Yichun, China. Operation Smile medical mission, Dec. 2012
Day 1.
I took the midnight train to....
Great flight, first meal was cup of soup with chop sticks.
Let the adventure begin. Arrival went great and my driver was waiting for me,
yea. I was able to spent the day walking in the sunshine in a beautiful park
across from my hotel. Spent the eve in my room reading all my mission material,
my Aussie nurse roommate showed up around 9p.
Day 2.
Up early, no time for jet lag we have some traveling to do.
Our train travel took us over 7.5 hours to Yichun, a very rural town northwest
of shanghai.
Our international team is a party of
8 from the states, Australia, Italy, Panama, Italy and of course me, the UAE.
We have a local volunteer guide who met us at the train station, got us seated
through all 9 cars and made sure we all got off as scheduled. There is not much
in the way of English to help us, and many do not speak it. Interesting scenery along the way on our high
speed ride, but no pictures and very little sleep. All checked into the Posh
hotel then off to the hospital for our team tour and meet up with all other
Chinese volunteers. Wow, this hospital
has just been remodeled, and it is still so out of date and no central
heating. There are no western bathrooms
in the hospital, mental note! Team
dinner provided, fish head soup, lots of veggies, s&s pork, rice and so
much more that I'm still not sure about.
The head hospital Dr. And restaurant owners give a toast thanking us for
coming, with their local very expensive rice liqueur, and no getting out of
that, when in China! That's nasty dude!
worse than raki or grappa. Our hotel is modern to a point, we can't seem to get
the room to heat above 17c62f, so pretty chilly nights. Upside is very hot
shower water.
Day 3.
At the hospital by 8a for our first team meeting then the
screening begins. I am given 6 Chinese young adults as my assistants and
translators. We are send 5patients and family at a time in a very small space.
Gotta say they do most all the work, I'm just watching and keeping track of the
charts and keeping them in order. I do have to write in all charts on 15
different forms in duplicate basic mission information, talk about writers
cramp.
We have a great day, however we expected higher numbers in
the 60's. we only screened 44, and of those only 32 were surgical candidates.
Some were too young, or came for the wrong reasons and we couldn't
help,them. We did not have too many
patients needing their first repair, many were here for a lip repair or fistula
repair. i really expected more first time kids. It was pretty crazy for the
first 5 hours then a lull. Did i mention no central heat! it gets pretty cold
in here even the ski hand warmers don't help much. We caught a good hours break
then me and 2 of my assts. we're pulled from all directions. The medical
records team was needed the most, it felt really great to have the head
coordinators asking for me and giving me directions. The charts become very
important in the scheduling of the next 3 days of surgery. Thank goodness for my helpers because so much
needed written in Chinese and communication is still tricky. We are in charge of all charts, surgical id
bracelets (we write name in english
& Chinese, chart#, age, m or f, in a very small space.) Lunch today was
more interesting of the same so I passed
for a snack bar and water. We finally finished around 6p, with the surgery
boards all ready. That is quite something to watch the surgeons and head
coordinator shuffling the patients around like a board game. Then they'd find
another one they could add and we would be back in action adding forms and I'd
bracelets to the new lucky patients. Ok so i put off the squat and pee as long
as i could, don't judge! It had to be done. Off to another Chinese team dinner
served at our table buffet style, of course way too much food! Tonight was even
more interesting and grander. I may not like much of it, but it sure was
beautifully done and hot. Our soup tonight even had a chicken head and feet in
it, immm yummy. I think I did a pretty
great job of not being vocal and grossed out like some of the others, it's
their culture and they eat everything. I
did try a few things and not just white rice.
Off to bed in our chilly room.
Oh ya, I felt a little Hollywood yesterday, I must have 30
pictures taken with local volunteers. They tell me among all the giggles how
beautiful I am and they love my eyes, it's really pretty cute. I think it's cause I'm so much taller and
have green eyes. Atleast that's what I think they told me.
Day 4.
SURGERY DAY! Team meeting, and medical records got a shout
out for a great job, and so did everyone
else. Today is a kinda slow for me and
my team. whoops, wait my team has all
took off for better jobs and activity. I sit alone waiting to see if any new
patients show up for screening.
It's pretty crazy downstairs in
pre-op and the surgical ward. Wouldn't
you know it 4 show up and I have to scramble to find a helper to chart them in.
3 hours later, I'm back alone upstairs in the cold waiting for a surgeon to
finish and come screen these 4 ladies. We sat staring at each other for a
while, now they have left, hopefully to come back later. Who knows how long it
can take.
Yikes, I hope my next two days are not like this. I have spent about 2 hours alone with
nothing to do, I've asked for something, but told there is nothing yet.
So I took a walk this afternoon to remember its not about
me. I get stared at a lot, I'm different, tall and I'm told most locals have
NEVER seen an American. It's kinda weird. As it turned out, schools were just
letting out and all the young kids were watching me so I started saying hi and
waving. Most really liked that and would say hi or wave back too. When I got
back to the hospital, there was a group of kids outside so I decided to ask to
take their pictures and show them....omg, turned out to be the best 45 minutes
ever. They just loved it and a several adults stopped to watch and get in pics
too. Michael, Another op smile guy came
out and wanted to join in all the fun, he had never experienced that before and
was so happy to join in. It really made my afternoon. Just finished another
yucky Chinese dinner, pork fat, fish, etc and Chinese beer. Off to bed, best
thing...I now have many charts to work on tomorrow.
