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Scene just outside hospital compound. Where else can you
find cows and motorcycles together except rural kenya |
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| Local roadside fruit stand. Eat at your own risk! |
I am grateful for a slow start back at Tenwek after a sleepless night. Last night at dinner the visiting general surgeons proceeded to tell me all the crazy tumors and cases that they were passing on to me. After an immediate panic followed by adrenaline rush I spent the rest of the night awake trying to figure out "why me?" But as usual God's protective hand was on me and He carried me through the day. We started our day with rounds at 7am which was brief as the hospital census is pretty low right now. Wednesday morning devotions was led by Dr Levy, a neurosurgeon from California. He wrote the book "Gray Matter" which is about the need for praying with our patients. We were blessed by his insights. I performed an adenotonsillectomy this morning, normally a very routine surgery, but during this 1 hour case, the power went out once, the suction stopped working and it took the patient 45 minutes to wake up and breath. I am reminded that nothing is routine here and God's grace is always at work.
I saw several of the referred patients in clinic today. This patient is 74 years old with a massive 8cm parotid (salivary gland) tumor with metastatic spread to the skull base and down to the upper chest. Unfortunately, we had to tell the patient and her daughter that there was nothing we could do. We prayed for healing and God's provision for this family who had traveled far for this news. I told 2 other people they had cancer, 1 unresectable but one treatable with chemotherapy. Unfortunately they only have 1 chemotherapy agent here and the likelihood of response is small, but with God all things are possible. A 30 year old women with paralysis of her vocal cords refused a much needed tracheostomy to stabilize her airway. A 3 year old boy brought by his parents is likely deaf but I did not have the equipment to test him. Although I could not minister surgical help to these patients the Great Physician was consulted and all received prayer.
Tomorrow is a national holiday so I will work in the morning and hopefully make it to an orphanage with Jimmy in the afternoon. Thank you for all your prayerful support.
Chase Miller
