Christmas day we had breakfast together having pancakes and various toppings and kids opening presents then in the afternoon we all got together in the open pavilion even though it was about 100F but about the same everywhere else. Also in the morning some of them drove out in the town and gave away small trinkets and soap bars just throwing things out from the back of the pickup other wise might have a stampede trying to get things. We had plenty to eat at lunch time. We did have a strangulated hernia to do that morning. It was fun watching the grandkids open their gifts. The Parkers had a surprise for their Christmas. Their children are here for the Christmas vacation and especially Tammy had no idea that they were coming courtesy donation from someone.
Tues we had a fractured patella that turned out to be difficult because there was also a fracture of the lateral femoral condyle (part of the knee joint) that was displaced and the knee was partially dislocated so had to reduce the displaced fracture segment and put in a screw to hole it then could repair the comminuted fracture of the patella (knee cap). This is all done without any x-ray but he looks good so far and hopefully eventually get an x-ray to confirm. We also did endoprosthesis of the head of femur part of the hip joint on a lady that had fractured the neck of femur about 2 years ago but her son was insisting that it could be fixed. We had been trying to get some surgical tools to be able to do it for many months and finally get some from Germany with Dr. Dirk Wonderlich. (He also brought out a lot of other surgical instruments in his suitcase as he came to visit) I was surely thankful for that. I hope that it works ok. The son is one of our employees. There was also another vacuum extraction on Christmas eve but the baby does not look healthy seems to have some kind of neurological problem, ”floppy baby.”
Dolores made five insulated holders for water bottles that would hold ice all day and gave them to the student missionaries and two other volunteers. I got an i-phone for Christmas. I had in mind to order one through Kermit (Olen’s dad) but I guess Dolores had already done that through Danae or Olen and brought out with the Parker children. I’m sure Cathi was in on it also to send the check. I’ve got to learn how to use it. These smart phones are maybe smarter than me. IT is really nice. Hopefully it will help with emails or text messages. The little Nokia cell phone had almost quit entirely. Danae made some Christmas stockings for the student missionaries and Tammy and family made a bunch of “snow” (cut out paper snowflakes) during the night of Christmas eve and scattered them in front of Danae’s house so that we all could come through the snow as we went to breakfast.
Thur we had two hernias and a ruptured appendix that was very retrocecal. We have a lady that has the most fluid in her abdomen that any of us has ever seen. Drained off about 3 or 4 gallons and can hardly tell the difference in her appearance. Not sure the cause yet. She has no edema. We have a man with a intertrochanteric fracture of his hip that we hope to do an internal fixation tomorrow (Friday). Also a little girl that fell out of a mango tree and suffered a multi fracture of skull with some brain matter came out and has a fracture femur. She is awake and eating and looks like she might survive so will need traction on her leg or a plate on the femur try to keep it simple until we know she is going to survive.
Have a happy and prosperous new year and keep your priorities straight ie keep the Lord as first priority.
Love, Rollin and Dolores
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