Day 9 - the pace slows

I want to thank Rhonda for the suggestion to use rum as a sleeping aid, had a full 8 hours of sleep last night. Going to load up again tonight!
Valarie I can't tell you how honored I feel to know you feel that way. I hope all my patients are so understanding. I hope all my patients know that I feel it is an honor that you put your trust in me to take care of you, and that even though I don't always have enough time with each of you, I strive to take care of each of you like one of my family.

Since today is Karmen's birthday I have asked her to write the first part of the blog.
Hi. It is my birthday! I told the Haitians I was turning 54 yrs old and they were impressed. Figured they are so beautiful and young looking that it wouldn't hurt to make myself look good.
All in all it was a good day . Not a normal "birthday" though not a big fan of my
birthday so was ok. The surgery line up has decreased which is good but was left to do were all sad surgeries. The last was the saddest of all. We had to tell this young man with a destroyed right arm that even with the work we were going to
do today, his arm would stll not work. Though we've seen many amps and disfigurment etc it was so hard to look into this young
man's eyes and tell him his arm was dead. I'm not sure what sank in. He had such trust in us "blanca" people in our blue scrubs that he thought we could turn anything into gold. Wish I had such faith.
I'm not sure what will happen to him. Best case this arm will be a functional paddle for him. I'll never forget his gentle voice and calm mindset in such an awful senerio.
So after that, we drove to a Mother Theresa covent that has taken in a lot of our post op pts and done a fantastic job with them. It was uplifting to see family members who had been trained properly in some basic PT moves that will improve their rehab significantly. It was so good to see our pts smiling, fed, and hydrated.
This covent normally takes care of babies born with various defects but has taken on these earthquake victims because they could . Seeing these babies was really hard but knowing they were in such capible hands helped. Who knew you could be a nun and a surgeon?! Between the young pilots working for Methodist missionaries that flew us into Haiti for free and these surgical nun doctors, my
highschool career counselor neglected to fill me in on so many possibilities!
Not that I would've chosen to be nun but a surgical nun is bit more appealing.
We drove couple mins from there to the water where we had a cold beverage at a beach bar which was a nice place to sit and bask in the nice breeze. Prestige- the local beer- was cold and refreshing even for a non-beer
drinker.
We returned to our oasis, the orphanage, and showered and got ready for dinner. After a very tasty dinner of mac and cheese they presented me with a birthday cake- complete with candles! It tasted so good and was so thoughtful, I almost cried. I'm so lucky to be with such caring people. I've been reminded of this multiple times each day during this trip. I think my 37th (no not 54th) year if off to a good start. Not where I thought I'd be spending my birthday but feel fortunate that I can be here doing what I can and learning from them all. Thank you all.