Merry Christmas!!

     Nathaniel and Brittni left on Monday. Trevor took us down to the airport. Somewhere I got mixed up and thought Nathaniel's left on Tuesday so that is the day Keith had bought a ticket for me to fly to Jeremi. April and her family had left several days earlier to go there and I was going to spend Christmas with them. So Trevor dropped me dropped me off at Franctzy and Sallies. I spent the rest of the day and night there then they took me to the airport the next morning. The flight was supposed to leave at 9:00 so I was supposed to be there at 8:00. Got there right on time. This plane makes one flight to Jeremi every day. My confirmation was a piece of paper that had my name, destination, etc... on it. Immediately inside the doors my luggage and I went through scanners. The scanner didn't beep so no further checking. I don't know how it didn't because those machines always beep about my hair pins but ??? I went up to the little counter and showed them my piece of paper. They checked my ID and gave me a little slip of paper that was my boarding pass. They weighed my back pack and determined it wasn't too heavy for me to carry then directed me to a seat. Soon after I sat down two little blind boys were directed to the seats in front of me. Slowly the small waiting room got more passengers waiting for the flight to Jeremi. No announcements were made at all. Nine o'clock came, then nine fifteen and nine thirty. I knew I hadn't missed the flight because no other flight had left except for one that was boarding when I got there. A little after nine fifteen I did notice the stack of luggage had disappeared. A few minutes after 9:30 a lady came to the front of the room and said we would board for Jeremi now. They took the blind boys first. There was no such thing as a luggage compartment under the plane, it was all stowed in the back of the plane. No overhead compartments either so we each placed our carry-ons in the back then found a seat. One seat on one side of. The aisle and two on the other. Each slip of paper had a row only, we each chose our own seats after that. Keith had told me to sit on the left side of the plane for a better view. The cockpit was not closed off from the other passengers, there was just a panel there and in the middle of the passengers boarding the pilot and co-pilot came in. It probably only took fifteen minutes to board because there werprobably only twenty seats and all luggage except what could fit under the seat in front of you had to go in the back. The pilot said the flight would take 40 minutes and we would fly at about 8,000 feet. No announcements about electronic devices so we all kept our cell phones on. The pilot started the plane and we were off down the runway. It was a noisy but smooth flight. We flew over the coastline a lot of the way. It was beautiful! We left about at the time we were supposed to land but I was able to text April mid flight about when we had taken off. Partway through the flight the sun was getting rather warm for the pilot so he used one hand to hold a Manila envelope against the windofor a shade. Right before landing I had a good view of the runway- hard packed dirt in between some grass. It was a smooth landing and when we were slowed down appropriately we drove over onto the grass to deplane. Out the plane windows I had seen April's family waiting, there was no fence around the runway at all. I picked up my bag and that was all there was to it. We left probably 10 minutes after we landed and headed to Abricote for lunch and the afternoon then went back to Jeremi for supper and night. We got a nice hotel there that just happened to have no other guests at the time so we chose the rooms that suited best. This hotel had mosquito netting over all of the beds. It had running water also, no hot water but when it's that hot outside a cold shower feels good! We also had fans in each room. The next day was Christmas Eve, and we went swimming in the Caribbean Ocean. It was absolutely beautiful! No one else was on the beach that day except one lady who came down to watch the "blancos" for a while. The water was crystal clear. The beach definitely had the "look" of the rest of Haiti- there was a lot of trash scattered everywhere but the sand and water were amazing.
We ate lunch in Jeremi then slowly but surely headed for Previle. April and her parents had been missionaries there for seven years when she was younger. They left when she was seven years old. The house they had lived in while they were there was empty so they brought some food, towels, sheets etc... And we stayed there. It is very pretty on the west end of Haiti. Obviously the elevation isn't as high as Oriani because it was warmer and there were a lot of palm trees also. The next day was Christmas. We visited some of the locals in the morning then took the younger kids to the river to go swimming for a while before lunch. We had a special lunch of roast beef, ( April's mom canned it and brought it with her) scalloped potatoes and green bean casserole. They had also brought along a bunch of homemade Christmas candy that made a good desert. The homemade caramel was the best! On the 26th we headed back to Port-au-Prince. The road was pretty good, some very bumpy gravel but also some pavement. We could see the coast off and on the whole way. We stopped in Ocai for lunch. We asked if there was anywhere they had fast-food-- you know--already cooked ;) We were led to a restaurant called Hot Spot. It was supposed to be a Chinese restaurant but also had cheeseburgers, pizza, hotdogs, etc... On the menu. As usual, they did not have near everything on the menu but we ordered burgers and pizza and it was good! And we were only there an hour and a half. We were led upstairs where the dining room was labeled VIP. We didn't mind at all because they had an air conditioner up there that worked well. Back in Port of course there was a lot of traffic so the going as slow. I had never been to the EpiDor restaurant so we went there for supper. I had a ham and cheese crepe and ice cream for desert. It was awesome! We were at the liaison house in Ganthier for night. Saturday morning we were just around the house there because a couple of the kids weren't feeling very good. April, her sister Emily, and I walked to the orphanage and hung out there for a while. After lunch we went shopping in Croix-Des-Bouquet market. That is a big, noisy, SMELLY market but fun. This morning on the way to church of course there was a road block. A pole had fallen over the road so nobody could get through. We eventually found a road around but were 45 minutes late by then. Oh well, this is Haiti. Time doesn't mean as much here as in U.S. We want to do a little more shopping tomorrow before we head back up to Oriani. And I want some ice cream one more time before we head up too.
   No clinic info this time because I wasn't there...

Big nasty..... Cyst...

      Several days ago we did a minor operation at the clinic. A lady came in who had a large cyst between her shoulder blades. Apparently this mass has been growing for three years. It is bigger than my fist. It doesn't seem to hurt her so this lady hadn't been anywhere to even get it checked out. It had a place where it looked like it was almost to burst open so we got out some instruments and some lidocaine and started our "surgery." It was absolutely amazing!!! This thing was FULL of cottage cheese consistency goop. We got out about two cups of that stuff. Thankfully, it didn't have a smell!

So we decided it really was a cyst and not an abscess because of the lack of pain. An abscess that size would have been super painful. We did put a drain in when we closed the skin. This lady was supposed to come back on Thursday for us to do a dressing change but didn't show up. She doesn't live very far from here but who knows what happened.
     My brother Nathaniel and his wife Brittni are here visiting now so we have been having a very enjoyable time. They flew in the same day Keith's left so that worked out well. Trevor and Mirlene took us to the beach in Grand Gosier yesterday. It was beautiful, as always. Then today we took moto  and went to Foret market. Tomorrow evening we have an invite to Savann Mouton to the unit after church.
     The triplets' mom was back the other day to get more formula for her babies. She is so happy for the help we are giving them. A BIG thank-you to everyone who sent money to help her. She is so grateful.
   One other interesting case we saw last week. A local lady was in another town where she found a young boy with an injured leg. There were no parents at the house where this child lived, just several other children. He looks like he is about 8-10 years old but he doesn't know his real age. He has a sore on his upper leg that he says has been there a long time. He also has a scar further up on his leg that he says was just like this wound. He has so much scar tissue around his knee already that he can't straighten his leg. This lady took him in and brought him to the clinic the next day. We gave her supplies for dressing changes at home and so far it seems like that is working well. He came back after several days of dressing changes done at home and the wound definitely looked better. Here's hoping it will heal so that we don't have to pursue other options of doctoring. Maybe even the de-wormer and good food will help.
    It seems very unreal that Christmas is almost here. It is warm here and there aren't any Christmas lights or music except what we have been singing in church the past several weeks. I just don't remember ever being able to wear flip-flops on Christmas Day.

Blood pressure, headaches, etc...

   The beginning of this week was a mental strain. I was on my own. It's just more strain on the brain... Keith was there off and on and I could always ask the other girls if I didn't understand something. But then I would have to go get them out of their exam room to come into my room to find out what was the matter with my patient then they would have to try to explain it to me in Creole. Tet fe mal! ( headache) There were a lot of patients those days too. Monday and Tuesday I was at the clinic until 5pm. Trevor and Mirlene went down last Saturday for her grandma's funeral. They stayed Sunday too then decided they would stay Monday also to work on her paperwork. They have this guy hired to do her paperwork and he is dishonest etc... He didn't get anything done on Monday so they stayed Tuesday also. On Tuesday Keith was on the phone with this guy for two hours, trying to figure out what the deal is, why nothing is getting done. Finally, Keith told the guy that the next day Trevor and Mirlene would be with him all day, Trevor would drive him around and be his transportation so they could get something done. So they stayed down Wednesday also. Drove this man around to different places and found out he hadn't even started on anything, but he did get started that day... By the way, Keith's got a paper for Ketli allowing her to travel to Ontario so they have tickets bought to fly there on the 17th. It doesn't look like Mirlene's papers will get through in time for them to go.
    Keith's really need a new vehicle so they had one shipped here. Today Keith, Zach, and Cam went to St Marc to try and get things there thru customs or whatever all needed to be done. The truck was packed full of stuff also. Some things for the clinic and then a few bigger things that aren't easy to bring by airplane. This process can take weeks. They didn't get the machine itself but got everything unloaded from inside it into a truck today. We thought everything was going good and we were getting somewhere until... Someone from customs stopped the truck. Now who knows what will happen. If the officials get upset over something they can seize the whole load and we will never see it again. Keith was trying to get this figured out before they leave on Wednesday because they will probably be gone about a month and then this stuff would all have to set somewhere, which could mean it may be damaged or stolen or who knows what.
   I had a lady come in to the clinic today complaining of a headache. It was the first time she had been to this clinic. Her blood pressure wouldn't register on the machine so I took it manually, twice. Her blood pressure was 280/160!! And she walked in... But no hospital and IV medicines for her. I gave her pills and she walked back out. I have seen one blood pressure higher than that. It was a patient who came in several weeks ago. The machine couldn't register hers either. The manual cuff I have goes up to 300.  I could hear the thumping the whole time. I had Githane come and double check her b/p. The closest we could guess was that her pressure was 300/200.  Neither of us had ever seen a blood pressure that high.
    April's family comes in tomorrow. Her parents, siblings, and grandparents are coming.

Nothing new...

   It's been a very busy week with a lot of patients but nothing really exciting. We did have a little girl with a badly burned hand and a burn on the bottom of her foot. I bandaged her up good and had her return in two days but that was a mistake. The dressing on her hand had come off the day before so that burn was all dried out and her fingers were stuck together. I covered it all with cream and another bandage and the next day it looked a lot better. Definitely didn't look good because a thick layer of skin was coming off but her fingers were no longer stuck together. I was very relieved that I didn't have to pull them apart. Her mom couldn't bring her for a dressing change the next day though because she had to wash clothes and now she has skipped several days. I hope she comes back soon because I think we could get it to heal nicely but??? I don't know where she lives so I can't go find her.
     Today we sent some people down to have cataract surgery. These people were chosen as good candidates back in July when we had an eye doctor up here. I think there were four people who went down. One lady was totally blind and was so very excited about being able to see again. She said if this surgery works and she can see she is going to come to our church and praise and thank The Lord for three days!
    Keith's are still trying to get all Ketli's paperwork figured out. Their family is hoping to go to Ontario for Christmas. Apparently with the paperwork they have she could enter Canada, the problem  is that Haiti won't let her leave. So they don't have tickets bought yet but are still hoping everything will work out. Mirlene is trying to get her paperwork through also but it is not easy. A corrupt government doesn't help either. People will say they can get the documents needed but then they are incorrect or something is missing.
   Ok, this is all for now...