Week Eight! June 2-8

 Eight weeks down, six to go! 

Ship Life

   This week flew by, like they all do. It was a busy week in the OR and my weeknights mainly consisted of me eating dinner and then going to bed. I still did find time to squeeze in some fun though. The Go Getters (Overseas) had the last round of trivia on Monday night. We put up a solid effort, but overall finished 4th (out of 5 teams...). While the competitive side of me was quite disappointed, I had to remind myself it was still a fun time with friends and that I hopefully learned a few new things! 



    Winter in Madagascar has begun, which means cooler temperatures in the 70s-low 80s! It has been great running weather in the morning and I have even worn a sweatshirt outside in the evening a couple of times. It is still raining a lot, but typically doesn't last long. I enjoyed two morning runs this week with the prettiest sunrises and views. There are many Malagasy people running and exercising in the mornings, so I feel like I'm in good company. 



    On Friday night, some friends and I went to karaoke at a local restaurant. This was my third (?) time at this fine establishment, and it has proved to be entertaining each time. Mercy Shippers and day crew usually end up taking over, so I was around many familiar faces! 





    I was on call Saturday, so I spent the day around the ship, did two loads of laundry, took a nap, and then played volleyball on the dock for a couple hours. My supervisor was kind enough to take the pager from me on Saturday night so I could go off ship for dessert with some friends! I am often reminded how thankful I am for the supportive team I work with here. After dessert, we came back and played games on the ship for a couple hours before going to bed. 

 

    On Sunday, I attended a local church with a ship friend and two of my day crew friends. It was a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS/Mormon) service entirely in Malagasy. I enjoyed being in a local church and listening to the language, even though I could not understand it. Being in a church community on a Sunday morning definitely made me miss my Summit family back in RDU. I am looking forward to attending other local churches in Toamasina/Tamatave! Also fun fact... Toamasina and Tamatave are the same place, just a different name. I believe Tamatave is the French name for the city, where Toamasina is the Malagasy name. 

    As always, the weekend brought forth more goodbyes to ship friends. I just convince myself that I have a great excuse to travel the world now and go see all my friends!  

  

Surgery On Board 

    This week, I was on a maxillofacial "maxfax" surgical rotation. My first three days of surgery when I first arrived on the ship back in April was in maxfax, so it was nice being back in that specialty this week. The cases can range from small lipoma excisions, so total reconstruction of the jaw because of a tumor. We performed a wide range of surgeries this week. During one of these surgeries, we removed a non-cancerous tumor from a patient's face that had grown into her maxilla (upper jawbone). We then used muscle and tissue from her scalp and bone from her iliac crest (hip) to reconstruct the hole where the tumor had been. It was a 5+ hour surgery, but so interesting and amazing to be a part of! 

    I sadly had to say "goodbye for now" to some solid OR friends. It had been a delight working alongside them the past few weeks and I hope we will get to again in the future! Getting to wear our funky scrubs on Fridays helps boost the mood since it is always so hard saying farewell. 

Moved the Funky Friday photo to OR 1 so everyone can now be seen! 


Max fax team for the week
I was an honorary member of the peds general team on Friday since I had spent the last two weeks with them!





Peds general team lead Penny (Ireland)

My sweet friend Carelle from Ghana! She is not leaving the ship, but transitioning to a new role.
 Loved this surgical team! Dr. Daniel Keese (Switzerland) & Dr. Koko (Madagascar)

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