June 27th

Thank you to all my readers following us through out this great adventure! I am so excited to see all the people reading and sharing my blog. Life here in Africa is truly exciting, and God is having His work done here at the Village of Hope. 

YUM. Mangoes :) 

Today was another wonderful day. Savannah and I went to the hospital for morning devotion where we sang songs and prayed together as a staff at the Village of Hope. We dispersed from there around 830 and had morning rounds with Dr. Alex. Dr. Alex is a native Ghanaian and lives here on campus at the Village. He is on call 24/7 and still tries to have a family. He is truly a great man. On rounds we had three patients in the ward. One was a female status post hysterectomy day 2, one had come over night for abdominal pain, and the third was here following an eclamptic episode at home with a series of seizures and bleeding.

The woman with abdominal pain ended up having a very large periumbilical hernia. She had suffered with it for many years and this was her second hospitalization. The first time she refused surgery because she was very scared. Dr. Alex asked her again if she would have the operation and she was still refusing. He told us that she might come around, so if she did later that day we would operate.

Thursday is prenatal day. We saw lots of mommies-to-be. Everyone in Ghana has access to birth control because their insurance is through the government. They have all kinds of birth control options from condoms all the way to IUD and tube tying. So, MOST women are pregnant intentionally. Mostly they come for prenatal attention on a regular monthly basis, but if they are not well they can come as also. I had a mom today with malaria, but she was early in her pregnancy so we were able to give her meds (quinine) and send her home.

Savannah and I came home for lunch and learned our stove/oven thing had been fixed! So she made a grilled cheese. YUM.... it smelled like home J

We also got our phone today and were able to talk to our families. It was great to hear their voices and remember that family is close no matter how far.

After lunch we returned to the hospital and the woman had agreed to have the surgery! So we finished seeing all the patients and by 300 in the afternoon we were prepping for surgery.  That big bump you see on top of her belly is a hernia. We were going to cut it open, shove it back in, and sew up her abdominal muscles.

This was our face when we saw the hernia. It's like in Despicable Me when Minion said "whaaa?"
"

Can you imagine? Just waking up one day and deciding it was the day you were ready to have surgery and that afternoon you were in the operating room? Dr. Alex explained that in Ghana they do not have very many specialists. The system here makes it very difficult to specialize. You have to complete your medical school and residency (which takes 10 years) and then you have to practice for three years as a generalist. After that, you are able to go back and specialize. Dr. Alex says that the problem with this is that many many Dr.’s do not do it. In fact, he himself does all of the surgeries here at the hospital because if he refers to a surgeon, the surgeries are already filled up until DECEMBER. So he says, if he is able to do it, he should do it to help his brother.

More Americans should take on this philosophy.

The surgery was a success! Despite the fact that they do not intubate or put you to sleep for that matter. They just do a spinal block like women who get c-sections. So, just like when women have c-sections there is a sheet in front of the patient’s face so they cannot see, but they are fully awake during the procedure. WHAAAAT. That is crazy. Try doing that in the States and you’ll get sued.

Not to mention these are the shoes we get to wear in surgery. I’ll let you guess which feet are mine. Here’s a hint – my toes are very happy 

Today, Dustin was asked to assist with a small 5 year old boy and his one year old sister. Their names are Nathan (in French of course you say something like NA-TAWN) and Summer. His parents recently moved here from a French speaking country and enrolled their children in the day care program here hoping they would learn English. The problem of course was that no one in the day care could speak French! So, when Dustin came and spoke French to him, Nathan lit up like a lighthouse. He was sooooo happy that someone could understand him.

It’s really cool how we think God will use us one way, and He ends up using us in many.

We made our own dinner tonight for the first time. I think we did a pretty good job. No one has diarrhea or is vomiting yet. It doesn’t hurt that we have to buy all of our drinking water as well as our cooking water. We are 1 mile from the ocean and the well water is much too salty to cook with.

Goodnight from Africa. We hope your sleep is as peaceful as ours :)

Tessa and Dustin