Into a routine now. Early rising, around 5am, putting all the chargers away for the lights, computers, kindles, etc. and take everything down to the bus. Bus ride from hotel to breakfast and/or church or orphanage. Another longer than expected bus ride to our new destination; arrival at 8:30. Waiting for us were 400 people! Gloria and I started pulling teeth, and didn’t stop till 4pm. No lunch, a couple of 2 minute banana breaks. On our feet for 7 hours.
Lisa, our Cambodian “sterile tech”, she has done a great job for us!
We saw 32 patients by triage count. Probably pulled between 75 an a 80 teeth. One of the hardest days of mission-style dentistry I can remember. Am I getting too old for this? What was unique today, was many of the teeth were abscessed. Typically, we pull lots of broken roots and decayed teeth, but rarely an infection is present. Not the case today. From 8 to 80 year olds; old root tips when the teeth broke off, maybe years ago, but now with exudate and fistulas. Many were sent to the pharmacy for antibiotics after we finished with them
Not a lot of pictures today, just too busy to take them. And, not a lot to say, too exhausted to write much more. Interesting note: as we travelled to our next destination, Battambang, we stopped on the roadside to buy some bee larvae! Driver wanted some, I had to try it. Looks like a honey comb, with some bees in it, they shake the bees off then pop it into a plastic bag. What does bee larvae taste like, you ask? Well, like cocoanut! Hmm.
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