Underway

After flying to Darwin, Australia, via Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and Sydney. I am now aboard the USNS Mercy. While in Darwin, we were able to visit the Litchfield National Park on Saturday and also attend Church in the Darwin Branch on Sunday. One of the Church members who spoke is a brother who is indigenous (Aborigine). His father was a "Bushman,” meaning that he lived in the outback and was a skilled hunter. The ship is now underway to East Timor. It is now Monday morning 8/9 here and we arrive in the harbor of Dili, East Timor, on Wednesday morning 8/11. Today I met with the other two OB/GYN doctors on board. One is a Navy attending physician and the other is a 4th-year resident from the San Diego Naval Hospital. They are both female physicians and are very professional. On 8/11, we will go on land and have a preoperative clinic where we will see which patients we are able to help with surgery. There will be an ultrasound technician going on land with us to help us decide who would best be helped with surgery. Typically the type of surgeries that we will do will include the removal of the uterus or one or both ovaries in cases where the patient has developed benign tumors or is experiencing persistent pelvic pain. On 8/12, the patients will come on board the ship. They must be screened for tuberculosis, and if they do have findings on their chest x-rays suspicious for tuberculosis, we are not able to bring them on board. We will have OR days on 8/13, 8/15, 8/16, and 8/19. Most of the surgeries will be open cases rather than laparoscopic cases, so they will stay on board the ship until they are fit and well enough to return to their homes. An escort such as a family member will accompany each patient. The escort will stay on board the ship the whole time with them. It sounds like we won't be doing any major surgery after 8/19 in order to allow the patients to recover and be discharged by the time the mission is completed on 8/23. The ship is so big that I can't really tell that it is moving. However, apparently, when the water is rough, there is a lot of movement of the ship, and all the equipment has to be secured.