Going to the airport Wednesday morning- of course we had to leave early because my flight left at 9:15. We left at 4:00 in the morning with a machine load full of people who needed a ride to Port-au-Prince. Partway down the mountain we came across a kamyon tipped over on the road. It wasn't a very narrow or bad part of the road so all we can figure out is they must have been going way too fast and just lost control. Another truck was parked behind the one that was tipped over and the driver was determined he couldn't move his truck at all for us to get by. The guys all got out and thought we maybe could squeeze by if they moved some big rocks. Nothing like paving your own way through... So they heaved around on a couple of rocks then everyone jumped back in and we eased around, slowly but successfully. The four wheel drive doesn't work right now on the machine so I was afraid the guys would have to get back out and push the machine but after spinning a bit on the loose rocks we made it. However that truck decided to flip over at a place where we could squeeze by I don't know but I was glad. We made it to the airport in good time and the flights were uneventful. Craig and Lyndsey and their kids picked me up from the airport. On the way home we met some friends at a Mexican restaurant. It was SO good!
Now... I'm trying to fit back in here... Not fun, at all, but life.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Sunday, February 8, 2015
The week of "lasts"
Last day to go to Foret des Pins on moto, last Sunday in church here etc... The good news is- we do have nurses coming. About a week after I go home Rosalie Nichols from Kansas is coming here to work for 4-6 weeks. After that Kay Wedel from Mississippi is coming for several months and we are hoping after that Charlotte Nightengale will come for an indefinite amount of time. Then Kyle Isaac (he is an EMT) is coming to visit for a couple of weeks also and will possibly come for longer at a later date. Don't worry though, if you didn't get your name in quite soon enough this time we are sure there will be more chances.
Last week it rained a little bit several different days adding up to a little over two inches altogether and now yesterday and today it has rained off and on giving us another inch and a half. We are very happy for the rain. Now people are starting to prepare their gardens for the next crop.
Yesterday morning I woke up to a message on my phone about a lady who was at the clinic to have a baby. We had seen someone Friday evening also but she wasn't quite ready so we sent her back home. This lady had three children already so we didn't think it should be too bad of a delivery- at least she should know what is happening. Once again I think these ladies have a sixth sense when something isn't right. This lady had a very bad infection already. I started an IV and some oxytocin but things weren't progressing rapidly at all so April and I ate some granola we had brought along and then worked on stocking some medicines. After an hour or two the lady decided now was the time to have that baby. She didn't have a very hard time but the baby didn't look good at all when it was born. She had the cord around her neck and there was a lot of nasty fluid in her mouth and nose. I suctioned her right away and got a lot of stuff out of her airway but she still didn't look good and wasn't breathing so we got the cord cut then took the baby and worked on her for a while but she never took a breath. Finally I listened with a stethoscope to see if she had a heartbeat but she didn't. Her tongue and mouth were all coated with a green/brown film that stayed even after she was suctioned so I think she must have gotten some of that fluid in her lungs too. The mom did well. Hopefully she will be able to recover from the infection. There were no tears when we told the family that the baby didn't live. It's just a totally different culture here.
We don't know what happened with the "triplets". They haven't been back for over a month now. There are definitely a lot of other needy babies that will get formula from the money everyone sent. It is very much appreciated.
A lady came to the clinic Wednesday who was eight months pregnant with her third child. She had been living down in Port for several months. She was very anemic. Her oxygen level was 55%. The family said she had only been "giving" blood since the day before. Apparently she had spit up some blood and had several episodes of a bloody nose. We didn't even give her IVF's but sent her down to the hospital as soon as we could. She needed blood, BAD... We hadn't checked the fetal heart rate because it wouldn't have changed our plan of care- she needed a hospital. At the hospital they determined that her baby was no longer alive and she needed emergency surgery. They took her into surgery but she didn't make it. I just wish she had come sooner, maybe we could have done more to help her if she had. Later we found out that her family in Port had sent her up to the rest of the family here in the mountains to either see a witch doctor or die. To me that says she must have been sick for a while already. Her funeral was on Friday. We didn't have a lot of patients on Friday at the clinic so we finished just in time to go to the funeral. It was a pretty calm event. Only one person had to be hauled out of the church because they were making too much of a disturbance.
Last week it rained a little bit several different days adding up to a little over two inches altogether and now yesterday and today it has rained off and on giving us another inch and a half. We are very happy for the rain. Now people are starting to prepare their gardens for the next crop.
Yesterday morning I woke up to a message on my phone about a lady who was at the clinic to have a baby. We had seen someone Friday evening also but she wasn't quite ready so we sent her back home. This lady had three children already so we didn't think it should be too bad of a delivery- at least she should know what is happening. Once again I think these ladies have a sixth sense when something isn't right. This lady had a very bad infection already. I started an IV and some oxytocin but things weren't progressing rapidly at all so April and I ate some granola we had brought along and then worked on stocking some medicines. After an hour or two the lady decided now was the time to have that baby. She didn't have a very hard time but the baby didn't look good at all when it was born. She had the cord around her neck and there was a lot of nasty fluid in her mouth and nose. I suctioned her right away and got a lot of stuff out of her airway but she still didn't look good and wasn't breathing so we got the cord cut then took the baby and worked on her for a while but she never took a breath. Finally I listened with a stethoscope to see if she had a heartbeat but she didn't. Her tongue and mouth were all coated with a green/brown film that stayed even after she was suctioned so I think she must have gotten some of that fluid in her lungs too. The mom did well. Hopefully she will be able to recover from the infection. There were no tears when we told the family that the baby didn't live. It's just a totally different culture here.
We don't know what happened with the "triplets". They haven't been back for over a month now. There are definitely a lot of other needy babies that will get formula from the money everyone sent. It is very much appreciated.
A lady came to the clinic Wednesday who was eight months pregnant with her third child. She had been living down in Port for several months. She was very anemic. Her oxygen level was 55%. The family said she had only been "giving" blood since the day before. Apparently she had spit up some blood and had several episodes of a bloody nose. We didn't even give her IVF's but sent her down to the hospital as soon as we could. She needed blood, BAD... We hadn't checked the fetal heart rate because it wouldn't have changed our plan of care- she needed a hospital. At the hospital they determined that her baby was no longer alive and she needed emergency surgery. They took her into surgery but she didn't make it. I just wish she had come sooner, maybe we could have done more to help her if she had. Later we found out that her family in Port had sent her up to the rest of the family here in the mountains to either see a witch doctor or die. To me that says she must have been sick for a while already. Her funeral was on Friday. We didn't have a lot of patients on Friday at the clinic so we finished just in time to go to the funeral. It was a pretty calm event. Only one person had to be hauled out of the church because they were making too much of a disturbance.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
A cut off finger-
One morning last week a little boy, eight years old, shows up at the clinic before we had even opened for the day. I was there but was restocking medicines in the pharmacy. Jwa, the yard man, comes in and tells me we have a patient here with a "grav" injury. This little boy and one of his friends were playing with an ax. I don't know how it happened but the other boy accidently cut this boys first finger on his left hand completely off. There is a small piece of bone and some tissue above his knuckle but the majority of his finger is gone. It is bleeding a little but not as much as you would think. The boy seems to be in shock, he walked here with a neighbor because his dad is at work at a local bakery and his mom had already left for market. He isn't even crying. I cleaned it up a little then called Todd to come and help me fix it up. They didn't bring the other part of the finger so that solves the question about whether or not to try and reattach. Several months ago a man got his finger cut off and we sent him down to the hospital to get it repaired but they didn't do a very good job so we decided we would try to close this one ourselves. The other man also had some bone sticking out and we were hoping they would trim the bone then sew the end closed but they just put a couple of big stitches in to close it and it did not heal well. The eight year old did get some tears in his eyes when we did a digital block on his finger to numb it up but he held still like a pro. I think in the U.S. We would almost have to use anesthesia to do what we did. We cut a slit in the skin so I could try and pull the skin/tissue down while Todd trimmed off the bone. Problem was, we really didn't have anything that we knew would be able to cut the bone. The strongest thing we had available was a clipper used to remove ingrown toenails. We tried it but it wasn't big enough so Todd goes to his house quick and gets his wire cutter. We sterilize it the best we can and try again. This time it works. Todd got a little over a quarter of an inch of the bone cut off so now we can close the wound over the bone. We stitched it up, gave him a shot of Rocephin and some oral antibiotics and pain medicine and tell him to return the next day for a dressing change. He came back the next day and his finger looked good so we just changed the dressing. We were afraid it might get really infected because of the tools we had to use so gave him another shot of antibiotics the next day too. Now he has been coming back every other day for a dressing change and his finger is healing well.
Several days after this a lady comes in and says that she miscarried twins the day before. She keeps using a phrase that Mirlene doesn't understand so we took her in to Githanes room to see if Githane understands. She says we need to check her because maybe the placenta is still inside the mom. We get her on the table and realize right away that we have a problem on our hands. The smell is terrible! Finally she admits that she didn't miscarry the day before but rather two or three days ago. And no, the placentas never came. I'm surprised this lady wasn't burning up with fever and sepsis already. After an IV and some oxytocin we realize this isn't enough so we proceed to do a manual d&c. It was terribly painful for the poor lady and I felt really mean but we know if we don't do this she could die. We got two placentas out but I wasn't quite convinced we had for sure gotten everything. Githane really thought we had though so we gave some IV antibiotics and oral antibiotics and sent her home. I really wanted to see her the next day too but she didn't come back so we don't know what happened. We didn't see these babies but the mom said it was a boy and a girl and that they were very small.
Two days later a lady is carried in on a bed. She is having twins too! We knew she was carrying twins though. The little boy has been born and is bundled up in somebody's jacket. Does he ever holler when we expose him to the cold air while getting him dressed! Shortly after this a little girl is born. These twins too weigh about six pounds each. They are beautiful. We are sad though for the situation they are going home too. In this family there are three unmarried girls and all of their children living with the grandma. They are very poor. One of the girls has mental problems too. Several months ago we got the youngest child who was living there into an orphanage. She was very malnourished and I don't think would have lived much longer under those circumstances. Now she is doing well at the orphanage in Ganthier. I don't know how these babies got to be this big considering all the circumstances. I wish so badly it was easier to adopt these children! They deserve a chance...
Keith's got back on Tuesday. Then on Thursday we all went down to Isaac's dad's funeral. It was the first funeral in have been to here in Haiti. It started at 7:30 am to beat the heat and lasted several hours. The church was full all the way to the back doors with standing room only, then there were people outside on both sides of the church and to the gate. It was pretty calm, only a few wails periodically. There was only one time the speaker had to call for silence.
April flew back home on Friday for a week for her grandpas funeral so it seems quiet around here. Zach and Cam stayed in Canada for a while to work so Keith's just brought the three youngest children back.
The time is flying by, soon I will be going home.
Several days after this a lady comes in and says that she miscarried twins the day before. She keeps using a phrase that Mirlene doesn't understand so we took her in to Githanes room to see if Githane understands. She says we need to check her because maybe the placenta is still inside the mom. We get her on the table and realize right away that we have a problem on our hands. The smell is terrible! Finally she admits that she didn't miscarry the day before but rather two or three days ago. And no, the placentas never came. I'm surprised this lady wasn't burning up with fever and sepsis already. After an IV and some oxytocin we realize this isn't enough so we proceed to do a manual d&c. It was terribly painful for the poor lady and I felt really mean but we know if we don't do this she could die. We got two placentas out but I wasn't quite convinced we had for sure gotten everything. Githane really thought we had though so we gave some IV antibiotics and oral antibiotics and sent her home. I really wanted to see her the next day too but she didn't come back so we don't know what happened. We didn't see these babies but the mom said it was a boy and a girl and that they were very small.
Two days later a lady is carried in on a bed. She is having twins too! We knew she was carrying twins though. The little boy has been born and is bundled up in somebody's jacket. Does he ever holler when we expose him to the cold air while getting him dressed! Shortly after this a little girl is born. These twins too weigh about six pounds each. They are beautiful. We are sad though for the situation they are going home too. In this family there are three unmarried girls and all of their children living with the grandma. They are very poor. One of the girls has mental problems too. Several months ago we got the youngest child who was living there into an orphanage. She was very malnourished and I don't think would have lived much longer under those circumstances. Now she is doing well at the orphanage in Ganthier. I don't know how these babies got to be this big considering all the circumstances. I wish so badly it was easier to adopt these children! They deserve a chance...
Keith's got back on Tuesday. Then on Thursday we all went down to Isaac's dad's funeral. It was the first funeral in have been to here in Haiti. It started at 7:30 am to beat the heat and lasted several hours. The church was full all the way to the back doors with standing room only, then there were people outside on both sides of the church and to the gate. It was pretty calm, only a few wails periodically. There was only one time the speaker had to call for silence.
April flew back home on Friday for a week for her grandpas funeral so it seems quiet around here. Zach and Cam stayed in Canada for a while to work so Keith's just brought the three youngest children back.
The time is flying by, soon I will be going home.
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