this afternoon we delivered our first set of triplets. the first one came in the road after the mom spent the day with a local matron (women who help with deliveries) and the next two came feet first. the middle one died and the third is on oxygen and in the incubator. i am so grateful they all delivered!
please pray for families here who are losing loved ones to illnesses. we had a staff member die yesterday, a granmoun die yesterday and we lost a 14 month old child who came to clinic this morning.
please pray that the God of comfort will come and be that for all these families.
every day we have staff devotions in the mornings. sometime last week magdala (our campus manager) was reading off everyone’s name and having everyone stand up and it was creating a stir. i didn’t hear in the beginning what the list was being read for. later i figured out that it was for the annual staff gift exchange. the staff were excited about it all day long, they kept laughing and talking and asking if each other were going to be the one to give each other the gift. it brought a smile to my face all day.
a couple days after that in devotions one of our mechanics stood up to share a story. to understand this story i wish that i could explain to you who sergo is. he is just a good ole guy. he told the story about the importance of realizing that it isn’t about the size of the gift that matters. he told a story about a christmas when he sent a gift to his daughter in port-au-prince. that he sent a goat and that was a wonderful gift and his daughter appreciated it so much. then he went into detail about he wasn’t able to send such a good gift the next year, because he just didn’t have the money. he went into detail talking about how he bought some sardines and wrapped them up again and again. his hand gestures were funny as he showed how he wrapped them again and again and again.
his daughter got the sardine package. but didn’t know that was what was in the package. she excitedly opened it only to find a few measly sardines. needless to say he said she was disappointed. he said she thought about it and decided to invite her friends and share her christmas gift with them even though it was small. he said that it was amazing because all of the people who were there were able to share in the sardines.
he shared that story to encourage people not to worry about having to have big gifts for the christmas gift exchange. it touched my heart because i feel like so many people give or share gifts, talents or resources for the mission here and there are times that i don’t really understand how we continue to function, but i know that it is through generous gifts and God multiplying those things.
thanks for your generous gifts.
the flu
HIV/AIDS
malnutrition
today was a little bit of a rough time. . . i had planned on working on budget stuff that i have due, but my days don’t always go as planned.
i am filling in for some of our staff on vacation in maternity. we had a mom presenting with twins and the first one coming was breech. always a bit scary. we never heard a second heart beat and after the first baby came it was over three hours before finally our physician here was able to put on forceps and get the second baby delivered. the mom asked me why her baby was not crying, i thought she had understood that her second baby wasn’t alive, but i don’t think it hit her until that point.
while evaluating whether we could stitch up an older lady who came with a big laceration, someone told me that the twins who were born here a few weeks ago were here and the boy looked horrible. we rushed him in to examine him and tried to do some CPR, but he was not there. sad day. . .
i went back to stitching up the older ladies leg so that the other nurse who was working with me could eat lunch since it was after 3.
tonight ended trying to process how to deal with one of our little ones who has horrible hydrocephalis and is in lots of pain. . .
so i guess i will possibly get to the budget tomorrow.
thanks so much for your prayers for me. without them i know that the last few weeks would have been tougher than they were. there have been many busy days between when i arrived just a few weeks ago until now. but they really have been good days.
the surgical team arrived and truly did hit the ground running and we kept running. the team was great and they are always such a blessing and encouragement to have here. we kept a few patients a little more long term and i sent a few home over the last few days and we only have two guys left. i had some great nurses over the last few weeks who have helped tons in recovery! thanks so much guys!
days like today are busy and make me ready for bed by 8:30!! i saw lots of post-op patients this morning and then helped see pediatric patients, we have had so many sick little kids. there is some really bad virus going around that is making lots of people sore, sick and dehydrated, especially kids! we had a little preemie born just over a pound that lived for a few hours. it was sad because his mom already had lost two little ones.
if you could pray for a little one that i saw today, he is probably 18 months or so and fell face first into hot oil. at least his eyes are not burned, but his lower face is horrible. burns here in haiti are horrible, but the face is especially bad and it was really too bad for us to take care of him here. we sent him to the closest hospital that has a good pediatrician and i pray that he gets good care. we gave the family money to take him, without that there would have been no way they could have afforded to go to the hospital. rough reality!
please continue to keep this place and the work we are doing in your prayers. especially our medical staff. they see and face such difficult situations every day and yet have smiles on their faces.
i hate burns here in haiti. i have a little one who is three years old who has been here this week because she burned her leg really bad when hot water spilled on her.
i just think that if she goes home that it won’t stay clean and then she could lose her range of motion in her leg and i really don’t want that for her. so i am changing her dressing a couple times a day. i just hope for no infection and good healing. her little eyes were so sad tonight when her mom brought her for me to change her dressing, it almost made me cry.
The last couple weeks have been extremely full. If there were a way that I could share with you each story or situation I would. My mom told me once that I need to get a transcriber so that I could just tell the stories and then I wouldn’t have to write and perhaps I would be a bit more productive with getting stories on my blog. Not sure about that idea either, (I am not extremely good with technological devices!) but it would probably be a bit more effective. I apologize for the absence. Things are good here, challenging to say that least, but good.
I will share a couple stories with you. They are stories that are heavy on my heart. Dr. Del is an orthopedic surgeon who comes with our surgical teams. He is very brave and extremely talented. He has began to have a very good reputation after coming a couple times a year for the past 6-7 years. People love him. Watching some of his patients just come back and give him a hug to say thank you brings tears to my eyes every single time I see it. Some operations he performs save lives, some help people walk, or move their arms or other limbs. I think some of the most difficult cases that I watch him try to sort through are those that have cancer. It seems that he sees many patients with bone cancer. Cancer is something you think about older people having, but the typical age for this type of cancer is 15-22 year olds and unfortunately it seems we see 2-3 cases every trip.
Many times I help Dr. Del and our interpreters talk with patients as they sort through the diagnosis of cancer and the fact that in this country there is absolutely no treatment such as chemotherapy or radiation and their lives are probably going to be rather limited.
This last group we had two young men age 15 and 21 come with extremely aggressive bone cancer. They both had such beautiful smiles. They both had a hope for a future life. I talked with both of them many times about their options. Explaining that not amputating their legs would probably result in extremely severe pain as the cancer just continued to grow. I have seen masses double in size in just a couple months. Both of these boys chose to have their legs amputated. I can’t help but wonder if that was the right decision or if it wasn’t. They probably both have serious metastasized cancer already.
Both of them left these gates having been shown the love of Christ in ways that I can’t even explain as I watched the surgical team encourage and love on them in ways that can only happen because you care with the compassion of Christ.
Thanks so much to all those on the team who were willing to be here and care for these two guys.
the surgical team is here, today i asked someone if it really was thursday? i can’t believe how fast the time has flown, things are going great with the team. the only issue is that there seem to be a few virus’ going around that are knocking a few people out pretty good. not fun!!
i arrived here in haiti yesterday safe and sound. a little tired from not alot of sleep the night before in miami, but i caught up on that last night with a wonderful night of sleep!! it is good to be back.
