Weekend Stuff

The Women's Team finished up their last two surgeries on Thursday morning while Heidi was at ASELSI and they left mid-afternoon on Thursday.

It's always a dramatic contrast from a house full of 20 people to just the three of us. Luckily, John and the team did a great job of cleaning before they left, so we just had a few little things to do to finish up.

Also, since the boys' workday got cut short on Wednesday due to a wicked hail storm, Matt had a few things to finish up on the electrical system in the addition so the workers could continue raising walls.

Friday was Heidi's OB/GYN clinic at the Hospital Buen Samaritano, plus a visit to the National Hospital here to check on the team's patients. Then our friend Virginia (from ASELSI) came up to spend the night so we could head to Canilla in the morning.

Saturday and Sunday were our clinics in Canilla and San Andres. They were more or less routine.

Thursday, before the team left, our friend Regina brought two-year-old by the house. This is a boy we've seen before. He's a pre-op spina bifida patient from her village. We told the parents to really watch the bag on his back that contains the tail end of his spinal cord. We told them that if it starts to leak or anything, they are to put down whatever they're doing and RUSH to the emergency room.

They called us last week to tell us that the baby's bag had started to leak a few days before and they wanted to know what to do. We begged them to come to the hospital that very minute. Two days later, they came. The docs at the hospital here saw him and referred him to Guatemala City. We gave them some money and some advice on how to get to the hospital there.

We did hear from them (indirectly - through Regina) and heard that they are in Guatemala City, the baby has been admitted to the hospital, and that Dad is trying to figure out how to navigate the system (to get permission to visit his son - hospitals here are very different from hospitals in the US) but the important thing is that the baby is in a hospital.

In other news, Isaac's Great-grandma Arquette turns 90 this coming week. So he painted her a picture we'll scan and email north. Here are some pics of that... uh... adventure.