A big thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I watched these two baby twins being held by their mother, I could only see the thankfulness written over their little faces, little "snoopy"!!! as his shirt says is anything but snoopy, he is full, his tummy is warmed with good nutritious milk, the little girl is wide awake, she is a bit lighter, but we're happy at the weight she gained from last time, but both are crying less and they have grown from little tiny hungry babies, whom the mother couldn't feed because of lack of milk, to sturdy little well fed, content ones.
I would like to take this time to express sincere appreciation from all of us for the blessings and support we have received from you for the milk program, it thrills me every time I hear, the two way radio go of and one of the nurses asks if they could put a baby on the program for two weeks or a few months. We couldn't do that up till now and were always short, and we had to let babies go that shouldn't have been to put others on, but because of the blessing God sent our way we can buy extra and make sure all the babies that need it can get some. Thank you so much the Lord will bless you richly for it.

What a Weekend!!!!!

A happy patient

This man was in a while back and returned last week.  He has what looks to me to be a broken collar bone.  Well, when he came in last week, he was smiling from ear to ear.  Before he had been in intense pain and no wonder since his break hadn´t been set so it could heal properly.  This time his pain was gone, and he had good range of motion.  I can´t say that the bone looked like it was back in place, but he was sure praising God and feeling a lot better!  

 Now to the weekend. . .  

First of all for some reason I didn't sleep well Friday night, but that didn't change the fact that I was on call Saturday.  The first call came in at 7:30 am or so.  It was a lady in labor so I headed down to check her out.  

She was having good labor but not progressed real far yet.  I sent off the lady and baby who Rhoda and Katie had delivered Friday, and got a bed ready for the new lady.  Then I set to work treating some  other patients, etc.  Eventually I brought my computer down to the clinic and worked on my med list while I monitored the lady.  I wrapped up my other jobs, and baby was born around 6:30 pm.  My thought was, "Great, I can go home, clean up, and get a good night of sleep."  I was pretty tired since I really was going on only a couple of hours of sleep.  

That wasn't to be.  Before I could get my shower we had two more patients come in.  The other nurses graciously stepped in and went to check out the new patients.  Neither of them were serious, but I needed to go check in on the one patient after supper.  I was still hopeful about getting a good night.  

Supper was over and. . . the next call came.  It was another lady in labor!!!  (Now the 3rd in less than 36 hours.)  So we nurses hurried for our scrub tops and down to the clinic.  This lady was a first-time mom almost ready to deliver.  My first checks raised some red flags--only 7 months along, unhealthy looking amniotic fluid, and abnormal findings upon checking her.  I was suspicious of a stillbirth, but also wanted to be prepared in case we needed to do CPR on a preemie.  

It wasn't long and she delivered a little stillborn baby boy.  The mother and father were very sad.  Many times I don't see them grieve a lot, at least not opening, over a newborn baby who dies, but this couple was very sad at the lose.  Now knowing that this mother had been carrying a dead baby for how many days, I turned my attention to her.  She wasn't more worn out than normal, and I suspected a fair amount of blood lose previous to arrival.  Till everything was finished up and we headed home, it was around 12:30.  

The young mother who delivered the stillborn baby

Below is an abscess that I opened and drained today.  The mask with a little pain cream to help cover the odor really helped!  :-)  Don't forget to take care of your teeth.  I think this started from a bad tooth!  

Blessed are the flexible...

...for they shall never be bent out of shape! I often think of this when everything unexpected happens and nothing that WAS expected happens. :) And then at the end of the day I look back and see what wonderful 'gifts' and blessings God dropped down in the midst of a very unexpected schedule.

Like this darling lil guy who was in a great hurry to meet the world yesterday afternoon. Suddenly the mom who was in quiet labor in the next room was in dire need of the nurses. Ro grabbed gloves and suction and I came flying into the room and there HE was. Perfect color, strong cry...and the sweetest little face.



Delivery nurses Rhoda and Katie with a friend and the baby

The mom and her baby

 Our stroke patient started mumbling out a few words the day after he came. The next morning his whole face lit up when we prayed with him and when I sang to him he started mouthing the words with me. With a few days of Mis Anita's great therapy lessons he was walking and responding to our questions. His family was so happy!

Learning to walk again

Enjoying his caring family and nursing staff

 I can't help but add this pic of one of my malnutrition cases that came in this week. I could NOT get her to smile the whole time I assessed her. Her face looked just like a sad little mouse. But when I popped out of the depot and she caught sight of the Herbalife can I was bringing for her, she reached out with both her skinny arms and broke into a priceless smile. Such moments stay in the heart forever.

      - Mis Katie

**Viewer Discretion Advised** Post by Tom

It was about 11 PM last night when the compound gate rattled and we found a man holding a bloody rag around his right arm. We took him to the clinic and found a nasty laceration about 1 1/2" long x 3/4" wide. He could not move his small and ring fingers which indicated that a tendon was either completely or partially cut. He had also lost a lot of blood.

He told us that he had tried to calm a fight that broke out over a soccer game when one of the other parties hit him with a broken glass bottle.

This is the cut after a hour of cleaning

Steve, Simon, and Anita discussing the best treatment options for the patient.

Tom starting an IV. The patient had lost a lot of blood.

Anita cleaning and stitching

After 11 stitches, the wound looked quite nice!

A World of Contrasts

Monday after clinic some of us took a hike to visit some friends way up the mountain.  It wasn't a clinic related hike, but I still wanted to share a little about it.  For those of you who also keep up with the Haiti Life blog, I think it'll be on there too.  

The scenery was amazing.  We probably climbed between 1000-1500 feet up out of the Aleg valley.

Many little trails  

This one is actually pretty flat and straight--unlike most we hiked that day.

This is the young couple we went to visit.  They come to church here in Aleg.

It took us about 2-2 1/2 hours to get to where they live.  

I didn't know this lady lived up in that area.  She is a clinic patient, and I was excited to see her.  

People in their garden planting beans

Again, viewer discretion advised

This is the same lady that was on the Monday post, and here are some more details and pictures.  Her eye lid and the surrounding area were very infected.  The skin was totally dead, and puss was oozing out.  It stank like crazy!  She had been in about a month ago and even went to T-Goave, but then went home and waited till it was in HORRIBLE condition to return.  I had my doubts as to whether her eye could even be ok under all that infection.  I cut away the bulk of the dead and infected skin and did a general cleaning.  The deep cleaning it needed was beyond me, but I wanted to at least clean it a little.  I didn't use anesthesia at all for what I didn't because she didn't have feeling where I needed to cut.  That's how dead it was.  After cleaning away a lot of the puss and dead skin, I did take a peek at her eye.  She could actually still see out of it.   I then gave her a transfer paper to go to T-Goave hospital.  Today I called and talked to her and the doctor in T-Goave, and he said she needs to go to Port as there isn't a surgeon there in T-Goave to do what needs done.  I just HOPE she actually goes and gets further treatment.  She has high blood sugar so of course that is complicating things.  

The mask was mostly for the purpose of keeping out a little of the stench.  

This is how it looked after I was done.  There was still a lot to clean, but with it being so near her eye and brain, I really didn't feel qualified to do extensive cutting and cleaning.

All bandaged up

This lady is only 38 years old

"VIEWERS DISCRETION ADVISED"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone gathering together, getting ready for devotions and prayer this morning.

Anita checking the stroke patient. He seems to be starting to talk more, and also has
movement, at least somewhat in hands and feet. Keep praying for his recovery and his soul.

This lady came in with her ugly infection, of course she doesn't come in regularly on her appointments and it's not really getting any better. My brother Tom is looking on. Wonder what he thinks? At home even as a paramedic he never sees anything like what he has seen here the last week or so.

It's important to take care of ones body, Jesus must live in it, and if we don't take care of it, how shoddy are we in taking care of the spiritual side of our lives?

This lady came in this morning with a horribly infected eye. I could smell the horrid smell
6 feet from her. A month ago she came in with a bug bite on it, but didn't return for
appointment. And this is what happened. Moldy, stinky, puss running out from it, and
flies flying none stop enjoying it all. Pray for the nurses who are dealing with it. 

Daniel the gate guard was sitting reading his Bible when I came out of the clinic. It's always a joy to see. God is at work in their lives and they are hungry for more of God. They often challenge me.

Amlodipine and Avocados

   This is a great time to come to our clinic. And there are reasons. For one, we aren't quite as busy as sometimes. That gives us time to think about how nice it is to have Amlodipine sitting on the shelves in our pharmacy for at least a few more days. I feel like I need to publicly rejoice because so many of my co-workers heard me publicly complain when we didn't have it. So, if you have blood pressure problems, I might dose you up with one of my favorite meds before I send you home. And that is an answer to prayer. It was donated through CAM.
   Since we aren't so busy, I had the chance to help with the check-up of these cute twins you see sitting on their friend's lap. Now, they ARE boys. Don't the pink cap and dress match wonderfully with their gender? Right now they are gaining some weight, but have some sort of rash in their mouths and a flaky skin condition that seems to be healing up. We've been trying to give a few supplements to the mom to keep them from entering the milk program.

   
     With Megan being gone, I have wondered how we will get all our pills split and divided. I just have to throw in a line of thanks for Tom Hofer and Katie Lapp here. They have driven themselves to near mental distraction patiently helping in the pharmacy on slower days. I don't think I will post a picture of them at that stage.
     On Thursday morning, Katie made a little run down to the clinic for an early morning call. An elderly gentleman was not responding well, and she wanted to investigate a bit. We think maybe we had a stroke going on there. He has been staying in our hospital room ever since on IV.

   
     Yesterday, the nurses got down on their hands and knees and did some real scrubbing on the waiting room floor, after the patients were finished. Fre Adolph even did a few scrubs to cheer me up.

   
     This morning our little mal-nutrioned patient showed up again, a week late for his appointment. He is actually looking a lot better, although still swollen. He weighed almost two kilograms less, which is a good sign. We just want to keep him and bathe him and feed him. But, well, how many hands do we have?

    So, yeah, come over some day. Because avocados are in season, and they make some mighty fine eating after a few hours of looking at wounds and meds...And they are actually very healthy for you, for those of you who are nutritionally minded....