The Eyes Have It

We do a ton of eye surgeries each year at the clinic for two reasons: 1) older men have worked out in the fields most of their lives without proper eye protection, and 2) older women have been in the kitchen most of their lives without a chimney on their open-flame stoves, causing the smoke to pour into their eyes. This past week, University UMC in San Antonio, TX successfully operated on 50 patients, allowing many of them to see clearly for the first time in many, many years...

We removed cataracts from these three gentlemen. I'm no doctor, but even I can spot a cataract - the eye is completely clouded over...

This is a cataract after being removed. Good thing it didn't have an "M" printed on it or I may have accidently eaten it. Yum!
The surgeons bring new lenses to surgically implant in place of the old, clouded one.

We were also able to operate on 5 children this week. This is Nery and his mom, Esther. Nery attends the preschool and the teachers noticed that because his eyes are crossed he can't properly read or write.

Nery's mom said he was so excited about surgery that he woke up at 1 a.m. for the big day. Esther said that night he prayed, "Please God give me good eyes, and please help the surgeons operate on me." His mom was super nervous.

This is kind of intense, but here's what they did: the surgeons shortened the muscles on one side of his eye in order to stop it from "wandering" to the other side...

...and after just one short hour, both of Nery's eyes are fixed! He loved that we were calling him Spider Man. He came in the next day with a huge smile and his mom, with tears in her eyes, thanked the surgeons.

Here's another little guy we operated on, named Elvis. Before the anesthesia wore off Elvis was like a drunken sailor.

A huge thanks to University UMC for the great work they did in Guatemala last week!

Next up...surgery team from California March 7th (cleft lips, gynecological, and hernia removal). Yee-haw!

Peace,

Jay

Go North Young Woman

Late last year Salud y Paz received another big gift from above in the form of a 26 year-old nurse named Heather from Minnesota. Heather was working at the Mayo Clinic when she felt God call her to share her talents to help the people of Guatemala. Carey and I and the rest of the SyP staff have really enjoyed getting to know her and are so thankful for all she's already done and plans to do in the coming years...

Heather performed her first miracle by helping me get our operating rooms and surgical storage room ready for our 5 upcoming surgery teams this year...

...you wouldn't believe some of the stuff we found while cleaning up. Holy Pampers! Can you imagine changing this diaper!?

In January Heather coordinated getting Bartola, a 27 year-old disabled woman from Zacualpa, a brand-new and specially-designed wheel chair. Bartola was so happy she couldn't stop smiling (and what a smile it is!)

The really big news is that Heather will be opening our new clinic in Cunen (about 3 hours from the clinic Carey and I work out of). She'll travel up to this isolated town twice a month for 2-3 days at a time. The people of Cunen are SO excited about finally received regular medical care and medication.

It may not look like much from the outside, but inside it's our nicest and best-designed clinic. Please pray for Heather as she makes this long journey each month and gets to know the people of Cunen. You can follow her adventures at http://nowthatihaveseen.spaces.live.com

Vaya con Dios, Heather!

In other news...

I've been with teams now for 16 straight days and am pretty whooped, but in that time Carey and the team from Florida opened the preschool for year two, Jay and the two construction teams built new patient bathrooms and nearly finished the new office space for the preschool workers, and the Bible school teams had a great time with hundreds of local children over the past two weeks.

Prayers are appreciated for: the new clinic opening, the surgery team coming on Saturday from San Antonio, Carey's interviews in the States, and the children of Guatemala as they begin another school year.