Surgery Week

It was surgery week at the clinic... We had a Hands of Hope team from Indiana made up of 2 surgeons (Dr. Ashton who is an ENT, Plastics, and Allergist and Dr. Haney who is a general surgeon) and 15 other teams members. This was my 3rd surgery week to work on, but really it was my first time to act as the team coordinator. I love surgery weeks because I have the opportunity to go into the ORs and watch random surgeries and also learn random medical terms from the doctors and nurses. I'm telling you by the end of my time here it's going to be like I'm a doctor. :)

We had 42 patients get surgery this week. They all came on Sunday (triage day) to see the doctor and to get scheduled for surgery throughout the week. Some of the patients I recognized from coming into the clinic in previous weeks to be signed up for surgery. We also had 2 family members of staff members who received surgery. This picture is of Archy's brother Neri who had nasal surgery and his sister Doris.

We also had 2 students in the school get surgery. We were suppose to have a 3rd, but they ended up canceling the morning of his surgery. Here I am with Karla Marleny who is in our Kindergarten class. She came out of her surgery and recovered so well. I was giving her stickers and she was smiling and laughing the whole time. The other student who has surgery didn't handle post op as well. Diego woke up screaming and when his mom tried to calm him down he kept sticking out his tongue at her.

Neither of these 2 students ended up having surgery this week. but both of them came in to see the doctor. My desk was right by the door this week, so they would run up and sit in my lap while they waited to see the doctor. The staff kept laughing at me because every time they walked by I would have another kid in my lap. They all wanted to play with my computer which I allowed until Daniel deleted the surgery schedule when he punched some kind of combination of keys on my laptop which not only deleted the schedule, but instantly opened Itunes and Skype at the same time. After that I opened the Photo Booth application and kept them entertained by taking pictures on my computer. I'm going to miss these kids so much this summer!

This is Tomasa Patricia who we call Pati. She is in our Kindergarten class and is a clear favorite. Shh... don't tell the other kids. :)

On Thursday I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures in the ORs all week, so I spent some time watching some surgeries and taking pictures and videos. I love being in the ORs because every time I walk in I stand in the corner, so I'm not in the way. Then as soon as the surgeon realizes I'm in there they always tell me I need to come closer and watch what they are doing. Even though this is my 3rd surgery week it still baffles me that I am allowed to just walk into the ORs and be able to stand right next to the surgeon. Can you imagine if I tried to walk into a hospital in the States? :)

In this particular surgery Dr. Haney had to pull out this man's intestine (can't remember if it was the small or large... either way it was VERY neat) to operate on a hernia. Once he pulled out the intestine they turned off the large operating lights, so we could take better pictures of it. Again VERY neat day at work. I have always been that person who is really squeamish at the sight of blood, but I have actually been really impressed with myself at how I handle watching surgery. Apparently I can watch the intestines be pulled out of someone, but if you cut your finger I'll freak out if you want me to clean it.

Same surgery... I just thought this was a cool picture. This is Dr. Haney and Chad. Chad brought his 7th grade daughter on the trip, and it was fun to talk to her about her experiences here in Guatemala. She talked to me about wanting to be a nurse when she grew up and how much she loves coming to Guatemala on this mission trip (this is her 2nd year to come). Maybe these trips are going to help instill in her the importance of missions and she'll do something long term when she gets older. You just never know what experience is going to change someone's life.

Here is the other OR. On this day Dr. Ashton did his surgeries under local anaesthetic instead of general. This patient had a keloid on her ear from a piercing that he was removing. Again when I walked in he told me to get closer to take better pictures. This lady was awake and could hear and watch everything going on. It was the same with the eye patients in February and I remember thinking how much trust and faith these patients put into these doctors and our organization. Also how scary it must be for them to just lay there and listen to everyone speaking a foreign language. So much trust.

Working on this surgery week I felt like I already knew so much more than I did the previous 2 surgery weeks, but there is still so much for me to learn. The team members would ask me random questions and I would have to run to Heather to get the answers because they were either about medical things I have no earthly idea about or about forms or such that I hadn't been taught yet. I kept thinking by the time they come back next year hopefully I'll know all the answers (you know about forms and such... no chance I'm learning the medical side of things). One day one of the nurses was explaining to me how to use an HIV testing kit and another team member was doing the same with the pregnancy tests. I remember just thinking in my head 'Even though it's fascinating to be shown this what I really need to learn is where we keep these kits and tests'. That is my goal. Not to learn the medical side of things (even though I really am fascinated and will always jump at the chance to listen when someone is willing to teach me about it), but to be able to answer questions when they are looking for something around the clinic. I really liked this team and am looking forward to seeing them again next year. Also some of them are bringing a medical team (not through Salud y Paz) to Pana in November. It will be great to catch up with them then. I'm really excited to get to know our teams then see them the next year. I'll have that with the Spring teams next year, but will have to stay more than a year if I want to have that relationship with all the teams. Who knows... (Mom don't freak out).