Catching up.....

I thought it would be nice to actually post something this year before it's too late. Here's is the update on the Amacher family:

Anne Marie - still rocking it in med school, even though she won't tell you that. Count how long you breath per day and that's how much she studies....no lie. We're all very proud of her. She is the doctor people will want some day. One thing I've learned from being married to a medical student is that a lot of future doctors... well, don't study all that much, ... kind of scary. Another thing I've learned from being married to a medical student is that if someone is really tall and lanky with long skinny fingers, they may have Marfan's, which makes them vulnerable to aortic dissection. I told a tall guy at church that he might have Marfans (he doesn't). I don't think he was amused (I was).

OH! So speaking of medicine. I am now a doctor in Nicaragua...







Ok, not really, but I DID get to participate in an appendectomy. My brother Kenny, my mother, and a group of others went to Nicaragua in January. We are part of an organization called COAN (Cooperacion Ortopedia Americana y Nicaraguense). My brother and I went as translators, which is what I spent most of my time doing:



I spent half of my time in the OR and half of it working with a great hand therapist. I translated a bit in the OR but I felt like I was most useful translating for the therapist because if the people don't understand how to do their exercises then they won't recover very well. I did get to see a knee replaement, and I think that you have to be a little funny in the head to be an orthopedic surgeon...

The first night we ate at the house of Felix and Reyna Medrano. They served us an excellent dish called "Indio Viejo" (Old Indigenous man/Indian). They said the name comes from the time when the Spanish came. To dissuade the Spanish from taking and eating their food, they told them that what they were eating was actually the oldest member of their tribe, who they had killed off for food. LOL... that old guy tastes goooood!



I have more to share from Nicaragua, which hopefully I will post in a few days (not months)

saludos y besos!