Day 4: Osteotomy and Mastectomy

Our housing complex ran out of running water when I got out of bed at 7:30am, so half my morning was spent trying to flush the toilet by filling up a cup with water and pouring it into the back of the toilet. Eventually it had enough water to flush. The latter half of my morning consisted of eating and getting ready to leave for the hospital at 8:30am.

The rooster that wakes us up every morning, this time at 6:30am.

The dogs! Julie (left) and Pepe (right).

My group, which consisted of myself, Courtney, and Joe, were supposed to go to "General Surgery." When we got to the hospital, we looked around trying to find it (I'm not sure if there actually is a place called that at this hospital), but we ended up in the Burn Ward. Since there wasn't anything for us to do, we decided to head over to the C-section area. They didn't have enough extra surgical scrubs for us, so Joe used his spare scrubs and stayed to watch a C-section, and Courtney and I went to the radiology area, since it was the only remaining place we knew about that wasn't taken by other groups. When we got there, the group of 3 radiologists/radiology techs/nurses were on their way up to the major theater, which we had tried to find earlier but had failed to do so. We followed them to the major theater and scrubbed in.

Surgery #1

DX (diagnosis): Mal-union of the right femur

Operation: Proximal femoral osteotomy

As we entered the OR (operating room), we were directed to put on lead aprons to protect us from the radiation emitted by the fluoroscope. Inside the OR, the patient was still awake while they took more X-rays of the fracture and put the breathing tubes down her throat. The patient was put to sleep with an anesthetic injected into a cannula, and possibly also through the ventilator.

There were about 12 of us in the OR: the surgeon, the PA (physician's assistant), the scrub nurse (who hands the surgical tools to the surgeon), the anesthesiologist, the three radiologists/techs/nurses, three other nurses, and the two of us students.

After sterilizing with iodine solution and making the initial incision, the surgeon dug around with his bovie (electrocauterizing scalpel) until he reached the improperly healed fracture. Then he broke apart the bone where the fracture had been and used a drill to insert a screw to hold the bones together so they could heal properly. During the screwing procedure, he would regularly ask for fluoroscope readings to make sure the screw was going in the right place. Lastly, he put in 2 layers of sutures to hold the incision closed. The whole procedure lasted about two and a half hours.

Surgery #2

DX: CA (cancer) of the left breast

Operation: Unilateral simple mastectomy

Joe had found us towards the end of the first surgery, and after the surgery he led us down the hall to another surgery that he had noticed being set up earlier. We entered the room - this time without needing lead aprons - and watched the anesthesiologist put the patient to sleep with nitrous oxide. As far as I could tell, no other anesthetics were used, which seemed strange to me. The nurses applied iodine solution to sterilize the left breast that was to be removed.

The incision and electrocauterizing took a little over an hour. When the breast was finally removed, a surgical drain was inserted to prevent excess fluids from accumulating, and 2 layers of sutures were sewn to close the gap where the breast was. These last steps took nearly half an hour.

After the surgeries, it was time to leave (2pm), so we headed back to the hospital entrance where our van/driver were waiting for us. We arrived at the housing complex, ate lunch, and went swimming. After swimming, I received my first mosquito bite so far this trip. I'm the last person in the group to get bitten.

The pool at the housing complex!

After dinner, we played Uno and went to bed.

Dinner was rice, beef stew, spinach, and passion fruit juice I bought. It was great!