Difficult things

Just one of our recent finds: a baby chameleon

Hi Friends! Sorry to have gone silent for so long. Here's the latest on my life in Zimbabwe. I spend Thursdays and Fridays in theatre (the OR) assisting with surgeries and other miscellaneous medical procedures. Most of the major surgeries are done on Wednesday, so Thursdays and Fridays are hernia repairs, appendectomies, EGDs (looking down the throat and stomach), D&Cs, and other randomness: last week we removed a 4.5 inch tumor from a woman's back, poked needles in almost everything, and removed half of a bone from someone's leg. Because the 81 year old surgeon has seen and done almost everything during his career here, it is so exciting to learn from him. Unfortunately I expanded the "almost everything" for him this weekend.

I was on call and received a phone call from the midwives about a patient with obstructed labor. I arrived to find a woman who had been pushing for 9 hours. yes... pushing. She was fully dilated but the baby was stuck. I tried to use forceps to help the baby move down, but no luck. Also tried to assist with a vacuum (suction cup applied to baby's head: creepy, I know!) but to no avail. Baby moved down slightly, but wasn't coming out and worse, we had seen that the fluid around baby was thick and looked like blood or infection. Time to get baby out. Unfortunately baby was so low we couldn't get a tube past the baby's head to drain mom's bladder. No biggie, I reasoned; we could do it during the C-section once baby was out. So we took her back and delivered the baby by c-section. We suctioned the thick, dangerous appearing fluid from baby's lungs before it could breathe in. So far so good. Then we went to close the uterus... only we

couldn't find it. After about 2 minutes of searching and trying to sort through the anatomy, we knew we needed Sekuru (means grandfather in Shona), the seasoned surgeon. He arrived and after several more minutes determined that the baby had been delivered through the bladder: a "first" he said. With the baby's head so low we couldn't use it as a guide and had mistaken a full bladder for the uterus. Sekuru helped us get things sorted out and repair her bladder. The baby looked ok, and mom was back in one piece more or less, but today I learned that the baby suddenly got a fever and breathing problems and has died. Mom still has a long recovery ahead and may need a follow up surgery. Please pray for this poor mom, for her healing and for comfort in the loss of her baby. Please also pray for us as this has been a very crushing emotional ride for us. I once again considered my other career options. However, God in his wisdom had us do another c-section later that day which went perfectly. I think we would have avoided doing c-sections forever if we could.

I made a new friend this week. Patience is a 10 year old girl originally sent to the hospital for hydrocephalus (swollen head), but when I met her she didn't quite fit that description. I think she actually has achondroplasia (a form of dwarfism). She isn't the least bit fazed by being different. She is smart, funny, loves Jesus, and has a beautiful singing voice. I will try to find a picture of her to share. We had great fun talking and discovered that we have the same favorite color: yellow. She needs some glasses which we didn't have. Please pray that God will heal her vision or provide her with glasses so she can continue to learn and do well.

There is another young man I'd like to ask for prayer for. Brian is only 10 and has what we think is Burkitt's lymphoma. He is going to die very young without a miracle. There is no chemotherapy available here. I told his parents this weekend that there is very little we can do, but that I would ask for prayers for his healing. The parents turned their heads away and cried. He is very weak and in pain and I wish so much for him to live. There is so much spark in his eyes.

I think I learn more everyday here than I did each month back home. But it is so hard to watch people suffering, and to know that I lack the skill to help them all. Which is why this little man brought me so much joy.

He came in before I arrived at the hospital with severe malnutrition (Kwashiorkor). His little body was swollen because he didn't have enough protein to hold water in his blood vessels. He also had wounds all over because of his poor nutrition. I have been working in the men's ward this month, but was back to visit the pediatric ward this weekend, since I was on call. I almost couldn't recognize him. He is now a healthy looking child with no resemblance to the one I met 3 weeks ago. Praise the Lord! His mother laughed at me because I was so astonished and excited.

Oh, and in my spare time, I've been trying to fix computers. I've been working on one for 2 weeks now and finally have the Start button back. This was the first virus scan that I ran on the computer.

Yep. 2074 infected files. umm. problem. I am pleased to report that it now has none. :)