Day 2: Exactly how much did we pack?

The morning was pretty typical to trips in the past; some got up early and worked out, some took care of emails and everything, and others slept in until the last possible minute before the standard team breakfast, where we’d discuss the tentative plan for the day.

In the one year since I’ve been in Uganda, change is present, whether it be in the form of new highways and paved roads, or new buildings being built in Mbarara. But the familiarity of the hospital was pleasant as we drove down the road, ready to unpack our luggage and start a clinic. At the hospital, we unloaded what felt like countless boxes of supplies from the bus. Some unloaded them, some carried them in, and some started organizing and packing, creating a perfect system. The boxes slowly began to line the walls of the hallway and the rooms we were occupying, and when you try and fit 15 people in two rooms and a hallway with a bunch of boxes, it gets pretty cramped. As we finished up with the  majority of the supplies, the truck containing more arrived, and the unpacking once again resumed in the same manner. As we unpacked, we would pass one another, with either a new box or an armful of some sort necessary supplies destined to the sorted and stored in the storage room by Sherron and Sherri, and one by one, the boxes emptied. While most of us emptied the bins, the doctors, Sydnie, Michelle and myself ran off to visit a few patients, and in viewing one gentleman, it was decided to do a surgery on him to clean an infection and perform a laminotomy (a surgery that relieves pressure in the vertebral canal).

With the truck and bus now empty, we split into two main teams; Operating room (OR) prep, and a clinic team. Preparing the OR, we left Dr. Benton, Sherri, Sherron, Jason, Joel (who spent a good majority of time repairing the C-arm, which is used to take x-rays during the surgeries), Brian and Kari. For clinic, Dr. Hisey, Dr. Lieberman, and Dr. Villerreal seeing patients , Dr. Gorlick, Sydnie, Michelle, and myself (Adam) scribed for the three clinic rooms, while Dr. Kisinde, Dr. Kisitu, and Dr. Tuhumwira translated for those who could not understand.
The day went by as smoothly as it can, when, you know, anything could happen at any time. Dr. Benton’s vaporizer blew a fuse upon being plugged in when testing it, so she had to adjust her plan for the rest of the week and use a different anesthetic gas than she initially planned. Other than that, OR prep went by well, with supplies being wrapped up and set to be sterilized rapidly, and everything being positioned and set up the way the teams would need them for surgery for the afternoon and following days.

Time for surgery came about, and Dr. Villerreal left clinic to perform the surgery, where he left clinic and Dr. Hisey and Dr. Lieberman continued to run, with Michelle, Dr. Gorlick, Sydnie and I continuing to scribe, where an estimated 60 patients were seen through the entire day. As surgery occurred, clinic and unpacking continued for a few more hours until clinic wrapped up, unpacking was called for the day (with a lot more boxes, bags and bins still needing to be opened and emptied), and the surgery was successful.
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We left the hospital and returned to the hotel, where we had our team dinner before sharing lessons we learned for the day (everyday, no matter what, you should learn something). Afterwards, we split, some of us arm wrestling each other, and others passing out for the day, finally able to get a good night’s rest after so much travel and a long day of work, knowing another one was right in front of us.

Day 1: Oh, the places you’ll go

After many hours of international air travel, landing us in Doha, Qatar for a night, a majority of team 1 was able to reunite. Attending team 1 was Dr. Isador Lieberman, Dr. Michael Hisey, Dr. Jaime Villerreal, spinal fellow, all from Texas Back Institute, along with Dr. Susan Benton from Plano, Texas, taking care of anesthesia, and Dr. Steve Gorlick from Toronto. In addition, we have Kari Zagar, the neuromonitoring technician, Sherri LaCivita and Jason Ash, scrub technicians, Joel Tanner, radiology technician, Brian Failla, hardware representative from Globus Medical, Sydnie Ozanus, undergrad, and myself, Adam Woodward, undergrad.

We slowly made our way to our respective hotels, and with those currently in the city, we were split between 4 hotels throughout town.
When we all finally got to our hotels, we took a short break to unwind from the long 15 hour flight before dinner; naps, exploration, and catching up on emails and social media. A reservation was made for a restaurant called “Persia”, which was absolutely fantastic, both in terms of looks and the quality of food. The interior was gorgeously decorated, with paintings in alcoves you could sit and eat in, and food that was unbelievably perfect. We took our sweet time at dinner, even though the restaurant did not serve any alcohol, enjoying each other’s company, the food, and sights. But of course, everything must come to an end, so we returned to our hotels to call it a night before our early flight to Entebbe to begin the final leg of the journey.
Sleep took many of us that night, and we traveled down to the airport, where we explored and bought souvenirs before climbing into a plane for another long and uneventful flight, where we would then meet up with Sherron Willson, resident nurse (RN), Michelle White, our physical therapist, and Stanley Kisinde, a local doctor who is currently doing his orthopaedic residency in South Africa and has been a valued team member for the past 3 years.
With such a large group of 15 volunteers and over 40 pieces of luggage and storage totes, comes many new problems not commonly encountered on prior trips, like having so many boxes of necessary medical equipment and supplies that either we could (A) fill the bus with everything and not fit all the people, or (B) Fit all the people and not all of the supplies. Dr. Lieberman strategically initiated the audible and made some calls to local friends, and planned to fill the bus as much as we could, and have the rest of the supplies delivered to Mbarara the following morning, so we could have them for surgeries beginning on Tuesday. So, while we waited on the truck to arrive to carry supplies on Monday, we played Tetris on a much larger scale, fitting boxes, backpacks, and suitcases into the bus as carefully as we could. Once satisfied and the other vehicle was filled and secured, we all got to know one another as we piled into the bus very close to one another and began the long drive to Mbarara.
The drive was long and uneventful as we headed to the equator to stop for dinner, eating at Café Equator and strolling through some of the local shops for more souvenirs. We took our time, enjoying the fantastic food, air, environment, and  the chance to stretch our legs before we all piled back into the bus and resumed our trip, where many of us let sleep overtake us, giving some of us the bizarre ability to sleep with our face pressed against the window, even while the bus drove over bumps.
We arrived in Mbarara, where we unpacked the necessities from the bus (our personal belongings and clothes), received our roommate assignments, and called it a night, preparing for an early morning at the hospital.