The Lord is Merciful

The Lord was merciful today (Friday). Let me start by explaining my state of mind when I arrived at the hospital this morning. Yesterday proved to me that the previous rains were a drop in the bucket. It POURED yesterday. All of the mud road from the hospital was like a mudslide with water rushing. One of Dr. Larson's daughters, Juliana, had come by the hospital earlier in the afternoon to bring her dad an umbrella. It started pouring when she got here, so I gave her my rain poncho to go home in, figuring that with as hard as it was raining, surely it would be stopped by the time I went home. Boy was I wrong! It actually got harder right at the time I needed to go home. So, I was sopping wet by the time I got home. I had felt a cold starting yesterday during the day, and it hit full force last night. I didn't sleep much because of the cold and awoke with a horrible sore throat. So, I was pretty tired when I headed into the hospital today.
When I arrived, I was told that a woman had just gotten there and was complaining of bleeding since last night. She told us that her and her husband had walked, uphill, all night to get to the hospital, because there is no transportation available at night. She was bleeding fairly heavily and had had 3 prior C-sections. I did an ultrasound and noted that she had a placenta previa (where the placenta is sitting over the cervix). I also noticed that the baby was dead. She and her husband were crushed and said that they had gotten here as soon as they could. I reassured them that this was not their fault. For all the OB/GYN types out there, you're probably starting to have the same thought I did - previa, 3 prior sections, pretty good chance of a placenta accreta at least (where the placenta invades the uterus). So, I quickly called the theater (OR) and told them we had an emergency and found the visiting general surgeon to let him know that I needed his help. To make things more exciting, her hemoglobin was 8 (normal is at least 12). So, long story short, we got her to the OR and I was prepared to do a cesarean hysterectomy. She did, in fact, have a placenta increta. The baby looked like it had been dead for about a week. Her blood pressure at one point was 40/20 and the OR staff was doing a great job trying to keep up with our blood loss. An amazing thing happened - the visiting surgeon I was working with noted that his blood type was the same as hers. Because warm blood is a better resuscitator than cold, he hooked himself up to a blood collection bag and gave a pint of blood that was then promptly given to the patient. Her BP responded immediately. Praise the Lord! We ended up resecting part of her uterus and closing it. She is now doing well (don't worry, we tied her tubes too, so she won't get pregnant again :)) I do fell bad for her though, as she is in a ward with mothers with their new healthy babies and she has empty arms. I pray that she will find peace in the midst of all of this.
Friday night I was on call. So far, call here has been a breeze - I haven't had to go in once. That all changed Friday night. It had rained all day again and was still raining when I got the call that we would need to do a C-section. They said they would call me back when the OR was ready. I got a call a little while later and was expecting them to say they were ready. What they actually said was that another lady had just arrived completely dilated, double footling breech with the feet hanging through her cervix. It was her first baby and a fairly big baby. So, I tried to rush into the hospital. I say tried because it was still raining, I had a small flashlight, and I was slipping and sliding the whole way into the hospital along the muddy path. It was comical, actually. So, I got there and we did both C-sections. The Kenyan medical students that are here came in and helped me and we all had a great time. Both mothers and babies are doing well, PTL!
So, this morning (Saturday), I slept in a little. I am still battling this cold and praying that it goes away before I get on the plane. We were going to walk about an hour to go to an orphanage that is nearby today. However, since it looks like it will rain yet again, the path is muddy, and I am still not feeling well, I thought it best to postpone that. I likely won't get to go before I leave, which is sad, but if I come back here (which is, I think, a very strong possibility), I definitely want to get involved there as I still have a passion for ministering to orphans. I also found out the the wife of the surgeon that is normally here is very involved there.
So, can you tell I'm having a blast? It actually is great and people keep telling me that this many days in a row of this much rain is very unusual. I can't wait to share more with you all!