Je Suis Arrivée

Made it

I have finally made it. After planning to come here almost two years ago, I am finally in Togo. 

The travel was as seamless as possible, it was a long journey, but overall very smooth and easy. Customs was a cakewalk, I didn’t even get stopped for all of the sutures (it helped that it was super busy at the airport! Blessings in disguise) I promptly met my contact in Togo and we went and got cheeseburgers. It was lovely.  I got to see the beach and all of the ships at port before grabbing some groceries and heading up to Tsiko, which is where the hospital is. 

I had a lovely little welcome party. A friend from medical school, Liza, is currently here too and all of the kids made a sign to welcome me. They also gave me a bunch of groceries, including but not limited to: caribou coffee (!!!!), flour, honey, Ranch dressing and Reese’s Puff cereal. I have never eaten Reese’s Puff cereal, but I have thoroughly enjoyed basically having dessert for breakfast for the past week.

Back at it.

I arrived on a Friday night. I promptly went on Saturday morning to round at the hospital, anyone who knows the work version of me is not surprised by this. I got to meet a bunch of people at the hospital, everyone was very gracious and kind and complimentary of my French (albeit they are likely too kind to say otherwise).

I have now been at the hospital two weeks. I have already had some very hard cases, some really incredible cases, and some cases I’m feeling hopeful about. It has come back much easier than I expected. I really didn’t believe people when they told me it was just like “riding a bike”…. But I have to say, it kind of is. There have definitely been some humbling moments and I’m definitely dealing with some imposter syndrome, but I’m fairly certain that that is par for the course when you become an attending and move across the world. 

Seeing God’s faithfulness in getting me to this point has truly been a joy. The people here care deeply for each other and this community and I’m very excited that I get to join them. 

Patient Spotlight

I’ll try and highlight at least one case when I write these blogs. I’ll start with a young man who seemed to have a bowel obstruction. 26 years old, no hernias and no previous surgeries which are the most common reasons. We were concerned about some sort of bowel perforation or twist so we went to the OR. When we got in the abdomen, I had no idea what I was looking at. Everything was stuck everywhere, I could not make heads or tails of where anything was. There were abscesses everywhere. The scrub techs said this is what typhoid looked like. When it became apparent that the more we tried to separate everything, the more damage we were causing, we decided to put in drains and get out of the OR. I was fairly concerned that he was not going to do well. 

I was glad to see him doing ok the next morning, definitely sore, but alive. Fast-forward to 2 days ago when he was doing laps around the hospital with a huge smile plastered on his face. He’s still not out of the woods completely, but I’m still so surprised at what the body is capable of enduring. 

What I’m Reading/Listening To

• He Loved Them – Discovering Jesus’ Heart for Seekers, Sinners, Doubters, and the Discouraged by Jessica Thompson
• Always everything on The Bible Binge podcast
• Andy Stanley’s current series “The Fundamental List” is still giving me life.
• The Fate of Africa

Prayers

• Settling in. It has still been a huge adjustment and I am oscillating between being overwhelmed and thrilled.
• Developing community and relationships: with my medical team but also with the other hospital staff as I am trying to develop good relationships as a newcomer
• A difficult case coming up with a young women who has a complication from a difficult birth a month ago
• Transitioning back to living alone again and not feeling too isolated.