Great First Day in Clinic!

Wow.  Just wow.  I can't believe how great today was.  All of the talented people that I had to work with, and all of the really interesting patient stories, and fun time in the market, and, and, and... wow.  I truly am in awe of this team and the amazingly strong people here in Guatemala.  It's pretty late after going through all of Hale's pictures from today, eating pizza, getting things cleaned and ready for tomorrow, and not to mention seeing the 20 clinic patients that we saw today, so just a few quick stories and prayer requests will have to suffice for the blog tonight.

Our first patient today was Tomasa, the lady I mentioned before who has been waiting for someone that can do her abdominal sacrocolpopexy for about a year now.  She is first on the schedule for tomorrow! The really cool part of her story, though, is that when we first operated on her about 18 months ago, she was in the "Catholic" church here (although basically unchurched) and did not know Christ.  Her daughter that was with her, however, was and still is in a strong Evangelical/Protestant church, and was really excited when we brought up the subject with her mother as she has been praying for her to come to know Christ for quite some time.  Sometime since her last surgery, she has actually started going to church with her daughter, who believes that she is really coming close to accepting The Lord lately!  I am truly awed, once again, with the amazing privilege of being able to serve these women regularly and provide continuity of care-- over years in several cases!-- that allows me to see them grow in so many ways.  God is so good.

We saw a total of 20 patients, scheduled six surgeries, and did three in-office biopsy procedures today already.  Almost all of the surgeries will be great teaching/student cases, which is really exciting for Kim, Nichelle, and Elizabeth.  Hale did a fantastic job of teaching them during clinic today while I was writing notes, and I pray that they will truly have a great learning experience this week!

Apparently, we did take a little long in the clinic, though-- one lady told the front desk that she was 31 when she walked in and asked for her consult, but then told us she was 32 when we started her consult in the afternoon!  We didn't realize we were going THAT slowly, but then another patient's husband also told us "buenas NOCHES" on the way out!  Oh well, at least we finished by eight...

Unfortunately, we also told two patients that they likely have cancer-- one that we are operating on Tuesday and one that is sadly inoperable.  Please pray for Juana and Maria, who are both in tough situations, with vulvar and cervical or maybe vaginal cancers.  It is so difficult to feel so helpless for really sick patients sometimes, but I am thankful that we at least had some pretty good pain medication to offer to Maria thanks to donors in the U.S. who have generously given of loved one's medications after their passing and/or no longer needing them.  Prayer and pain medication were all we had for Maria, but we pray it will go a long way towards making her feel a little more cared for than she otherwise would have.

Tomorrow we are doing Tomasa's abdominal case, another abdominal hysterectomy, then a vaginal hysterectomy and incontinence procedure.  We have three cases scheduled for Tuesday as well.  We will see what clinic brings us tomorrow-- I sometimes have to remind myself that God will not send us more than we can handle.

 Pictures are from market this morning (I am so impressed with Hale's photography; he has a great eye for it!) and clinic this afternoon, mostly self-explanatory.  Enjoy!  (They may not post until the next post; I am going to go ahead and upload this text now and then try again since they failed last night :-/  (First world problems!)