An afternoon watching surgeries

Yesterday afternoon I put on scrubs and spent a few amazing hours in the ship's OR. Here are a few things I watched:

- A surgeon carefully cut and stitch a 10 year old boys clift lip.

- Eye surgeries to remove tissue growth that obscures vision (the exact name of this escapes me right now, Pt...something). It's common that have this problem in West Africa.

- The straightening of lazy eyes of a lady. This is done by weakening or strenghtening the main eye muscles, which is under the white part of your eye. On one side the muscle was shortened, on the other it was stretched. Wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_surgery#Eye_muscle_surgery

Yes the patient is under anaesthesia.

- Removal of 5 teeth of a 65 year old man, which is old in Liberia where male the life expectancy is ~45. The 5 teeth came out easily since lymphoma cancer (based on the doctor's experience)has spread through his sinus and weakened is upper jaw.

Aids/HIV education is slow and difficult in Liberia. It's difficult for some to understand that a person can be infected with HIV and look healthy. The other day I heard that in some places, AIDS stands for American's Idea to Discourage Sex. There are public health billboards on the streets, I'll post a few pictures sometime.

On the lighter side, an anaesthesialogist has been taking picutes of Flat Stanley around the area. She's doing this for a friend's son, a school project perhaps. Here are a few Stanley pictures.

Tomorrow all hands in the engineering dept. will be working on warming, starting, and checking, the four main engines. (A post of the engine decks will come sometime). The whole crew is gearing up for the sail in a few weeks. The ship after sitting still for almost six months, needs some attention. We're all begining to do their daily work with the sail in mind - if I put the box up here, with it slide and fall when the ship lists? The decks are being cleared and containers secured. Soon the vehicles will be hoisted aboard and voyage to the Canary Islands will begin.