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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. 

Jetting off.

Ok guys. I know it’s been a million years since I posted, but I also have a million things to do. SO. I will. be channeling my surgeon side and this post is going to be short and sweet.

• I finished French class, it was a whirlwind. I don’t know how good I am, however I was able to order shrimp in France, so, 8 months well spent.
• I went on a family vacation through France and Spain. It was absolutely wonderful, we saw so much, hiked, chatted and of course played Euchre.
• I leave Thursday June 15th at 8 am.  I am actually heading to Geneva today to check my bags and to make sure I can catch my flight.
• What I’m listening to/reading: Beth Moore’s book “All My Knotted Up Life” was incredible. Listening to The Bible Binge podcast and Andy Stanley’s latest sermon series. Both are *chefs kiss*

Prayer Requests

• Safe and efficient travels. Specifically that all of my medical supplies arrive intact and the customs process is easy.
• Good goodbyes here in Switzerland.
• A good start to new community!
• Continued healing of my left thumb (mostly back to normal, but starting to operate again soon!)
• Honestly, I have no idea what exactly to pray for, full honesty…. I just keep saying “God, you know what I need, so I’ll just let you handle that.”

Thanks for all of the prayers! Next update, I will be in Africa!

Lent Season

This season still feels weird. I still feel unsettled in Switzerland and the closer I get to finishing, the antsier (don’t know if that is a word) I am to get to Togo. I am finishing my B1 French class this Friday, which is very exciting, I can now share all of my thoughts and opinions in French, which I’m sure everyone around me also loves. 

For Lent, I am doing a study through Ecclesiastes called “Every Broken Thing”. If you are unfamiliar or haven’t thought about Ecclesiastes in a while, it starts… “Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, all is vanity.  Vanity of vanities! All is Vanity” in the ESV version or “Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” in the NIV version. (Ecclesiastes 1:2) Oh the drama. A real upper. But of course I think we have all likely been in this headspace one time or another. 

I have very rarely practiced or participated in lent, giving something up, or if I did, I thought it was really great accountability for a new diet; however this year I decided to step a little deeper. This book of the bible is no joke. It asks hard questions and gives few answers. Many of us would likely find some solace in these pages that maybe we aren’t the only ones feeling this way, others may find it unnerving. The writer of this book (maybe Solomon, maybe not) did not know the end of the story, but we have the benefit of hindsight and knowing the story leads to Jesus.  And while this book says things like “nothing is new”, we know that that may have been true… until Jesus made all things new.

I am obviously less than one week in to the study, so I’ll keep you posted on how it plays out. Call it, reader retention.

Where I’m finding meaning lately is in relationships. Whether a friend willing to leave the beautiful mountain and take pictures of you in urgent care, or a group of friends thousands of miles away praying that I don’t have to have surgery, to my mom offering to fly here if I needed the support. I am constantly seeing God through the people he has placed in my life. 

Bob Goff says: “God doesn’t pass us notes, He gives us each other”. 

I am very thankful for all of the people in my life who show up. *

* Metaphorically, I did not need anyone to fly to Switzerland, and plus I live with another surgeon right now so in good “hands” <– both literally AND metaphoricalIy

2023

I love New Years Eve. I don’t know exactly what it is but something about a fresh start and a new slate and a new opportunity to write a different story. I know you can always take the opportunity to make changes, but for some people, that little push can be what they need. I don’t necessarily mean resolutions, I rarely make those, but just a chance to reflect on what you want to be known for or what you want this next year to look like. It’s a beautiful thing.

I feel incredible joy to have gotten to use this time to reflect on the last year. It has been a whirlwind… finishing residency, moving to a new continent, PASSING BOARDS (praise Jesus), and learning a new language.

On the other hand, this year has been tough for a lot of people. It has been filled with much sadness and fear. A season of realizing that things will never be the same “after” a global pandemic and of finding a “new normal” or “next normal”. I found solace in a quote from Jen Hatmaker about hope. That hope is not foolish, and it is audacious and brave. That struck me because I have absolutely felt that hope can be foolish but this quote actually made sense to me. To look hard things straight on and still hope is scary, but incredibly brave. So here’s to being brave in 2023.

To kick off the new year I had the opportunity to go to Thailand and spend some time with my great friend Jessica. I was reminded just how lucky I am to have close friendships and good community, even if we are across the world. We swam in the ocean, saw incredible fish, sea snakes (yikes!), sharks and a sea turtle. Drank water straight out of a coconut, laughed, danced, and talked about what God is doing in our lives. I will always try to remember how rare the treasure of good friendships are and cherish each and every opportunity.

Here is one of the most Swiss foods. It is called Raclette. It is like a tiny oven/griddle. Each person has a little spatula type thing and they put a slice of cheese on it to melt the cheese and then pour the melted cheese over potatoes. It is super delicious.

*Don’t worry, there will be more cheese pictures in the next post. I know that’s why most of you are here…..

*Also, not pictured is the Swiss chocolate. 4 o’clock is “chocolate time” so everyone pauses and has some chocolate. This is likely my favorite thing about Switzerland so far. 

AN END, AND THEN A NEW BEGINNING….

I have finally finished residency. It has been a long time coming. After five long years I finally graduated. Yay me! It was very bittersweet leaving Detroit. While residency was hard, I grew to love that city and I love so many of the people who are there. I am still very honored to be part of the DMC community. They supported, encouraged and helped me become the person, physician, and surgeon I am today. More importantly…. They helped me pass my first round of boards. Phew. No love lost there. 

                                                                                                                       .

and now for the beginning….

I was given the wonderful opportunity to join some colleagues in beautiful Boone, NC for Samaritans Purse orientation. I met some truly incredible people, both fellow post-residents (which is what we are called in this program) and some wonderful speakers and leaders. It was a mix of really intense conversations about burnout and expectations, fun and laughing with peers, eating delicious food, and of course, being fake abducted and car-jacked. (this is not a joke, really tested my HR monitor on my watch)

They taught us a little bit about practicing outside of our comfort zone. They encouraged us to have zero expectations. We had some great lectures on theology of medicine, theology of suffering and theology of missions. It was a truly incredible experience, all of the fears that I had were just met time and time again by God’s overwhelming presence. There is nothing comparable to feeling like you are exactly where you are supposed to be.

There was something really beautiful about building this community of people who are all going out together. It is honestly hard to explain how deep and close we got in such a short time. I am very excited to see some of them in Switzerland and France in a few short months.  I have a feeling these relationships will just grow deeper and deeper.

And also some goodbyes…..

One of the lectures we had was about saying “good goodbyes”. Especially coming off of five years spent mostly MIA, I spent some time seeing old friends (clarification: friends I have had for a while, they are actually very very young), meeting their kids, and enjoying some quality time talking about God’s next plan in my life. It is tough saying goodbye to people without knowing when the next time I will see them will be, but even better to feel supported and loved through the next season of life.

So, for the next 3 weeks, I am hanging out with the ‘rents in Austin, doing a BBQ tour of the city, and heading out September 25. 

Please be praying:

-for my oral boards coming up in November

-for Jesus to prepare my heart for this next chapter

-for good community building in Switzerland

-that I would still remember how to do surgery when I get to Togo!