Today Annie and Heidi were in their OB/Gyn clinic at the hospital in Chichicastenango. We're not sure if it's because Tom is gone and people haven't figured out that Heidi is not, or if it's just a fluke, but the last two weeks have not been very busy...
What was lacking in quantity was made up for in complexity of patients today, though. We saw a lady back who has problems with infertility and abnormal lab results. (She has hyperprolactinemia for any of you medical-types that are reading!) We are now treating her with some pretty expensive medications and praying that it will work and that she will also eventually be able to conceive. Please join us in praying for Marta Isabel, who is 35 years old, married, from a strong Christian family, and desperately desires to have a baby.
Another patient came in with a history of a positive pregnancy test done a couple of weeks ago, but with some bleeding since then. She had been seen in Quiche and prescribed progesterone shots which are used locally to try to prevent a threatened miscarriage. It is a shame that no ultrasound was done then, because it would have shown a smaller version of what it showed today-- a molar pregnancy. This is a "pregnancy" that is really just a tumor growing in the uterus without a living fetus. Gone untreated, it can turn in to cancer and spread.
She will get her D and C (surgery to clean the tumor out of the uterus) on Wednesday. Please also pray for her well-being and that the surgery goes well and without a lot of bleeding. Heidi is always nervous about operating on these, as there can sometimes be a substantial hemorrhage. The surgery should be curative, however, so praise be to God for sending her to a place that could help her today!
This afternoon we are at home, and Roy Simmons will get in from Antigua a little later. Tommorrow we will head out to Canilla as usual, and Sunday Beth-- a Family Practice resident from the U.S.-- flies in to spend a month with us. How nice to have so much help and so many teaching opportunities!
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