First OR Day-- So far, so good!

Well, more or less good anyway... Always a few set-backs, but nothing that we won't be able to work out. Today started off less stressful-ly than I was prepared for, which was good and bad in a way-- only 8 total patients came for consults with us, when we were expecting more like 15 or so from what we were told of how many were turned away yesterday! I'm worried that people didn't bother returning, even though I tried very hard to explain to people in the waiting room in one long "speech" about how we would see everyone that showed up even if it was today or Tuesday... But we just have to continue to trust that God sent those that needed us and do our best to help those that come.

We scheduled three more surgeries today out of clinic, which we were able to mostly get done before we got started in the OR. Then Monica and Tom went up and did a prostate surgery (slightly outside the scope of most general OB/Gyns...) while I finished up clinic, which made starting our vaginal case much less stressful with no one waiting on us. The case-- a vaginal hysterectomy with anterior repair, culdoplasty, and perineorrhapy for a complete prolapse for you gynecologic types-- or what we often affectionately refer to as a "vag-a-thon" for the others!-- went quite well overall but was very challenging. We will pray that she recovers well and doesn't have her problems recur in the future-- her name is Maria.

Our third case today was supposed to be the lady we blogged about yesterday with the ovarian mass and no complaints, but her labwork showed that her hemoglobin (measure of anemia) was at about half the level it should be (7.3) and we needed to get some blood donated for her before we could safely start! The husband's blood type was not compatible with hers and they only have one son in the area whose blood type they don't know, so it was looking a little iffy for a while. Then the family members of the first lady we operated on offered to "donate" theirs for her (for a fee, of course... I stayed out of those negotiations!) and we thought we were back in business.

Then we got set back again by the laid-back culture of Latin America-- It turns out that the lab tech, who is of course the only one in the hospital who knows how to crossmatch the whole blood and test for HIV and Hepatitis before transfusing it, decided to stay "a few extra hours" in her home town a few hours away this weekend and wouldn't make it back until tonight. She is usually back around 3 or so on Monday, but not so much today... So to make a long story short, we managed to send the men up to another private lab in town with some blood storage bags we found in the lab here, where they donated and brought the blood back. It is now waiting in a refrigerator overnight until it can be screened and prepared tomorrow and this lady can finally get her surgery! Of course we already have a pretty full load for tomorrow, so we'll see how we end up getting through it all. Somehow we will manage with God's help; we always do.

At least we got to take advantage of our early evening by a nice dinner out with some other local missionaries-- thanks to Roy, Erna, Sally, and Ervin for such a great time with old and new friends!

Will let you all know what tomorrow has in store...

Pictures today are of Monica and Tom operating on a prostate, then the "obligatory" first uterus picture of me and Monica after her first hysterectomy that she scrubbed in on! There's also one of the upcoming women for surgery with her husband in the courtyard of the Hospital, which is looking a little better every time I come down. What a lovely place to be called to work...