nothing terribly exciting to report about dental clinic today...my mind was back on the ship, wondering if the lady who i saw at screening (tachycardic with large tumor) would show up this morning to see dr. roy for IV fluids and a nutrition plan.
i fortunately ran into dr. roy only a few minutes after getting back onboard this evening and was relieved/overjoyed to find out that she did show up...after examining her, dr. roy agreed with my assessment that she would not survive until her surgery in september and so he spoke to dr. parker (head/neck surgeon) about her...dr. parker is only operating through this week and then will be off the ship and not back again until september. so they decided to move her case up to this friday...they went ahead and admitted her (HR 125, crit 25) so that she can get IV fluids, nutrition and pain control this week.
i went down to the ward to see her this evening and she remembered me from screening. she understands english pretty well although has a hard time talking around her tumor. i looked through her chart and found the path results...the tumor is an
ameloblastoma (hers looks like top left pic on link), which is benign but locally invasive. i'm working on getting excused from my dental duties on friday so that i can go to the OR with her.
i'm so happy that things worked out...although i won't be the one holding the scalpel on friday i can't help but feel that i helped set the wheels in motion to change (save?) this woman's life, and that makes me think that maybe all of that med school craziness was worth it.
the patient's name? peace.
# posted by Jenn @ 3:19 PM