More twins...

    On Monday a lady came to the clinic in labor. It was her first baby. We noticed one strange thing with her, her stomach was very lopsided. It was weird looking. She wasn't lying on the table crooked, she just had an odd shaped stomach. Turns out she has a little girl... But she still has a big bump in her stomach. She has twins and nobody knew it until now. I guess that accounts for the oddly shaped stomach. Shortly after she delivered a boy, healthy and hollering. The little girl was breathing good but never really cried. They were both big too for being twins. We don't normally weigh the newborns because it doesn't change the care we give and lots of families don't care that much about it. We did weigh these two though. They each weighed a little over six pounds. We called the dad in the room and told him he had a boy and a girl. Everyone was surprised. The really interesting thing is that there was only one placenta. That isn't supposed to be possible with a boy and a girl but that's how it was. We did some research on it and found out if it happens the placentas must have fused at twenty some weeks. It just isn't supposed to be that way.The family had carried this lady to the clinic on her bed and they have almost a two hour walk. Because the little girl didn't cry right away we wanted them to come back in a couple of days for a checkup. The proud grandma and an aunt walked the two hours here with the babies on Wednesday. They are both doing well. We really commended the family on how clean the babies were too. I think they will do fine. Hopefully they will bring the babies back in a couple of weeks for vaccines so we can keep track of them.

   Tuesday brought another lady in in labor. This was her first baby too. She had a 10 pound boy. He looked so big and had so many fat rolls we had to weigh him too.
     Last week a lady came in with a very swollen arm and shoulder. She had gotten a Depo shot eight days earlier at another clinic. Now it looked very infected. It was hot and shiny and swollen. I got several ml's of pus out but not very much. We gave her two different antibiotics and told her to come back in two days. She didn't show up until this Tuesday - and now she has a hole in her arm. The area is about 1 1/2inches in diameter and probably an inch deep. It doesn't look infected right now, it's just a big hole.

We had thought that she must have been given the shot with a dirty needle but this looks worse than that. Now we suspect the medication must not have been Depo. It had to be some kind of medicine that causes tissue necrosis. I had to clean the wound out before I packed it and I could tell it was very painful. Personally, I can't imagine what that would feel like- just a hole in your arm- clear down to the muscle. We tired to impress upon her the seriousness of this wound and that she has to come back often for dressing changes or she will lose her arm. I don't know if she really understands it or not but she promised to come back tomorrow so we'll see. The second time she came she also brought her nine month old baby with her. The baby is malnourished and only weighs 11 pounds so we gave her some food also. They do live a long ways away from the clinic but hopefully she will return.

Just a little more of the same...

     This week we didn't see anything too unusual. A lady did come in with a large mass on her back that looked like a cyst though. She said it had been there for 26 years already and didn't really bother her. We asked her if she wanted us to try and drain it and she did. I got out the lidocaine and we numbed it up good and attempted to drain it but were unsuccessful. It seemed to be filled with thick, yellow fat. I've read that that type of cyst grows kind of in a capsule and if you don't get all of the outside capsule out it will grow back again so we just quit. Told her she would need to see a surgeon to have it removed.
    Several days later the man came back that also had a large mass on his back. We had taken him down for surgery because over the course of about 10 days I had drained of over 100 ml of nasty looking fluid. We hadn't heard back from him since he went down. I asked him to take off his shirt so we could see what they had done... And they hadn't done one single thing to help this man. He needs this thing cut open to find out why the fluid keeps accumulating. We aren't even sure that any doctor saw him. They told him they couldn't do anything for him because the doctors that were there right then were eye doctors. I can see why an eye doctor wouldn't want to touch it but we know there is a Haitian doctor who works at that hospital who could have done something. But they didn't so... We are again looking for a general surgeon. When we find one we hope we can convince this man to go down to the hospital for another try.
      The CSI couple from Woche Blanche are leaving on the 26th of  January so this weekend the missionaries from Oriani, Savann Mouton, Jeremie and Woche Blanche got together for a farewell for them. Greg and Paula Goossen from Saskatchewan are here to take their place. Paula and I were together in Window Rock, Arizona also.
     April and I came down to Port with Trev and Mirlene on Friday and we were planning to go fabric shopping and buy medication for the clinic. But, the machine got us to Ganthier where Mirlene's folks live and quit. Actually it barely made it there. So we sat around and waited while Trevor tried to figure out what the problem was. He called Keith about what was going on and then we found out that there are going to be riots in Port this weekend. The American Embassy or someone had emailed him and were advising all "whites" to stay out of Port all weekend. So that crashed our original plans of fabric shopping down by the iron market while Trevor bought meds. Trevor thought he had it figured out what was the matter with the machine so Todd was going to bring him the parts he needed later that afternoon. Mirlene, April and I were getting pretty bored so we decided to take taptap and do some fabric shopping in Croix-des-Bouquet market. We walked down the street a ways to where the taptaps stop but weren't having any luck finding one with even close to enough room for three more people so we hired a moto to take us further up the road to the next stop. Here too everything seemed to be full or was going the opposite direction. Finally a truck stopped that was empty and the driver hollered that he was headed to Croix-des-Bouquet so we jumped in. It was an eventful ride with several people attempting to balance themselves on stools that were not attached to the truck bed. We got there though and got several pieces of fabric each. The ride back was in a minivan type machine with LOUD music. Then this morning after Trev got the machine fixed we were gonna try to at least go to a smaller pharmacy and get a few meds but alas, we were only about a mile down the road and the machine is making a bad noise again. This time Trevor says there are bigger problems and so we can't even drive the machine at all until it is fixed. Were we ever glad then that we had taken the chance yesterday and got some fabric. We will have to catch rides back up to Oriani but that shouldn't be a problem. I guess Trev will have to come down someday next week for meds.
     Keith got a ticket for me the other day to return to the U.S.  on February 11th. I'm happy and sad about it. We still haven't been able to find someone to take my place. Any volunteers?

Another breech baby and... A roach in the bedcovers

      Monday was a pretty normal day although it was long. But it was the first day we were open after the holidays so not bad considering. Tuesday had numerous patients carried in on beds. The first one appeared to just have a bad case of acid reflux but she hadn't left yet when the clinic suddenly had twice as many people waiting out front it seemed. Another lady was here on a bed. She was in labor and the baby was breech. It's head and one arm were still inside the mother so she was carried in on the bedclothes from her bed. It appeared she had been pushing for a long time because she was very swollen. The family denied that and said this just happened, she's only been in labor about two hours. Whatever the case, soon the baby was delivered but it wasn't breathing.  The people here seem so accepting of things not turning out as planned. I told them the baby had died but we thought the mom would be okay with some medicines and they were happy. I guess we should be glad too, if they had waited too long to bring them to the clinic the mother could be dead also. Anyway, Githane and I were listening to see if the baby had a heartbeat when out of the covers the mom was lying on... Crawls a roach. Not fast, just seeing what was going on I guess. I didn't want to see him in my room later so grabbed him up in my gloved hand ... And put him in the trash! Okay, think on this for a little. These people hadn't come from very far away, only the Chadek area, but they had to get this lady on her bed out of the house first then carry the whole contraption down whatever winding, narrow trail leads to their house, then however far on the "main" road which is gravel and not smooth at all. It's just a totally different world here.
     On Wednesday evening Dallas and Linda Koehn, with their son, Travis, came to live at our house until Keith's return on the 20th or the 21st. It does make it seem not quite so weird to lock up at night when April and I come out to our rooms and the house doesn't seem so big and empty with more people living here. Plus we have gotten in on some good cooking. It isn't nearly as much fun to cook when it's only for two people anyway.
     On another note, it is VERY dry and dusty here. Unless there is rain soon there will be a lot of hunger and suffering this year. There isn't much water in the cisterns either. At the catholic compound near here they have seven cisterns. They keep two for their own use, one got cracked in the earthquake, and three others are empty because we didn't get enough rain this fall. That leaves them with half of one cistern for a tremendous amount of people. So some days they aren't giving out water already. Last Sunday on the way to church we stopped at a local house to see if their little girl wanted to come to church with us. Lacey has been stopping there often to bring her to church because that family is into devil worship and other not so good things. She couldn't come with us because they hadn't gotten water that morning so she couldn't bath.
    Another interesting experience from this last week, we had another lady come in in labor. It was her first baby and she was scared. The baby was close enough we could see his hair but the mother absolutely... refused...to...push. She would NOT! We started an IV and got some fluids and pitocin going but still nothing. Finally we called one family member in to talk with her, to no avail... We have had some bad experiences here if the cord is around the baby's neck and the mother won't push. But we have no way of knowing, so far the fetal heart rate is good but... To put it plain and simply... Miss Githane gave this lady a spanking. Not on her behind but on her legs. And one little spat didn't do it, she had to continue... Several times. We knew of no other option but to try what we could. Talking and begging was getting us nowhere. The family member couldn't get her to push either. Telling her the baby was suffering got nowhere. We can't do a c-section up here. And the hospital is three hours away. Praise The Lord she did come around finally and the baby was born, and the cord wasn't around his neck either, and it only took a few minutes for him to breathe well. I'm beginning to wonder if the family brought her to the clinic for the birth because they were afraid of something like that happening at home. Who knows. She is good though and her baby boy is too so we are thankful.

Happy New Year

    It has been relatively quiet here for the past week. On New Year's Eve it was just Lacey, April and I at the house and we were tired so didn't stay up to watch the new year come in at all. There have been a few clinic calls now and then but nothing worth even writing about.  Life is so fragile here that sometimes when people get sick they just get scared. They think they have a very serious malady when they have vomited x3 today but have no pain anywhere. I'm sure they think too of someone they knew who maybe wasn't even sick for one day and died- whatever the cause may have been- cholera, heart attack, stroke etc... It can sometimes be very frustrating to me but to them it is very real.
   Tonight for church we had a service with Savann Mouton especially for the youth. All of the youth got together earlier in the afternoon then everyone was invited in the evening for a service with special songs and bible questions. We had teams of youth boys against youth girls for the bible quiz and it got quite animated!
    One more thing I was going to write about at Previle... Christmas afternoon we were walking to someone's house and had to pass through the yard of the local witch doctor. He was outside and there were several other people there also. We suspect someone had come and paid him money for a good luck charm or something of that sort. The witch doctor was holding a chicken in his hands, then he would spit on the chicken and rub it in. It was rather interesting to watch for a few minutes but I doubt whether any good came of it. Then that night when we were attempting to sleep they were having a party of some kind at this witch doctors house. There were drums beating, hollering and singing and all kinds of carrying on. They continued until sometime in the early morning hours. It was far enough away it didn't keep me awake but I don't think everyone in the house could say that.
     Clinic is open tomorrow for all maladies not only " emergencies" so???


P.S. I am putting in a plea for someone to come here and work in the clinic. I am planning on returning home around the first of February and as of yet we don't have anyone on the horizon to come. Please consider this, you won't regret it.