I will try again.

Sorry it has been so long since I blogged. So far this thing has eaten 3 of my posts. I am sure it is NOT MY FAULT. We have had 2 long surgery days doing cleft lips, cleft palates and a couple of combination lip and palates. We have also done some ENT, plastic surgery and general surgery. The people of this ethnicity tend to form keloids where there skin has been cut or damaged. For those of you who do not know what a keloid is. it is an over growth of scar tissue (Google it). We have done a lot of scar revisions in the OR on children and Tamra has done a lot of keloid removal and injections in what we call the Ditzel Clinic on older patients. We have seen a lot of children who have been burned in cooking accidents or house fires etc. and formed some terrible scars. We are really seeing the poor of the poor this year.  Suzi and Sarah came down a few days early and went into the villages and found patients. Dr. Carstens arrived today from Managua. We have been waiting for him for the patients with the large cleft palates, bad cleft lips etc. He did an ear reconstruction tonight after he got to the hospital. The next three days won't be any shorter than the last two. Sue has been working hard in the OR. Keveta has returned but is trusting Sue and one of the new members from CA to do a great share of the work. I tend to get the babies on my bed. Those of you that know me well, know I love (not really) giving anesthesia to small children. It is very stressful but very rewarding to see these beautiful children's lives changed. We have a RULE that we don't do any kids younger than 10 months or smaller than 10 kilograms. That lasted until our first patient. She was 7 months and 9 kilograms but we called her Kid too Cute. Meaning she was too cute not to do. We have had several Kid too Cutes in the 5 years we have been doing this. Karl and RJ (Suzi's husband) have been running the town to supply us as well as other projects. I am going to close this and try to get some sleep. Sleep never comes easy for me on these trips but without Carolyn along it is even more rare. Hopefully this will not get eaten before I get it published. Please forgive all spelling and punctuation errors.
Dean