It has probably been a little over two weeks since we heard about a young man with such a bad sore on his leg that he couldn't get on a moto to come to the clinic. One afternoon Todd, Donna (his wife), Keith and I got into Todd's machine to go to this boys house. We didn't really know what this wound was from, only knew that he had a large wound, so packing a box of supplies to take with us was a guessing game. We could drive almost all the way to this house also, just had to walk a few minutes. We found a decent house with cement floors and walls. In the one bedroom was a 16 year old boy on a small bed. The house didn't have electricity and we went in the afternoon after clinic so it was pretty dark in the house. Luckily I have a flashlight on my phone that we could use to see his wound. It was on the back side of his leg just below the knee. It had apparently started as a blister then progressed possibly into an abscess that had already drained large amounts. Now it was a big hole. It didn't look infected really but did have some deep places especially on the sides. We cleaned it and put a dressing on it then gave him some antibiotics and pain medicine. We left a few dressing supplies at the house too for the mom to change the dressing in a couple days. We really thought for this wound to heal properly though this boy would need to go to the hospital and get it cleaned out good and the dead tissue cut away. So we took some pictures of the wound and sent the pictures to a Dr who coordinates surgeons, etc...from other places that will come to Haiti periodically. There was an orthopedic doctor coming in about a week who could do surgery on this wound so we set them up an appointment and everything... And thought that wound would be taken care of. But the family didn't take the boy to the appointment. So, several days later the family again wonders if we can do anything to help them? They say the wound has gotten a lot better with antibiotics and more frequent dressing changes. I'm sorry, we had things set up to help them when the surgeon was here, now he is gone ...
There is a family here where the grandmother has two of her daughters and their children living in her home. The one daughter has had a lot of problems since having her children. Her one little girl is probably three years old and her other little girl is nine months old now. Their mother is unable to even take care of herself at this point so the grandmother has her hands full. They come to the clinic often it seems like. The children always seem to have coughs and colds and are malnourished. We give them rice almost every time they come. I have been worried about the baby for several months now. She simply isn't gaining weight, rather she is slowly losing weight. When I asked the family if they were giving the baby the food we sent home with them I never could get a direct answer. Now this little girl is nine months old and weighs nine pounds. She used to be able to sit up by herself but I don't think she can anymore. She has had numerous antibiotics etc... Finally I told Keith that if we don't do something this baby is going to die. Our church has an orphanage in Ganthier so Keith said he would talk with them. They accepted her! So two days later she goes to the orphanage. Now I know she will get good food and enough of it, I just hope we didn't get her there too late. They say she doesn't know how to drink from a bottle and besides she is too weak for that anyway. They have had to feed her with a medicine dropper so that all she needs to do is swallow and she still tires very easily.
Last Friday was a very eventful day here! It started out normal until a lady came in in labor. She has four children already so didn't expect any problems. She wasn't quite ready to push yet so we had her walk a while then started an IV to give her some fluid. When she was closer we gave her some pitocin. Not too long after this we suspect problems. She just isn't advancing like she should. So we check her again, and something feels different! We think the baby is breech and instead of a round head we are feeling a round baby butt. We get the Doppler out and confirm the baby's head is not down. Ok, so, in the U.S. this news would probably mean an automatic c-section. Actually a c-section would probably already be scheduled because from ultrasounds, etc... They would know the baby is breech. What now? Trevor and Mirlene were planning on going down to Port so they go home to prepare to go, and if the baby hasn't been born before they leave they will take this lady down to the hospital also. Meanwhile, the mom is still having contractions and we think maybe we are getting a little closer. We try changing the moms position to see if that will help. It doesn't. The baby is too far down to change its position, and the mom is in pain. Remember, we don't have epidurals here...
After much drama and stress the baby's body is slowly born, but then the baby is stuck again. Her whole body has been born except for her head... And it is stuck! We try everything we can think of plus whatever hairbrained idea comes into our heads that we think possibly might work... To no avail... We even did an episiotomy but still the baby wouldn't be born. By now we are afraid that the baby won't be alive. But we can't really send the mom down like this! Finally, after many prayers and more sweat than I've lost any other day since I've been in Haiti, the baby is born. We suction out her nose and mouth but she doesn't have a heartbeat , so we let her go. It seems if she would have lived she surely would have had brain damage from lack of oxygen. Only God knows...
This paragraph really doesn't do justice to all that did happen that day...
Saturday it started raining. It is supposed to be rainy season now but has been very dry. Cisterns were getting empty, crops failed etc... It rained off and on all day Saturday then all day Sunday and now off and on today. It has been wonderful! Now our cistern is only a few inches from overflowing. But rain here takes life to a totally different level. There were only a handful of people in church in the morning and we didn't have church in the evening. Many people have to walk and not near everyone is able to afford a pair of boots. Plus, the mud here is very slippery. A four wheel drive is a must for some of these hills. And pretty much the only umbrellas I've seen belong to the "whites". Several of the clinic workers didn't even show up today, I'm sure because it was raining. We had few enough patients show up that we didn't have to go back after lunch.
This weekend the children's school teacher will be coming and it is Sallie's wedding...
Monday, August 25, 2014
Monday, August 18, 2014
Dirty baby week...
It has been a busy week. Last week it seemed like there were extra many dirty babies brought in. One was 10 days old and still had crud behind his ears from when he was born. The complaint was that the baby wouldn't eat. He only weighed about five pounds and was probably too weak to get enough milk to sustain him. We sent them home with syringes to feed him with until he gets a little stronger because he did well with swallowing for us just didn't seem to have enough energy to suck also. I hope he makes it. Another one was three months old and had bad skin problems. She had no diaper on and had raw places on her butt, I guess just from not being kept clean. I don't think this little girls' hair had ever been washed and if it had been combed through it wasn't very recently. It was filthy! Just while washing it we got out clumps of hair. We had to wash it several times and still didn't get it as clean as I wanted. This child also had the worst case of thrush I have ever seen in her mouth. Her whole mouth was white! It was to the point she wasn't eating much at all because her mouth was so sore. We ended up giving her IVF's and several medicines to go home with.
The lady with the massive abscess from her tooth came back and the swelling had gone down a lot so we removed the drain. She still couldn't open her mouth even an inch wide. She was supposed to come again today and if she could open her mouth further and if the swelling has continued to go down we wanted to refer her to a dentist to get the tooth pulled. She didn't show up today so we don't know if for some reason she was unable to come or if she chose not to because she was feeling so much better...
One more unusual thing we saw was a lady with a wound to the inside and just above her knee. She had been bit by a donkey! The wound was over a week old already so I couldn't clean it very well because it was so dry so we put a dressing on to help loosen everything up. She has been coming back every few days for us to change her dressing.
Last Friday was an eventful day... About 11:30 a truck drives in with a patient for us. It is a lady who had had a baby at 8:00 that morning. CAUTION! If you don't like reading about blood stop reading now!!!! They think she possibly has another baby inside that isn't being born for some reason and she is bleeding a lot. We get her into the exam room and Githane does an ultrasound to see if there is another baby because there is a mass in her abdomen but it doesn't feel like a baby to us. It isn't another baby but we aren't sure what it is. We question the family where the baby is that was born earlier. It had died. We ask if the placenta was intact and they think it was. But she is bleeding a lot and is already very anemic. We start an IV and get some fluids running then I have to see if I can find anything that would cause bleeding, possibly some retained placenta... Sorry guys. That's just the way it is though... I felt very sorry for the patient but had no other option. She continues to bleed. We give her two shots that are supposed to decrease bleeding but see no change. From what I can guess from feeling is that she has a hole in her uterus. Todd gets to the clinic soon and that's what he thinks too so she needs an emergency hysterectomy and we are three hours from a hospital. Keith and Todd are getting ready to take her down. In between all this we find out from the husband that this lady was warned not to have any more children by a doctor. He is not sure why but she does have nine children already. Then we find out that this lady tried to abort this baby in May so maybe there have been problems since then. We try to give the patient some ensure we have. She takes a little then indicates she doesn't want anymore. Not long after this she hawks out a milk loogy that lands somewhere on my printed scrub top. I don't see where until I feel wetness on my arm. Anyway... The lady starts getting upset saying she is dying etc... We have the stretcher ready to load her in the vehicle that Keith is supposed to be bringing. Meanwhile... We can no longer pick up an oxygen saturation and are unable to get a blood pressure. She died shortly after. It had only been about 30 minutes since I had talked to Keith but he had been unable to get the truck started for some reason. So there is no way she would have made it to the hospital but we were doing our best... A few minutes later Keith drives on the yard, not sure why but I guess it wasn't meant to be that she would go down. Looking back, I think she had probably lost more than half of her blood before she even got to us.
So long... For now...
The lady with the massive abscess from her tooth came back and the swelling had gone down a lot so we removed the drain. She still couldn't open her mouth even an inch wide. She was supposed to come again today and if she could open her mouth further and if the swelling has continued to go down we wanted to refer her to a dentist to get the tooth pulled. She didn't show up today so we don't know if for some reason she was unable to come or if she chose not to because she was feeling so much better...
One more unusual thing we saw was a lady with a wound to the inside and just above her knee. She had been bit by a donkey! The wound was over a week old already so I couldn't clean it very well because it was so dry so we put a dressing on to help loosen everything up. She has been coming back every few days for us to change her dressing.
Last Friday was an eventful day... About 11:30 a truck drives in with a patient for us. It is a lady who had had a baby at 8:00 that morning. CAUTION! If you don't like reading about blood stop reading now!!!! They think she possibly has another baby inside that isn't being born for some reason and she is bleeding a lot. We get her into the exam room and Githane does an ultrasound to see if there is another baby because there is a mass in her abdomen but it doesn't feel like a baby to us. It isn't another baby but we aren't sure what it is. We question the family where the baby is that was born earlier. It had died. We ask if the placenta was intact and they think it was. But she is bleeding a lot and is already very anemic. We start an IV and get some fluids running then I have to see if I can find anything that would cause bleeding, possibly some retained placenta... Sorry guys. That's just the way it is though... I felt very sorry for the patient but had no other option. She continues to bleed. We give her two shots that are supposed to decrease bleeding but see no change. From what I can guess from feeling is that she has a hole in her uterus. Todd gets to the clinic soon and that's what he thinks too so she needs an emergency hysterectomy and we are three hours from a hospital. Keith and Todd are getting ready to take her down. In between all this we find out from the husband that this lady was warned not to have any more children by a doctor. He is not sure why but she does have nine children already. Then we find out that this lady tried to abort this baby in May so maybe there have been problems since then. We try to give the patient some ensure we have. She takes a little then indicates she doesn't want anymore. Not long after this she hawks out a milk loogy that lands somewhere on my printed scrub top. I don't see where until I feel wetness on my arm. Anyway... The lady starts getting upset saying she is dying etc... We have the stretcher ready to load her in the vehicle that Keith is supposed to be bringing. Meanwhile... We can no longer pick up an oxygen saturation and are unable to get a blood pressure. She died shortly after. It had only been about 30 minutes since I had talked to Keith but he had been unable to get the truck started for some reason. So there is no way she would have made it to the hospital but we were doing our best... A few minutes later Keith drives on the yard, not sure why but I guess it wasn't meant to be that she would go down. Looking back, I think she had probably lost more than half of her blood before she even got to us.
So long... For now...
Monday, August 11, 2014
A look at several more of our patients...
Last week we had a lady come to the clinic from quite a ways away. It took her several hours to walk here. She had very high blood pressure and what looks like a carotid aneurysm! She has this place on her neck a little bigger than my thumb size that we could see pulsing with every heart beat. Apparently she has had this about two years already and it hasn't changed in size. All we can do for her is help her lower her blood pressure which will hopefully reduce the risk of it rupturing...
On Friday last week the orphanage girls came up to Oriani. One of the girls' parents were here. They wanted to do something in the afternoon and we hadn't been to Gros Cheval to change the dressings on the man with a broken back for a while so decided to take them all along. We had met a health agent two weeks ago who said he could change this man's dressings every few days for us so we gave him a box of supplies. Come to find out, no one has been to this man's house even once to change his dressings! I was not happy about that! Keith called the guy and the story is they thought we meant a different patient so have been going to this other person's house and changing their dressings. We don't know of another patient with bad wounds but it could be there is one.
To get to this house we drove a ways then took a short walk through a field and then through some banana trees into the yard. We find this man slouched in a wooden chair inside the house. The dressings are still on but are very dirty. The room doesn't have a pleasant smell either so Keith and Todd ( Tasha's dad) carry this man in his chair out into the sunshine. He has no feeling or movement from his mid chest down so I helped with holding his feet. We see there is a wheelchair in his room, we didn't know he had one. We ask why someone hasn't helped him outside earlier. The sister in law who is there says she can't move him herself and can't get anybody to help her. Keith asks more questions about this because it doesn't make any sense. We walked through someone's yard to get there where there were probably six men working and by now several others have come to see what "the whites" have come for. The sad story comes out bit by bit... If the sister in law so much as touches this man to help him with anything... No one will eat what she has cooked for the rest of the day... They don't give him food every day... People think he may have something contagious... The family really wants this man to die...it's a very sad story. We were able to ask the patient some more questions in our language because he knows English and everyone standing around wouldn't be able to understand. He is a Christian... Another time when we arrived he was reading his bible. His mother is dead. He doesn't have anyone who is willing to help him, nobody wants to touch him. Yet he has courage and faith in God. He asked that we would remember him every time we pray and I don't think that will be difficult. I also had brought him some medicine. He asked if he needed to drink when he took them... I guess sometimes he isn't given anything to drink. For interests sake... I could see and feel his leg bone while cleaning one of his wounds... Candace was along too so while we were changing the dressings she was talking to his family. When she told them he needed food every day... Good food, extra protein, etc... To help heal his wounds, they looked at her in disbelief... Keith had a very touching prayer before we left, I hope it impressed everyone else around who heard it as much as it did us.
After leaving there we met up with a man whose sister we had taken down to the hospital to get treatment for HIV. We walked to their house which " wasn't far at all, just over this hill" turned out to be up this mountainside, down through a ravine, up another hill, etc...This is another very sad story. This girl is about 26 years old and has two children. Her husband is not a good man and left her for his many other girlfriends. He is who she got this disease from. We had tested her at our clinic because when she came in several weeks ago she was just wasting away. Her dad had brought her to the clinic. When we told her what she had she begged us not to tell her family. She said they will kick her out of the house if they find out. Apparently she doesn't trust any of her siblings either with this information. The hospital was understanding of the situation also so she is getting treatment but the family doesn't know exactly what for. She is a beautiful young lady, but so wasted away from this sickness. She also is a Christian. When we got there she was in bed (she is too weak to walk) with a tract of bible verses she had picked up at the clinic close to her heart. She kept this with her while the family brought her outside so she could sit and visit with us a few minutes. She was so short of breath she had to pause between words to breathe. I don't think she will be here much longer...
Another patient we saw last week has been to the clinic in the past for dressing changes several times a week but hadn't been to the clinic since I've been here. She has a history of elephantiasis. It causes lymph nodes to not work properly and can cause large amounts of swelling. Her left leg had wounds from poor circulation from this. When she came this time she was unconscious. Her heart rate was about 34 beats per minute. She was dying. By this time her wound in her groin was so large I couldn't have fit my fist into it easily with room to spare. The wound tissue was gray. She had obviously been slowly bleeding out from this wound also because she was VERY anemic. We gave her some IVF 's so that the family would feel that we did something but told them she would probably die very soon. She died later that day.
Then on Saturday a lady came to the house with a very swollen cheek. I didn't know if it was an abscess or cancer so we went to the clinic to examine further. She said she had been to a dentist earlier but he hadn't had time to pull her tooth. We gave her a shot for pain because she couldn't even open her mouth far enough to swallow a pill then put some lidocaine in her cheek and stuck in a needle. It was a huge abscess! We used a scalpel to open it a little more and got amazing amounts of pus out. After a while we were debating whether we should call it good and put a dressing on it or go a bit deeper. We opted to go a bit deeper and the results were astounding! I don't see how so much nasty stuff could be in a cheek but the swelling did go clear around under her jaw too. Then we put a drain in so this wound could continue to drain. The lady was from quite a ways away so we asked if she had any family around. She did have some family right close to our house so she spent night and got her dressing changed again that night and the next morning. Then I gave her supplies to change the dressing at home until she comes back on Wednesday. The problem is, Todd and I are both afraid she will need more than a dentist to heal this. She had had this problem for twenty days prior to coming to us so it could easy be there is infection in her jaw bone. ... So that has been my life for the past week...
On Friday last week the orphanage girls came up to Oriani. One of the girls' parents were here. They wanted to do something in the afternoon and we hadn't been to Gros Cheval to change the dressings on the man with a broken back for a while so decided to take them all along. We had met a health agent two weeks ago who said he could change this man's dressings every few days for us so we gave him a box of supplies. Come to find out, no one has been to this man's house even once to change his dressings! I was not happy about that! Keith called the guy and the story is they thought we meant a different patient so have been going to this other person's house and changing their dressings. We don't know of another patient with bad wounds but it could be there is one.
To get to this house we drove a ways then took a short walk through a field and then through some banana trees into the yard. We find this man slouched in a wooden chair inside the house. The dressings are still on but are very dirty. The room doesn't have a pleasant smell either so Keith and Todd ( Tasha's dad) carry this man in his chair out into the sunshine. He has no feeling or movement from his mid chest down so I helped with holding his feet. We see there is a wheelchair in his room, we didn't know he had one. We ask why someone hasn't helped him outside earlier. The sister in law who is there says she can't move him herself and can't get anybody to help her. Keith asks more questions about this because it doesn't make any sense. We walked through someone's yard to get there where there were probably six men working and by now several others have come to see what "the whites" have come for. The sad story comes out bit by bit... If the sister in law so much as touches this man to help him with anything... No one will eat what she has cooked for the rest of the day... They don't give him food every day... People think he may have something contagious... The family really wants this man to die...it's a very sad story. We were able to ask the patient some more questions in our language because he knows English and everyone standing around wouldn't be able to understand. He is a Christian... Another time when we arrived he was reading his bible. His mother is dead. He doesn't have anyone who is willing to help him, nobody wants to touch him. Yet he has courage and faith in God. He asked that we would remember him every time we pray and I don't think that will be difficult. I also had brought him some medicine. He asked if he needed to drink when he took them... I guess sometimes he isn't given anything to drink. For interests sake... I could see and feel his leg bone while cleaning one of his wounds... Candace was along too so while we were changing the dressings she was talking to his family. When she told them he needed food every day... Good food, extra protein, etc... To help heal his wounds, they looked at her in disbelief... Keith had a very touching prayer before we left, I hope it impressed everyone else around who heard it as much as it did us.
After leaving there we met up with a man whose sister we had taken down to the hospital to get treatment for HIV. We walked to their house which " wasn't far at all, just over this hill" turned out to be up this mountainside, down through a ravine, up another hill, etc...This is another very sad story. This girl is about 26 years old and has two children. Her husband is not a good man and left her for his many other girlfriends. He is who she got this disease from. We had tested her at our clinic because when she came in several weeks ago she was just wasting away. Her dad had brought her to the clinic. When we told her what she had she begged us not to tell her family. She said they will kick her out of the house if they find out. Apparently she doesn't trust any of her siblings either with this information. The hospital was understanding of the situation also so she is getting treatment but the family doesn't know exactly what for. She is a beautiful young lady, but so wasted away from this sickness. She also is a Christian. When we got there she was in bed (she is too weak to walk) with a tract of bible verses she had picked up at the clinic close to her heart. She kept this with her while the family brought her outside so she could sit and visit with us a few minutes. She was so short of breath she had to pause between words to breathe. I don't think she will be here much longer...
Another patient we saw last week has been to the clinic in the past for dressing changes several times a week but hadn't been to the clinic since I've been here. She has a history of elephantiasis. It causes lymph nodes to not work properly and can cause large amounts of swelling. Her left leg had wounds from poor circulation from this. When she came this time she was unconscious. Her heart rate was about 34 beats per minute. She was dying. By this time her wound in her groin was so large I couldn't have fit my fist into it easily with room to spare. The wound tissue was gray. She had obviously been slowly bleeding out from this wound also because she was VERY anemic. We gave her some IVF 's so that the family would feel that we did something but told them she would probably die very soon. She died later that day.
Then on Saturday a lady came to the house with a very swollen cheek. I didn't know if it was an abscess or cancer so we went to the clinic to examine further. She said she had been to a dentist earlier but he hadn't had time to pull her tooth. We gave her a shot for pain because she couldn't even open her mouth far enough to swallow a pill then put some lidocaine in her cheek and stuck in a needle. It was a huge abscess! We used a scalpel to open it a little more and got amazing amounts of pus out. After a while we were debating whether we should call it good and put a dressing on it or go a bit deeper. We opted to go a bit deeper and the results were astounding! I don't see how so much nasty stuff could be in a cheek but the swelling did go clear around under her jaw too. Then we put a drain in so this wound could continue to drain. The lady was from quite a ways away so we asked if she had any family around. She did have some family right close to our house so she spent night and got her dressing changed again that night and the next morning. Then I gave her supplies to change the dressing at home until she comes back on Wednesday. The problem is, Todd and I are both afraid she will need more than a dentist to heal this. She had had this problem for twenty days prior to coming to us so it could easy be there is infection in her jaw bone. ... So that has been my life for the past week...
Monday, August 4, 2014
Another cholera victim...
This patient was a 19 year old male who came to the clinic with cholera. He was pretty bad off when he got to us. I couldn't get a thermometer to register a temperature because he was so cold. His blood pressure wouldn't take on the machine either and I didn't take time to take it manually. We started two IV's and started getting fluid in as fast as we could. By the time he had three liters of IVF's in he was able to talk to us. After another liter and then a liter or two of oral rehydration he was feeling much better and was ready to go home. He was still very weak but no longer having the massive amounts of vomiting and diarrhea.
The weekend before last was the time for babies to be born. On Saturday a lady who is deaf and dumb came to the clinic and had a baby. Then on Sunday Mirlene and I left after hearing maybe 10 minutes of the sermon because there was another lady in labor. Then early Monday morning Keith got a call that another lady was coming in in labor. They got to the clinic about 4am and we knew right away that there were problems. First off, this mom was not big at all so we asked if she was at nine months. No, she was only seven months along but already had 10 children. Then I couldn't find the baby's heartbeat. And when I checked her I couldn't feel a head. But she was bleeding quite a bit. So we decided she needed to go down to a hospital in Port. Keith decided he would take her in our machine and so headed down about 5:30. I went back to bed and got another hour of sleep until Keith called me and said " this lady just delivered something, I'm not sure if it's a baby or what" So he turned around and brought them back to the clinic. It still wasn't time to open but I got our Haitian nurse to come too as she knows more about all this birthing stuff than I do. She had delivered a perfectly formed little boy. He wasn't alive. There was also no amniotic fluid at all. Then we found out she had been bleeding throughout this whole pregnancy but had only been to the clinic once. The funny thing was when our Haitian nurse told the dad " if you want to have fifty children you need to find another madam, this one has had enough" We kept the mom at the clinic a while longer and gave her some more IVF's. At about 10:00 another lady came in in labor. This was going to be her third child. She was getting close but we didn't think anything would happen for at least twenty minutes so Mirlene and I went to see some other patients. We left Sonia in with this lady. She was to call us when things got closer. It wasn't even five minutes later when we hear a rather panicky yell for us to come. We went right away but when we got to the room the baby was already born and trying its best to holler at us. So we sent these two ladies home at almost the same time.
On Tuesday I went down to Port with Keith because my family came! It was wonderful to see them all again. We also took a lady who has HIV down to a hospital. The third hospital we went to accepted her. One of the others had no empty beds and the other wasn't accepting patients because they didn't have any doctors there that day. It was some kind of holiday - festival of flowers- so lots of places were closed. We hadn't even known it was a holiday. We had almost everything done in Port that we could do with so many places closed so after we finished at the airport we had only one more stop before we headed up the mountain. On Saturday we all went to the market in Foret-de-pins then headed down to the beach in Grand Gosier. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We stopped in Thiottes for rice and beans for lunch then set up a time we would come to another little restaurant nearby for supper. We had a very good time in the water then washed up at the cold springs there. Then to get back to the vehicle we had to walk along the beach a ways. One place there are some pretty big rocks you have to climb over and sometimes we get wet from the waves washing up against the rocks. Anthony got slapped down by a wave twice trying to get by but made it on the third time. The waves seemed to be getting bigger and numerous of us got salty again.
I had had a sore throat for a couple of days but yesterday it was even worse so I did a strep test and it was positive. Then my one ear was really hurting so Todd looked in it and I have an ear infection too. So now I'm on a bunch of medication hoping to feel better soon. My family left this morning. I don't think Anthony and Shelly will ever forget their Haiti visit.
The weekend before last was the time for babies to be born. On Saturday a lady who is deaf and dumb came to the clinic and had a baby. Then on Sunday Mirlene and I left after hearing maybe 10 minutes of the sermon because there was another lady in labor. Then early Monday morning Keith got a call that another lady was coming in in labor. They got to the clinic about 4am and we knew right away that there were problems. First off, this mom was not big at all so we asked if she was at nine months. No, she was only seven months along but already had 10 children. Then I couldn't find the baby's heartbeat. And when I checked her I couldn't feel a head. But she was bleeding quite a bit. So we decided she needed to go down to a hospital in Port. Keith decided he would take her in our machine and so headed down about 5:30. I went back to bed and got another hour of sleep until Keith called me and said " this lady just delivered something, I'm not sure if it's a baby or what" So he turned around and brought them back to the clinic. It still wasn't time to open but I got our Haitian nurse to come too as she knows more about all this birthing stuff than I do. She had delivered a perfectly formed little boy. He wasn't alive. There was also no amniotic fluid at all. Then we found out she had been bleeding throughout this whole pregnancy but had only been to the clinic once. The funny thing was when our Haitian nurse told the dad " if you want to have fifty children you need to find another madam, this one has had enough" We kept the mom at the clinic a while longer and gave her some more IVF's. At about 10:00 another lady came in in labor. This was going to be her third child. She was getting close but we didn't think anything would happen for at least twenty minutes so Mirlene and I went to see some other patients. We left Sonia in with this lady. She was to call us when things got closer. It wasn't even five minutes later when we hear a rather panicky yell for us to come. We went right away but when we got to the room the baby was already born and trying its best to holler at us. So we sent these two ladies home at almost the same time.
On Tuesday I went down to Port with Keith because my family came! It was wonderful to see them all again. We also took a lady who has HIV down to a hospital. The third hospital we went to accepted her. One of the others had no empty beds and the other wasn't accepting patients because they didn't have any doctors there that day. It was some kind of holiday - festival of flowers- so lots of places were closed. We hadn't even known it was a holiday. We had almost everything done in Port that we could do with so many places closed so after we finished at the airport we had only one more stop before we headed up the mountain. On Saturday we all went to the market in Foret-de-pins then headed down to the beach in Grand Gosier. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We stopped in Thiottes for rice and beans for lunch then set up a time we would come to another little restaurant nearby for supper. We had a very good time in the water then washed up at the cold springs there. Then to get back to the vehicle we had to walk along the beach a ways. One place there are some pretty big rocks you have to climb over and sometimes we get wet from the waves washing up against the rocks. Anthony got slapped down by a wave twice trying to get by but made it on the third time. The waves seemed to be getting bigger and numerous of us got salty again.
I had had a sore throat for a couple of days but yesterday it was even worse so I did a strep test and it was positive. Then my one ear was really hurting so Todd looked in it and I have an ear infection too. So now I'm on a bunch of medication hoping to feel better soon. My family left this morning. I don't think Anthony and Shelly will ever forget their Haiti visit.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)