month later, his arm was completely useless and deformed. We opened up the arm and found it to be infected, with pus oozing out (that was kind of gross). Then we poured in something to kill off the infection, but that meant that all the tissues were stained the same colour, making it virtually impossible to identify anything. There was a pin in the arm from the previous surgery and it was looking at one point like we might have to remove that one to get the two ends that were still fractured to meet. There was also a bit of bone floating around and we were able to remove that.
Finally! Over an hour later we got the bones to meet. At this point we took a pin and hammered it into the center of the bone, starting from the wrist until it got to about the elbow joint. It was so cool at that point because the arm looked a little more normal and you could move it around normally. Very rewarding.
And I got to suture it up, and finally! Dr. Ngiep says I've done a good job (he'd laugh so hard if he read this!) ;)
Cutey pie. One of my friends that I get to play with after work. He's the son of one of the women who helps to clean the hospital.
More kids, from the Khmer school this time.
Since they were too young to read we decided to get right in there and help the eye doctors with their work. They checked each of the kids eyes and then sent them to us where we gave them multivitamin drops.
Geni, a British gal who started up at ROSE about a week and a half ago. She and I will be heading over to Battambang on Wednesday for a short visit with another NGO. Very much looking forward to the experience.
This is the woman who's son I play with after work. She's all dressed up (and I'm some sad excuse). We went to a wedding party of a guy from work and it was such a blast. It was held just outside of PP and we got totally lost. We were three vehicles and everyone was just roaring with laughter as we turned around on these itty-bitty roads. But finally we got there and we were served an 8 course meal (most of which I couldn't eat) and drinks drinks drinks. Some of the guys got so drunk, and it was hilarious. Danica was fed way too much food while Jenny and I were served too much booze. They put a bottle of whisky on the table and one guy, my size, easily polished off a bottle to himself. At one point he came by, picked up my glass of beer, poured it on the ground and then poured me a shot of whisky and wouldn't leave me alone until it was gone. I think I impressed some of the hospital staff that night. And there's another wedding this coming weekend...
Another school that we visited last week. I'll be going back tomorrow to see if they remember anything from these books!