Yep, true story. Real quote. (Technically, specifically asked for Suzy's Dansko, since I happen to know they make good hammers...)
Sometimes mission work is all about improvisation and learning to work within the resources available. Such as when you are in the OR and one of the nurses kind of gets the stirrup holder stuck and you need a hammer~ you use a shoe. Then when you put the patient's feet up and find out they are size of your eight year old kid's feet~ you end up taping the feet in to the stirrups. And when they tell you that they can't move the TV screen away from just over the patient's right shoulder during the laparoscopy because the tubing won't reach, you do ovarian drilling upside-down and backwards (like a BOSS, Dr. HOLDER!!!!)
Other events of the last two or three days? Let's see...
I may or may not have ordered a round of shots for patients this morning just before discharge-- but don't worry, they were milk of magnesium "shots".
I gave a bag of my own blood to a patient, but much more surprisingly and exciting than that was the fact that her husband actually volunteered to give the first bag! Blood donation is just NOT a thing here that people understand or do. It's been a horrible frustration for many years. We basically usually end up buying a bag from someone, so I think today I may have started a "matching donations" program?!
We watched a parade from an OR stretcher through a window, which was all fun and games until we realized the wheels on the stretcher weren't locked in position and wondered how we were safely getting down...
We had the clinic curtain fall down on two different heads (mine and the lab tech's)
Oh-- speaking of the lab tech, for the first time ever, the only blood I had on my scrubs during a week here was my own! She probably should have taped the needle in while collecting the bag of blood, in retrospect...
We've done 9 major cases, all significantly life-changing for these women. We've been more than reimbursed by their smiles, the gratitude in their eyes, and the gazillions of bags of peaches they have gifted us with.
We've gotten to know two really cool new graduates from the nursing school that the Fickers opened a couple of years ago, and benefited from their help. We hope they've benefited from some teaching from us as well, since they will soon be opening up the ORs in Canilla!!!
We (meaning me...) locked ourselves out of our clinic room, which is nothing new since I typically do that at least once a trip and when I call for Felipe, the sweet young man who cleans the hospital, he always knows I need him to climb in the window again~ Usually when I have him do that I find the keys on the desk inside and not actually in my pocket, though ;-)
Tonight, we finally have gotten to sit down to a nice dinner together here in town to reflect on our week together~ and what a week it has been. I'm reminiscing on just how many crazy, wonderful, horrible, beautiful, sad, ugly, and all-in-God's-perfect-planning-and-timing memories and stories I have~ and it is such a joy to now share some of them with Suzy and Kelly.
I'll try to post some pics in a bit...
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