Trip Three: Week Six! July 27-August 2

Six weeks down, seven to go!

Nothing too out of the ordinary happened this week. We were busy in the OR, and I did not do too much outside of work throughout the week. 

Because of limited anesthetic staffing and inability to run three ORs at the same time this week, two of the ORs shared an anesthetic team each day. For example, MaxFax would start their day at 8am and complete 1-2 cases before the anesthetist joined the General surgery team to start their cases later in the day. This delayed start time contributed to a few later days in the OR this week. I am thankful that my manager still offered to give me a day off this week. It is pretty rare to have a day off as an OR nurse, so I am grateful and take advantage of when that's an option! On Tuesday, I checked out a bicycle from the ship and rode to a nearby hotel & restaurant and spent the day resting by the pool and enjoying lunch. 

On Wednesday evening after work, I played volleyball and pickleball with other crew down on the dock.

 

Funky Friday this week brought a surprise proposal!! Just kidding... After our weekly devotional and farewells in the hallway, we went into one of the ORs for a photo. Dr. Tertius just happened to be in a kneeling position and Carolina (who officially holds the title of "The Good Vibes Officer") took advantage of the opportunity! She definitely lives up to her title and helped bring laughter and a fun atmosphere to the OR. 

We had a full schedule in the General OR on Friday, but the entire team was motivated and determined to finish before 5:00pm. The first case was a bilateral inguinal hernia repair with mesh. Typically, these cases are done one side at a time with one scrub nurse. Because we have two attending general surgeons and one resident surgeon onboard right now, they were able to operate on both sides simultaneously with two nurses scrubbed in. This definitely increased our efficiency and decreased the amount of time the patient was under anesthesia. I was impressed and proud of the team in my OR on Friday. We all worked together well and adapted to change and set a new record of a 12 minute turnover time! For my fellow OR folks, this is pretty impressive... especially considering the pre-op checklist/interview with the patient has to be translated from English to Malagasy. I am a strong advocate of "move with a purpose, but don't rush" and I am confident that we still provided excellent and safe patient care! We finished before 4:00pm and even had time to do the terminal clean. At some point each week, every OR has to "terminally clean," where every piece of equipment, laminated wall poster, chair, etc. is cleaned and brought into the hallway before the entire room is wiped down, top to bottom. I genuinely believe the ORs on the ship are cleaner than the ones at home! 

On Friday after work, a group of people from the OR went to karaoke at Ekinox. I did not sing this time, but I enjoyed cheering on my friends. There was a huge group of Mercy Shippers also there, so we all enjoyed the time together. 

I was on-call both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. There aren't typically cases scheduled over the weekend, but on Saturday we had planned for two patients to return to the OR for post-op wound washouts. Both of these patients are a few weeks post-op from massive MaxFax tumor removals. The first patient "JCR" was the same patient we had done a washout for a couple weeks ago on a Saturday night. He had since received a wound-vac, but still has a long recovery to go. During this procedure, the surgeons did a thorough debridement and washout before placing a new wound vac. Because I do not work in MaxFax on a regular basis, I had not seen him since that washout procedure. Even though he still has a long way to go, I was impressed with his improvement from before! Please continue to pray for his healing and his nutritional status to improve. The second patient "VR" was a wonderful surprise! He also had wound vacs placed, but on bilateral temple wounds. When we took the wound vac off in the OR, the surgeons were surprised with how great both wounds were healing. They were able to washout and close both of his wounds with sutures! When I brought him back to his ward bed space, all the nurses were so happy to see his wounds were closed and he did not have the wound vacs replaced! Praise! 

After those cases finished around 3:00pm, I spent some time calling family and friends from home. My manager kindly offered to hold the pager for a couple of hours in the evening, so I was able to go into town for dinner which was a nice surprise!

I was also on call Sunday, but was able to relax around the ship. I finished laundry and cleaned my cabin before going to the pool for a bit of rest and sunshine. In the evening, I attended the church service onboard. The speaker talked about pain and how God can deliver and comfort us in our suffering. Overall, it was a good day around the ship. 

This week brought some lows, mentally and emotionally. While I genuinely love ship life and serving here on Mercy Ships, it can be really hard. It is hard being away from friends and family and the comfort of my own space and independence. At home, if I am feeling overwhelmed or need some "me time," I can get in my car and drive somewhere by myself... but that isn't really an option here. The revolving door of new people and trying to make new friends is constant. It can feel wearisome trying to truly invest in people who will leave in a few weeks. There are also people who are on the ship for longer contracts who (understandably) usually spend time with other long-term crew. As someone who is here for longer than a couple weeks, but not the entire field service, I feel like I am kind of stuck in the middle of the two groups. I am so thankful for the many familiar faces onboard and to connect with so many on a friendly level, but I really miss my deep Christian community that I have at home. I ask that you please pray for my friendship and community "cup" to be filled. Whether that is by more Christ-filled connections and conversations, or that God's grace would re-structure my expectations for community on the ship, I ask that you would pray with me for renewal and encouragement for the rest of my commitment. 

OR Recap

This week, the AFM OR performed surgeries on 40 patients across MaxFax, General, and Reconstructive Plastics specialties. Of those patients, 21 of them were general surgery patients.