An afternoon hike

There is a man from church that has been wanting us to give medicine for his wife now for a long time, but she is not able to get around well and thus doesn't get down to the clinic. (They live up the mountain about 35 minutes hike from the mission.) Andrew, his sister Abigail, Alex, and I hiked up there Wed afternoon. It was a pleasant afternoon hike. She was indeed an interesting case. I don't know exactly what she has, but her hands are all gnarled up. It seemed to be some sort of muscle disorder. Even though there wasn't a lot to do for her, they seemed to appreciate the visit, and the view along the way was lovely.

Hiking along

Checking her blood pressure

Head wound

You never know what it will be next. This lady received a nasty head gash.

Here is Mis Leda stitching her up

Mis Joselaine rechecking the wound a day or so later

More on the babies

Well, the first baby was born around 7:30 pm. It was a little boy. He was born with the cord around his neck, and it took some suctioning and stimulating to get him to breathe. Yes, I’ve delivered quite a few babies, but that is still scary. Thankfully he was soon breathing well. He weighed 8 lbs 4 ozs—pretty big for Haiti.

By that time the other lady was getting closer. It appeared that I had plenty of time to at least grab a bit to eat so I headed off for supper. We hadn’t much more than started eating when they were knocking franticly at the gate. I really didn’t think they could need me yet, but I was wrong!!!! The baby was born by the time I got there! He cried vigorously so no worry about his breathing capacity—another little boy weighing 7 lbs 3 ozs.

We got things finished up and headed back to finish our supper—around 10 pm by then.

Here is the happy little family of the first birth

Andrew and Abigail helped dress the baby

(They are brother and sister from WA. Andrew is here as mechanic.)

This is the second little guy

Abby and I with both babies!!!

Babies

Right now I have two ladies in labor at the clinic. (Michael and Virginia are out for the weekend so it's up to the Haitian nurses and I.) Last Sat was crazy with emergencies too, and this one hasn't proved a lot different. I'm expecting a call about any time again that I need to go check on the one lady. I've been running back and forth from my house to the clinic all day, but I can say that I didn't my house cleaned and my dishes washed anyway! :-)

Tomorrow Mis Leda is on call so maybe she'll get to deliver one of the babies!

Such is the life of a nurse!

Try to get some baby pics when they arrive. . .

Mis Leda at work!

This man needed an infected wound cleaned and bandaged so Mis Leda set to work

Often times we only put the "big" things on the blog, but normal clinic work consists of many small jobs--dressing small wounds, treating someone's cold, or even talking to a worried mother about her baby's health.

Our desire is to do it with Jesus' love flowing from our lives!

Update on rock injury patients

Just a shot of our head pharmacist at work!

The man who had the rock injury on his head is doing very well! When he returned for his check-up, we were happy to see that the injury didn't affect him mentally as it could have from the magnitude of the hit.

The little girl who was also injured from a rock is doing well too! She was back several times this week. From the force of the rock hitting her, it was a bruise as well as a cut, but it's looking great!

It's also been interesting because we realized that the girl's parents were both through our cholera treatment center. We made so many friends at the CTC, and it's fun to see them come back through the clinic.

Remember those rocks??

Right on the heals of the little girl with rock injuries came a man with a large cut on his head... caused by (you guessed it) a rock!

Apparently he had been in his garden, sharpening his sepid (a curved tool, used for lightly tilling the ground and chopping weeds- similar to a small scythe) when a large rock came tumbling down the hill. It came crashing down onto the back of his head, knocking him out, and splitting the scalp open.

When he came, he was still pretty out of it, but as he rested, he began to come to, and could speak better.

The stitch job took just a little longer than an hour, from cleaning the wound to the last stitch.