OP ED Number 2

Yes, this is my second OP ED, aside from a recipe post.  I have much to celebrate.  One:  My son will be back in the USA from a missionary trip to Guatemala this afternoon (Yes he is a legal United States Resident).  They helped rebuild some community facilities in a small village there.  I will post the GO-PRO videos on my FB page. The image to the left is a picture of a volcanic lake in Guatemala called Atilan.  I went on a mission with a church 7 years ago to provide medical support there.  I taught a nurse and a physician to do limited and focused sonograms on the village people to triage them and get them to a hospital.  The living conditions are rather horrid by western standards.  The people there are chipper though, always with a grin, and a nice word.  They make do with little to nothing.  I brought an old GE ultrasound machine and taught these wonderful people how to use it for things like ectopic pregnancies, and acute abdominal pains, trauma etc.  It is not like these people here have a med-evac system.  To get to a proper hospital can take hours in a car or truck.  The trip was a great experience for me, and my son is now queuing up at the airport to come home.  This is his third journey.  My wife went on the first.  You can say we are all Guatemalan pros.  Trevor, My Son, I am PROUD.

Second:  I am working at a small hospital, and giving lectures on the side.  I cannot wait to visit the town of Kerrville, TX to present some education to the wonderful sonographers there at a specific large hospital!

 Of note: I have a student where I work.  She is doing very well with the limited education she got at a for profit fly-by-night ultrasound school in Houston.  On Wednesday of last week we had an educational meeting where I outlined what to do when she encounters a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.  Lord Have Mercy!  She was on call that very night and had a bleeder.  The abdominal cavity was filled with blood.  They did a great job and took her by air ambulance to a large hospital, and saved her life.  My sonographer student NAILED the diagnosis.  We are having a party for Logan on Monday morning.  A success like this defines both a teachers role, and a willingness of a student to learn, and act.  Logan, I am PROUD!

Sincerely, TJW