The morning proceeded as the previous by meeting for breakfast while discussing the upcoming surgeries for the day. Today everyone was a little anxious about our second case of the day. Today was the day Reverend Bwambara would have his tumor resected.
We arrive at the hospital and quickly start our first case of the day. Our first patient came into the ER the previous day with severe pain in her lower back and a change in urination habits. Dr. Holman quickly decided to make her our first patient of the day for today, and the case was a success!
We quickly cleaned the room and began assembling the mayfield headrest to this foreign bed. The surgical beds here in Uganda are very different from the ones we use at Houston Methodist. We were thrilled to get the bed and headpiece assembled without any problems. We then got some bad news. We were told that the hospital did ran out of the medication that Anthony needed to be able to do neuro monitoring. Neuro monitoring is very important for this type of procedure, but Dr. Holman was comfortable enough to proceed with the surgery without the monitoring. The patient was brought into the room and surgery was quickly started after. The whole OR was buzzing with excitement because this is the first type of this surgery to be done on one of the mission trips. Right after the dura was opened, the power went out twice, once for about 7 minutes (although it felt like 20 minutes) and once for a split second. During the case, a visiting orthopedic surgeon came to watch Dr. Holman dissect the tumor. The tumor was removed, sent to pathology and the surgery came to an end. We all watched feverishly while the patient woke up, to make sure he was able to move all four extremities. The patient moved everything but his right leg. Sometimes it can take a couple of days for movement to come back, so we will just have to wait on pins and needles.
We quickly cleaned the room and began assembling the mayfield headrest to this foreign bed. The surgical beds here in Uganda are very different from the ones we use at Houston Methodist. We were thrilled to get the bed and headpiece assembled without any problems. We then got some bad news. We were told that the hospital did ran out of the medication that Anthony needed to be able to do neuro monitoring. Neuro monitoring is very important for this type of procedure, but Dr. Holman was comfortable enough to proceed with the surgery without the monitoring. The patient was brought into the room and surgery was quickly started after. The whole OR was buzzing with excitement because this is the first type of this surgery to be done on one of the mission trips. Right after the dura was opened, the power went out twice, once for about 7 minutes (although it felt like 20 minutes) and once for a split second. During the case, a visiting orthopedic surgeon came to watch Dr. Holman dissect the tumor. The tumor was removed, sent to pathology and the surgery came to an end. We all watched feverishly while the patient woke up, to make sure he was able to move all four extremities. The patient moved everything but his right leg. Sometimes it can take a couple of days for movement to come back, so we will just have to wait on pins and needles.
We clean and sort our instruments, had time for a selfie, and once again headed to dinner.
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