Twins

This story started a long time ago already, but with all that's been happening at the clinic the last while, I guess we missed blogging about it.  I thought we had, but I can't find a post on it.  So if we did and I'm repeating, sorry!

Toward the end of March this small undernourished but very pregnant looking lady came to clinic.  She had been to the clinic a few times before but hadn't done well with prenatal check-ups, and now she was showing signs of pre-eclampsia.  At this point as near as we could tell she was around 7-8 months pregnant.  After trying to get her pre-eclampsia under control with no success, we decided to send her out to T-Goave.  We were also concerned because she was measuring larger than she should have been for 7-8 months and was suggesting premature labor.  All this combined made it pretty urgent to get her out to T-Goave.

As normal, days past, and we knew no more of her.  Then a week after we sent her out to our surprise Mama, and Babies show up!  Our sneaking suspicion of twins had been true, and she had safely delivered the babies in T-Goave.  Although premature, they had survived.  They were a boy, Deyei, 5 lbs 2 oz and a girl, Deunia, 4lbs 2oz.  By the time they came to the clinic at about 5 days old, they both had badly infected umbilical cords, and Mama still had high blood pressure with a lot of edema.  They spent 5 days at our clinic as we treated them and watched to see if things would start looking up or turn worse.  Upon arrival, they were all in critical condition.  I have to admit, it's a little scary to treat teeny, tiny babies who should be in the NICU in a small mountain clinic.  Mama wasn't responding well to the blood pressure treatments either.  Finally after maxing her out on the meds, she leveled out.

Here is Deunia when she first arrived

And here is Deyei

Carolle feeding both babies

The mother, Carolle, didn't have enough milk either so we put them partially on our Nourishing the Needy program.  After being hospitalized for 5 days, I sent them off with a bit of fear and trembling.  Would they take good care of preemies?  Would the mother keep up on her meds or be careless and still die from pre-eclampsia?

It was April 7th when I sent them home with an appointment to come back April 15th.  Just this past Sunday, April 21st, I told Rhoda that it was nearly a week past their appointment and I was concerned that the twins hadn't made it.  You can only imagine my excitement when on Mon, someone came to my room at the clinic and told me the twins had come!  Carolle, was looking much better, and the twins were doing well.  Deyei now weighs 6lbs 1.5oz, and Deunia 4lbs 8oz.  Carolle always says that Deyei is fussier.  I tell her that she needs to make sure Deunia gets enough too even if she doesn't complain as much.  :-)  It seemed like they were taking good care of them as we found them clean and in good health.

All of the nurses, Carolle, and the babies when they returned for their check-up this week.  

Do pray for them.  Taking care of such fragile babies in this land is no small task.  Carolle really appreciated the care she received here, but I don't know that she is a Christian.  I'm glad they could find good healthcare, but most of all pray that she would be willing to let the Great Physician direct her life.






There has been a lot of other things going on at the clinic that got missed in the busyness of the cholera surge so I could help but at least drop a picture on of one of the other babies born at the clinic lately.

                                                         Baby with her happy mama

Brother Batel

Greetings in Jesus most precious Name, the One that came and died for each person, and for Batel to, we have had a number of updates over the last year posted on this blog of Batel, and his abscess on his hip, and you probably noticed more posts then usual lately, well here is another one.

Batel came in 2 Friday's ago quite sick, he hadn't showed up for a few days because he couldn't walk, he lives back by the water falls, a few hours strong hike, anyway he came in on a horse, and the nurses put him on IV and strong antibiotics right away, they noticed his abscess, the was covered over and well filled, so Rhoda had to cut it open and a huge amount of puss comes flowing out, Brother Batel was in pain, but so lovingly bears it, at times 2 of the nurses had to hold him down because it is so painful, but even in the midst of pain he'll say something funny and laugh and cheer everybody up. 

But since he is to weak he's been here now over a week in the hospital room, and although his abscess looks better, we know that it is moving up into his hip to. We are not sure what it is, but we suspect bone cancer.

We are in the process of making the decision of putting him of intravenous so as not to prolong the inevitable,  Michael and the nurses don't think he has many more days to live, although he is spiritually very happy and rejoicing, his physical body is going down hill fast.

Rejoicing in His Savior!!!

Here is a testimony about Batel that has really touched us in a special way here at the mission. Michael came home one evening from Grafu, he decided to just stop in at the clinic at talk to Batel and pray for him, it was around 9:30 PM and he noticed Batel was asleep, so he shook him gently to wake him up, and Batel set up suddenly quite startled, and he said to Michael, "it's you, it's you," and he proceeded to share the dream Michael woke him up from, this is the dream.
I was someplace in a house, and I went out of the house and started walking, suddenly a cat came walking up to him, with fire coming out of it's eyes, and he said, I am the devil and I will kill you, Batel said, No you won't kill me, I will kill you, and he grabbed the cat by the neck and tried to kill it but couldn't, suddenly close by a man comes walking from behind a rock pile a little way of, and Batel tells him he can't kill that cat, the man comes up to him and touches the cat and the cat was suddenly dead, he threw it away beside the trail, and the man told Batel he needs to talk to Michael, but Batel said, "No, as long as your here, I'm fine," once more the man told him, he has to talk to Michael, and just then is when Michael gently woke him up, that is why he says, "it's you, it's you."
 It has been encouraging to see such a joyful man, and he freely talks about death, and that he is not scared at all, I walked to the clinic this morning, and took this picture and his big smile really touched me, he was so joyful, and then I spent time praying for him, his tears were rolling down his cheeks over his big smile, and before I left I gave him a hug, and he just kept saying thank you.
IT IS WORTH ALL CHEERING ONCE SOUL, IT IS WORTH TO SHOW JESUS TO ONE PERSON, IT IS WORTH IT ALL. LET US SERVE WHERE WE ARE AND GO WHERE HE ASKS US TO, DO NOT WAIT, IT COULD BE TO LATE FOR THAT SOUL.

Working in the CTC...

Greetings in Jesus' name to each one!

It's been a while since I contributed to the blog here, since leaving last October! Coming back for a bit has been such a good experience- seeing old friends, hearing familiar songs, living in the old quarters and being back in the Haitian culture... it's been very good!

Originally my cousin Ben and I were supposed to be here for a week, tagging along on a medical equipment delivery team headed up by Brian Eveleth from Wellman, IA. He was teaching afternoon classes at the clinic, so we were learning a few things about clinic work and just enjoying the short visit. But our nice, short, week-long visit suddenly became much more than just that...

One day at clinic we were beginning the afternoon classes, when a woman came through the clinic gate; her husband supporting her as she half walked, half staggered into the sitting area. She was severely dehydrated.

Anita got an IV going immediately and realized very quickly that we were dealing with cholera. A decision was made to utilize the depot building (affectionately referred to as the "CTC" during the cholera epidemics) again in order to contain the disease. The guys quickly cleared out the porch and we placed her there for treatment.

A couple days later Steve and I went to northern Haiti with Pastor Levi for a family visit, but while gone we got reports about few more cholera patients coming in. Unfortunately the mission was already under staffed, so starting another fully operational CTC would be difficult for everyone. So it was decided that Ben and I would stay longer and help out, if the need would arise. When we got back they had a tent set up in the depot courtyard and several people languishing on beds inside. The need had arisen: we were starting up a CTC again...

In the following week and a half, Ben helped out where needed in the day time, while I took the night shift. The clinic nurses worked hard, taking turns each day, rotating their time between the normal clinic and the CTC. It was definitely a stretching experience, but a very good and rewarding one. The time spent there was rewarding, not only because we were saving people's physical lives, but we were able to show them the light of Christ while they were there. I had to think about this as an opportunity to "wash people's feet"(as it were): changing bed pads, clothes and blankets when soiled, dumping buckets full of cholera waste, refilling people's ORS drinks and trying to make things as comfortable for them as possible while they were recovering. Several of us had opportunities to pray with the patients.

Now, today, the short epidemic is stayed and the CTC is empty; we haven't had anyone come in with cholera for several days, praise God! The government and various organizations have done a good job going into the infected area, treating water sources and educating people on the prevention of the disease. If they continue to have cases, they will put up their own CTC, thus freeing us up from ours here.

Many thanks to everyone who prayed for us during this time. As I said, it's been a good few weeks. The amazing thing to me was seeing everyone at the mission pitch in and give their all- above and beyond their normal service and pressing themselves to do more for the good of these dear people...

Continue to pray for the missionaries here, that they'd quickly recover from the exhaustion of running extra hours and dealing with the hardships of CTC maintenance during the last 2 weeks! God is good.

Thanks again for your support! Blessings to each one of you!

-Nathan Grice

As Steve and I traveled back from the north, we picked up CTC supplies at CAM.  

Thankfully they had many of the needed supplies on hand.

We loaded up Pastor Levi's truck and headed for the hills.

Beautiful morning sunrise...

Laundry drying on top of the depot.

We did wash each day, so this was a regular sight up there :)

The front of the CTC:

Waste buckets on the left, trash in the tall red bins, wash water in the large, black drum.

The tent is barely visible behind the building.

Some of our first patients, recovering on the now-enclosed porch.

This is the supply room-

All the IV fluids, ORS, bed pads, bleach, HTH and lots of gloves.

A nice place to take a snooze...

More patients inside the depot building.

We had about 3 people on average, per day.

We also had a few people come that didn't have cholera.

These people mostly had some sort of flu, so they were treated and sent home the same day, usually.

The other day we had one of the final people come in:

A little old man, practically deaf, 95 years old, complaining about stomach cramps.

We were able to treat him and send him home, though, because he ended up not having cholera.

We were thankful for that, and so was he :)

CTC Update

Well I am pleased to tell you all this beautiful morning that the CTC is empty, we haven't had anyone coming in now for the last 2 days for sure, there have been a few people that come in but they don't have cholera so we release them.
We are really praying hard that the scare has ended and we can relax and get back into a more normal routine now.
Just to let give an update on the publicity we got through this all, the doctor for the clinic went on TV last week and talked about the cholera clinic etc here, we heard it through the grape vine somehow, on Saturday the Red Cross shows up to check things out and dropped of some meds for cholera treatment, Marcel the Police Chief we heard was on the radio after that, and then on Monday a motto stops here at the gate and this well dressed lady jumps of, she was sent out by the Minister of Health, to see if everything was true that they heard and she talked to all the patients that were here at the time, before she left she said that she will get to work and open a treatment centre in the area where the cholera patients are coming from. I am not sure if they have already, we haven't heard yet.
Oops, I just heard Nathan telling Katie he will call her if he needs an IV put in, so that means a patient did arrive, but now Nate is telling me he believes its not cholera, just a flue bug.
Anyway continue to pray with us that this epidemic is over and won't start again.

Empty cots, clean room.

God Grant Us Wisdom

We have been blessed with a slower pace at the CTC, we only have one patient on IV and one on observation, we've only had one come in since yesterday morning.
We did get word that they have been out yesterday and today to treat the water sources, and we are still expecting more people but hoping none will come.

This 12 year old boy came to the clinic yesterday and after checking him out Katie noticed his head is full of abcesses, incredibly itchy and very painful. Dr. Benish was here and he said all his hair needs to be cut to drain all the puss.
You can only imagine how painful the cries and anguish was from him, at times begging to stop, thrashing around, and ending up on the floor a few times, lolipops didn't help to much in this case.
Standing there watching and walking through the clinic and observing different people faces, happy, sad, joyful, hurting, in pain, question filled eyes, and then walking back to the mission, and seeing a person carried in on a stretcher, another coming on a horse, I got this overwhelming feeling of thankfulness that I could be here, and see God's love being poured out in a literal way, seeing the deacon lead out in song as the people waited, someone else handing out tracks and booklets, and talking to people about the gospel, then I got this picture of Jesus and how His life was filled with healing people, and how they started believing in Him. Keep praying for the work here. Thank you all for you prayer and support

Miss Leda, is cutting all his hair of.

Here you can see some of the abcesses all over his head.



Katie putting in her first IV, this gentlemen came in with Shigellosis.
It's intestinal infection and also causes diareaha. He was brought to the CTC
gate on a stretcher so we thought it was cholera but it wasn't, so Anita is
is letting Kaiti put the IV in, worked first try. Then his family carried him
down to the clinic for an over night stay.
I found it interesting that they would walk from 5 hours away and bring 17
family members along.

Cholera Up date

   A short update on the cholera epidemic. We heard this morning the doctor was out in the area from where the cholera patients come from and he says that their water way and source of water has been contaminated, he is sending a group of people out to treat the water today, we ask for prayer that it would stop the epidemic from getting worse and spreading further into other areas. What could have happened is that someone buried a person who passed away from cholera and it made its way into the water source.
   It didn't sound hopeful that they would start up the cholera clinic out there anytime soon, it could take a few weeks for that to happen. So we cleared more area in the depot and Steve got a load of meds from CAM yesterday, so we are prepared to treat a huge amount if needed. We are hoping it will not get worse then it is.
   We released two patients and had around 4 or 5 come in. Couple of them are quite sick and a few of them are Fish Bowl Patients, (Patients not on bed or intravenous) just drinking oral re hydration stuff (OR) and being observed for a few hours and released. We are seeing more patients that come in with the slightest stomach ache or they felt something not quite right with them, yesterday, we call it fear, so we check them out and make sure they're fine and send them on down the trail again.
  

Picture of some patients in the tent.



Katie Lapp, she is the main day shift CTC nurse.

 

Ben Gavin. He is also on day shift does the heavy lifting, etc.

Cholera/Clinic Updates.

   A quick update on our neighbor, Moise went out to Ti-Goave to have his 3rd toe amputated on Sunday afternoon with Pastor Levy, this morning we heard that the hospital in town won't amputate it under $2500.00 Haitian Dollars, ($312 USD) They can't afford that, so we are looking for a hospital that will do it for less.

  
   I don't believer any of us were very surprised this morning when we got up and heard that we had another cholera patient on the way, our third one, we barely had her settled in when the fourth one came. And shortly after that two more showed up, thankfully the last two were not that bad and we could release them a few hours after watching them.
   So we are now down to 3, but that can change quite quickly. Anita and Katie have been the main nurses for the CTC, and it has been a blessing having Brian here also, he did the night shift so the girls could get some much needed rest, and this morning Brian went to the clinic and helped do consultations with Dilo, a young man that knows English well, he translated for Brian.
   As you can see below, Delwyn, Ben and myself spent most of the morning leveling the ground beside the depot and setting up the cholera tent for more room. Breakfast at 11:45 AM was much needed!!!
   We heard this morning that the chief medical doctor from Ti-Goave is supposed to go back to the area where these cholera patients are from and see how wide spread it is.

 

They come on all kinds of interesting looking stretchers.

 

 

This gentlemen came in on a chair stretcher.

 

Just finished setting up the tent.

    This little girl came to the clinic this morning with her daddy, she is 18 months old, we are not sure exactly what the problem is, either she has worms or an impacted Colan. They decided to send her out to town, Rhoda filled out transfer papers and got her ready to go.

This is the little girl with the constipated stomach.