Friday, April 10, 2009
Quick Update
I went to the ward today so that I could see the patches being removed from the children's eyes that I talked about in the last post. If I understand right, their sight will never be 100%, but will be better that before surgery. It took awhile for them to be coaxed to open their eyes and look around. The oldest child was a 7 year old boy. He will probably not have as good a result as the 2 younger children as the brain just loses the ability to connect fully after a certain age. But, saying that, he finally looked around and in the language of Abomey, kept saying something over and over. We found out from a translator that he was saying "I'm never going to close my eyes again, I"m never going to close my eyes again."
Thursday, April 9, 2009
A Mother's Prayers Answered
Yesterday was my last night on the ward. It proved to be very interesting and (as usual) rewarding. Our VVF surgeons left last Friday so most of our ladies are far out from Surgery. In about an hour, there will be a dress ceremony for 6 of our friends. I worked with Kate, ( someone I consider a spiritual giant) so the first thing that we did was to pray for a few of the ladies specifically. The first one we prayed and anointed with oil as we asked for God's healing touch as she is having difficulty.....she is a little too dry. Poor woman, her repair is a success, but she has had problems passing urine and has had to be re-catheterized a few times. Stretching the bladder after this surgery is a very bad thing to do, so they decided to leave in the catheter for a few more days and try again. She actually had her dress ceremony last week and I noticed that during the service portion she was really listening hard to the translator and even asking questions. She is a Muslim, so before we prayed we asked if she minded and she gave us permission. It is so hard for a Muslim to convert. One of the surgeons told me of a patient who converted and was killed once she returned home. This is hard core, where the rubber meets the road, a true spiritual warfare. Lord, open our eyes and give us eyes to see and ears to hear.
I also helped to draw blood for a transfusion which turned out to be another adventure.
Since the VVF ward is starting to empty out, we got in 5 not VVF patients. Four children with bilateral cataracts and a 5 month old with a large mass at the base of her tongue. The 5 month old was here for a CT scan which was done this morning. They believe that they will be able to operate and remove the mass. Three of the children are from the same family. Kate talked with the mother and she told Kate of how her heart breaks for her children (who are giggly and positively delightful....just blind). With God's help and His Mercy Team, we pray her heart will be happy after today.
Love to all....must run to the dress ceremony and see my ladies dance!!
I also helped to draw blood for a transfusion which turned out to be another adventure.
Since the VVF ward is starting to empty out, we got in 5 not VVF patients. Four children with bilateral cataracts and a 5 month old with a large mass at the base of her tongue. The 5 month old was here for a CT scan which was done this morning. They believe that they will be able to operate and remove the mass. Three of the children are from the same family. Kate talked with the mother and she told Kate of how her heart breaks for her children (who are giggly and positively delightful....just blind). With God's help and His Mercy Team, we pray her heart will be happy after today.
Love to all....must run to the dress ceremony and see my ladies dance!!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Sight to the blind....
Sorry, I had pictures but can't figure out how to post from previous document.....
I visited the eye clinics a couple of weeks ago. They hold them each morning in different locations and are often met with 400+ crowds. This is a picture of the folks who made it through the crowd and where actually able to be seen. This is the upstairs room at a church. When we arrived at the church, there where so many people in the downstairs sanctuary, that we thought they where having a service. While the hopeful patients wait, disciplers talk with them about Jesus. The eye team is only able to screen about 150 each day (which is a huge amount of work). The following is a more personal story provided again by the “Navigator” page. (FYI, the dark haired girl in the foreground is Vanessa. She is from India but lives in Canada now. I met her in the Paris Airport while waiting for the flight to Benin. She has gone home know….another good-bye)
Now able to see, Celine’s steps are sure
Four-year-old Celine was born with congenital cataracts in both eyes, but she recently had them removed onboard the Mercy Ship in Cotonou. During the first few hours after the bandages were removed, it was obvious that the child was unaccustomed to such intense color and detail. She was just beginning to learn to see the world around her.
Since Celine was a baby, her father Honoré had wanted to get help for her. He could not afford an operation. As a tailor, he had much competition from the many other tailors in Benin. Then a kind friend offered to pay for Celine to have an operation from a doctor visiting Cotonou.
Unfortunately, when Honoré brought his child to the military hospital, the doctor wanted $180 (US) for surgery on each eye, plus the money for drugs, surgical tools, and bandages. Honoré said the paperwork involved for the operation was a waist-high stack. Afraid of all the unknown costs and variables, the friend decided to pay for Celine’s school instead.
Because of her cataracts, Celine struggled in school. “When she went to school the first day, during break time, she fell down the steps,” Honoré said. “I felt so sad when I would see her trip and fall. At school, she stayed quietly in a corner because she could not see.” Later the teacher asked Honoré to take the struggling child out of the school.
“If she can go to school, she can be something,” Honoré said. “But if she couldn’t see, I feared that she would not have a job – or a future. It would be difficult for her to find a husband and to make a life.”
Then from many directions – his church, his wife’s hairstylist, and a soldier-friend seeking help for his own father – Honoré heard about Mercy Ships. He learned that they were coming to Benin and offering free eye operations. Honoré began to regain hope.
To make sure he would know where to go, Honoré rode his bicycle to the port before the ship even arrived. He and Celine waited at the main screening day, where Mercy Ships doctors directed them to an eye clinic for evaluation. They received an appointment, and on a hot March day, Celine boarded the Africa Mercy with the clouded lenses that kept her from seeing the world around her. Dr. Glenn Strauss removed both cataracts, and the little girl was ready to go home the next day.
After the bandages were removed from Celine’s eyes, Celine stared down at her feet, then examined a train engine, spinning its wheels and fingering a sharp black line on the red wheel. She eyed people suspiciously, but unlike before, with alertness. When she left, she could see the stairs in front of her, and her steps were confident as she walked down the gangway.
“I am so happy,” Honoré said. “On this ship, my daughter has been healed. I just want to ask God to bless everyone on the ship, every day, for all the things they are doing. Maybe now Celine can be a doctor or nurse to help others like Mercy Ships helped her.”
I visited the eye clinics a couple of weeks ago. They hold them each morning in different locations and are often met with 400+ crowds. This is a picture of the folks who made it through the crowd and where actually able to be seen. This is the upstairs room at a church. When we arrived at the church, there where so many people in the downstairs sanctuary, that we thought they where having a service. While the hopeful patients wait, disciplers talk with them about Jesus. The eye team is only able to screen about 150 each day (which is a huge amount of work). The following is a more personal story provided again by the “Navigator” page. (FYI, the dark haired girl in the foreground is Vanessa. She is from India but lives in Canada now. I met her in the Paris Airport while waiting for the flight to Benin. She has gone home know….another good-bye)
Now able to see, Celine’s steps are sure
Four-year-old Celine was born with congenital cataracts in both eyes, but she recently had them removed onboard the Mercy Ship in Cotonou. During the first few hours after the bandages were removed, it was obvious that the child was unaccustomed to such intense color and detail. She was just beginning to learn to see the world around her.
Since Celine was a baby, her father Honoré had wanted to get help for her. He could not afford an operation. As a tailor, he had much competition from the many other tailors in Benin. Then a kind friend offered to pay for Celine to have an operation from a doctor visiting Cotonou.
Unfortunately, when Honoré brought his child to the military hospital, the doctor wanted $180 (US) for surgery on each eye, plus the money for drugs, surgical tools, and bandages. Honoré said the paperwork involved for the operation was a waist-high stack. Afraid of all the unknown costs and variables, the friend decided to pay for Celine’s school instead.
Because of her cataracts, Celine struggled in school. “When she went to school the first day, during break time, she fell down the steps,” Honoré said. “I felt so sad when I would see her trip and fall. At school, she stayed quietly in a corner because she could not see.” Later the teacher asked Honoré to take the struggling child out of the school.
“If she can go to school, she can be something,” Honoré said. “But if she couldn’t see, I feared that she would not have a job – or a future. It would be difficult for her to find a husband and to make a life.”
Then from many directions – his church, his wife’s hairstylist, and a soldier-friend seeking help for his own father – Honoré heard about Mercy Ships. He learned that they were coming to Benin and offering free eye operations. Honoré began to regain hope.
To make sure he would know where to go, Honoré rode his bicycle to the port before the ship even arrived. He and Celine waited at the main screening day, where Mercy Ships doctors directed them to an eye clinic for evaluation. They received an appointment, and on a hot March day, Celine boarded the Africa Mercy with the clouded lenses that kept her from seeing the world around her. Dr. Glenn Strauss removed both cataracts, and the little girl was ready to go home the next day.
After the bandages were removed from Celine’s eyes, Celine stared down at her feet, then examined a train engine, spinning its wheels and fingering a sharp black line on the red wheel. She eyed people suspiciously, but unlike before, with alertness. When she left, she could see the stairs in front of her, and her steps were confident as she walked down the gangway.
“I am so happy,” Honoré said. “On this ship, my daughter has been healed. I just want to ask God to bless everyone on the ship, every day, for all the things they are doing. Maybe now Celine can be a doctor or nurse to help others like Mercy Ships helped her.”
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Conflicted
How is it possible to be so happy to be going home that you get an excited little bubble inside when you think about it and ,often the same time, so sad at leaving that you feel as if you where going to burst into tears? That has been my last few days starting with Friday when I got my disembarkation paperwork on my door. Such a roller coaster!
Thought you might like to read a little more of the story of the first 2 VVF ladies that left the ship. This was made available on the "Navigator" page which is the ships crew member web site.
“Those who saw us laughed at us,” Justine said. “We were suffering.”
Justine and Parra were the first women healed from VVF during the 2009 Field Service. They were also the first to participate in a dress ceremony – a ritual in which they get a new dress, tell their stories, and sing songs celebrating their new lives.
Parra’s journey to the Africa Mercy from a far northern region in Benin demonstrated both desperate need and immense trust. A mother of three, Parra sustained the fistula during the birth of her third child, who survived the delivery and is now almost a year old. Parra speaks a tribal language unknown to any of the local volunteers that Mercy Ships employs as translators.
Despite difficulties communicating, she trusted that God would watch over her. Her faith was rewarded when she received her free corrective surgery and was able to sing a song of thanksgiving to the doctors and nurses.
Justine delivered four healthy children, but her fifth child died during a long, complicated delivery, causing a fistula to develop. Justine had been closeted inside her home for the entire nine years afterwards.
“Every day, I was very tired, ashamed, and people laughed at me,” Justine said.
Justine’s husband tried to find a solution. He went to different hospitals in the nearest city of Porto-Novo. One—ironically called the Good Samaritan—wanted almost $200 US to perform the repair, an impossible sum in a place where the average income is only $50 a month.
She heard about Mercy Ships because her sister had surgery with Mercy Ships a few years ago. She came onboard the Africa Mercy, and only a week later, she was healed and ready to go home. “I have so much to thank God for, that God has delivered me and that the doctors have worked very well,” Justine said.
“I feel no pain in my body, and I feel happy in my heart.”
See you soon, looking forward to cooler temps......missing already the African days....
Thought you might like to read a little more of the story of the first 2 VVF ladies that left the ship. This was made available on the "Navigator" page which is the ships crew member web site.
“Those who saw us laughed at us,” Justine said. “We were suffering.”
Justine and Parra were the first women healed from VVF during the 2009 Field Service. They were also the first to participate in a dress ceremony – a ritual in which they get a new dress, tell their stories, and sing songs celebrating their new lives.
Parra’s journey to the Africa Mercy from a far northern region in Benin demonstrated both desperate need and immense trust. A mother of three, Parra sustained the fistula during the birth of her third child, who survived the delivery and is now almost a year old. Parra speaks a tribal language unknown to any of the local volunteers that Mercy Ships employs as translators.
Despite difficulties communicating, she trusted that God would watch over her. Her faith was rewarded when she received her free corrective surgery and was able to sing a song of thanksgiving to the doctors and nurses.
Justine delivered four healthy children, but her fifth child died during a long, complicated delivery, causing a fistula to develop. Justine had been closeted inside her home for the entire nine years afterwards.
“Every day, I was very tired, ashamed, and people laughed at me,” Justine said.
Justine’s husband tried to find a solution. He went to different hospitals in the nearest city of Porto-Novo. One—ironically called the Good Samaritan—wanted almost $200 US to perform the repair, an impossible sum in a place where the average income is only $50 a month.
She heard about Mercy Ships because her sister had surgery with Mercy Ships a few years ago. She came onboard the Africa Mercy, and only a week later, she was healed and ready to go home. “I have so much to thank God for, that God has delivered me and that the doctors have worked very well,” Justine said.
“I feel no pain in my body, and I feel happy in my heart.”
See you soon, looking forward to cooler temps......missing already the African days....
Friday, April 3, 2009
Tales of VVF land and TIA
I'll start with ward news and then go on to my recent weekend trip to Abomey and meeting the king.
I have been in VVF land since my second week here. At first, I was a little disappointed at not being in the Maxfax ward with all of the dramatic changes that you see after surgery, however, as time went on, I began to realize how very rewarding it was to get to know the lovely VVF ladies. They are survivors, comedians, mothers, friends, and members of a small club.....the club of VVF. They are a support group for each other and will chatter away (at least when they know each other's language). They take care of each other's children, tell each other what to expect, and chide each other if they think the other person is not being polite. So you get to know the ladies, and the ones that you get to know the best are the ones who have had complications, and oh how it hurts when things don't go as hoped. We pray but God in His wisdom does not always give us the outcome we think is best. One of my favorite ladies went home on Wed. still wet. She had come in for a VVF and a RVF (rectal vaginal fistula) repair and for a while, we thought it had been successful. Unfortunately that was not the case. She has another fistula somewhere that was not found in the original surgery. I had not realized, but it can take several surgeries to repair the damage done. Dr Steve told a story of the man who pioneered the fistula repair surgery. He is now somewhat reviled as he developed the technique on his slaves, one of which he operated on 31 times....without anesthesia. However, in a note as to how much these ladies desire to be continent, it was found that he had obtained informed consent from her for each of the 31 times.....she was a survivor. One of the things I love most about Zenebon is her sense of humor. I have to tell you, I had no clue as to what words where coming out of her mouth, but I could always tell when she was finding us amusing. Not to get too scatological, but we are very concerned about our ladies' BMs. Before you think us too weird, remember that we are nurses, and , in addition, constipation can ruin the repair....so very important to go frequently and have soft stools and we give them several meds to hasten the process. Well one of the ladies (Wessigui) had not been in several days and we where concerned that she might have a small bowel obstruction...so quite important for us to visualize the "movement". We made her dually aware of this fact and on the momentous day that she actually produced said BM, she flagged down the closest nurse(Jilly) to show off the byproduct. I was Wessegui's nurse that day, so Jilly called me over so that I could (with pride and exaltation) also share in this wondrous occasion. Well I thought that Zenebon was going to fall off her bed, she laughed and laughed and laughed, so, we laughed with her. Please pray for Zenebon, she is some kind of lady.
Last weekend we went to Abomey which was the capital of the kingdom of D'ahomey of which Benin used to be part. We had our trip put together by a "tour operator" so (although we felt we where paying a premium price) we where happy. We where supposed to leave at 8:30 on Saturday, have several stops throughout the day, reach our motel in time to see the Fruit bats in the courtyard before they took off for the night have a walkabout and then a leisurely supper. Well all I can say is TIA. Ah, what does that mean you ask? This is Africa, TIA, a phrase oft repeated by us Westerners. It was to be uttered with varying degrees of frustration all day Saturday. Our guide showed up with both her small children, TIA, the car was 2 and 1/2 hours late, TIA, the van was not the new air conditioned one that we had been promised, TIA, being caught in traffic for at least an hour because the van was late, TIA, observing meat being sold in a village where we had stopped so the driver could put "minutes" on his phone and realizing that some of the pieces had paws and other pieces had tails and that it was indeed rat, TIA. Going to meet the first king and having one of our group proposed to by the elder, TIA (we think he was kidding), being allowed to see where said elder's father was buried literally in his back courtyard, TIA. He actually had a great sense of humor. He called Miriam over so that she could see her Father-in-law's grave. Never seeing the King as we where several hours late due to car being late, etc, etc, TIA. Having one of the places on our itinerary stay open late and give us a tour any way, TIA. Loosing our hotel reservations (with the fruit bats) because we where so late, TIA. Having 3 of our group having to sleep in one bed (it was a large bed) TIA. Having the kitchen open back up at 9:00 at night so that we could have supper, TIA. Not an auspicious first day and by the end of it, we where saying TIA with gritted teeth, telling ourselves that this was and adventure.
Sunday was a new day and turned out to be much better. After having to wait 30 minutes for the "King's palace" ( a UNESCO world heritage muse am) to open up, we had an enjoyable time. We then grabbed bread and cheese for lunch after which we went to meet another King. We where ushered into his presence with all due pomp and circumstance. Not one, but two courtyards before hand, we had to take our shoes and hats off. He was sitting on his throne with his robe thrown across his lap and some sort of sceptre hanging from his shoulder and we shuffled in bowed, and found ourselves a seat on the floor. As he turned his attention to speaking to us....his cell phone rang...TIA. Anyway, he was an interesting and educated fellow and was very versed in American history and in Obama.
I'm getting ready to go to a dress ceremony so need to run..besides, I'm sure I've bored you enough by now. Take care....I look forward to seeing everyone is just a few more days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
