All in a day's work

Well, the babies have continued coming with amazing frequency in comparison to our normal 4-5 births a month.  By the 15th of March, we had a total of 7 births at the clinic.  This past week 2 of the deliveries came on Mis Leda's day on call so this is her with the last baby.  It was a little boy whose mom is only 17.  Mama and baby did well.  

Mom, Madam Daniel (janitor at the clinic), Mis Leda, and baby.  

One of the many stretchers that are carried through our gates. 

This lady seemed to have a stomach ulcer which had gone untreated for quite a while before they finally brought her in.  We sent her home after giving her medicine for the ulcer and an IV because of dehydration.  

Megan getting vitals right after the stretcher arrived

Rhoda bandaging one of our many bandage patients.  

It can seem like an endless job, but also encouraging as we see people go home after weeks of care with a healed wound.  There is so much lack of understanding when it comes to keeping a simple wound clean and covered.  A small cut or scrape quickly becomes a nasty infection that takes weeks or months to heal.  

Just a cute shot of a mother with her year-old twins

Here I'm preparing to drain a large abscess.  

It turned out to be more than just an abscess.  I drained large amounts of puss out, but the smell was nearly unbearable.  It appeared to be more like an abscess that spread into cellulitis as well.  As far as I know it originated from a tooth abscess.  

After draining the puss out, I put her on strong IV antibiotics.  Today we are sending her out to T-Goave.  It's obviously extensive, and with it being in her neck, I'm not just going to cut into it to see how extensive.  Also it seems that her body isn't really fighting properly as she has no fever and a round of oral antibiotics last week didn't seem to help.  

As a personal note, I want to say, "Thanks SO much to all who pray for us and support us in so many ways."  We need it daily even hourly.  There is an incredible demand on us as we go out at any hour of the day or night.  We have so many opportunities to touch a multitude of lives with the love of Jesus and speak to them of what He wants to do for them.  There are moments when the spiritual fight seems rather intense.  We got weary physically and at times discouraged spiritually.  Your prayers and encouragement are SUCH a blessing!  

Another Little Angel

    "Now this IS a cute baby!"I told Anita. I am just washing the curly head of a new baby.
    "You almost always say that," she reminded me.

Little cutie!

    "Oh, I know." I shrug and giggle. "Some just really are," I excused myself. "And then some aren't." This is the normal after birth type of talk, while we clean up.

Jackson, Natacha, and Baby

    Jackson and Natacha are in the hospital room now talking happily. The baby is breathing after a bit of a bumpy start. Now how did we get to this point?
    It all started with a knock on the gate at one o'clock. Anita and I groggily chose some scrub tops and I grabbed my flash light that doesn't work. Then we joined Delwyn in the courtyard and stepped along to the clinic. We better not miss this one!
    After a check-up, Anita and I decided we better plan on a night at the clinic. We went home for some hot water for the delivery, some coffee for us, and some pillows for the dust to settle on.
    After bothering the dust on the pillows and having a rather small amount of success, we warmed up to the birth of Jackson and Natacha's baby who arrived around six o'clock.
   Things looked a bit precarious in the first few seconds of the baby's entry into the world, so while Natacha rested for a few minutes, Anita gave the baby some oxygen and used the electric suction on her.  (Baby was all tangled up in the cord, and there was lots of meconium.)
    Before long, things were looking a bit better, and we breathed a bit easier while we cleaned up and cozied the baby into a couple layers of cotton and covers.

   
   
 

One of those jobs

Sterilizing

Normally you see these instruments in those bloody stitch job posts.  After a few weeks we accumulate quite of stack of dirty instruments, and then it's time to dig out the sterilizer, roll up your sleeves and set to work.  (I have to say it's one of those less favorite jobs.)  

Here Rhoda and Megan are doing the initial scrub

Spreading them out to dry off and sort into instrument sets

(That is: birth sets, stitch sets, and stitch removal sets.)

Megan and Marcile packaging the sets

 

Since Jon's office is close to where we had the sterilizer on the gas range, he was asked to watch it for us.  Here he is studying the instructions.  

Rhoda now packaging it all in layers in the sterilizer.  

Some M&Ms and chocolate help us through the job!  :-) 

A few hours later, all the packages are sterilized and laying on the table to dry, this time clean and ready to make their rounds again!  

   This little boy came to us yesterday with all the signs of not receiving the proper nutrition.

   He is around 7 months old, and he was on mothers milk for only the first month of his life, after that they had him on regular milk, which is not a good thing to do, about 3 days before they brought him to us at the clinic they were feeding him boiled leaves, water and sugar.

   His weight is exaggerated because as you notice his cheeks are all swollen already, we really don't know what his real weight is till he gets the proper nutrition and his body start getting back on track.

   We gave them milk for him, and now what usually happens is he is going to loose more weight and will look a lot skinnier.

 

"The Mystery" !!!

   This morning when Anita and Rhoda came to the clinic there was a gentleman waiting for them by the name of Christian Gabriel. Hmmmmm, don't often hear that name.
   What we could gather from his wife and those with him, he had fallen on Saturday night sometimes, details are few because no one seemed to know where and how and why he fell. They also told us that they left at 2:00 AM this morning and got here at 7:00, so they had quite a ways to walk and it sounded like they didn't have any road except a trail to walk on.
    The obvious symptoms though, are that the left side of his head and his left hand are a swollen and bruised. What the nurses can't figure out is why he is going in and out of consciousness, and although he appears to be sleeping peacefully he is actually unconscious.
   Pastor Levy stayed here over night, (he lives in Ti-Goave) and is now getting ready to head back to town, so Anita is getting Christian ready for a rough and tumble ride to the hospital where they are able to perform more tests and hopefully diagnose the problem.

Christian and his wife by his side.

  
  

More sweet babies

Baby boy 6 lbs 3 oz, born at 3 am Friday

Baby girl 6 lbs 3 oz, born 1:20 am Saturday

The tired nurses with the little girl

Baby girl 6 lbs 12 oz, born 4 pm Saturday

Now if you noticed the times, we had 3 babies born at the clinic in a 37 hour time period.

The first baby was born at 3 am Friday.  Since we were short staffed for clinic on Friday, Rhoda and I still had to go to clinic even though we were up a lot of the night.  Of course we thought we'd catch up Friday night and then we'd have Saturday to sleep in.  :-)  Our plans were altered as a second lady came in during clinic Friday.  We were awake a lot of the night, the baby finally came at 1:20 am.  We were SO glad it was Saturday, and headed off to our beds at about 3 am.  To our shock by 9:30 Saturday morning there was yet a third knock on the gate saying a 3rd lady in labor had come to the clinic.  We monitored her throughout the day, and baby was born by 4 pm.

The nurses better get some sleep now before they are sick and needing help!!!

Who'd have thought?

Who would have ever thought you could do this:  Fall off your horse, cut open your eye lid, slice your bottom lip, scrape up your top lip, AND, get this:  Disconnect your bottom lip from your gums/jaw inside.  You can see all the way down in between his lip and gums (you can't see the bottom). We sent him to Ti-Goave for further treatment.