Thank you

A big thank you to everyone who supported our spaghetti feed yesterday by your attendance, donations, & donations or purchases of baked goods.  We had a great turnout and it was a BIG success! 

Also, thank you to all the volunteers who so graciously gave us their time to help with preparations, serving, & cleanup.  We couldn't have done it without you. 

And thank you to Cargill for their generous donation of the hamburger and the Barilla pasta company for donating the spaghetti and spaghetti sauce.  Thank you to Barb Olson for her donation of the delicious bread sticks.  Everyone's generosity is so appreciated!

Again, keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we once again journey to Nicaragua in February!
Carolyn

Spaghetti Feed & Christmas Bake Sale

The Columbus Medical Mission Team is sponsoring a spaghetti feed along with a Christmas bake sale on Sunday, December 11th from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM.  It will be held at the Eagles at 3205 12th St. in Columbus.  This is a fundraiser for our medical mission trip to Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, in February 2012.  After church, bring your family for a tasty meal and also pick up some Christmas goodies for your holiday enjoyment!  It will be a free will donation.

We would like to thank Cargill for their generous donation of the hamburger as well as the Barilla pasta company for their donation of the spaghetti and sauce for our fundraiser.  Please show your support of these companies by purchasing their products.

And thank you for your prayers and support of our mission.
Carolyn

Getting ready for Nicaragua 2012

The Columbus Mission Team is returning to Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua in Feb. 2012 for a 13 day mission trip. The team consists of Dean & Carolyn Athey, Karl & Sue Tillinghast, Jody Dreifurst, Sherilyn Haswell, and Melissa Shemek. We are again partnering with the team from California that we have teamed up with the last two trips. Their team consists of a general surgeon, an ENT surgeon, an anesthesiologist, several nurses, children's ministry people and other support people. Suzie Smith from California and Keveta Andersen from Puerto Cabezas will once again be our work and spiritual leaders. We have begun to assemble our supplies. Although we do not have a surgeon on the Columbus team this year we are still taking a lot of  supplies, medications etc. Our team and the team from California have developed a very close relationship with the staff @ the hospital we work @ in Nicaragua. We actually hire some of their staff to work with us while we are there. Since we take over one of the hospital wards and an operating room some of these people would otherwise be unemployed while we are there. We ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we  prepare for our next mission.     Thanks. Dean

Antigua and Honduras

We've spent the last 2 nights in Antigua, a historic tourist town. They had various tours we could sign up for so John and I took the one to Copan, Honduras which is an ancient Mayan city dating back to 400-700 AD. The ruins in the photo is the court where they played some form of soccer with a heavy rubber ball. They think the loser loses his head or something like that. It was a ritual ceremony and game. They don't know exactly the whole thing. We had an English speaking guide who was very interesting. It would have been a perfect day, except it took 5 1/2 hrs to get there. The scenery in Guatemala and Honduras is spectacular. We drove through the mountains with a driver working for the team. We got slowed down in traffic in Guatemala City and for mudslides. It rains at least a little every day.

The little blue car was a police car. They are everywhere in blue and red, not just the police. I bet they get good milage.
The green courtyard is outside our hotel door with rooms all around it.
Today we slept in and strolled around the city of Antigua. The Hotel Santo Domingo is wonderful and I highly recommend it. We ate in a great hotel resaurant last night when we got back, which included quail eggs and caviar in the appetizer. We walked through the market and along the cobblestone streets today learning to barter for every little thing.

Finished

We have finished the medical mission and have moved on to R&R in Antigua. We did our last case at 6:30 Friday evening because the little girl had eaten. She had a mass on her nose (dermoid, it looked like) so it didn't take too long. We spent Saturday morning packing up..... and I mean PACKING UP EVERYTHING. HELPS Int'l keeps supplies in G. City, so they brought a truck. We inventoried everything and loaded up some stuff to go back to the US, and alot to go to G. City. That included OR tables, anesthesia machines, stirrups, suctions, suture, gloves, etc. etc. etc. They keep some for the next incoming missions and distribute some to outlying hospitals and villages. It's quite a well organized system.

Sat. afternoon we got to go to nearby Mayan ruin made into a park and had some fun climbing pyramids untill the rain started. The vendors like the rain, I think because their open air shops are covered so we took refuge under them and, naturally bought stuff. I'm going to make a Guatemala shadow box for my office so found some things for that.
We're standing in the photo w/ Dr. Imler, the General Surgeon who was the team leader. He was wonderful to work with.

Tomorrow we're taking a tour to Copan in Honduras to see Mayan ruins and hopefully we'll have a well informed tour guide. There are ruins scattered from the Yucatan on the Atlantic across Belize, Honduras and Guatemala. It's incredibly interesting, especially knowing we were treating the Mayan descendants.

More photos

The Mayan descendants, the pharmacy, anesthesia, surgery. That's me in a Guatemalan surgery cap. They are selling them along with scarves, etc here on the army base. All hand weaved. They will barter for shoes, clothes, blankets, lotion, etc. I'm told.

More photos

The surgery picture is the guy who thought he was ugly. He was extremely happy with the results. The others are pictures from surgery and people.

Friday

We are now winding down. Our thyroid today got cancelled for very high blood pressure, so we did a needle biopsy and sent it away. She will be back for the team coming in January. A lady walked in with what looks like a melanoma on her brow, but left because her family talked her out of having it removed. We had some other small things and the dentist was doing some serious extractions of teeth of young children most of the morning. We're doing one more lesion on the nose yet and then wrap it up. NN

Photo of the physicians and P.A.'s

Friday morning before we started our day, we took this photo of the providers of our trip to Huehuetenango. It is right outside of the hospital.

A Day Continued

From 8 am till about 7 pm, give or take, insert photos from surgery and recovery. Today I had time to go to the comedor for lunch, but the last 3 days we had it brought over. The comedor (lunchroom) is about a block away. Today it was hot dogs and mac n cheese for lunch, fajitas (delicious) for supper with milk cake.

I'd done so well giving up caffeine the last couple days, but our OR started craving diet Pepsi/ Coke, etc and miraculously 2 coolers full of Coke and Pepsi on ice showed up, so I gave in yesterday and today, so I'm back on caffeine and IT'S GREAT!!! We've done 29 cases on our 2 cleft tables M-Th. We have non-clefts tomorrow, a thyroid and an arm lesion. (Yes, I know the arm and the face are not the same.) There's a strict rule about no food in the OR. Note the black tote in the corner of the OR brought in by our lead surgeon. The patients are extremely grateful and really wonderful people of Mayan descent. Their red striped pants and matching shirts are everywhere. The women wear traditional clothes too.

Back to the day. We finished surgery around 7. We've done more palates than lips and lots of revisions of scars and alveolar fistulas (holes from the roof of the mouth or dental arch into the nose). I got to pull a rotten tooth in a 3 year old. We had a 57 yo male who had a lip revision who said he's felt ugly his whole life and wants ot look good for his wife and kids.

I'll go to bed about 9:30 and be up by 5:45 to shower and start over. When we're done, we'll start packing up. Much of this stuff gets stored in a HELPS wearhouse in G. City and waits for the next team in January. This group is very organized and I love working with other Drs of my specialty. It's great having a resident, Jenning Boyette. He makes rounds and trouble shoots. I'm afraid they won't want me back because so much of the work of this trip has been done by the team leaders and I just get to show up and do cool surgery!!!

This blog will only let me post 5 pictures at a time. There is so much I want to show. I took pictures of all the clinic and depts today. Dentistry, clinic, eyes, etc.
NN

MacGyver wrap up

I was anticipating my next posting, and not necessarily focused on what the post would be, and another MacGyver said what about just making a list of what we did for last few days. So I was making my list, and thought of all the people that have told me in the past that they would love to come on a trip like this, but didn't think they had any talents to offer. I decided to make two lists, one that I have been involved with (MacGyger stuff), and another with what this group calls "Helpers". After making the lists, I was further convinced that just about anyone can go on a trip like this and have a role. My lists are as follows:

MacGyvers:

-Serviced and fixed nearly every instrument sterilizer in the hospital
-Changed light bulbs and fixtures in many areas
-Unplugged clogged toilets (you are not supposed to flush toilet paper)
-Electrical wiring of many pieces of equipment
-Making IV hangers from bailing wire
-Help do the initial setup of the operating/recovery and other rooms
-Fixed many monitoring devices (mostly had those annoying error codes)
-Made old styled door keys from old printer parts
-Helped transfer patients from OR to recovery room
-Changed out many large oxygen tanks (those puppies are heavy)
-Fixed ceiling tiles that were falling down due to age/moisture
-Reglued pins on name badges
-Wired and set up room fans (no A/C on this trip)
-Connected many air/water tubes for patient recovery and OR
-Fixed/mended an vision tester
-Fixed stethescopes and blood pressure cuffs
-Altered protective arm splints for post op cleft children
-Glued, screwed and fastened many items that were loose, broken, etc.
-Monitored and serviced the drinking water supply in the hospital
-Trash disposal and bathroom and other cleanup and supply duty
-Replaced batteries or charged them in many medical units
-Answered the many calls of "can this be fixed?" (Always "yes")
-Answered the many calls of "how long to fix this?" (Always 5 minuets) :-)

Helpers: (Most people can do at least one of these)

-Be a one of the cooks for the team
-Be the team media/photographer
-Play with the children and be with the families of the patients
-Run the instrument sterilizers (oh yes you can!)
-Be a runner for "hey can someone get me a...................."
-Help with logistics
-Help with worship
-Just be a general helper

In the photo is Joe Leier who is the head MacGyver on this trip, who is from Canada, and now living in Guatemala. I have had the honor and pleasure to work with him. Joe is this team's version of a hummingbird on crack. (Joe, that's a compliment!)

A day in the life

I thought I'd take pictures of my day. I'll start w/ bunks, the one w/ blue suitcases on top bunk is mine, the bathroom. It turns out that the water goes through a warming thingy on the shower head. If you check the water spouting out the side, it's electric so that proves there really is a God since I'm still alive after touching it. I take my Clorox wipes with me everywhere, they have toilet paper, but no towels. It turns out the glove packages make fairly good towels so I keep one in my back pocket all day and have become the soap fairy leaving little hotel soaps in the bathrooms to wash my hands. The General talked to us at breakfast today. We wash our hands before we eat, then rinse in 3 tubs. I'm not sure what's in the tubs, but the third one smells like Clorox. A picture is definitely worth a 1000 words.

I'm in between cases, so will try to put more on later. NN

More MacGyver stuff

This is Thursday morning and "most" is going well. The usual problems of electricity going out from time to time, no money to buy more needed supples (like oxygen for surgery and recovery), etc. still exist. Late nights & early mornings, but I am sleeping well as long as I have my ear plugs in. Many of the men snore, even the some of the Dr.s brought c-pap......................for themselves, they snore too. :-)

Photos are me and a military officer outside the OR and a little down time with the kids.

More later

Juan

Wednesday Evening

I'm done w/ surgery for the evening. We've operated till 7 each night, but the next two days aren't quite as busy I think. We're running out of clefts, but managed to fill up tomorrow plus a salivary gland. One of our palates from today is oozing, so we're pacing around, packing the mouth. He's pretty sleepy still, the last one we did tonight.

I'm backtracking and posting pics of the hotel where we stayed in Guatemala City. It was top notch with beautiful furnishings, wonderful breakfast buffet. We rode 8 hours in 2 tour buses to Huehue the next morning so had a nice night of orientation, etc when we first got here. The bus ride was long, much of

i

t

it 4 lane highways through rural areas. One of the bus stops included the lady making tortillas.
We haven't gotten outside the compound here and in fact they are quite ademant that we don't leave. The OB (high risk) w/ his crew went out to meet with the midwife equivalents. They are only trained by their own family and friends so have a lot to learn. 75% of babies are born at home so when they get to the hospital it's often an emergency. They have a 50% c-section rate. They made little backpack kits for the midwives to help them with deliveries.

Well, it's only 9, but I'm ready for bed. I've missed the chance for a shower, but I can do it in the am instead of boot camp workout!!! :) NN

Wednesday

Before I forget you can look at some

other blogs from here if you are interested. We have real live media people here that are taking tons of pictures, most of which I haven't seen yet, but are extremely good. The various sites are: google mission_focused, joshnewton.com or Josh Newton Facebook. We did 15 clefts the first 2 days, today we've finished 5 cases, including a large venous malformation of the lower lip. I did an alveolar fistula alone. Dr. Rob Glade from OU and I are working at one table so trade off 1/2 of each case. He does the clefts in Oklahoma. Dr. Lisa Buckmiller, U of Arkansas is the lead surgeon and brought a resident. The General surgeon is doing about 10 hernias a day and a few other miscellaneous stuff, OBGYN is doing a variety of things and the clinic line is farther than I can see.

I need to get back so will post some pictures. I'll try the thyroid we DIDN'T do, before and after and some of the crowd. The red striped pants denote which tribe or village you are from I think.
Rest assured I did NOT go to exercise today. NN

MacGyvers

It is now Wednesday morning, and finally getting past the inital glut of getting set up. The usual issues of electrical, plumbing and sterilizers are abundant. However, didn't have as much A/C problems, as they basically don't exist. We are at about 6,500 feet elevation, in a forest, a lot of mist and rain, so heat per se is not a big problem. We do have box fans that we have placed in the OR and other selected places, but many of them needed cords, knobs, and blades fixed, so I guess its kinda A/C problems.

We are working/staying at an active military base, protected by their army, so no safety problems here. The 6 (or so) hour drive to here from Guatemala City was escorted by the military as well. The base commander gave a talk, also had their troops perform a welcome with their band that played the both national anthems. We feel very welcome here.

Surgeries are going fine, I sorta go in/out of the OR during cases to help, which would never happen in the US. There are over 70 people on this trip whwhich is a lot larger than prior trips.

On this trip, I am one of four MacGyvers who's task is to "keep it running". :-) If you don't have parts, make them. The standard of living (it seems) is a bit better than Nicaragua, but since we are on a military base, its a little hard to know. There are long lines of people outside of the main gates, and they get let in as they are triaged. Many have come from great distances and have been staying for days for just the chance to get seen.

In the photos are the four MacGyver's in their "man cave" in the hospital, our dinning area (in a separate building), and me posting this blog.

Will blog more as I can.

Adios todos
(see you later everyone)