Trip Three: Week Seven! August 3-9

Seven weeks down, six to go! We have officially crossed the halfway mark. 

Praising God for many answered prayers this week! For those who read my last blog, I shared that it had been a challenging week filled with emotional and mental lows. I am so thankful that I can share that this week, God has given me so much of his peace and his joy. Even though there were still challenging times both at work and in my personal life, God was so gracious to me. I felt his presence and that he was answering many of my prayers. I formed some new connections with people here on the ship, and also had life-giving conversations with friends at home. This week, I felt God giving me the strength and confidence to get out of my comfort zone more and see what He might have for me. The Lord has answered so many other prayers this week, especially one that I’ve been praying about for over a year! I am feeling so blessed and thankful to serve a God who hears me, cares about me, and meets every need. I am also thankful that he does those things in his way and in his timing, rather than what I think would be best. One of my favorite worship songs right now is “I Believe” by Charity Gayle. One of the lines is “I believe you've already made a way, so I′m running through parted waves, straight to you. You are always faithful.” This week was a gracious reminder that the Lord’s timing in everything is perfect, and I can trust that he has already made a way and I can obediently follow him in that.

On Monday, I worked with an anesthetist and anesthetic assistant who left at the end of the week. They had worked in the general surgery room quite a few times, so we had a really great team on Monday. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to Dr. Marian (Australia) and Fehizoro (Madagascar). They had both been great additions to the team over the past several weeks, and they will be missed. We had to take a photo to remember such a great team. 

Tuesday was the final screening day for this block of general surgery. We are originally supposed to start around 9:00am, but unfortunately needed to take a patient back to the OR who we had operated on the week before. His incision had gotten infected so we needed to irrigate the wound. After doing that case, I went down to the pre-op screening tent with the surgeons. During this process, we see between 40-50 patients to assess whether or not they are a surgical candidate. On Tuesday, we saw about 41 patients. After the screening process, the team leader/supervisors/managers from pre-op, OR, and the ward have a scheduling meeting to figure out which day each patient can have their surgery. It is quite the process, as there are more patients than surgical spots available… we pray for a miracle in fitting all these patients in for surgery! 

On Wednesday, Marian and I went for a sunrise walk/run. The first week we met, we had talked about going for a run but it took until her last week on the ship to actually go! 


Before starting our workday on Wednesday, the OR manager Suzette lead the OR in some friendly competition. Different team members were chosen to race to see how quickly they could put on sterile gloves. I’m proud to say that my fellow team leader (Plastics) Bettina and I won the overall competition! 

It was also one of the beloved surgeon’s birthdays on Wednesday! There was cake at work and an evening pizza party to celebrate. 

 

Friday was a “ship holiday” so many departments (including the OR) had the day off of regularly scheduled work. On Thursday, we had our Funky “Friday” hallway farewells. 

I had the amazing blessing of going away for the long weekend! A group of us went to Foulpointe, a beach town about 62km north of the port city, Tamatave. We left Tamatave on Friday morning and rode our motorbikes/scooters there! They are working on redoing the main road, so we enjoyed lovely pavement for about 2/3 of the journey. The last stretch of the road was quite adventurous, filled with many rocks and holes in the road. I have been practicing driving the scooter for this occasion, and I’m happy to say everything went smoothly! I drove myself the entire trip and felt more and more confident as the trip went on. 

Quick World Cola break in the middle of the road!

  

When we arrived in Foulpointe, we settled into the hotel and enjoyed some lunch. After lunch, I rested by the pool for a bit before having a nap. In the evening, four of us went walking around town before having dinner at a local Malagasy restaurant. 

 

On Saturday, we woke up to a rainy morning. We relaxed around the hotel waiting for the heavy rain to pass, until early afternoon when we went out. It was still sprinkling, but we were determined to go out and explore. Later in the afternoon, the sun came out and we enjoyed lunch before settling down at a beachside tent for the rest of the day. We walked, danced, snacked, swam, and enjoyed the beauty of God’s creation. In the evening, a couple of us went out for a motorbike ride and found some ice cream. 

 

Sunday brought some more rain. I enjoyed a lovely devotional time in the morning. God is so good and faithful! After checking out from the hotel around 10:30am and seeing some clear skies, we started the motorbike ride home. We got caught in a heavy rainfall a couple of times but found shelter at lunchtime and then again in a roadside hut. It was quite the adventure! Praising God for a safe journey back to Tamatave and an amazing weekend away! 

OR Recap 

In the AFM OR this week, we operated on 28 patients across cleft repairs, general, and reconstructive plastic surgery specialties. Of that, 13 were general surgery patients receiving hernia repairs, hydrocelectomy, and lipoma excisions. 

I am personally only working in the general surgery room, but the reconstructive plastics team has been tackling some massive surgeries over the past couple of weeks. Most of these patients have severe burn contractures and some need free flap skin grafts, often requiring 10+ hours of surgical time. Please pray for these long cases and for successful outcomes. Please pray for endurance for the surgical team, ward & ICU nurses, and healing for these patients.