Great Clinic Day!

Wow. What a great clinic day!  What a great clinic team!  I have no idea what God has in store for this week still, considering that we only scheduled three surgeries out of the 17 patients we saw, but we will try to be ready for it when it comes.

So today we got off to an early start in the market and picked up a few souvenirs of course… but more importantly, we went to set up for clinic around 9:45 and got started a little after ten.  Thanks to the excellent skills of my last team, the clinic supplies were beautifully organized and easy to set up.  We had 17 patients waiting, so we tried to get started…

Which was about the time Dan and Preston joined us!  Perfect timing, really.  They all quickly settled in to a work flow and we got down to business.  We saw a few patients with problems that they didn’t need surgery for, then came one of my favorite stories of the day.

Our third and fourth patients were both referred from Dr. Tom and were both here for something strange-appearing on their cervix.  So Dan had just put the speculum in for the first exam and he and I were both trying to figure out exactly what we were looking at, when in walked—and I kid you not—my friend Stephen Patrick, who just happens to be an experienced gynecologist!  Really, God?!  Really?!  That’s some pretty serious showing off… I love it when He does that.  So it was great to have a second opinion on that and on the next patient, and to see Dr. Patrick again!  Looking forward to getting him up here to operate with us in August.

My other favorite story from clinic today was the one post-op patient that we saw.  Some of you will remember Tomasa, the patient that Hale Stephenson and I operated on in February to fix the complication (cuff prolapse) from a year and a half ago.   She looked fantastic, and was so happy and grateful.  I was even more grateful, if possible, for her great outcome.  Her second surgery was truly a gift from God.  She is also still attending Church with her daughter, and her daughter thinks she is “really close” to accepting Christ now.  We will keep praying for her.  I couldn’t believe it when she handed me a gift—a beautiful hand-stitched “guipil” (woman’s traditional blouse) for Micah, who met Tomasa when she was 5 weeks old!  What an awesome gift.

So for now we have three surgeries scheduled—tomorrow we are going to attempt my first laparoscopy in Guatemala, which I’m pretty excited about.  I’ve never used Tom’s equipment here, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what he really has and what I can work on bringing down for him later.  Basically, an answer to one of my prayers for a while now, so we’ll see what comes of it!  We will also be doing some vaginal repairs on an older lady, then tackling a very large and likely cancerous mass on Tuesday. 

Tomorrow we will see if anything else comes in to clinic, and take care of whatever does!  Thank you all for your prayers.

The pictures below are of Dan and I reading some X-ray pictures (an HSG, for you gynecologic types out there-- wow!), Karen and Nicole enjoying the sights in town in front of the cathedral, me with Tomasa and her daughter with the beautiful gift for Micah, and Karen and Nicole again with some of the kids in the "waiting room", bringing much-needed joy and levity to their lives!