back from my hiatus

I’m writing this on the plane, heading back to Port au Prince, after a whirlwind week of family, friends, geocaching, gathering supplies, oh, and a minor operation.  As you may already know, I ended up having surgery when I returned from my first deployment to Haiti (which was in no way a result of anything having to do with Haiti).  Turns out we weren’t aggressive enough, and 2 months later, I had to have surgery again.  I wish it were something glamorous, with a cool story and a neat scar.  But it’s not – it’s been a pain in the butt.  Literally.

People say that healthcare workers make horrible patients.  I am, admittedly, one of the worst patients EVER. (Editors Note:  Yes, she is but we still love her) Rosales, my surgeon, just rolls his eyes at me when I mention I’m scheduled to return to Haiti 36 hours after he’s scheduled me for surgery.  He says he’s committed to fixing me, despite my commitment to “Save the World”…  He also says I used up a lot of “karma points” getting back to the states for my first surgery, so I should probably continue my work in Haiti to pay back my karmic debt.   Who knew karma points were like penny-carnival tickets?  Maybe next time I’ll trade some in for a gigantic, fluffy teddy bear…

I ended up changing my flight – adding a few days on the end of my trip to recover in Oregon.  Now I'm headed back to Port au Prince... to "take it easy"...
 

~PJ