OR Day One

Whew! Long but good day today... started out with trying to go down to the hospital at about 7:30 to get organized for the day, only to turn back around and come back to the hotel when there was no one to open the locked hospital doors for me! So I tried again-- more successfully-- around eight.

Mom and Micah hung out at the hotel most of the day, but did get to come say hi to us in the OR a little later. We were hoping to grab lunch or something together but our timing was off-- Micah had just fallen asleep every time I called when I got out of the OR!

I was happy to see a lady in line this morning with a card from Leslie Ficker's clinic in San Andres-- she had a large abdominal mass that they found yesterday, so I saw her early, admitted her, and operated this afternoon! Turned out it was just a large fibroid uterus, thankfully. We'll send it to the pathologist but I'm fairly certain it is benign.

The first two cases were the ones scheduled from yesterday-- a tubal ligation ("tubes tied", for elective sterilization) who went home this afternoon, and another abdominal hysterectomy for a quite large uterus-- think about 4-5 months pregnant size. Please pray that Valbina's pathology report comes back benign; I am a little more worried about hers...

Sorry I didn't take any pictures today to share-- I'll try to get Mom on that task for tomorrow! But seeing 2 to 4 patients AND pumping after talking with the family, writing the op note, and doing orders in between each case I somehow didn't find the time. The other 13 patients I saw today are mostly non-surgical, except for one lady who will come back in November for surgery since we are afraid we'll be busy all day tomorrow with one very large abdominal mass. Wednesday is pretty fully scheduled with Tom's cases that had piled up already last week! He has another full day Thursday.

Don and Maryann McLeod, who are graciously providing anesthesia as well as some OR nursing expertise for us last week and this week out of Atlanta, leave Friday. It is always so nice to meet other people who have developed a heart for Guatemala over the years in so many different ways.

I actually had a pretty warm shower back at the hotel tonight, and now I'm praying that Micah, Mom/Mary Jean, and my two inpatients get a good night's sleep tonight!