So today was a great day to go out on in the OR! Just two gynecology cases, and Chris and Brittany were kind enough to scrub in on Tom's cases today so I felt like I was on vacation! Plenty of time to clean up some in the clinic and get things lined up for next time. Chris and Brittany both have been such amazing hard workers and it has been a joy to spend the week with them.
Speaking of which, forgot to even mention the great start the day got off to! I managed to "somehow" oversleep after getting to bed after we finished in the OR at 2 a.m., but woke up to the news that Chris was already down at the hospital and pretty much finished with our rounds for us! What a gift.
We did a hysterectomy that we had originally scheduled for an abdominal case vaginally, a great victory for the patient's recovery. Then there were only a few patients in clinic today-- one was this lady, well known to me from prior issues, but sent from the local doctor who had seen her a few weeks ago and left this as the entire clinic note! Let me translate:
Ear pain.
Pap smear today;
Dx [diagnosis]: cystocele [bladder prolapse]
Tx [treatment]: Pap smear.
Yep, that's a quality documentation there, folks! As much as it pains me on some levels to say this, please be thankful for yes, even the electronic medical records that we use abundantly in North America. Luckily, this patient was fine and just needed a bit of reassurance...
Then we were locked out of the patient care areas, so this is us waiting (along with lots of family members and friends of inpatients) for them to locate the young man who had the key... How can you not love this place?!?!
Then a bit later was probably the most entertaining laparoscopic surgery I have ever done~ just a sterilization ["tying tubes" to not have more pregnancies], but add in the fact that part of our troubleshooting involved a (sterile) rubber band as pictured here and literally holding the light cord up against the scope the whole time with one hand while operating on a screen that was over the patient's right shoulder instead of at her foot where it makes sense for gynecologists was... let's just say "challenging"... We found success, though, and have great surgical war stories to tell now so all was worth it!
The post-op patients are all looking quite great and very sweet-- especially little Micaela, who we had to take back to the operating room yesterday as you might recall. The young man with the amputation looked much better today than we were expecting, and we expect that all but maybe one of the patients will go home tomorrow. Please continue to pray for their recovery over the coming weeks and months.
Tomorrow it's market time, helping Tom with some cases, then headed out to my second favorite place on earth (it becomes my favorite when my family comes with me!), the Fickers' home in Canilla, Guatemala. Also fairly commonly known as towards the middle of nowhere, but a place where God has chosen to do great things through some amazing people of His. Can't wait to see firsthand the work that has been going on!! Check them out at the links on this blog to Adonai International Ministries and Rachel and Katie Ficker. All who meet them are blessed, as we hope you are this evening...
Good night.
