Thank you all for your prayers and concern for our bone cancer patient, Naomi. We saw her in the surgical outpatient clinic at the end of May and sadly have not seen or heard from her since then. Several of you have asked about her and I have been holding off sending the update, clinging to the hope that on the next Monday or Wednesday she will be in line at SOPD. I still am hopeful that she will come back or at least notify us that she has sought treatment at another hospital. Thank you again for partnering with us in prayer for this young girl and her unfortunate situation.
On a typical Monday or Wednesday we see between 30 and 50 surgical outpatients. The patients first pay their fee for the doctor visit, about $5 for adults and $3 for children, then wait in line while Sister Vero, Sister Roselyn, or myself screen them. When Dr. Jim and Dr. Maggie are done rounding on the surgical ward, they come to the clinic and start seeing the patients we have screened. One of the three nurses will stay outside and continue to screen and call patients' names while the other two nurses assist the doctors inside with dressing changes, suture/staple removal, ultrasounds, pelvic exams, and casting.
The patients who come to SOPD are patients who have had surgery recently, have been discharged then come back to follow up with Dr. Jim or Dr. Maggie post-operatively for dressing changes, labs, or x-rays. We also have several "osteo kids" who come monthly for labs and x-rays. Osteo kids are children with chronic bone infections, usually in the tibia or fibula (bones of the leg) and are on long term antibiotics to control their infections. We check their vitals, take an x-ray, and check their CBC and Sed rate for signs and symptoms of infection, or worsening of their condition. We have a few patients who are on chemotherapy, usually Methotrexate, often for cervical or uterine cancer, and we check their labs on a monthly basis as well.
We admit patients on Mondays and Wednesdays who are scheduled for surgery either Tuesday or Thursday. We try to schedule 4-6 patients for each surgery day. On Mondays and Wednesdays we also schedule patients for our minor procedure room, or MPR, which are usually patients who need scopes, small hernia repairs, wound debridements, removal of a small abcess, or other minor procedures requiring little sedation or anesthesia.
Below are some pictures of some of the sweet patients we see on a routine basis and my co-workers doing what they do best, to give my friends at home an idea of how I've been spending my Mondays and Wednesdays! Thank you again for praying for and loving the patients we serve at Nazarene Hospital!
A little boy with his walking stick waiting outside the minor procedure room for a right foot sequestromy (removing a piece of bad bone).
Dr. Jim performing a colonoscopy in the MPR with the help of Sr. Vero and Mr. David.
Mr. Bosip, who helps with most of Dr. Jim's orthopedic cases, applying fiberglass to his POP cast (sometimes we get cool colors like green, red, black, and purple, but usually it's just white)!
Sister Vero screening an orthopedic patient.
Julie, a patient with cancer, with her husband for a routine check up.
Sister Roselyn performing a dressing change on one of our chronic osteo kiddos.
Dr. Maggie, who is a rural registrar studying surgery (same as a surgical resident in the US), admitting a patient.
Dr. Jim doing an ultrasound on Sendy. Sendy is a mother of four who has been coming to clinic for a few months complaining of reflux/heartburn type symptoms and has lab findings indicative of chronic pancreatitis. Dr. Jim is trying his best to treat her symptoms.
A cute mama with a fractured tib/fib waiting for a new cast to be applied (she ends up getting green fiberglass and liking the color so much she asks us to put a cast on her other leg!) :)
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