Day 10 – January 16, 2025
We have been here with Dr. Jane Weaver for 10 days now and it seems like we just arrived. The time is flying by, it seems. We met again at 7:00 for devotions and then breakfast. Jane leads them in devotions every morning by reading Our Daily Bread. The current book they are using is in Spanish, of course, and didn’t match up with what I found online. I downloaded the app for Our Daily Bread and then found the book they were using was published in 2022. I selected that year and then the date and there was the devotional in English. This allowed Claudia and I to read along as Jane or one of the team would read their version out loud. After the devotion, the group sings a favorite hymn of theirs. Maria Luisa hands out sheets with the words on it and then leads the singing. Claudia and I try to sing along but the words are difficult to pronounce and keep up with the tempo of the team.
After devotions we then have breakfast. Our food today was not the usual breakfast food that we would be used to. We were served tuna, fried rice, fresh watermelon, and fresh pineapple juice, and coffee. It was quite tasty and filled me up quickly.
The surgery schedule today was a concern for me. We had two patients who had complete uterine prolapse and vaginal eversion. This means the uterus and pelvic organs have fallen out of the abdominal cavity as the vagina prolapsed and turned inside out. The result is this bag of tissue hanging between the legs. This bag includes the bladder and bowel as well as the uterus tubes and ovaries. The treatment for this is surgery to replace the organs back inside and reconstruct the vagina and the pelvic support tissues to return things to normal and prevent this happening again. These surgeries are long and difficult. The challenge is to restore anatomy that has been stretched greatly, attenuated, and all support has failed. Generally, to accomplish that the uterus needs to be removed and then the vagina rebuilt and the support reestablished for the pelvic organs. I have been thinking about these two surgeries all week as I kept trying to determine just how we will handle them. I have been praying for clarity of focus and the peace I need to try to help these patients. I pray for Jesus to wrap His hands around mine and Jane’s and help us through these cases.
I encountered patients in my practice that had problems like this but they were few and far between. Here in Ecuador I have operated on more people with this problem than I ever encountered in the States. The people here have multiple babies and the birth canal tissues get stretched out and over time the prolapse occurs. They may live with the problem for years before coming in for evaluation. The longer they go with this, the larger the prolapse becomes. I don’t know how long the patients we are operating on today have had this problem. Both of them had a rather large prolapse and that, I knew, would be a very challenging job of fixing.
We were able to help these people today. The first surgery took about 3 hours and the second one a little over three hours. I would like to say we fixed the prolapse so it won’t happen again, but I don’t feel I can predict that. When the ligaments and connective tissue is normal, it is strong and will provide good support. In these patients the tissues were stretched out very thin and this gave little to bring together to heal into something strong. I’m praying that during the healing process scarring will develop that resists stretching and may then help keep things in place for hopefully the rest of their lives.
This morning I prayed putting my total trust in my Lord and Savior to help us manage these very complicated problems. He fills me with peace and gives me the courage to step forward and work with Him. It seems I hear His say to me, “Let’s do this together.” That’s what I long to hear.
The devotions this morning focused on the light of Jesus who came to penetrate the darkness and to assure us of living in the light forever if we follow Him and trust in Him for what He did for us on the cross. It was an appropriate reminder for me that He is there in the operating room bringing light into our lives and even onto the surgical field so we can literally see His hands helping us. It is like the story of the man born blind as we read John chapter 9. Jesus healed the man physically and then spiritually. The man exclaimed, “I was blind but now I see!” That’s what happened to us spiritually when we come to faith in Christ. Suddenly our blindness is replaced by sight. Suddenly we pass from darkness into His light. And then as we follow Him, we become light bearers to others who stumble around in darkness and need the healing touch of the Savior.
The devotional this morning reminded me to not worry and fret as I have Jesus standing beside me and He enables and empowers me to do the work He calls me to do. I feel I am here with Jane again because He has called me to come with Him to Ecuador. He knows there are people here who have been blind since birth and need to be given sight, spiritual sight. That’s the reason I come and He always gives me the opportunities to be Jesus to those we meet.
Medical Missions 