Togo Recap

As a general surgeon, a bread a butter surgery that I do almost every day is a hernia repair.  A hernia is a hole in the muscle layer of your abdominal wall allowing intestine to "herniate" through the hole.  It's not an emergency, as long as you can push the intestine back in.  People all over the world get hernias, including the US and Togo.  When I see someone in the US, they usually say that the hernia has been bothering them for a few months to a year.  The hernias are usually small, and they have plenty of prescription narcotic pain medications to help them recover from surgery.  In Togo, the patients usually say they have been dealing with the hernia for as long as they can remember, the hernias are BIG, and after surgery they get only Motrin and Tylenol.   Same problem, two different worlds, same treatment.  In many parts of Africa, the problem is that you can't find anyone to do the surgery.

While in Togo, I was able to fix plenty of hernias.  Some other great cases included taking out a thyroid cancer that had gotten so big it eroded through the skin (first time I had ever seen that), and taking out the esophagus of a 3 year old that drank lye. In order for him to be able to eat again, we used his stomach to make a new esophagus. (I can't take all the credit, as there was a visiting chest surgeon also at Togo and I helped him with the surgery.)

Although providing surgical care took some of the burden off of the full time missionaries, we went to Togo also to examine the ministry and see if it is a place we could serve long term.  God was faithful as we couldn't have been there at a better time.  Many meetings, dinners, and conversations allowed us to get a good handle of everything that is going on at the hospital and ministry in South Togo.

Now that we are home (and freezing our butts off) Erin and I still have a little more information to gather before we make some decisions.  As we decide our future location of ministry, please pray that we would have an equal measure of wisdom and faith.  Pray that the decisions we make would not be rooted in fear, selfishness, or pride.

If anyone wants more details, we are happy to share, but all the details would take pages and pages of blog space.  Updates to come in due time!!

Ivey in front of an old abandon termite mound 

Operating Room, taking out an esophagus that is scarred shut from lye ingestion.

A happy patient taking his first drink in months. 

OR - Team Togo South.  

Part of the Togo South crew.  Amazing people we were glad to meet.