This is Brian checking in.... Just got back from a 4.5 hour hike to the top of the mountain/hill beyond the hospital. We hiked about 7 kilometers back to a beautiful waterfall that is only accessible by foot or horse.
We (Steve Sparks and I) hiked back home, rest of the family rode... which I think was a bigger adventure than the hike, well beyond a class C road. Yes, the kids did ride home on the roof rack, on a road that would make rock crawler trucks work.
View from top.
Dr Sparks Patio Views..
Africa has been again an extremely powerful experience, its educational, rewarding, depressing, enlightening, frustrating, amazing, scary, beautiful, simple and many more adjectives I cannot currently think of, that all occur in the span of minutes to hours. It's bipolar in its mood, with great highs when you are able to help, and great lows when people come in with nothing, and you are their only hope and you have to tell them you have nothing to offer... or you or they are just to late. People wait so long to get help here it is unreal.
We had a nice dinner party last night that Amy, Grace, Joe and I attended at Dr Sparks house for one of his surgery residents who was just back from getting married in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the reception all the residents, wives and children attended was very nice. There were multiple countries represented and we discussed marriage traditions/customs...it was very interesting. The current groom's family did pay 3 cows for the bride. Cameroon, Niger, DRC, Liberia, Singapore and USA were present.
The past week had the first spine surgery performed in Mbingo on Monday, T11-L3 posterior spinal fusion for L1 burst fracture, second on Wed, T11-L3 PSF for L1 burst fracture, third on Thurs, L4-5 laminectomy and fusion and fourth ever spine surgery on Friday... A T10 corpectomy/instrumentation through a thoracotomy in the chest. Each and every case brings its own challenges, and just when I think it can't get any harder, it seems to. I am physically and mentally spent after every case. Was wishing I had Dr Coy here to open the chest for me yesterday, it would have been nice to have that uncontrolled bleeding be his problem instead of mine. Its a bit of a lonely feeling with your patients chest open, bleeding, asking for things they'd just pull off of the shelf in America and having them look at you like you are speaking a foreign language. I was only really worried for 20-30 minutes that I might have killed him. However, in the next breath, one of the residents brings me over to their rehab ward where a patient had been transferred from their capital city of Yaounde, having spine surgery by one of their renown surgeons and I am appalled at what is considered the standard of care. And again I'm reminded that the man who I thought might die on the OR table, with TB of the spine, would otherwise not have had any chance... I hearken back to the highs/lows (bipolar) nature of living/practicing medicine in Africa. Now there are four people on the mend from their spine surgeries, who otherwise wouldn't be!!!!!
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| Not my work, but for those of you non-spine surgeons, this is not adequate... Cost 1.5 million Francs |
Had the worst kyphoscoliosis I've ever seen walk in Friday afternoon. Worst ever from Children's Mercy, worst ever seen at a conference, worst ever in a book. Was the worst single most curved human being I've ever seen. And the irony of it all, the next girl into clinic was a girl with about a 65 degree curve I was going to tell there was nothing we could do for her, but after seeing that, Dr Nana (orthopaedist) and I decided we need to try. So next week the lesser of the two curved girls is going to have her scoliosis corrected with a T3-L2 PSF.
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| This picture does not do justice!!! |
Thankfully, Dr Nana is a excellent surgeon and a quick study. I really think that we will be able to make a real change in how spine care in Cameroon is performed or currently not being performed. A few more spine cases and we will be well on our way.
We are all good, everyone is healthy and happy and tired from our hike.
Later,
BI
2 comments:
Wowza! That scoliosis is crazy! I sure hope you post some before/after pics of the surgical case. Bethany told me your case in Joplin that wasn't even this severe was all everyone was talking about at Freeman. Sounds like this will knock that one out of running for amazing cases. Its kind of nice to see your work... since HIPPA prevents that in the states.
I sure hope the kiddos are having a blast and learning a lot while they are there. Hopefully they will come back fluent in french. How amazing would that be? Have they kicked their illness? And how is Chicken pox WTH?
So you realize that Jamie would be a basket case with the kids on the luggage rack? I had to giggle. I once told him about car surfing in high school and got a lecture on TBI...this would likely send him over the edge :)
In case I miss telling you, Happy Birthday Brian (better a little early than late right?)
Keep updating the blog, I know I check it everyday, sometimes even a couple of times just hoping for more pictures. I am sure I am not alone in the frequency of visits.
Give everyone my love! Allison XOXO
Just wanna say...
Day of rest my butt! How bout 5 miles one way up the mountain to the fall. But totally worth it! (Thanks Monica, I couldn't have made it if not for you. And definitely counted for at least two cardios!)
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