First day of Surgeries

Yesterday evening D ward finally opened after much anticipation from everyone on the ship.  Seven patients all arrived around 3 pm all at once which was slightly overwhelming at first, but then I realized the caregivers, being the mothers, had everything under control. They know how to calm and take care of their babies much better than me.  Two of my assigned patients had cleft lips and were 3 months and 6 months.  My lady, 29, had ankylosis which is a condition that results from trauma or disease and the jaw becomes locked.   It basically causes severe TMJ.  She also has micronation, which is a really small jaw or mandible.  Sometimes ankylosis is caused by a noma or cancrum oris, which is a gangrene condition that results from tissue infection in the oral/nasal cavity.  Noma is very preventable with proper treatment if treatment is available.

We helped everyone get settled including getting everyone showers and did a lot of preoperative teaching.  The mothers were all sooo excited when I explained that their babies' surgeries would be tomorrow.  My lady patient kept sneaking in a smile after going over all the details.  Her surgery won't be until Tuesday.  The day workers translated everything we said to each other the best they could since I don't know French.  My lady patient speaks Moba, which the day workers do not know how to speak.  Therefore, her family member came with her to help translate from French to Moba and vice versa.  You wonder how much was lost during all the translations, but I could tell she got the jist of most everything that was said.  So this morning the surgeries began!  I just sneaked past the recovery room and peaked in the window.  It looked like some of the nurses were hooking up one of the babies to a pain pump.  I go back to work in about half an hour and am slightly nervous.