In need of tech help

The weekend had not been restful as I had hoped. There were emergencies both Saturday and Sunday that needed surgical intervention. It was, in a way, more of a continuation of the previous week which had also been fairly packed for both of us. So I woke up this morning already half decided I was going to forgo the morning run, my body just feels like it needs to rest. I noticed some missed messages when I turned off my alarm. I had 4 missed calls at approximately 2:18am followed by 4 missed messages about a trauma in the ED. And just like that, there was to be no rest this morning either. I had started the day out as a failure, before I had even made it out of bed.

We headed over to the hospital early so I could investigate and put together a plan for the morning. Thankfully the patient was stable and nothing had really changed between 2:18am and 7:48am.... except maybe he wasn't quite as drunk anymore. We went to the OR after I finished my clinic. I inspected the fingers, which were in various degrees of amputation from a machete. The worst was cut clean through the bone with the tip of the finger already cold. I picked through the tissues trying to identify the tendons and blood vessels that wound be necessary if I was to attempt repair. Was I willing to offer 5 hours sewing tendon and blood vessel back together without any guarantee of neuro function afterwards? I knew that a hand surgeon in the states would have been able to reattach and have amazing results. But here we were in the jungle along the North of Honduras, and this patient only had me. I came to the inevitable conclusion that I was not prepared to sew the tiny peripheral nerves of a finger back together. I completed the amputation and then tried to justify the failure by repairing the tendons and saving the remaining digits that had not been as badly damaged.

We all have those occasional days of failures. I know this feeling will come and go throughout the years here. I do wish my learning curve was not as steep sometimes, or better yet, if I could just automatically already know what was needed. Insert code and download, or something like that.

But beyond that, I have already spent at least an hour trying to figure out how to allow WhatsApp calls to pass through while I have my phone on silent. The frequent messages I receive do not need to wake me up every night, but if someone is calling, can expect that to be from the hospital. I would appreciate not waking up in the morning and seeing I missed a potential emergency again. If anyone has figured out how to allow WhatsApp calls through on an iPhone while keeping everything else on silent, please let me know!

Because I need to spend some time focusing on appreciation right now. That, and I think I'm going to get some ice cream from the pulperia this evening. Mood better already. :)

Much love.