Surgery Day

Yesterday, Matt left Quiche at about 4:20 in the morning to go to Guatemala City with the grey truck. He arrived at the Mazda dealership at 7:20. We're getting some smoke out of the vents when we try to use the heater and we're losing coolant - the thought is that it's probably a heater coil. Also, since it's there, we'll have them look at the steering, suspension, and braking systems - just to make sure nothing has rattled loose, or is about to.

The dealership said they couldn't even start on the truck until today, so Matt had to figure out how to get back home. First, he took a taxi to Migracion to get our passports back after we had to leave them there for a few days to get our 90-day extension. Then, a two hour walk to the Guatemala City airport.

Heidi had done some calling around and found out that Pastor Roy was going to Guatemala City in the afternoon and would give Matt a ride home. So there was some time to kill, as it was still only 10:30 in the morning. Matt decided to check out renting a car instead. Just as he handed his debit card over to rent a small car for a few days, Dr. Hoak called and said he was in the City and offered a ride back.

In the meantime, Leslie called Heidi to tell her they were bringing a patient from their clinic in Chiminicijuan to the Hospital Buen Samaritano. She's in her 40s but looks a whole lot older. She has a mass in her abdomen about the size of a basketball. So we all met in Chichicastenango to take a look at her (Heidi, Isaac, Matt, Dr. Hoak, and Duane and Leslie) - a big ol' gringo reunion.

Heidi and Dr. Hoak already had three surgical cases scheduled for today, so we added this patient and made it four. The anesthesiologist was scheduled to arrive at 10:00am today, so we headed back down to Chichi this morning.

Well, 10:00am GST (Guatemala Standard Time) is closer to noon, gringo time, so we waited a while. We got to sit down to a nice lunch at a restaurant in Chichi - just about the time the anesthesiologist showed up. So Heidi left and Matt got her order to-go and brought it to her office for her.

Also, this morning, the Mazda dealership called with an estimate on the heater coil (a few hundred dollars, but three days worth of labor) and about a $1000 list of other things they want to do. Our "mechanic" Spanish isn't too good, so Matt's going BACK to Guatemala City tomorrow to have them put their fingers on everything they want to change. We'll give Si's and No's as necessary. Luckily, our friends Leslie (not Ficker, Capehart) and Sonya are heading down to Guatemala City tomorrow to pick their husbands up from the airport. So Matt hitches his second ride in three days.

After our interrupted lunch, Matt and Isaac came back to Quiche to hang out at the house and wait for Heidi to call and say she's ready for a ride home. Only having one truck is definitely an inconvenience - but at the moment, we still have one more truck than any of our patients!!!

Yesterday was Isaac's two-month birthday. So Heidi took a ton of pics (thank God for digital) and you can see three of them below. The third one is there lest you think all he does is smile.

And the fourth pic is of Isaac eating HIS lunch in Heidi's office between her first and second cases of the day. Not every surgeon gets to breastfeed her child between cases!