Blog by Todd

Louis has explained that I must blog at least twice to be allowed back into Canada. So here is the first. It is a brief story of the first patient encounter. Sister Monique and Brother Louis were having a heated debate regarding who would have to go see a patient in the emergency room. All we knew was that said patient was an emergency. I broke up this sibling spat by offering to accompany Monique for the assessment. We walked up to meet Romeo, a 13-year-old with right lower quadrant pain for 5 days.

Needless to say, a CT was not required to make a diagnosis. I indicated that I agreed with the diagnosis and suggested an appendectomy would be prudent. Immediately two helpers pick the lad up, put him in a wheelchair and transported him to the Operation Room. I actually had to hurry to keep up. He was taken directly into the Operation Room.  An ineffective spinal was performed by the local staff as I scrubbed. I then attempted to start the procedure. With a lot of local, I was able to get into the abdomen. The boy was clearly suffering as I tried to mobilize the evil organ. Vanessa came to my rescue and heavy sedatives were given. I made a second attempt just as the power went out completely and I am standing in complete blackness with several fingers in this boy’s peritoneum.

Well, there was nothing to do but continue at this point and Judy was good enough to shine a flashlight over the wound. Thankfully, the power returned with a minute or two and Romeo’s rotten appendix was successfully placed on the Mayo tray. We checked on him tonight and he seems to be recovering well. Hopefully he has some retrograde amnesia, unfortunately, I am not so lucky! I am optimistic the rest of the week will go smoother but not faster.