Answers.

Before coming to Haiti, I had not really experienced the difficult and challenging parts of medicine.  I have been on the receiving (family) side of it a few times, but never on this side of the deal.  All of my shadowing and volunteering before this summer never put me in the position to witness/deal with extreme circumstances.  And of course, a career in medicine includes having to address difficult health and welfare issues with your patients and their families, so experiencing this is essential.

 I especially realized this on Thursday.  We saw a patient who we had seen a few times already this summer and I've kind of fallen in love with her.  She is this fantastic old lady with the biggest smile and such a pleasant demeanor.  I mentioned her in a post several weeks ago as she is the woman that had the pleural effusion.  We thought that that may be caused by tuberculosis, but, unfortunately, those results came back negative.  As silly as it sounds, TB would have been the best case because it is treatable if the patients maintains a good course of antibiotic treatment.  We then found a mass in her breast, which we removed.  Cancer.  So, what it looks like is this small cancer in her breast metastasized to the pleural space, which is inoperable.  And that is what was discussed on Thursday.

As a student, I want so badly to have all of the answers to all aspects of medicine, or at least in the area that I specialize.  But that's not realistic.  Because we can't have all the answers, which is hard for me to accept at times.  And it's hard for patients to accept that from their physicians who they put so much faith and trust in.  

But as humbling as that truth is, I am glad that it forces me to realize our place in all of this.  God is ultimately the greatest Physician; He, and He alone, offers true healing and life.  Medicine fails and has its limitations.  But God does not - cannot.

The reality of this situation is that we have no treatment options to offer this lady and she does not have much time left here on this earth. 

But, there will be a day when her pain and suffering will be no more and she will rest at the feet of her Maker.  

She became a follower of Jesus Christ that morning.