May 18
The clinic was definitely smaller. I still saw several new patients including two new untreated clubfeet age 5 and 10. The 10 y/o had bilateral very rigid clubfeet. The left has already had a talectomy (removal of the talus bone of the foot) but the right side has never been treated. I tried a stretching cast. We’ll see what Dr Herzenberg says about it. The younger child’s foot is much more flexible. I also saw a teenager with Blounts. John and I can put a TSF on her if there is time. We still have four more clinics before the Herzenberg team gets here. I continue to be amazed at the pathology that continues to present here. Since we weren’t pressed with a huge throng of waiting patients, I spent a fair amount of time teaching ZJ. I really enjoy that a lot. Unfortunately, Franz, our clinic X-ray tech didn’t come in today. ZJ took a few X-rays. I finished by midafternoon. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Emmanuel, Roosevelt and Joseph. We took the pickup down town and went to several different places to price out bumpers and tiptop materials. We found a guy who will make the doors and windows close properly. It was fun tooling around with the guys. I bought and ate a roasted corn on the cob on the street. It wasn’t like Wisconsin sweet corn but I ate it and it wasn’t bad.
May 19
The anesthesiologist didn’t come until one pm so I had the morning to email and recruit anesthesia and orthopedics. Dr Howard Place is a spine surgeon in St Louis. He has gone to the Dominican several times and done several spine cases in a week. He is planning to come here this fall. I sent him the pertinent information on four patients that are potential candidates. One is a teenage girl with idiopathic scoliosis of 70 degrees. The second is a young man with a bullet in his spinal canal at L4. The third is a lady with Grade III spondylolisthesis that is very symptomatic and the fourth is a quake victim with a severe compression fracture of D12 that is very symptomatic still. I also had time this morning to teach ZJ more orthopedics. He is really soaking it all in.
We had four cases this afternoon including a hip hemiarthroplasty. They all went well. JJ scrubbed and ZJ assisted and we had a good time.
May 20
For a Friday,the clinic was big. It made up some for the small one on Wednesday. More patients came in today for the Herzenberg team including a lady with a large rotator cuff tear. Several interesting peds cases came in as well. The best case was one I am going to do myself this coming week. She is a lady who was injured in the earthquake when her house collapsed on her and broke her leg. She lost a 7 y/o daughter. Her tibia is malunited with 30 degrees of varus. I scheduled her for a Taylor Spatial Frame and tibial/fibular osteotomy next week when we have anesthesia.
We finished the clinic in time to throw the football a bit and try our first scrimmage. A couple of younger kids and Emmanuel and Roosevelt and I had a lot of fun playing. We then took the pickup and spent about an hour looking for some more material to turn it into a taptap. We found just what I was looking for, some abandoned parts for the back of a taptap. It isn’t rusted much, just basically needs some paint. it isn’t quite the right size for the short bed but nothing that a hacksaw and a welder can’t cure.
I am so glad that this week with no orthopedist to help me is done. I will have an anesthesiologist and a 5th year ortho resident next week. Now it is the Sabbath. What a delight! I do have a wound vac change on one patient tomorrow but otherwise no medical work unless something urgent comes in.
May 21
Today was a very quiet Sabbath, just like I like them. We went to both Sabbath School and church up the street at the university. The sermon was given by a fairly young Haitian preacher. He speaks very good English. His topic was “Time.” He chose ten Bible verses that had the word time in them. of course his topic was related to the well publicized prediction that Christ would return to earth today. I am sure there were a lot of disappointed people who fervently believed that the difficulties associated with living here on earth in this day and age were all going to end May 21. I too believe that Christ will fulfill the promise that He made to His disciples that He would come again. It is very clear in the scriptures that no one knows exactly when that will happen. We are told that once the gospel commission has been fulfilled to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, then He will come. The Bible also indicates that there are signs that will occur that indicate the “time of the end” is near. Those signs include wars, pestilences, marked increase in knowledge and natural disasters of increasing frequency and severity. It certainly does seem as if those signs of Christ’s imminent return are happening in the last several years. Earthquakes causing unprecedented damage and death as well as severe storms, volcanic eruptions, AIDS and its unbelievable death toll across Africa and India and the internet with the worldwide availability of undreamed of amounts of knowledge could certainly be the fulfillment of many of those Biblically predicted signs. I certainly am looking forward to the day when there will be no more sickness, sadness, pain and death. No more intramedullary rods for broken tibias and femurs. No more wound vacs for open lesions and infections, no more Taylor Spatial Frames for severe bowlegs, no more ACL reconstructions, no more clubfoot casts, no more hip fractures or chronic back pain. No more kids with short deformed legs, scoliosis, myelomeningocele or cerebral palsy. I can lay down my scalpel, turn off the C-arm, put away the SIGN nails, and throw away cast padding, plaster and fiberglass. What will I do with no fractures to fix or deformities to correct? The possibilities are nearly limitless. Reading, music, travel, gardening, reading, woodworking, sporting activities and more reading. We are also promised to be reunited with our loved ones who have died. What an experience that will be! That day just cannot come soon enough for me.
We followed that with rounds including the wound vac change. Everybody is doing well. The afternoon was tranquil. I was able to do some reading and emailing family and friends. A 90 y/o lady with an intertrochanteric hip fracture was transferred in this afternoon. We have an anesthesiologist coming tomorrow so we should be able to do her surgery as soon as she has blood ready and is cleared by the internist.