HAITI 2018 with John

This is a summary of the recent trip John made to Haiti.

April 2018:  The 17^th Semi-annual Grace4Haiti Team Trip

SUMMARY

Haiti changes each of us, each time we go. It even affects the veterans as our hearts are further wounded with each tragedy and mended along with our patients’ bodies. We somehow return heart-broken yet uplifted.   Thank you to everyone who served. 

First week

We had one of our smallest teams—only 25 members— but still had an a very productive week. Although we tried to do only surgical evaluations the first week, it was too hard to turn people away, some of whom had traveled far to see us.  Since we were short staffed, we ran the clinic in Hallway C in the hospital (just like old times), and it worked very well as the hospital now has a wonderful waiting room next to the ER, with benches, a television and a radio used to call for the next patient to go to the dossier window, which really cut down on congestion.

●    In the OR, General Surgery and Ortho performed 48 surgical procedures. 

●    240+ patient consultations in clinic and/or in the surgical consultation wing

●    Our two MacGyvers made critical repairs to numerous pieces of equipment, and made the COOLEST IV stands (thank you, Pinterest!).

One of the PVC pipe IV poles they made.

John talking to one of the orphans at the orphanage.

A shelf for the patient rooms so the patients can store things and nurses have something to write on.  

●    With only 3 pre/post op nurses, anesthesia pitched in to help out in this area. In fact, the nurses both weeks developed systems and protocols that smoothed out the bumps and gave us good guidelines for next time.

●    We had our only serious major trauma case this week, a very bad  motorcycle-motorcycle accident involving 5 people. As usual the team demonstrated superb professionalism and team work with the limited resources available. The team will be relieved to hear that the patient  transferred on to another hospital survived and is doing fine. 

●   The orthopedic team organized the C-hallway storeroom. 

Second Week:

Second week we had 32 team members, including a full clinic contingent. With the support and cooperation from our Haitian partners at Pierre Payen we were able to continue with clinic in the hospital which makes workflow so much more efficient and is a big advantage for providers and patients.

●    In the hospital, General Surgery, Gynecology and Orthopedics performed 37 patient surgeries. 

●    Clinic providers saw almost 200 patients, and assisted in surgery, post-op which enabled those team members breaks, rest, and see some daylight outside their domain

The Victor Binkley mission hospital at Pierre Payen

●    Anesthesia staff sorted through the hubris in central supply, reducing outdated, overstocks, and non-relevant supplies by 30%

There were many other successes, but sometimes the challenges were unanswerable without the tools, tests, equipment or personnel that we have at home. The C-arm is completely out of commission, the x-ray limped along as always, and our autoclave worked intermittently, forcing us to use the smaller one. Yet even with these obstacles, we were still able to care and serve our Haitian brothers and sisters.

MacGyver with Kim Jorgensen-OR and the autoclaves.  

Pierre Payen continues to progress and improve under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Jacques (medical director), Marc Versil (hospital administrator), Nurse Norelia (head nurse), Mike and Dawn Vandervoort (Pierre Payen / Project Help /CGGC leadership), and Stephen Hosler ( Project Help CFO). The pharmacy program Grace4Haiti partnered on with the hospital last year is reaping benefits; there is visible improvement in hospital staffing performance in many areas. Dr. Patrick and Marc shared specific plans and goals for improvements for this year and next. 

In summary, in two weeks we performed 85 surgeries and treated around 400 patients in the clinic.

We are grateful to Mike and Dawn, our compound hosts, for welcoming us with more typical Haitian food. The polenta-type corn meal was a huge hit! Again, we remind our hosts that we’re fine with having rooster anytime. We’re also grateful to Pastor Watson for his enthusiasm, his work, his prayers, and his teaching us a Creole hymn during devotions.

Teamwork with our hosts

●   We now have a referral sheet for follow-ups with a local doctor, another team, or our November team. The number of surgical patients who showed up wanting or needing surgeries was just too many for our already overloaded schedule. We had to start a waitlist, which then became a referral list.

●   Teamwork with the Haitian staff becomes closer. Dr. Stephanie Felix, the Haitian ENT, worked with us in the clinic and performed surgeries while we were there. The Haitian gynecologist Dr. Clair Jeune assisted Dr. Cindy with many hysterectomies and other procedures. We still have work to do to integrate the Haitian nursing staff with our, having name tags for everyone went a long way in developing these relationships.

Planning Ahead

The next two trips are tentatively set for Grace4Haiti Medical Mission Trip are:

●   November 2018

○        Week 1: November 9-16

○        Week 2: November 16-23

●   April 2019

○        Week 1: 5-12

○        Week 2: 12-19

If you would like to go any of these weeks contact Grace4Haiti on FB.

Thank you, every one of you for your gift of your time and talents!

Jennifer, Joe, and Dave

In the dining hall

The MacGyvers

 

TRAVEL TIME

We are off to a slow start.  Apparently there were storms yesterday in Atlanta and stalled out the flights so here we are in the airport WAITING. Patiently?  We will miss our connecting flight now for sure unless it is also delayed. We may end up in Atlanta overnight and possibly two nights. We had planned to visit a couple of clinics and hospitals in Port Au Price with a couple of Haitian doctors I've worked with so this is very disappointing to me but it's out of our control so we remember that flexibility has always been the word of the day on these missions. 

We decided it would be a good photo op at Eppley airfield so here we are. The T shirts turned our really good. 

                           Kevin H.       Lisa H.                Tracy J.     Nila N.        John N.

CONSTRUCTION CREW

Bill is a retired I.T Professional, general handyman and has worked with Habitat for Humanity a few times and done some construction and remodeling for his home and other properties. We've known Bill for several years at Federated Church and he's heard of our missions.  He feels blessed with his life and asked if he could join us so he could give back.

Here's the first update from Bill.
Friday 3/30 Dave I and I arrived in Port au Prince about 11:00am. We stayed in the airport awaiting arrival of remaining team members. At around 3 pm after all the team had arrived we departed for Pierre Payen.

The mission house.

Evening was get  acquainted time for newbies.  There are 7 on the construction crew.

The dining room/meeting room

Saturday we started the projects.  There was a trip to get supplies.

I felt like the Beverly Hillbillies with the truck loaded down.  

There was a trip for supplies as indicated by the photos.

Sunday Haitian workers helped dig a trench under the driveway to run new water lines while several of the group attended church.  

We are working on electrical and some plumbing issues.
The work progressed on the water project with some malfunctions including a couple of pipe ruptures. - Bill R.

Water and electricity have been an ongoing problem, not only at our mission at Pierre Payen, but throughout the country so we continue to work on infrastructure.  

PACKING DAY

We spent Saturday afternoon packing in Dave's garage.  We called it organized chaos.  We also had a team meeting and met some of the new people that we hadn't met before.  We found out who would do what and which week we were going.  The mission is three weeks long.  There are three teams.  The first week is construction only.  One of our CMMT is going the first week to help with infrastructure.  That is - Emergency room upgrade, electrical and a host of other improvement that will be easier without the medical clinics and surgery going on.

 Piles of supplies to be packed.

 The Columbus Medical Mission Team 2017.

Kevin - APRN, John - McGyver, Lisa - Non medical 

Tracy - RN, Bill - McGyver, Nila N. - Surgeon

 Lisa and Bill packing. 

 Bill & his wife, Jean packing.  

This is Bill's first mission experience.

 John packing.

The garage mostly packed.  

All the suitcases are loaded and weigh just shy of 50 lb, 

which is the airline limit.

Some of the team will spend the entire three weeks there.

GUEST BLOGGER - NANCY, NURSING

I am so thankful to be able to be part of this wonderful experience.   The last two weeks I have been busy inventorying the rest of the surgical instruments.  It has taken a lot of time and organization, thank goodness John is so organized.  I'm not sure if he ever sleeps.

It sounds like Week 1 has planned a busy week for us and looking forward to helping out where ever I can.     I cannot wait to work with all the surgeons, nurses, staff, and MacGyver's.   We will be changing lives and making life better for people that truly are in need. 

People keep asking me if I am getting nervous.  Well, as the hours get closer to departure, the answer has now turned to YES.  This will be the hardest and most rewarding thing I have ever done and can not feel more blessed to be a part of it.  

Nancy, LPN

GUEST BLOGGER - GIANA

On my fridge, I have a countdown for Haiti and lo and behold it is only 2 days away! I am excited to serve Haiti with my husband, Cole (we have never embarked on a journey like this together). 

First off, I work as a physician assistant in a Family Practice in Lincoln, NE and have found such joy with what I do. I have been on several missions in the past, including this Haiti trip, but I have never been there as a physician assistant. I am sure to be worked hard, and very humbled at the same time. During my last visit, I remember thinking 'This is the poorest place I have ever been' while at the same time thinking 'This is one of the best run medical clinics in a poor country I have ever seen'. Two remarkable co-existing thoughts. 

The building that we work in an open air hospital that is about the size of a  small high school gymnasium. The way I remember it (though it may have changed) is 1 wing operates as a "clinic" with providers who treat all sorts of typical family practice conditions, but also help screen for potential surgical cases. 1 wing has "hospital". 1 wing is for "pre-post op", 1 wing is for surgeons/specialist clinic, the back of the clinic has 2 well functioning Operating Rooms and the front of the compound has a sort of large triage ER. 

There will be many patients to see, and similar to the last trip, I am sure there will be a line down the street full of patients for us. We will work hard from morning into the late evening, if not night (depending on what we see). The surgical team will be pushed to their limit and it will be used every minute of the day. 

As far as mission trip for medical purposes- this is a VERY well functioning clinic. I truly think the reason it works so well is due to the major planning done ahead of time by the Grace4Haiti leaders who take many long hours packing and preparing for our trip. (Thank you!) We stay in a lovely living compound right across the street- which happens to be one of the national highways (more like a 2 lane street). For anyone worried about our safety- they say the most dangerous part of the trip is crossing the street! I would say that sounds about right as I do recall several motor vehicle accidents from the highway coming into our ER last trip.

Haiti is the 2nd poorest country in the western Hemisphere and has notoriously poor access to health care. Yet, the best part about this clinic is that operates more than just while we are there- there are teams there (last I heard) about 12+ weeks a year. From a primary care perspective, this at least a step in the right direction to achieve continued comprehensive care, though it isn't ideal. When I go down a further bunny trail, I start thinking about how sad it is that so many of these patients rely on our group for primary and surgical care instead of their own health providers since they cannot pay and do not have comprehensive health care system- but I digress . 

I keep on thinking, and I paraphrase, 'You can't help the whole word, but you can help one person's whole word". And, while I do not want to act as though we are heroes and overemphasize our importance, I still think that what we are doing is very special. It can be overwhelming with thoughts of "Why was this person born into a poor family in a poor country, and why was I not?"  But then I remember that is God's way of telling me to improve my perspective on my own life and of course poverty in my community. I suppose God has also called on those of us to "love thy neighbor as thyself" no matter where we are and no matter how hard that may be.  

How blessed am I to be able to experience a different part of this wonderful world, yet again! Haiti, here we come!

COMMISSIONING

We got commissioned at Federated Church today.  Things have been so hectic around here that I haven't focused on the mission so much, but today it became more clear.

This is only part of the group.  Left to right, Nancy - nurse, Giana - PA, Cole & John Macgyver's, me ENT surgeon. I was a little afraid I'd have to say something, but I didn't so that was good.  There is one other nurse from Columbus coming and one who used to live here.  We're joining a fairly large group, 27 I think, who will all be there together.  We are packed and ready to go.  All that's left is to get our surgical instruments packed at the last minute.  Pierre Payen, here we come!!!

TO HAITI AGAIN

I haven't blogged for quite a long time.  I'll admit, recovering from Nepal took awhile.  Perhaps that's why we decided to head back to Haiti.  The mission is well organized and leadership is great.  We were worried a couple weeks ago about the mission as there was a split between the organization in the US and the Haitian administration.  I haven't been privy to all the details, and I'm famous for speculating, but I don't know exactly what it was all about or how it was resolved, but in the end the mission goes on.  This time the CMMT is made up of John and me, Nancy Rinkol, LPN, who works in our office and Giana & Cole Boyle.  Giana is a PA and Cole MPH (Masters of Public Health).  We are joining Grace 4 Haiti which is headed up by Dr. Joe Miller, FP from Lexington and Dave Ingram, organizer extraordinaire.  It turns out that family circumstances are not going to allow Dr. Miller to go this spring.  We will miss out on his wonderful leadership and wish the best for his family. The total team while we are there was 27 at last count.

John has been packing and organizing on our end like there is no tomorrow.  This all got sorted and packaged.  Some of it went to Zambia for Dr. Marjie Heier.  I'm now on her Chifundo Clinic board. She has an ambitious building project adding onto her clinic so we are sending some of our supplies to her.  They are sending a cargo container soon.

Our garage

We have packaged all our surgery packs with drapes, gowns, etc and sterilized them in our office and the hospital depending on the type of sterilization needed.  I think Kim J. of Grace 4 Haiti is impressed with our (John's) organizational skills.  We figure to carry our own totes with the ENT stuff so we can keep a close eye on it. Most of it we will leave behind, but we are borrowing some surgical instruments from the hospital which we have done before and will get them home in one piece. 

Nancy, John and I are started to study Creole. We can now say "I don't understand Creole" in Creole.  It will come in handy, I'm sure.  I plan to get our CD's to Giana and Cole so they can start also.  

GUEST BLOGGER - LINDA CARLSON

Today's guest blogger is Linda Carlson.  She's a retired nurse from David City and the wife of Dr. Mark Carlson.

Haiti 2014  -  Abundant Blessings

Mark and I had talked for several years about going on a medical mission trip.  It was kind of a bucket list item for me.  Last year we found out that several people we knew were going.  We were encouraged to come by Nila & John Novotny and Joe Miller.  We decided that the time was right and felt good we were going with people who had been on a medical mission trip before and had the experience, after all we were rookies!

Mark and Linda Carlson beside the guest house. 

I had done some research and knew it would be a whole new world in Haiti, different than anything I may have seen before.  Although reading, watching videos, trying to learn some Creole helped a great deal, nothing prepared me for what we experienced and witnessed.  I certainly was stretching myself and stepping out of my comfort zone, big time!  Those that know me now know that I’m not a fan of flying but I made it.  The two hour ride from the airport in Port Au Prince to Pierre Payen gave us a view of great beauty and also heartache.  To see clusters of tent cities still to this day in place after the 2010 earthquake was so saddening.  I saw first hand and understand why they say Haiti is the poorest country.  Our team was large which was encouraging to me because I hoped it meant that we could help many people in our short week there.

Tent city along the drive from Port au Prince to Pierre Payen.

Once we arrived at Pierre Payen and got settled into our living quarters, we ate supper and had an organizational meeting in the guest house.  I had hoped that Saturday would have been a day or unpacking supplies and orienting to the clinic and hospital.  That soon turned into a very busy chaotic day with seeing patients and jumping right in.  I felt so inadequate that day.  I just prayed that I could be of help and service and not be a hindrance to our cause.  It was really hot but didn’t seem to matter after awhile when I looked into the many faces of the Haitian people waiting in long lines to see the doctors.    I was concerned that I would not be very helpful for the fact that I had been away from my nursing career for a long time.  Everyone kept assuring me I would be fine.  I spent my time divided between helping Nila with ENT clinic patients and my husband, Mark in the Family Practice clinic.  Nila was so great to work with and very patient with me learning the ropes.  Thank you John Novotny for the crash course of ENT instruments she would need for exams and proper techniques.  I easily could have been fired on day one but not in Haiti.

Mark and Linda in the clinic.  ........ Not sure what he's working on!

I had the joy of working mostly with Shirley, Kevin, Kim, Kristie, Kate and Molly in our wing of the hospital.  They are the most caring, compassionate and talented group of people I have ever had the privilege of working with.  I knew God had brought us together as an entire team for this purpose.  I was the one feeling blessed again for so many new friends and the bond we will forever share.  The number of patients we saw seemed to get lost because it was one after another, after another.  It was the faces of the people I couldn’t get out of my mind.  I didn’t take time or maybe it was that I wouldn’t allow myself to let things actually sink in until I got home.  I got home and the first few days were very hard and emotional.  I felt almost paralyzed when I tried to go back to my normal day to day routine.  Nothing seemed normal or the same and I kept thinking of everyone we had tried to help. The heartbreak was those that we just couldn’t do much for.  I cried for the woman who was 6 months pregnant and saw no heartbeat on the ultrasound and how we told her that her baby had died.  You never get used to that even in the years of labor and delivery nursing that I did.  I kept telling myself, God’s plan is greater than I know and understand right now.

The orphanage.

I was encouraged to do things that I wouldn’t normally do on my own.  Thanks to my roomies, Kate, Mary, Molly, Vanessa, Laci and Kelsey for helping me become a little more adventurous and see as much of Haiti as was possible in our short week.  I am forever grateful!

Morning team meeting in the guest house.

You frequently hear about how a mission trip is a life changing event.  As true as it is it also seems like such a cliché.  For me there were conditions and challenges beyond my imagination.  The barefoot children walking on the rocks and rough terrain up the hills, laundry and bathing being done in the river, people coming to the clinic hours away and patiently waiting hours to be seen.  The Haitian people are good people and deserve more.  They were thankful for our presences and happy for the most part.  I’ll never take for granted what we have in the U.S.

Hike up the hill behind the hospital.

I am blessed and I am thankful.  So even though this is one more event crossed off my bucket list, I can not turn away from the work God calls us to do.  I’ll continue to help in as many ways that I can.  Do I see another mission trip in the future, yes for sure!  Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the Haitian people we have been blessed to help and serve and also the entire mission team.  Our mission work is not done and I am the one who has been changed and blessed!

Blessings,

Linda Carlson

PATHOLOGY FROM HAITI

I just now finished going through all the pathology reports from the specimens we brought back.  There were 11 specimens from ENT.  I don't know about Urology or OB/GYN.

I've made an individual page for each patient to return to Dr. Gardy, the Haitian doctor who administers the hospital in Pierre Payen.  Each page has the name, location of the biopsy and diagnosis along with a photo of the patient or tumor.  It was hard to keep them all straight.  The handwritten names were hard to read and I had some spelled differently than the lab, so it took very careful comparisons.  Fortunately I kept a written list on my phone of all my operative patients and their diagnosis.  I'm very glad I took as many photos as I did.  Many photos included the specimen bottle right over the registration paper with the patient's name on it.  I'll e-mail them to Haiti, but also hand deliver them when I see Dr. Gardy in May when he travels to Nebraska.  We are hoping to have him speak at Federated Church either May 18 or 25th.

Of the 3 massive thyroids, 2 were multinodular goiters and one was a Hurthle cell adenoma.  Not cancer.

Multinodulaar goiter, 32 years old. She did great!

We had one Hodgkins lymphoma and one squamous cell carcinoma in the ear.

Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  This is a very treatable and potentially curable type of cancer.  I have been in communicaiton with him via the internet and he may be coming to the US for treatment.  Pray for him.

The cheek lesion in the 12 year old boy, even with a generous biopsy is inconclusive.  I put my money on a parasitic infection, but they didn't see any parasites.  Very weird.

Cheek mass.  Parasite? 

There was the worse fungal sinusitis I've ever seen without being a 'face-eating fungus'. It was eroded into the eyes.

Fungal sinusitis.  If you look closely you can see polyps in her nose and the left eye deviates outward. 

The massive facial tumor looks like a salivary gland malignancy.  This was posted a few posts back and is worth looking at if you haven't seen it yet.

The massive jaw tumors included ameloblastoma.  There is another picture posted earlier.

Ameloblastoma.  A low grade, slow growing malignancy which could be cured by removing his jaw.

Squamous cell carcinoma of the jaw.

Squamous cell carcinoma of the jaw. 

 An odontogenic cyst.

Odontogenic Cyst.  The oral pathologist from UNMC is still looking at this.

There was nothing straightforward in Pierre Payen.

We have so many "worried well" here (yes, there is even a diagnosis code for "worried well"), that it just messes with my mind to see so much really dramatic and terrible pathology so concentrated and so advanced.
Please pray for all these folks who did not ask to be born in a country without the capability to treat these early.

Ciao. NN

GUEST BLOGGER - KIM HARM

Today's guest blogger is Kim Harm, BSN, APRN, PhD.  Kim has worked in primary care and is opening her new business, Harmony Health and Wellness.

The trip to Haiti was life-changing. I was able to go on the trip with wonderful people including my husband and my best friend. I feel so blessed to have met others on the team who have such high character and devotion to serving God and their fellow humans. It was an honor to work along-side these wonderful people. I felt part of a great team in our clinic setting. I was so glad to get to work with my husband but it was great to meet and work with Dr. Mark, Linda, Dr. Shirley, Kristie, Kate and Molly.

I was initially struck by the poverty. I felt it hard to choke back tears on the ride from the airport. I prayed God would not give me more than I could handle here. I have seen poverty on TV and in pictures but seeing in person impressed me beyond my ability to express.

Laundry day at the stream.

I had the opportunity to work at the poorest part of the hospital, where those who cannot pay are placed. The conditions were deplorable. I was sickened. There was no privacy offered to a woman with intractable diarrhea and vomiting at the bedside, in the middle of a room, with a bucket. The beds were lined up in the room and privacy must be for those with money. I was able to see Dr. Joe evaluate a woman who had been suffering with abdominal pain for 2 months at home and then suffered for 9 more days in the “hospital” before she was seen by a physician.  She had not had a BM in 10 days.  Finally on this 9^th day of moaning in pain in the hospital with no diagnosis she was seen by Dr. Joe. 

The community hospital across the street.  We filled in for nurses while they went to the seminars.

Community hospital.

This was my first sobbing episode among all the tears shed. I cried for her suffering, I cried for the lack of care available, I cried for poverty. At home if she were this poor she would have Medicaid and could go to the ER after one hour of pain and demand sophisticated tests to rule out every possible life threatening issue. She had been not suffering for an hour but for weeks and weeks. I shed tears from some shame of the abundance and waste of my own culture. I shed tears feeling there was nothing I could do. So I prayed. Fritzi caught me sobbing and I rambled about all these feelings and she talked me down. She said not to feel any shame but instead be empowered and offer what I could do. Shame only promotes negative feelings and we as Americans have a lot to make up for when it comes to Haiti. We have insight in how to elevate their status by education so I worked to educate on self-care as best I could. This is what I love to do at home and I found many opportunities to educate in the clinic.

Molly, Fritzi (from NYC) and Kim at the front entrance. 

My second opportunity at the poor part of the hospital was a quiet afternoon. All the staff were in the educational sessions offered by the team and I and an interpreter were “in charge” in case anyone needed anything. So I prayed again so that they would need only what I could handle. Then I got to visit with my interpreter who only came back to Haiti 3 months ago. He had been living in the US since he was 11. We compared and contrasted the cultures. He reviewed the history of dictatorship in the country and what he thinks would improve the status of Haiti. It was easy to see how superstitions develop with those who are poorly educated trying to make sense of the suffering and illness. We talked a bit about voodoo and how this developed to help explain and treat suffering and illness. It makes sense when witnessing poverty how one might feel cursed when they get a large tumor on their neck. I visited a woman whom Dr. Novotny removed a huge thyroid. She was lying quietly in bed that afternoon. She grew a huge smile on her face when I checked her incision and talked with her about how much better she must feel without that football at the base of her neck. Her whole face lit up, her eyes were bright. I did nothing heroic in Haiti but I was proud that my friend with her surgical skills did. She helped this very poor woman who likely had little hope of being cured of her curse. More tears, more prayers of thanksgiving. Then among the poor conditions of the hospital with the heat and sweat a wonderful cool breeze came through and lovely blossoms from a tree I had not noticed were falling like the snow I left back home. It was beautiful. I felt I was where God intended me to be at that moment. So many friends at home were praying for our trip and I felt it. I felt prayed for.

Dr. Novotny with thyroidectomy patient. The mass was as big as a large eggplant. 

I was also touched that despite the widespread hunger and daily stress of trying to exist in poverty, everyone wore their very best to the clinic. Haitians are very proud people it seems. One elderly gentleman was in a threadbare button down shirt but it was neat and tucked and he wore a belt. His hem was tattered but trimmed neatly, his worn out shoes were laced, and an old hat he removed when entering the room. One woman was very sick with metastatic cancer and could barely walk with leg pain using a stick as a cane and she was coughing up blood. Even she was dressed up in what seemed like her finest dress and hat. She was found to be dying of metastatic lung cancer spread to her neck and her femur. Ethically she was difficult for me because her family refused to allow us to give her the diagnosis of terminal cancer. The son was upset that nothing could be done and asked what we would do in the US.  Even at home this advanced of disease could not receive curative treatment. They could not afford pain medication and there is no system in place for refills of pain medications I ordered. I talked to our pharmacy team and Sandy graciously said she would give them everything she had to allow this woman to go home and die without the terrible pain she was in. As a former hospice nurse I have seen how painful metastatic cancer seems and it was humbling to think that despite all the poverty, hunger and daily suffering of these individuals, they still must suffer even more. More tears. More prayers.

A treadmill in the carport. 

After I was done with clinic one day I snooped at the hospital side looking for my friend Wendie. The asthmatic young woman many have written about was in the hospital. Everything is open there and a group was gathered at her door. (So open in fact that I saw chickens walking through the hospital). I joined in even though I knew I had nothing to offer. I was impressed by the breathing pattern I saw, she was gravely ill. I was touched by Kelsey’s description of the efforts to save her with limited resources. Her deep caring and effort to work so hard on her tells us all what a wonderful physician she has become. I prayed. I prayed harder for her than I think I have prayed for anyone except for the children with cancer in my community. She is so young and otherwise so very healthy. She was still with us the next morning and maybe it helped, maybe it helped Kelsey get the strength to stay up with her all night. Whatever, I hope it helped.

Chicken in the hospital.

In my practice at home I try hard to live my faith. I look for Jesus in my patients, even the drug seekers who resort to all sorts of storytelling and manipulation.  But in Haiti, there is no need to look. Jesus looks at you with big brown eyes in every room, in every encounter. Jesus is everywhere. God is great. Those who have done anything like this know what I mean. I returned from the trip and was amazed at how I felt. I felt good that I did something good for our global community but was it enough and what can I do to serve more? More tears. More prayers.   

Kim