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| A happy baby boy whose anus is functioning very well hence his smile under that blanket |
One condition is called Hirschsprung disease when you actually lack the muscles to expel your poop so it just stays in there and builds up over time ... well you can imagine what happens. It is not pleasant. This usually results in a permanent colostomy and much relief.
The more common condition is that you are actually born without an anus. Just imagine that. In this case you would get a colostomy at birth. If you are blessed to live in America, you would possibly have the surgery to create a hole, have months of dilation of that new hole, and take lots of laxatives. As medical professionals, one of the first things that we check for when you are born is if you have an anus. Should you be one of the unlucky ones to be born without such an amazing thing, it sometimes means that you are born with other significant problems as well.
There is a pediatric surgeon and his wife who come to our little mission hospital several times year for a couple of weeks at a time. One of Dr Rideout's specialties is creating anuses. His wife Christy came into the recovery room where I was drying off a brand new baby, picks up the little chaps legs, takes a good look, and announces "Yep! He has an anus! Our work here is done!"
At right about this point in writing this blog, I delivered a happy baby girl with a perfectly functioning anus.
And then there is Oliver who has been admitted in-patient in our hospital for months now. Oliver is a really smart 19 year old kid who has has some very unfortunate things happen to him in life. He was born without an anus. And considering how bad the healthcare system is in Honduras, the surgeon in the public butchered his one shot to potentially have a working one. His wound failed to heal and has turned into a huge, deep ulcer on his backside. He is no longer walking and will have a colostomy for the rest of his life. This wound is requiring extensive wound care in the operating room three times a week and is anticipating several more months to heal. The doctors can take care of him but only God can heal him.
So the next time you take a dump, say a little prayer of thanks for your ability to poop and pray for God's healing of Oliver physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Now in Spanish the word for "year" is "año" (pronounced "an-yo") which is not to be confused with the word "ano" (a-no) which means "anus". This little distinction is very important. One Sunday I was sharing a prayer request for the adoption process of my little niece in my Spanish prayer group when I did not stress the "yo" part of "año" and instead of telling these ladies that my niece was a year old, I told them that she had one little anus. It is true ...
In another instance, I was trying to tell the nurses that the patient I was admitting from the emergency room was 14 years old but instead told them that he had he had 14 anuses. Wow... one functional one is definitely sufficient.
Praise!
1) Rainy season is just around the corner which will bring cooler temperatures!
2) The much needed ventilators are here!
Prayer requests:
1) Continue to Pray for God to send someone to teach how to use the ventilators and how to take care of ventilated babies.
2) Pray for unity in Christ in our missionary community
4) Financial provision is always a prayer request. I would not be here if it were not for all of you! If you feel led to support me financially, you can do so by clicking here.
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| This is the sweet baby who interrupted the writing of this blog. Thanks to visiting nurse Natalia for your help because the Doctor didn't answer his radio. I won't mention any names ... cough ... Dr Ryan... |
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| cute Marcelina - one of my patients. This girl has some sass! |
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| My little red tornado turned 4! |
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| just a 6 foot long boa found in front of another missionary's house |
Hi Elizabeth. My family and I lived in Trujillo, Honduras for two years when I was 6-7. Your blog reminds me so much of our time there. I wait for each new post with bated breath. Thank you so much for the work you are doing there. I know that God is using you to do great things!
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