And The Lame Could Walk and the Blind Could See

Three hours into a four hour hysterectomy, Jackie, the Head Nurse on the Inpatient Ward, poked her head in the OR and asked my permission for the young girl with the arm amputation and shattered pelvis, to take a walk. Of course, I thought she was joking, for this girl hadn't walked for 8 wks, and her X-rays certainly appeared as though ambulating was only a dream. Jackie chuckled, and then explained that this girl was actually walking along the sidewalk, visiting with the other patients. I slowly stopped, laid down my pickups and scissors, and said in French, "You say What?!". All four guys in the OR were flabbergasted, and then we all noticed, there wasn't a dry eye amongst us. I had just Emailed the Mercy Ships Organization last night, and their Ortho guy is ill, and wasn't able to operate. There are no ortho folks with reliable skills in the whole country. I went to sleep last night a little discouraged for this young lady. I awoke at 5 am and was convicted to get out of bed and pray for this girl, that God would heal her and allow her pelvis to mend, allowing her to walk again. I was unaware that many others had been praying the identical prayer! All drama aside, this is only explained by God's miraculous power. You ask, why does it take four hours for me to do a hysterectomy? Well, this patient had an 8 pound uterus that was stuck to many other essential organs, and grossly distorted by benign fibroid masses. As four women came into the Recovery Room to see their friend, Jairus came out of the OR, holding her grotesquely deformed uterus for them to observe. They immediately began to sing and dance and grabbed me and hugged me and kissed me several more times than is necessary after slaying a uterus. They then explained that this women had been to 4 different hospitals, and had multiple operations to remove the uterus, but on each occasion, they closed the abdomen, stating that hysterectomy was impossible. She had been bleeding rather uncontrollably for years, and was lightheaded and dizzy all of the time. I then asked them to show me the basic moves of their dance, and joined them until we were all laughing too hard to breathe. We were able to do 2 other small cases as well, and see a few consults in between. Tomorrow, we have hernias, ortho cases, a little plastic surgery, and of course, more wound debridements! I was invited to the village, to Jairus' home, for dinner, which was excellent, after working all day. It was well over 90 today, and the humidity is now up to 65%, which should promise a big rain quite soon. I'm fairly certain that I'm sweating at the same rate at which I'm guzzling fluids. Thank the Lord for the air conditioner in the OR! I'm thinking about sneaking up there tonight and sleeping there! Thank all of you faithful blogheads for sticking with me. Off to bed I go-- I need some rest if I'm gonna keep observing miracles all of the time! Jeff