puppylover22

This final blog entry will be a bit brief. Half of our group, including myself, did not make the connection in Montreal back to Halifax so I am already behind the eight ball in returning to normal life and do not have time for a big entry. I do, however, want to put some finishing statements on the trip. Tuesday in Haiti was a big day for me. Jodi and Dr. Coles (my trauma fellowship preceptor) left that morning to return to Halifax. They had some other commitments so had to get home a bit earlier than the rest of us (turns out that was a good idea, since they might not have made it!) That meant that I was left as the staff surgeon for the day. I am fully certified in Canada to work ... read more

Saturday started with a plan to operate all day again. After a bit of a late start (it’s a weekend in a developing country – this was not unexpected) our first case took much longer than we had expected. We were just going to “pin some broken toes,” basically, but it’s much harder to hit tiny little bones with tiny wires than you would think. To add to our woes, our drill that pushes the wires in continually stalled until it died all together, then we literally used the drill as a mallet to impact the wires in manually. Quite aggravating. I’m also pretty sure I now glow in the dark after exposure to the radiation from all the xrays we are taking! We wear protective lead, but at home I have circumferential lead and here ... read more

On Feb 21 Jeremy drove me to the Halifax airport and an ungodly hour with two carry-on bags and two giant duffle bags crammed full of group medical supplies. I was starting the trip to Bernard-Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince with a group of healthcare workers from Halifax. We were all heading down together for a week under the support network of Team Broken Earth, which is a medical aid organization founded by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Andrew Furey out of St. John's Newfoundland. Dr. Furey originally began his medical aid work in Haiti during crisis relief after the deadly earthquake of 2010. Since then, Team Broken Earth has expanded and evolved to provide more ongoing care, infrastructure development, and health worker education. I really love this organization and I have been following them for some time, but ... read more

The day after the final reception, everyone was ready for a little R&R. It had been a wild few days! Sagar really wanted to plan a special day for us, especially since it was the last day for the boys in India, so he took us to a resort just outside the city limits. It was Sagar himself who picked us up from our hotel, and we managed to squeeze 6 of us in to his tiny compact surprisingly comfortably. I'm so impressed that Sagar can drive here - I think that's why he's such a calm guy in Toronto. If you can drive here, surely nothing can phase you! He took us to his family home where we transfered into a much larger car which could accomodate all of us, and which came with a ... read more

***Note: I wrote this days ago (Saturday morning) but haven't had internet access since, so I couldn't upload it. Now it's Monday night and I haven't written anything else! I also don't have a fast enough connection to upload any pictures. Sorry! Hopefully tomorrow night I can summarize the past few days events. In the meantime, here is a tome to finish off last week.*** The internet seems to have cut out (good bye 100 rupees) so I’ll write this entry in Word and hopefully I can upload it later. I think last night when I stopped writing I had finished the part about the engagement party. The next morning we all woke up, ate the delicious hotel breakfast, and then got dressed up for the wedding. Sagar’s family had bought us all amazing Indian clothing ... read more