Dave's Guatemala Trip (According to Ashley)

I managed to get some details out of Dave about his trip in the few hours we've crossed paths this week. It would be better coming from Dave, but he hasn't quite hopped on the blogging bandwagon quite yet. So I picked my favorite pics and I'll do my best to report about this awesome experience. Most of the pictures do the talking.

If you're sick of hearing about this, sorry, but I know some of you are interested. Plus this is our journal and remember, no one is forcing you to read this!

And again, another warning on the pictures. None are too graphic, but they may tug at your heartstrings!

As I looked through the pictures I feel so humbled. so blessed. so grateful. so guilty. so sad. so happy. so amazed.

Dave in front of the Children's Hospital

Families waiting at the hospital. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, most traveled 8 hours or more to get there, and they stayed in this waiting room all week.

This little baby is one of my favorites! She has a cleft lip and palate. Here she is ready for the operation.

And here she is post-op. Isn't it amazing what the surgeons can do?

Handing her back to her Mother. This picture makes me cry! I can just see the joy and love in her face.

I can only imagine how a mother would feel. So glad to have your baby back safe in your arms. It would be so scary sending your baby off to surgery. So grateful to have your baby healed and able to eat properly and of course SMILE!

Even doctors get sick. This is Dr. Siddiqi hooked up to an IV. Luckily Dave didn't get sick, but many of the volunteers do. (mostly related to the food)

Another patient after surgery with his mother. Don't you think all of the mothers are so beautiful? There just seems to be something in their eyes that shines.

Dave and Dr. Siddiqi with one of the patients. I believe this is the one where they rebuilt her ear.

Another adorable patient healing from an ear reconstruction.

This one is crazy and amazing. It's Dave's favorite and I hope I can explain it correctly. This little boy was wearing a ring on his finger and some how lost his grip from a tree or something and the ring scraped off all of his skin but the bone was still there. I know. Pretty sick, huh. So to keep the bone alive, the surgeons in Guatemala sewed his finger with the bone inside his abdomen. I guess this helps keep the blood flow good or something. So he had to keep it like this for several months until the American doctors came to fix his finger. The circle on his stomach around his finger is where Dave cut the skin to form around the bone. They then just pulled his skin together and sewed up the gap. I can't believe I just typed that. I would have fainted by that four years ago.
And here is the finger post-op. The skin will mold around the bone and will get blood flow since it was kept in the stomach. I don't quite get it. You should probably ask Dave to explain it!

Dave with the little boy after the surgery. I love this picture because I think both little boys are so cute! Doesn't Dave kind of look like a little boy dressed up as a doctor here?

Another patient with her mother post-op.

Another Mom and baby after surgery. Sorry, I'm just realizing how many of these I've posted, but they're my favorite!

If you read my previous post, you saw the girl with the hairy nevus that was removed. Here she is with Dave and her mom. (Her face is bruised from the surgery now, but it will fade soon.) Her mother gave Dave this bag that she made. What a meaningful souvenir that we will treasure!

I have a hard time looking at this one. This man got bit by a mosquito and he got a bacterial infection that ate away his skin and nose. They rebuilt his nose last trip and they did dermabrasion on his skin this time. Dave said it will heal and look better soon. I hope! That looks painful.

The doctors and nurses of Hirsche Smiles (well, one ALMOST doctor)

The Nurses

Those are my favorites of the surgical photos. I seemed to be drawn to the ones with the Mothers in them. I guess because my heart goes out to them so much! I wonder how much they sacrificed to take their children to this hospital. Each story is amazing.

And I'll include a some pics of the surgeons outside of the hospital once they finished. (They did 75 surgeries in 5 days!)

Out to eat at a restaurant that was in a monastery.

A few of the volunteers went to Tikal on Saturday. They flew to this city to experience the ancient Mayan ruins.

They call this the Tree of Life. It looks beautiful.

This shows how huge it is compared to the normal sized man standing in front of it!

Here is one of the Mayan temples.

The group inside the ruins.

Dave standing in front of the temple. This puts the size into perspective.

I am so grateful that Dave could go on this service trip and have this amazing experience. I am in awe of what the team accomplished and for the first time it made me wish I was a nurse so I could go. (Actually, that's not true, when I heard about some of the awesome nurse schedules, I wished I was a nurse then too.)

So if you made it this far, I'll leave you with a few of my favorite images of Dave's observations from Guatemala. They don't need any explanation.

Guatemala - Day 2

Here are the patients that Dave helped operate on today...

Warning: These are surgical photos. If you get grossed out, don't look! I used to get really grossed out, but after four years of Dave trying to impress me with his text book full of gross pictures, I am starting to become immune. Just want to warn you!

This little baby had a cleft lip...


This guy had something called a congenital hairy nevus. If you remember my post about my friend who was adopting a girl from China, she also has one of these on her face. These are usually cancerous, so it's not just a cosmetic surgery. They removed the skin and replaced it with skin grafts from behind the ears.

Here he is post-op. Isn't that amazing?

This guy is only 26 and he had skin cancer on his nose, so they had to remove his nose and skin above his lip. They'll operate on him again later this week to build a new nose with skin and muscle from his forehead.

Dave, Dr. Siddiqi, and the nice nurse that I don't know.

Helping Smiles

Dave was home for a long stretch of 5 days after his last interview last week. No more interviews, no studying. It was so great having him home and hanging out together. Anna loved it and she really loves playing with her daddy. All he has to do is walk in the room and she starts laughing. It was a fun week, but stressful as we had to finalize our rank list for residency programs. We've submitted our list, the schools will submit theirs, and then we just wait! We feel good about it, but don't ask us the order because we won't tell. We don't want to jinx anything! Plus, it's going to be a surprise for us, so it should be for you all too. Don't worry, you know there will be a post as soon as we find out.


Now Dave is on his next adventure and we are really excited for him. He left on a surgical service trip to Guatemala with the Hirsche Smiles Foundation. (It's like Operation Smile) When one of the pediatric plastic surgeons at Primary's invited him on the trip we were so excited because we've always talked about doing a trip like this. Too bad Anna and I couldn't tag along this time, but hopefully we'll have another chance one day. We are so blessed in this country to have such easy access to great medical care and I am glad that Dave chose a specialty where he can share his knowledge and abilities with those who are in need, but have no help in their own country.

I wasn't expecting to hear from him so soon, but he happens to be rooming with someone who brought their laptop. I was so excited to see these pictures of their first day! Today they screened patients and tomorrow they will start operating. (That is, if the rest of their luggage which holds the surgical equipment makes it there on time!) They plan to operate on about 70 people in 5 days.


Here's Dave in front of the hospital


And this is the hospital waiting room. Most of these families traveled for 8 hours or more to get here and they don't have any money so they will spend the week in this room while their children are operated on.


He also sent a few pics of a few of the patients they are going to operate on.
They are going to build a brand new ear for this little girl. With part of a rib. Incredible, huh?


I think this little girl is so adorable! I just want to give her a big squeeze! She has a cleft that affects her nose, so they will repair her left nostril.


This is a patient that has a cleft palate. You can see how it affects their nose and the inside of the mouth. This is probably the most common surgery that they will perform while they are there.


And here's the surgical team!

I am so grateful that Dave has this wonderful opportunity to serve while he learns. What a humbling experience. I can't wait to hear about every single case. I hope that Dave can continue these types of trips throughout his career. Next time you make a joke about Dave bettering the world, one boob at a time, remember that he does stuff like this too! :)