Fun Days in the OR

I know... "fun" is not a word that I usually associate with the operating room, but with the team I'm traveling with this time you can't help but have fun!  We are thrilled to report that all four of our major surgeries have gone really, really well this week and so far all of our patients are also doing well.  Tana and Kelley have done an amazing job adapting to life in the OR in Guatemala and calling for instruments in Spanish.  And Jared even got to scrub in on a case with us this afternoon!

So far we have operated on three women with prolapsed uteri and one with a large uterus that was bleeding and causing pain and anemia.  Three of the four women are actually Christian but have family members who are not, so we can keep praying for them.  One family was actually brought in by our old friend Matilde, the pastor out in Nueva Santa Catarina if any of y'all remember him from years ago.  It was nice to see him again, and I see he is still truly "pastoring his flock" as the people he brought in aren't even in his church.

We are getting ready to head out to dinner, so I want to try to post some pictures before I run out of time...  Some of them are of us playing with the kids that had been waiting with their families all day for  a consult or something at the hospital.  Bubbles are universal fun!

Then there are the OR pictures... the first one is a little staged, but a lot of fun. It's where Tana and I are going to tell people we stepped out to get a soda and left Kelley and Jared in charge for a while!

Here is Kelley, fourth year medical student, making her first ever skin incision.  She did a great job!  WARNING for the really squeamish--  stop scrolling down now... the next one's a little bloody.  The lady we are operating on has prayed for us three times now as we were praying for her, and I'm pretty sure her and her husband stayed up late last night in the hospital also praying for US.  Humbling.  And beautiful.  And another amazing memory to be thankful to God for.  Reminds me once again what an amazing privilege it is to serve Him in this way.

So here is the uterus after we took it out-- Jared probably never imagined that by age 17 he would have assisted with a hysterectomy!  What an amazing memory.