A Week in the Life

What a week! This is my normal schedule for ministry site weeks.

Monday: Clinic

Tuesday: Asilo

Wednesday: Clinic

Thursday: Hospital

Friday: Clinic

     On top of that, our Spanish Internship prof, Alicia Juarez, has been here in Guate the last week and a half. “Spanish Internship” is just a fancy name for homework in Spanish that has to do with our work at ministry sites. We had lecture on Thursday for 2 and half hours for that class. Fuuuun. 

     Laura and I have been working out together twice a week pushing weights around in the gym. We are pretty buff you know. 

     At the Asilo we mostly just talk to the nice old people there :) There are a few ladies there that are long time friends of Maureen and look forward to our visits every Tuesday. We also change dressings. It’s not as fun as chatting and it’s sad because it really hurts when we are cleaning the sores. But it has to be done.

Doña Julia and I

Dressings

     Once again, the hospital on Thursday was an adventure! We saw three surgeries this week. 

Maureen and I

     The first was a precious one-year-old boy. He had a lump under the skin in the shoulder blade area. This was easily found and removed in a fast, clean process – a good warm up for the next surgery!

Cute little baby feet

After the surgery

     Surgery number two: circumcision. One eight-year-old boy is now able to pee with ease! This surgery was significantly more gruesome than the first. It was worse than I thought it was going to be – a great warm up for the third surgery! Pictures don't do this one justice. So I left them out :)

     Amputation. Above the knee. Friends, if you ever get diabetes, take good care of yourself. Please. I don’t want to be observing your gangrene leg being taken off while you are awake. This surgery was actually less bloody than number two but far more disturbing just knowing what was happening to this sweet eighty-year-old abuelita.  

Her eyes are closed, but she's awake!

After. She kind of looks like she's smiling...but I doubt it.

I spared you the photos of the actual cutting...If you all want to see them I will have to get LOTS and LOTS of comments asking for them or your email address so I can send them too you. It's not pretty.

In these bodies we will live. In these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life. Awake, my soul! Awake, my soul! You were made to meet your Maker. Awake, my soul! Awake, my soul! Awake, my soul! For you were made to meet your Maker. You were made to meet your Maker.- Mumford & Sons

Pediatric Surgery!

Maureen and I

More adventures in the National Hospital in Chimaltenago! Observing surgery was not what Maureen (my site leader) and I expected to be doing when we went to the hospital today… But observe we did :) This was up close and personal surgery. The first surgery was a good warm up for the second. I don’t have pictures of the first one but you may wish I did instead of the ones I do have of the second. Proceed with caution!

A girl of eight lay on the gurney with her eyes open. She’s Sophia’s age. She looks tall, lying out like that. Is Sophie that big? Is she asleep yet? She blinked and looked around but didn’t seem frightened. The surgeon and nurses moved her to the operating table. She was still calm and compliant. The nurse began deliver a medication through her iv. The girl turned her head and looked at her arm curiously. Very slowly, she lifted both arms and touched her forearm where near the iv. “The medicine burns,” Maureen explained. Poor girl. Her eyes stopped scanning the room. An oxygen tube was placed in her mouth. A sheet with a square hole cut in it was draped over her with the hole centered on her inguinal area. The girl became a square of skin with a problem hidden beneath. Layer by layer, the metal tools searched for, found, and repaired the hernia. Layer by layer, the needle and thread sutured the flesh back together. A bandage covered the incision. The sheet was removed. The little girl’s face surprised me. I had forgotten who that patch of skin belonged to.

Pelvis and ribs jutted out. I couldn’t tell if the wide eyes and smile of the young man on the table was a result of fear or if he was actually happy about having a major surgery on his 17^th birthday…The surgeon imitated a mariachi band for him and we wished him happy birthday. He laughed and thanked us. He blessed us and asked for God’s protection. We reassured him that everything was going to be all right. His eyes closed. The oxygen tube went down. The catheter went in. A thick needle pierced his neck. I winced. “For more serious surgeries they need a central line directly to his heart in case of emergency,” Maureen explained. Ouch!!  The young man was thin – a malnourished 88 lbs. His intestines absorbed little due to infection and being riddled with holes that leaked all his nutrients out. A large scar from a past failed surgery ran down his midline. A bandage was removed from his belly button area. Fluid leapt up! The nurse leapt out of the way. The sheet with the hole focused my attention to gray fragile net of skin. This may be more involved than I thought it was going to be… An incision was made and the surgery was underway. The smell of burning flesh and fecal matter hung in the air. Suddenly, everything went black and quiet! No one dared to move. The nurse pumped the oxygen by hand. About ten seconds later, the lights flickered back on. The next time that happened half an hour later, the doctor was ready with a huge flashlight and continued the surgery without electricity. An hour and a half later, all the intestines had been taken out foot by foot through the 10 inch incision, examined, and all the holes were stitched up. Phase two was to cut out the length of intestine with the worst infection and sew the two healthy ends together. Maureen and I had to go so we did not see this surgery through to completion. 

Observing!

Hospitals and Hosts

I got to visit the hospital in Chimaltenango where Dr. Sara works with Maureen, Francisca, and Dr. Sara. This was a new experience for me! The most surprising thing was the freedom with which we toured the hospital. Dr. Sara showed us around everywhere except the infant intensive care and the contagious diseases areas. As a visitor and patient to US hospitals in the past, I have been checked in and told exactly what I can and cannot do. Doors to different areas are locked and sterile scrubs must be worn in certain areas – like surgery. Not so here. Doors were open. People were on gurneys in the hallways…just hanging out waiting for treatment and watching us walk by. We walked by the postpartum room where about 10 women were caring for their newborns together. A father was comforting his crying newborn in intensive care fighting pneumonia. There was a woman getting blood drawn in the hallway by a nurse with no gloves and a woman in labor with the door open. We observed a shaking, blood covered woman getting stitches and staples on her forehead to close a 6 inch wound from a motorcycle accident…no painkillers. I am so thankful that I have been to hospitals where there is plenty of staff and equipment that the staff knows how to use and every precaution was taken to keep me safe and infection free.

On a more lighthearted note, Greta and I had dinner with our host families last night instead of at Cafecito. It was so much fun! We prayed and ate and had great conversation. I was teased plenty for my Spanish mistakes! Antonieta made a great dinner of beef, rice, tortillas, potatoes, tomato salsa, “Big Mega Cola”, and a jello graham cracker fruit layered desert. Wilmar said this was his favorite meal. After dinner we gave the family gifts we brought. The boys loved their Aerobe Frisbee, José said the Jelly Bellies were “muy ricos”, and everyone had fun playing the games Greta brought (although explaining card games in Spanish is a little difficult). The things we brought were all new to them so it was very fun to explain it all:) Dinner ended with a full blown laughing attack in which we were all laughing at each other laughing. Everyone was making fun of me because I cry when I try to stop laughing and I was saying my stomach hurt from laughing!

All in all, a great couple days!