Birthday Fun and Some Hard Days

Ariella, me, and Amber. My roommates put together an amazing birthday for me. Ariella made and decorated this birthday cake from scratch!

Last Thursday was such a special day. I spent my 26th birthday in Africa and what a fun celebration we had! Laura, the surgeon's wife had a girl's only bithday luncheon. Don't get me wrong, the guys here are full of fun, but it was nice to have some good girl time too. She made this amazing chicken salad which is a rarity here and some home made crossants. It was delicious. Then that night we had about 25 people over for dinner and enjoyed a mexican/kenyan style meal. It was such fun and I felt so blessed to have so many people show up and want to celebrate with me. Every meal is an adventure since everything has to be made from scratch, but it makes it fun because you never really know how things are going to turn out. I was amazed at how good the homemade tortillas and chips were! What a blessing.

My birthday lunch with all the girls! (Left to right: Amber, Bethany, Ariella, Me, Laura, Vanessa, Hannah)

The following day, Friday marked the start of the hardest 24 hours I have had here. We lost 4 babies in a row. All of the mothers came to the hospital in pre-term labor, one of them had undiagnosed twins. Term for pregnancy is 40 weeks and these mothers ranged from 24-28 weeks. The drugs here to stop pre-term labor are very limited and many of them have walked for hours before getting here and often it is too late to do anything by the time they arrive. It is heart breaking to watch these mothers labor only to know that these babies are going to be too young to survive when they are born. At home these babies would have a chance, but here if they are born before 32 weeks they almost always die. I cried many tears. The issues you face here are so different. For one of these mothers it was her first child and the child was laying sideways...a very difficult vaginal delivery. The baby was alive, but distressed during labor. After hours of laboring we decided to take the woman for a c-section. The struggle was that we knew at 26 weeks there was ALMOST a 100% chance this baby wouldn't survive. However, the baby was alive at the time and there is always that point whatever chance that he might make it. Women here get their worth out of the number of children they are able to have and c-section will limit the children you can have to 3 or 4. Back home this is a really good number, but the families here are so much bigger that you are really limiting a woman's ability to have a "normal" size family and thus the worth that society will see in her. Do you take that chance of survival and c-section this first time mom and limit her potential for a lot more children or do you let this one die and let the mother labor for a really long time in hopes of giving her a chance to have a lot more children? How can a physician make that decision? How can a mother?

I have spent a lot of time just processing these things. As hard as it is to grapple with these questions, they are real life for the people here. Wow. I am sad, but this is also part of the reason I came here, to see medicine as it really is in a third world country. I am learning so much.

These are the twins that didn't make it. Sad, but a good reminder of life in a third world country and that ultimately our Heavenly Father has all things in His hands.

A wonderful story to tell is that a boy and his mother came to our hosptial because the child was sick. This family is part of a very violent, warring tribe nearby and are mortal enemies of the people here. They came because this is the only hosptial around that could help their son. We treated him for severe malaria, anemia and dehydration and it was really amazing to see the transformation. The tribe these people come from have massacred many from the tribe in Kapsowar. It was very clear from how the mother acted when she first arrived that she knew she was in enemy territory. The doctors prayed for this family from day one knowing that it was a huge step for them to come here for treatment. We continued to show them love and rejoiced as the boy got better. They left smiling and I believe trulying feeling a love they could not explain and from a human stand point did not deserve. God definitely is at work here and I am curious to see what ripple effects this patient will have on the community here.

Every Sunday night the hospital staff get together for a Bible study. I love it and it reminds me of my Lifegroup back in Milwaukee. This last Sunday we studied Judges 19 and 20. The story isn't exactly your feel good, live happily ever after story, but it did bring home an interesting point that I have been thinking about ever since. God calls you to be faithful and not necessarily successful. I often feel that if I am doing God's will He will bless my work and I will see the fruits of that...however, I think that is a false and probably inmature assumption. In Judges the Israelites asked for God's direction and He gave them the go ahead to go to war. They followed His command, but He allowed them to lose for several days inflicting huge casualties upon the people. It is an interesting concept to take to the mission field. God calls us to be faithful and that is it. The successful part is up to Him. Just something I have been pondering for a while.

It has been rainy here on and off for the last few days, we lost power for a day or so and water as well. I am just continually remided that a good attitude and not assuming to have creature comforts will get you through. I am continuing to split my time between maternity, childrens ward, theater (OR) and the adult wards. I have gotten to do more spinal taps, help fix broken arms and place plates in the OR and see first hand what Typhoid looks like. Wow...very busy!

Open reduction, internal fixation of a forearm fracture. The yellow baseball cap is the head of Dr. Rhodes.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for my family. Just a quick update from home...my dad came back to SD and had a second surgery to remove the stent and break up some of the stones. Things seem to have gone well though he is still recovering. A huge praise is that his doctor back home looked at his imaging and does not think there is anything wrong with his spleen or pancrease! Thank you Lord!