Today starts my last week here at Hospital of Hope. I came to Togo four months ago with the primary objective of learning as much as I could, an objective that has been met and surpassed on a daily basis. I almost shrink when I think of the behemoth task of filtering through my thoughts and emotions to focus and summarize four months of experiences in an efficient and succinct manner to present for everyone back home at my sending church.
As is common with time, especially in the healthcare field when the work never ends, and you find yourself awake at all hours of the day and night, those days start to blur together and time becomes rather indistinguishable. For example, you may reference a conversation with a friend that you had the other day when in reality it took place two months previously. Therefore trying to distinguish the significance of four months is like trying to catch a view of a moment in time on a spinning timeline. Did it even really happen?
I've found three thoughts that have helped me accept the passage of time as significant here in Mango, Togo.
1. This is Aicha. She was the first typhoid case that I operated on in my first week at Hospital of Hope. She had been that level of severity of disease where, as I have since experienced, sometimes even the surgery is too little too late to save them. Those immediate post operative days are real nail biters as there is nothing more than monitoring, support and prayer as you wait for the Lord's healing. Praise Jesus, Aicha pulled through. She went home and she gained weight and grew. Just look at her lovely round cheeks! I have since been able to follow up with Aicha, schedule her for surgery again and reverse her ostomy. The above picture was taken at her first follow up appointment after the reversal. She's all put back together again! I have been here long enough to walk with her through her whole journey, start to finish.
2. Friday clinic finished up early due to the Islamic holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Daoud and Mohamed are two of our translators. The subject of my imminent departure came up, to which Daoud responded with a strong series of clicks to express his disapproval. He related to me that one of my patients from Ghana, whom I had removed a girdlestone, had contacted him. Her cousin now needed to see a surgeon, and she wanted to make sure she could see me. He had told her to make the trip from Ghana to see me this coming Friday. His point in relating the story, he explained, was that I had patients calling me "their doctor". I have been here long enough to create relationships with enough trust that others want to share it.
3. Last week I had one day of surgery where I had two elective orthopedic surgeries scheduled. One was an intramedullary nail for a nonunion fracture, the second was for removal of some hardware and a simultaneous sequestrectomy. Looking at the schedule the day before I had a happy sense of relief due to the "easy" cases the following day. The drastic change of perspective hit me. Four months ago, I had never operated on a bone before. In fact, I had such an absolute lack of interest in orthopedics previously that the one and only ortho case I had ever seen was a carpal tunnel release as a medical student, probably because it was either the only OR going or the only OR open for me to go in. I have been here long enough, and enjoyed learning orthopedics to the point that I have found myself at a unexpected level of comfortability and confidence.
Much Love.