Sunday was a huge clinic day, starting at about 1:00 in the afternoon after Church and not ending until about 10 minutes before 10 p.m.! Yes, we were tired... drained physically, mentally, and emotionally... but God is good and did give us the patience and wisdom to make what we hope were decisions pleasing to Him for each patient that came in. We saw 18 new patients, setting five of them up for surgery this week and several more up for other procedures that we got done in the office Monday. That may not seem like a lot of patients to many of our readers, but believe us when we say that though the numbers might not be impressive, the complexity of problems this time was unbelievable! I am so very grateful to have two other strong gynecologic minds with me on this trip-- I would really be struggling without their insightful help. Once again, God shows us sovereignty in sending the right patients to the right team, though... simply amazing.
So some of the more interesting patients so far...
Alejandra and Satornina both got their surgeries on Monday for problems with their uterus and/or bladder prolapsing or "falling out", after being nicely prepared pre-operatively either by me in May/August or by Dr. Tom Hoak in the months in between. Both surgeries went very well and we were pleased with the results immediately post-operatively. Both ladies looked great last night, and we are anxious to get down to the hospital to check on them again this morning.
Manuela is a lady that we will operate on today (It is about 5:30 am on Tuesday, for anyone wondering...) She came in yesterday, referred by Dr. Hoak to us, for a diagnosis of blocked ureters (the tubes that go down from your kidneys to your bladder) which are thought to be due to the very significant prolapse (It is turned all the way inside-out, basically, for the non-gyn people, and a complete procidencia for you others!) of her uterus. A urologist in Guatemala City recommended that she wear a catheter in her bladder to try to relieve the pressure until it can be fixed, so she's been walking around with that for over a month now. Despite our best intentions and hormone therapy, her tissues are still very weak to support most types of surgical repair, so today we have opted for a major abdominal procedure to try to correct her problems. This is a surgery that I have never done before so I will once again be thankful that especially Keith Nelson is here, since he has much more experience than I do with it! And again, thanks to God for His provision for her this month.
We also have two other surgeries scheduled for various levels of pelvic prolapse today, so it should be quite a long day in the OR.
Somehow we have also found time to see some ladies with problems other than these, and I remain very encouraged by the handful of women that come back to see me so often-- even though they still don't want surgery for their problems and I am doing little for them, they faithfully seek me out almost every time I am here. Definitely one of the best parts of the job, and one that makes me even more thankful that we have been able to have a continued presence and continuity here for the last two years now!
Thanks to all of you for your continuing prayers as we look forward to another long but hopefully fruitful day today. Our patients that we are operating on are averaging about 50% that know The Lord and 50% that do not, so please join us in continued prayer especially for those who do not know Him-- that they will see a little bit of His love in our hands and work and smiles and hugs and sign-language communication when we don't speak their language this week, and that they ultimately might come to know Him as we are so privileged to...
"Until the world is reached..."
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