Day 8 – January 14, 2025
Day 8
Day 8 – January 14, 2025
It’s Tuesday already. I have been here for a week now. The time is going fast. Next week on Tuesday we return to the States. We met this morning for devotions and breakfast and were served a fruit that is common here, called pitahaya. It is absolutely delicious. The sweetness is a unique flavor that just delights the tongue and palate. I looked it up and its common name is dragon fruit. It comes with a yellow skin or a red skin. Inside the fruit looks the same. Jane tells me that the yellow fruit is sweeter and that is what is common here. She told Claudia and me that there is a limit on how much one should eat as it will “increase the gut transit time.” We laughed at the medical speak to say the same thing as diarrhea. Later I researched this fruit and the gastrointestinal effects and learned that it is loaded with soluble fiber and acts like a stool softener. If you eat a larger volume, such as a cup all at one time, it could cause diarrhea. I remember seeing the red variety in the stores in FL and my daughter in SC says she sees them there also. I’ll have to pick some up the next time I am grocery shopping to see how they taste and if my gut transit time increases significantly.
After breakfast, Jane and I began our first surgery. We had two hysterectomies today, both of them had difficult written all over them when we saw them initially last week. We started the first surgery about 8:30 and finished around 11:00. It was as struggle because the patient was quite obese and getting good exposure of the operative site was a constant battle. That alone amounted to half the time involved in the surgery.
The second surgery was likewise a struggle. This patient was somewhat obese and had a massive uterus all distorted by fibroids. The uterus was the size of a 6 month pregnancy and getting it out intact was difficult. It was bound down in places by some adhesions and its sheer size made adequate exposure of the blood supply to it difficult to see and control. We didn’t lose much blood as all the blood supply is clamped off before any cutting is done. The size of the uterus was always in the way of adequately seeing the blood supply clearly. That surgery took us about two and a half to three hours before we finally finished. Warning, the picture below is graphic!!
We finally were able to take a break and have lunch which in Ecuador is the biggest meal of the day. Our food was prepared by Piedad and she served mashed potatoes laced with butter, baked chicken that tasted like rotisserie chicken, two different salads that had mango and other fruit mixed in with veggies, slices of fresh mango to enjoy, slices of dragon fruit, and passion fruit that was made into a smoothie to drink. What a meal! I could get used to this quite fast! Since my precious wife died, I find I don’t cook that much and thus probably don’t eat as well as I should. Even with all the fruit and food, I am finding my blood sugar control much better here than I have experienced at home.
Jane had a laparoscopic gallbladder surgery as our third case and I decided to not join her and go to my room and rest some. We will be meeting again around 7 pm to have dinner and then will likely call it a night. Tomorrow is another day of surgery and more gyn surgery to help Jane manage.
Since January 1 I have been reading a series of devotionals by Pastor John MacArthur about the teaching that Jesus gives us in chapter 9 of John. There He and the disciples come upon a blind man who was by the roadside begging. This man was blind from birth and had never had the privilege we all have of being able to see. Our eyes are incredible structures that allow us to see the world around us, allow us to see the various colors and brilliance of so many plants and animals and even scenes of nature that take our breath away because of the beauty. We often take our sight for granted but in reality it is an incredible gift that God has created in us. Take a moment and just contemplate what a glorious gift we all personally have in our eyes and sight.
When we study the physiology of sight in medical school, the privilege of sight becomes even more amazing. Not only the eyes are created in a special way to bring in images of the world, these images are converted to electrical signals that travel the nerves from the eye to the optic center in the brain. There the signals are processed to give us the visual image that we see. The nerves involved and the process of the processing is all done through biochemistry in the nerve cells. The whole process is so complex and so amazing. When we study all that and let this incredible reality of creation sink in, all we can do is praise God.
I enjoy the study of the human body so much as I am reminded of God’s creativity found all through the body. Everywhere you see the fingerprints of God. We sport those fingerprints all over us. Do we think about what wisdom and creativity God put into each of us? We are marvelous creations and often we don’t give that fact a thought.
That being said, I have wondered how it is that there is so much disease that we encounter all the time. What is going on when people become afflicted with various diseases, some of which become chronic and never go away, some of which even cause death and lots of misery? The question comes up if God created us all and called it good, why is there so much pain and disease in the world? As I have tried to study the process of disease to find the cause and then to manage that root problem, I find that medical science alone can’t explain why disease is even present in the first place. Of course, there are various infectious agents that can cause specific diseases if we are exposed to them. Also, accidents occur that just happen resulting in injury and death. But, why is all this coexistent with us in the first place?
Where this has taken me is to God’s Word. An answer to the question appears in Genesis 3. Leading up to this chapter we read about God creating the earth and the Garden of Eden, all of which was good in God’s sight. Starting in Genesis 3 we are introduced to the serpent, the devil, whose mission is to undo all that God has done. He deceives Eve and then Adam in disobeying God and the rest is history. The devil has infiltrated the earth and his evil influence is everywhere. He wants to replace God on the throne of heaven but he cannot. So he goes after His creation and often will cause disease to occur in us. The first two chapters of Job give us that confirmation. All of Job’s illnesses and disasters came because Satan thought he could cause Job to disavow God. He was the source of all the problems Job encountered.
People may refute this and deny that God does not even exist, but you can’t deny the perfection of a healthy body and the presence of disease and suffering that can occur to that healthy body. To me, adding the theological perspective to our medical observations often gives us more clarity to why disease and suffering exists. Eventually, Jesus will return to set up His kingdom and one promise He gives is that He will make all things new. I look at that future and seen no need for medical mission work like we are doing today. There will be no disease in this future reality that awaits us.
Participating in this mission work, even though we are in a different culture, much more poverty and disease, I feel so privileged and blessed to experience the amazing miraculous healings that occur. We do major surgery, such as yesterday, and the patients went home this morning feeling great, using very little pain control, eating solid food, having normal bowel and bladder function. These stages often take a few days in our hospitals in the States. Here almost all of Jane’s surgeries are considered outpatient. The people are so grateful for the help given them and it is a thrill to see a life changed for the better and even a life changed because the patient was introduced to Jesus and now have Him in their hearts forever.
Medical Missions 