Friday 8 June - a Slow Day

We arrived at the island of Sangihe for the second time at 4:00 am having sailed all night. We left Manado at 7:00 pm yesterday. I slept in till 4:45 then got going so I had time to braid twist the front of my hair, eat, upload emails, sit for 10 minutes and still get to the department by 7:00. I called home and talked to dad for 5 min. It sure is nice we can call from the department.

I thought we would have some on ship patients today but most of what we did was CT and ultrasounds of neck and abdomens for masses before surgery. They announced last night at devotional we could show up by the flight deck 15 min before a scheduled lift off of a helicopter and watch it from upper deck. I figured I would not have access to the flight times list so didn't think it would happen. Chief Cantoria has friends up there so HM1 Rosario wanted to go see the helicopters do their ship drop. Jennifer, Andrew (Project Hope from Berkeley), and I went with him. We had to dress in special life vests, put on the helmet with ear and eye protection. They then said we could go out on watch on the deck or go to the upper deck and get better pictures. We opted to go up. They call this area vultures' row. Took some pictures of us. The helicopter came in with two pallets in nets and dropped it to the deck then took off. You could feel the pressure from the rotors blowing you over. It would have been cool to get it from the actual flight deck level. I got the whole thing on video while the rest did pictures. Will have to get copies from all of them.

The rest of the morning was looking at emails and catching up on how to use my camera and writing in the journal. We really go from all to nothing. So we are busy the first few days in port screening everyone who will be on board for surgery or their escorts. We did 160 chest films yesterday. The next few days will be slow. They are going to try and get Jennifer or myself off for the closing ceremonies in Manado. They only can get 1 maybe added so we will see how it goes. There are a lot of people who get added and the lower on the pecking order get bumped. We are lower so not planning on it happening.

Rest of the day was pretty slow. We did about 7-8 CT and 4 ultrasounds and a few regular extremities. I was so tired this afternoon and all of us were laying around in x-ray they told me to go and lay down on the mattress table in ultrasound. I got about 20 minute catnap. I want to go to devotional tonight and then to bed by 9 to try and get more then 5-6 hours of sleep. Wash day is tomorrow so need to get that in early. One of the guys says he does it at 3 am and it is totally open. Laundry hours are 8am-7am the next day. We get Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Getting over a huge canker sore I have had on my lip for 4 days. Bit it and then ate pineapple so I am living thru it with the numbing stuff. Have not had one this big or deep in a long time. Hope to hear from some of you. There has been poor connections so I never know what is getting out. Madison did a devotional last night . It was on following the Savior ("follow me") and how we tell our patients to follow us and how the Savior has told us to follow in his footsteps and what we need to do to return to him. Thanks for your support and messages. Mom/Caroline