6/19/04 (Saturday)

7:00 AM. Having rained most of the day yesterday, today the sun is out and the sky blue. The power is out; however, there was enough water pressure to grab a quick shower. The shower is only cold water so today’s shower was quicker than quick. I slept good and feel rested.

Jane and I will see more patients today but not sure how many. They may be just drop-ins who have not registered yet. If we don’t have much to do, we will take the time to read and relax. I’m glad I brought my surgical texts along so Jane and I can study the radical hysterectomy procedure and the paravaginal procedures.

6:00 PM. By midafternoon we finished the clinic having seen 64 patients total and scheduled 27 surgeries for next week. Tomorrow, we have one lady coming to be seen and evaluated for a vaginal hysterectomy. Jane has seen some of the patients before I arrived and screened them for issues and situations that would be applicable for our surgery week. Including this lady we will have seen 65 people in the clinic and will operate on 28 patients starting Monday. Jane and I will work together on all cases and she has instructed the clinic personnel we cannot see any more people next week.

Our surgical cases include several abdominal hysterectomies, a radical hysterectomy, rectal prolapse, some anterior bladder repairs, some Burch urethropexy and paravaginal repair procedures, a couple hernias, a couple thyroidectomies, a couple hemorrhoidectomies and some minor cases such as D&Cs and thumb nail removal. It ought to be a challenging and rewarding week.

I went with Jane into San Lorenzo. It is a sprawling city of about 28-30,000 with the most third world poverty I have ever seen. We plan to drive around tomorrow so I can get some pictures. These people live such a hard life. It seems such simple changes and improvements would enhance the quality of life so much. Yet, for this place nothing ever changes. Life goes on…one hard day at a time.