Well once again, we are almost finished in Chichi and all of us are getting a little worn down I think. I believe I should be buying stock in Halls the way I am downing them, but made it through a couple vagathons intact and plan on heading to bed as soon a I finish writing this. Another good day. We had 2 cases and Tom (Dr Hoak) had 2 cases today. We decided to try and keep clinic light and asked them to give us 5 patients and then only the people with a referral note to see for the morning (Over the past few years, Heidi has developed a pretty good referral base with the local medical missionaries, the nice thing about the referrals is they are pre-screened by someone with some medical knowledge, so they are always people we can DO something for!)... of course those 5 turned into 10 very quickly so Heidi ended up covering the consultas while we got started in the OR. Thankfully (again) my superstar med student was an amazing assist and we actually finished the first case so quickly that Heidi's response when we asked for help talking with the families was, "Seriously? Already?" :-) The second case also went gorgeously... me and Joey had a lovely 3 clamp vaginal hysterectomy and Heidi finished with a gorgeous anterior repair/perineoplasty... nothing to put a surgeon in a better mood than a couple really pretty cases! ;-) We finished up, threw in a bonus consulta for the daughter of Chicki (sp?), the very sweet lady who cooks us lunch while we are down here (let me just say, the woman can cook... if I lived there I would weigh 200 lbs it is so good...), and helped out a little with Tom's cases before finishing off our night at my favorite restaurant in Chichi, Los Cofrades. They smoke everything... it is SO good!
So what is left?? Well tomorrow we have our add on surgery and then we start packing up again. Very early Friday morning, we will get up, round on our remaining post-op patients, and catch the microbus to Quiche to meet Dwayne Ficker. Those who have followed my trips before will remember me talking about the Fickers I am sure because I absolutely LOVE them! Dwayne used to run a private charter plane company and his wife Leslie was a nurse before they got called to Guatemala where they have been for more than 10 years now. They now have a aeronautics/agricultural/medical mission in Canilla which is one of my favorite parts of the trip! Friday we will meet Dwayne and fly to Canilla then drive up to Cruz Chich to do clinic... give me an ultrasound and a room full of pregnant Mayan ladies and I am a happy girl! And then we get to finish out the day with people whose company I truly adore! I am super excited especially to get to meet Katie Ficker's new little boy Ethan (who I had previously only seen through an ultrasound!) The perfect way to finish out a long week! Then Saturday we fly home!!!!
Prayer requests for today... mostly just pray for energy and focus... as we get more tired, it is sometimes difficult to give each patient the love and care they need and deserve. We really just want to continue to see each woman as the beautiful creation God sent to us because He LOVES them, and not just work through a number of patients. Pray that we would be sensitive to His leading with each of these ladies! And personally, pray for me to TRUST that this is all in God's hands... the way things work withour surgeries is that we generally tell them that we work for free, but the surgery costs the hospital X amount... and then we say, what can you afford to pay? They pay what they can and the rest is covered by a charity fund. Not unlike the US, while some are very honest, some I feel try to work the system a bit and don't pay what they are truly able... I tend to get irritated when I realize that is happening, because someone who truly HAS need could use those resources. I need to realize that I can't change their hearts, only He can... I am called to SERVE and show them His LOVE. God will handle the rest. He can convict and soften hearts and he can provide resources for others that need them. I am realizing a lot lately that I really struggle with trusting Him to take care of things. I just want to fix everything myself... I like the illusion of control WAY too much! Other than that, I have no requests, only PRAISE for all of His mercies on this trip!! He really has been SOOOO good and we've been blessed to be able to do a lot! Thanks guys for all your support and prayer! It means the world!! See you all soon~
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