By my side, By my side

Tyrone and I have both blogged about the VVF ladies but this week I have worked with them on A ward. When you first walk into the ward the smell of urine is very obvious. The women that are on the ward right now all are on their second or 3rd surgery due to unsuccessful surgeries in the past. Some of the women are hopeful that their surgery will work this time, some are joyful that their surgery was successful, and some are terribly depressed because their surgery did not work. The problem is that some of the ladies are so damaged that there is just no tissue to fix the fistula (a whole that is caused by prolonged child labor).

When the surgery is over and they wake up from their pain meds, we ask them "Are you dry?". As a nurse, this is such a hard question to ask, because so often the answer is not what we ant to hear. When they shake their head and say " I am wet", my mind starts to think about how they will have to go home once again to their village and potentially be shunned because of their problem. But, when the answer is "Yes I am dry", we all rejoice. Actually, the Liberians tend to jump up and praise the Lord with a song, when they have been blessed by Him. Yesterday when the answer to that fateful question was "dry, dry, dry", she jumped out of her bed and sang " I have a big, big God-O and He's always by my side. By my side, by my side."

On Tuesday I went to the Dress Ceremony, which is a time of celebration and commitment for the ladies that have had successful surgery. They each get a new dress that represents their new life. They each talk about their journey and each lead (by lead I mean sing at the top of their lungs and dance around) us in a song that is relevant to them. One of the things that stuck out the most is one of the ladies was talking about how she stopped going to church because she would leak all over the bench and would start to smell. She then looked at Dr. Steve and said "Thank you Dr. Steve for giving me the gift of being Dry. Now I can go back to Church. Your God will be my God." 

Baby

Her name is Baby, yes that is her real name. She is a shy, small, 15-year-old young lady. She came into our hospital early this week for surgery on her jaw. Most of the left side of her face has disappeared over the last 2 years due to a disease called Noma. 

'Noma is a type of gangrene that destroys mucous membranes of the mouth and other tissues. It occurs in malnourished children in areas of poor cleanliness. The exact cause is unknown but may be due to bacteria called fusospirochetal organisms. This disorder most often occurs in young, severely malnourished children between the ages of 2 and 5. Often they have had an illness such as measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, cancer, or immunodeficiency. Risk factors include Kwashiorkorand other forms of severe protein malnutrition, poor sanitation and poor cleanliness, disorders such as measles or leukemia, and living in an underdeveloped country. Noma causes sudden, rapidly worsening tissue destruction. The gums and lining of the cheeks become inflamed and develop ulcers. The ulcers develop foul-smelling drainage, causing breath odor and an odor to the skin.'

When Baby entered into D ward she held her head down, her shoulders were slumped, and did not make eye contact. My first interaction did not make us fast friends. I had to start an IV and she later told me we were not friends because friends don't stab each other. SO I spent the rest of the evening trying to win her friendship. I brought her crayons and we colored together, but she lost interest. So I brought her a slinky and she played with it for about 5 minutes then she again lost interest. So as my last-ditch effort I brought her an etch a sketch. As I showed her how it works she smiled and said "Thanks my friend".

Baby went to surgery and they made her a new left side of her face. It is quite remarkable actually. She came in with no confidence and left with her shoulders straight, her head held high, and a beautiful symmetrical face, and I... gained a friend. 

Lasagna

Well, I thought I might give you a little insight into the Lasagna just in case you might have a few questions rumbling around in the back of your head.

We don't currently have any ricotta or cottage cheese to use in our lasagna so I use a bechamel sauce with parmesan cheese added. Also, we use the standard Mozzarella cheese.

Sometimes the 'white' layer tends to disappear altogether when cooking the lasagna except for maybe seeing some stretchy white stuff here and there. You would probably be interested to know the classic lasagna has ricotta and bechamel sauce for the 'white' part and later people used what they liked best like cottage cheese. I prefer ricotta, but alas there is none of either.

Hope you enjoy it anyway...and zucchini was in the veggie one that was offered.

NO FOOD? NOT TRUE!!!

[to all the faithfull people that eat what we serve, the ones that compliment & encourage the food service crew even when they hated the menu, the ones that carry on with life even if the food wasn't what they wanted that day or the next...keep it up!  and disregard this post]

I have tried to be political correct, humble, organization conscience, and a little removed when maintaining this blog...it really is my own personal blog that is linked to the AFM intranet for those of you who enjoy being able to actually look at a dinner(supper) menu for the week.

But today multiple complaints were aired about food running out at 12:30 for lunch today...to which I say is UNTRUE!  Really I don't want to beat this dead topic into the ground but it is way past the limit of times it should have ever happened.

Hot food is never guaranteed for lunch, and I covered this quite well in an earlier post.  And because there is food you may not personally want to eat, does not by any means translate to being out of food.  If we have a lot of leftovers, then you have a lot of hot food for lunch.

AT 1pm, after the food was down in the dining room for 1 1/2 hours I received rice, snow peas, and soup back from the dining room.  Cold cuts and cheese were out for lunch along with options from salads, and the minimum of peanut butter and bread is always out!  And that my friend is what I have been conveying to crew since Mercy Ships has set this standard (it has been the same practice on the CBM, ANA, & here on the AFM).  The only place that it may be different is at the IOC.

I have also noticed that the dining room staff are the recipients of most of the complaints & criticism.  This is unfair to them and it is not right.

Please adjust the condition of your heart to the reason you came to serve and move forward from there...so somebody else can get to the peanut butter!

Ciatta went home....

Let's be honest, not many patients that come back from the OR on a ventilator, on the ship, have happy endings to their story. Ciatta came into the ship very sick, but yesterday she went home with her family and she looks wonderful. I had the privilege to get to know her and her 4 children and husband over the past week, and they really are lovely people. Today she came back to the ship to have her dressing changed and her wound looked at (which is fine-o) and she brought me an African dress, skirt, shirt, and head wrap. When she told me she wanted to buy me a suit I cried and she wiped my tears and told me she loved me. When she introduces me to people she says I am her white daughter. When she took my "measurements" she told me to stand up and turn around and told her husband to buy a dress and my size is "plenty, plenty". Which apparently is very large. Pretty much it just made me laugh.