Surgery Day 2!

Today we took our full bag and hopped in a taxi. Once we arrived at the hospital, we had a short team meeting, and then went to our home base. We walked through the post-op rooms, chatting with our friends from the day before. We saw Angel, Ariadna, Brenda, David, Nicardo, Sandi, Saul, and Melchor. They were all in better spirits then they had been after surgery, but they were tired. Then, we played with Alejandro, who was a joyous nine year old. Alejandro had surgery for his cleft lip when he was younger, and he was receiving cleft palate surgery today. He loved playing with leis, and was very patient. He colored for what seemed like hours. We all played Jenga, which he loved. We laughed everytime the Jenga building fell, and he smiled shyly everytime we took a photo of him. We were then joined by Julio, Rapheal, Angel Eduardo, Eduardo, Eduardo, and Alejandro. This Alejandro had gotten surgery for his cleft lip when he was younger, and today he was receiving a bone graft from his hip to recreate the part of his gum that he didn't have. Playing with 3 Eduardos and 2 Alejandros got confusing, but it was fun and exciting as well. The youngest Eduardo was three and he was in love with the these Captain Spock toys from Burker King. He had a unilateral cleft lip, and was one of the cutest boys that we had seen. The toys said " love long and prosper". With all the noise he put two very close to his ears. It was absolutely adorable, and so sweet. The other two Eduardos loved playing with the balloon punching bags. While the Eduardos played with punching bags, Alejandro and Arielle spent time blowing up many balloons and using stickers to write "Alejandro" on every single balloon. They then played volleyball with the balloons with the other Alejandro, and another Eduardo (haha), and after that, all three boys rapidly stuck stickers all over Arielle's face and body. What we, as the student team, find so fascinating is that these children have the strength, capacity, and passion to play and have fun even when they know they are about to enter surgery. Every child we played with met and played with today was so precious.


After playing with this group of boys for awhile, we decided we wanted to do some presentations for the parents of the patients who were receiving surgery today. At first we did not have translators. Alexandra, with her two years of Spanish, tried her best to present the dental module. Surprisingly, the parents understood the basic necessities of oral hygiene. With about a quarter of the presentation left, a translator from Operation Smile's sponsor, Xango, helped us present the rest of our oral hygiene presentation and review the part Alexandra translated. After the success of our first presenation, we decided to present the next two modules: oral rehydration therapy and nutrition. We presented the oral rehydration therapy presentation yesterday, and it was so interesting to see one of the mothers raise her hand and demonstrate the signs of dehydration. After we completed the presentations, the Xango translators asked the mothers some questions to test them on what they learned. From their answers, we were able to see that our presentations worked at spreading their knowledge about basic, but very important matters.

All of the children that we had met and played with yesterday were being discharged today, and we were very upset that we had to say goodbye to them. For about half an hour, Jen and Alex played with Ariadna with some puzzles and Alex's camera. They also played volleyball with David. Anhel was coloring drawings a few feet away. We kissed each child profusely when they left, and took multiple photographs with them as well. We miss every child that we met, every child that we built a strong relationship with and felt like big sisters for. We hope to see each child again.

One of the patients that we met yesterday, Esther, recieved bone graft surgery from her hip. The surgeons had extracted a piece of her bone and created a piece of her gum for her. This was outstanding to us; she didn't even look like she was in any pain at all.

We also interviewed one of the patients that we met today. Arielle asked her questions, while Alexandra translated the questions into Spanish. Jacqueline, who was 14 years old, had two sisters and one brother. Her mother was a housewife, and her father was a bus driver. Jacqueline had a humongous cleft palate that ran from her gums to her throat. She had received surgery for her unilateral cleft lip when she was four years old. She was never given any opportunities to receive surgery for her palate, except for once last December, when she was then turned away by the surgeons. Jacqueline encountered many problems because of her palate. She was not able to speak normally, and it was extremely difficult for her to eat. In addition, she had problems learning in school and interacting socially with others. Jacqueline lived in another city in Tlaxcala, not Apizaco (where the hospital was located), and when she heard about Operation Smile, she had to travel 6 hours to reach the hospital. Her final opportunity to finally receive surgery was a dream come true for Jacqueline. Jacqueline's story is truly inspirational to us, and from her story, we were able to really understand and observe the amoutn of obstacles that she encountered because of her cleft. She told us she hopes to become a doctor in the future.

After we played with all the children, we gave the rest of all our toys and toothnrushes to the patients. The arch bishop of Tlaxcala came and blessed the children as well! Tomorrow, we are very excited because we will be observing two surgeries and after that, we will be visiting a school for disabled children. We can't wait!! :)