This morning at devotional Dennis gave us the theme of suffering and asked “how can there be a God if there is so much suffering?”. Answering his own question he enlightened us with the idea that compassion means “to suffer with”, so although we suffer here on Earth, God suffers with us and the reason we suffer is so we can really understand the suffering and sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Today was our first day of surgeries, which according to our team leader, Dr. Pogo, is the hardest day because of all the adjustments that need to be made and the unfamiliarity with the hospital and supplies. Although our team consists of a lot of first timers in Guatemala, everyone did a great job working together and making sure every patient’s surgery was safe and successful. We had one 17 year old patient today, José, who traveled over 12 hours to get the large mass on his neck removed. This mass had been slowly growing for 3 years and was now affecting his ability to swallow. I got to sit in on his surgery and can tell you after seeing him in pre op, that his post op results are amazing. José was also happy and excited to see his results. As a team we are very excited to continue to help our other patients show them compassion and be very moved by their gratitude.
We also had a little fun in the OR with our Volunteer program director and manager, Super Mario Megan and Emily. Megan gets her nickname from Doctor Pogo because of her big white bouffant surgery cap. See pictures for a visual.
