Just a minute this morning

quick note

We continue to be very busy each day this week, though thankfully, the nights have not been as late. We were done by 7 on Thursday, 10 Friday, and about 7 last night, too. A group went to the hotel restaurant Thursday night, but I decided to stay back and get to bed early, and I was able to sleep almost 8 hours with only some tossing and turning. I felt pretty good Friday morning and could tell I had some energy back for a few hours that morning. Friday morning, though, I got word that a good friend had lost her battle with cancer and had passed away that morning about 7:30. So, the past 48 hours have been extremely difficult on top of the pain and suffering we are seeing around us here. The few moments I've had for down time have been spent just catching my breath.

We have gotten a new team in this weekend, and along with the surgeons came a couple of Physical Therapists, a wound care nurse, and some other people who can help with our patient load. That is a huge answer to prayer. OR experienced people continue to be in short supply, though. We have settled in to many things here and have gotten familiar with a few translators who are eager to help us and seem like they want to learn. IF we can teach them some skills, it will really help this place run in the future when the "Americans" are not coming so regularly.

Friday, the Italian Plastic Surgery team arrived and they have started to work in the OR as well. Now we have 5 languages being spoken and another language barrier, but we enjoy listening to them speak and picking up phrases in all languages. We also have a psychologist from Switzerland and a number of new Americans, some from the Chicago area.

Well, rounds are about a minute away, so I should post and get ready to go. I haven't seen the rest of the team assembling yet, so I hope I didn't get up at 5:30 for naught. I hope to ahve more time today even to write more and catch up with much needed rest. We are at t-minus five days, 7 hours till departure. The first week has gone fast and slow at the same time and it feels like we've been here much longer than just a week.