Today we flew back to the Dominican Republic. Small group this time, just Dr. Wang, an ENT/plastics doc named Peter, and myself. We will meet up with Alfredo and Henry in Santo Domingo, and Oscar will again be joining us to do anesthesia. Our journey down had a few mishaps, as I suppose I expect on any trip now. We arrived at O'hare at 3am for our flight, only to have that flight cancelled, resulting in us missing our connecting flight in Miami. Thankfully, we were rebooked on the next flight and still made it down to Santo Domingo. The only downside being that we arrived 3-4 hours later, and there were patients waiting to be screened for their surgeries the next day. Alfredo picked us up and we drove the few hour trip from Santo Domingo to Perralta in Azua, south west of the city. I've only been here once before, on my trip a few weeks ago, but it strangely feels like I'm driving back home. I see familiar sights of landscape and the houses and mini-stores set up along the way. It's nice to be back. When we arrived at the clinic, I started seeing patients with Peter, setting up surgeries for the next couple days. Thursday will be several cleft lips and palates, Friday looks like Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy day, and Saturday we got a mix of things. Sadly, we again have to turn away a lot of the people that have traveled and waited all day for us. But, we'll see how many we can get through, and with just the one surgeon, it'll be an impressive amount regardless. As we learn very little ear nose and throat type stuff in medical school, save my dissections of cadavers, it's already been a fascinating and educational experience. I'm looking forward to the surgeries and continuing to enhance my hands on skills. Even the "basics" like placing IVs and all that pre-operation stuff, that very few med students and even doctors do, I'm looking forward to doing and increasing my experience. The next few days are going to be very busy.....like I'm sure next to the insane level. Even today we didn't finish with our patient screenings until 11pm, which considering I didn't sleep the night prior and only napped on the plane for a few hours, it's a little tiring. But knowing that you're providing a service for these people that they could not otherwise obtain, is as always, just the most incredible feeling. Surgical trips are always more instantly rewarding as I'll be able to see the effects of our work immediately -- and will be able to share that with you in some regard through some pictures. Anyway, I'm just going to jot down some thoughts each night and a little recap of the day, and I'll upload all of these to the blog when I return, so you'll be able to read the whole trip at once. I didn't get to do this much on the last trip given some time constraints, but I'll make sure it happens each night, even if it's just for a short while. I know you all are praying for us back home, and I thank you for the support you offered in that way during this time.
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