One little head...

This poor little boy was brought into the clinic today by his mother and grandpa- his head was covered infected sores, full of pus and yuck.

Anita and Breanna carefully cleaned and dressed the sores and wrapping his head with bandages and anti-bacterial creme. He'll be coming back for a checkup again soon.

The sad part was that his mother seemed a bit "strange" or, not "normal". She hasn't been taking good care of the little guy (obviously) and when asked questions she always answered in a very strange way. Please pray for her and her little boy...

Some normal cases on a normal day...

Anita had a burn patient come in yesterday and today.

As she cleaned the wound, the woman convulsed with pain and jumped almost out of her chair!

Anita used some lidocaine to ease the pain... "Otherwise," she said, "She's be in my lap!"

And Breanna dealt with a man who had an accident with his sepit (a garden tool, similar to a scythe) 

It was packed with dirt and mud, so it took some cleaning out...

Once Anita got the lidocaine onto the burn patient's wound she was able to clean and wrap it.

Breanna's patient got all bandaged up too. He'll be healed up in no time!

Update on the ear surgery!

There was a somewhat nasty post we did a little while ago in which we showed a lady who's ear had been almost completely cut off.

She returned for some other ailment day before yesterday, so we snapped some pictures of her ear- it's quite amazing, because if you didn't look for it, you probably wouldn't notice the scar. Anita did a fantastic job stitching it so there's virtually no evidence of the horrible injury!

Pretty amazing, 'eh?

I had to look twice to make sure it was the same lady!

Apparently she had some problem with her head and had come in for some medicine.

Anita used her visit as an opportunity to check on the ear.

We're so thankful for God's healing touch!

Update on Obenson!

Another update on our little malnourished friend, Obenson. 

His original story is here, if you don't remember him!

Doesn't he look so much healthier?

The little guy can walk around now and, according to his caregiver, if he's given nothing to do, he wanders around making "dezod" (naughty) around their compound! :) :)

Anita has been taking special care of him when he comes in.

Obenson is doing so well- he continues to gain weight and loose excess water caused by retention.

His caregiver comes once a week to get food supplements and he himself is brought around every 2-3 weeks. Praise the Lord for continuing improvement!

Thanks for praying for the little guy!!

Alcohol swabs and gloves... and other scenes from the clinic...

Since everyone got back from the States things have been moving along at a good pace in the clinic.

In recent days, it's been reported by our nurses that we're running low on alcohol patches and gloves... seeing that those needs are present, we thought we'd take some random pictures of us using alternatives...

Here's some medicine Anita was mixing up for one of our patients...

Since we have no more alcohol patches, Anita took to cutting up some material to be soaked in rubbing alcohol for a substitute.

She needed to go give her patient his medicine, so Breanna took over her cutting job.

Here, she is giving a man medicine for malaria.

Breanna, cutting up more patches...

Yes, it was another normal day at the clinic today. 

The amount of people seen totaled over 65.

That's not counting our normal patients, such as the "ankle guy" who we've been seeing each day, rewrapping his leg with fresh bandages each time.

Another interesting, yet typical case that came in... a ganglion cyst on a woman's hand.

Michael has become very proficient at removing the fluids inside the pockets.

This one took only about 15 seconds to remove.

Thankfully someone has sent down a few gloves that should tide us over until we get another donation of gloves from the States... It's amazing how many times throughout the day gloves are used though!

With pretty much each patient we handle, there's another pair of gloves used!

A typical scenario is seen in the above picture- 

the two little girls had sores on their legs, so gloves were used during the examination process. 

The little things...

Saturday some little girls come to the clinic, asking for some bandages for a few little sores on their shins. Breanna took them into the clinic, dressed their sores and applied some ointment to them, putting a bandaid on top.

I had to think about the many serious cases that come into the clinic, how they're often severe, life threatening, amazing or disgusting. We look at them as very important, but I wondered if, in the eyes of God, these "little things" are just as important. Jesus went about healing great and small, and the compassion He had extended to the lowliest of sicknesses. We take someone into the clinic, we show them God's love and they leave with knowing that they are cared about.

May we continue to show the love of Jesus to all here- small and great.

This young girl smiles as Breanna dressed a wound on her foot.

She kept flinching because of the pain, but kept up a good attitude :)

Only one left...

Yesterday was the beginning of a challenging week for many of us- since all the fluent Creole speakers are gone to the States for Thea's wedding, those of us left behind are having to learn quick!

Breanna is the only American nurse left in the clinic- it presents some unique challenges for her and was very "stretching"! Last morning though, she marched into clinic and announced (in Creole) to Noaz "Today, everyone must learn English!!" They all had a good laugh about that :)

She was busied with taking blood pressures, writing down information on people's dossiers. She also did the bandage patients.

Mid-morning an elderly man came into the clinic on a stretcher. Apparently he had a stroke and the Haitian nurses decided he had to go out to Ti Guave. After clinic was finished he was taken out to the hospital there. As far as we know, he's doing well. Sorry, no pictures were taken :-/

Please pray for us that remain here, that we would be able to hold the fort, that everything would go smoothly and that we would be able ministers of the Gospel!

Update on the "Clubfoot Boy"!

Greetings in Jesus' name, dear readers! Many apologies for the lack of content on this blog recently.

The other day some of us visited the home of the "Clubfoot" boy, Enddy. If you are having a hard time remembering him, take a look at his previous updates by typing "clubfoot" into the search box on the righthand side of your screen! The blogger will then show you the results in this pane.

The little guy is doing fantastic! He's walking, running, playing and getting into trouble around his house! His personality is just bursting with happiness and mischief :)

Personnel Perspective...

~July 26,2012~

Hello, all you readers and supporters, I’m glad you have visited this blog once again.  

It means you are interested in the work or the people here in Haiti!  Thank you for caring and praying for us, we need it desperately!  The work here is God’s work, and as His children there is nothing we can do but serve Him, for it is our calling and our joy to bring Him glory!

I have been asked to share with you one of my days.  Today was very busy, so you get to follow me as I do the things that come to hand.  Remember, not all our days are quite this busy, thankfully, but it is a good representation of the norm.  

I went to clinic this morning at 8:45 and signed in.  I work in the pharmacy, helping to keep things flowing in giving out medications, keeping an eye on the amounts used and the availability of the medicine, restocking, and the most important job of a pharmacist- double checking prescriptions.  I really enjoy my work in the pharmacy, I like working with pills and figuring dosages, and working with just a couple of people.  I still struggle to understand everything a Haitian says, unless I know the person, so talking mostly with my fellow pharmacists suits me just fine.  

When a dossier or prescription comes in, Zita, Madam Lege, and I all help collect the meds and count the right amount into little bags.  We often are working on several at the same time, or else we would be bored stiff.  After that, I take the meds, double check then with the prescription, and mark the bags or bottles with the name of the drug, the number of pills to be taken at a time, and the number of times a day.

We keep things as simple as possible, because most of the people have very little education and get confused quickly.  Something as simple as putting four dots on the bag, separated as far as possible and explained to mean one pill four times a day can be messed up.  They will repeat back to you- “Take one in the morning, one at noon, one in the evening and one the next morning!”  And then you have to explain it all over again, “No, one in the morning, one at noon, one in the afternoon, and one at night.”  It is amusing sometimes, and discouraging other times, because you have to wonder just how many people actually take their medicine the right way.

Sometimes if Breanna is busy and I am not, I will do a bandage job.  I did the lady this morning that had her ear cut almost off by falling on a rock, we sewed her up last night.  I wanted to see how it looked, and praise the Lord, I think it will heal!  I also help Michael with the blood pressure rendezvous; we have a program for people with high blood pressure.  They have to return on set days, and we evaluate, and continue or change the meds they are taking.  Again, a lot of the time, confusion reigns.  The reasons for not taking meds the way we told them are so varied!  It is typical to have between 3-8 rendezvous a day.  Also, at various and sundry times I need to go to the house to get more meds, or milk for a baby or more bandaging supplies.

We finished up clinic around one, and after lunch Anita, Breanna, Nate, and I had a conference to decide what to do with the baby that came in with pneumonia.  Anita had it on oxygen, and it was doing fine like that, but we were going to run out of oxygen in the morning.  So we decided the wisest thing to do was to take the baby out to the Leogane hospital right away, and save some of our oxygen in case of another emergency.  

They got going around 3pm, and I did things around the house till a girl came to the gate with blood running down the back of her head.  I took her to clinic and cleaned up the gash made from her hitting her head on a rock, and then I had to put three stitches in.  As all the stitching sets were used, I then rounded up all the instruments and cleaned and packaged them so we could sterilize.  It is a long job, but I enjoy matching the different kinds of instruments up to best fulfill the requirements.

  

Well, it is now late, and time for me to head to bed.  I hope you have enjoyed the day, and have a better idea of what life is like here.  We NEED your prayers and support, all day every day!  The Lord bless you all, 

Virginia Rudolph