They are here, they are beautiful

I just love their faces. I feel as if everyone tells this amazing story.

It was screening day today! My ladies are finally here. The day was wrapped in prayer and I am so grateful. Thanks so much for all the prayer. We screened 66 women. The process went smoother than I ever expected. We had to say no to a few but basically only those whose repairs were far too difficult or they didn't have a fistula at all. Other than that we were able to schedule all of them for surgery!!!!!!!!!!! God was in the details big time today. Tomorrow surgeries start and I am ready for the ride.

Check out my part fellow coordinator Lindsay's blog to read a little more about the ladies and screening process. She wrote it so well... and I was to lazy to do the same ;)

Green!

I knew it was getting down to the wire with a little over a week left before my ladies arrived and the bulk of my work here begins. I was in need of some green. Growing up in central Illinios you take for granted God's greenness being all around. In the last 3 years as I have moved from big city to big city and then now to a floating metal box off the coast of another big dusty city. One of the things I notice I miss the most is the green and the open space.

So I took this weekend grabbed a few friends in need of green themselves and headed out to the hills in Ghana just across the boarder from Togo and a few hours north. The big plan for the weekend was a hike up to the waterfalls and that was about it. We headed over Friday after work and then got up early Saturday morning to start our hike.

Now there are 3 options when visiting the falls... you can A: take a 45 minute leasurely stroll on a flat path in to the lower fall, B: head into the lower fall and then take an intense very steep hike that takes about 1 hr up to the upper falls, or C: take the "loop" a 6-7 hour hike that takes you up and around, above the upper falls then to the pool at the base of the upper falls, then down again to the pool at the base of the lower falls. You guessed it we were feeling adventurous and chose option C. In the picture above you can see the waterfall near the center. We hiked up and around to the right of the falls and then back down.

We started about 8 and made it to the upper falls pool by 1130. Ate lunch swam for about an hour and then down to the lower falls pool by 3. It was intense and exhausting but totally worth it. The views were breath taking. There is something about the mountains and getting out into God's creation that is good for the soul.

We got back to the ship Sunday evening and all day Monday I was reminded that I live on a ship full of stairs...ouch. It was a great weekend away. The craziness is starting with my ladies arriving this weekend but it was a good chance to reset. Here are a few of the pics but to check them all out here is a link to my facebook album.

Foatgina

Warning very log blog entry ahead!


Nothing about the work here is every simple or straight forward and we are learning that once again with a very special patient named Foatgina. She came to us with massive tumors surrounding her face. To complicate things a little more she is pregnant. When she was first admitted to the wards and we found out she was pregnant, it was too early in the pregnancy for us to operate as it would put the baby at risk. So she stayed on the ward for a few days as we tried to sort out what we could do and when.

At 2 pm each afternoon on the wards, the evening shift nurses come in to relieve the day shift, we pray and then the patients are handed over. Then the day shift nurses stick around for a while taking the patients up to deck 7 to get some fresh air and some sun. See the hospital is situated on deck 3 which has no windows at all, so it's good for the patients to be able to get out at least a little bit everyday (its good for the nurses too!). When Foatgina would go outside she would grab a chair and walk forward a ways and sit by herself while all the other patients stayed together playing, laughing, and socializing. One day one of the translators came up to me and asked why she would so often go and sit all by herself. Try and put yourself in her shoes, I said. Before she came to the ship she was most likely secluded. She would be outcast in society, people would stare and talk and think she was cursed. So most likely she stayed hidden away spending her days alone. For Foatgina spending her days and nights in a room filled with 10 other patients and caregivers, nurses, translators, doctors, and all the other general commotion that accompanies life on the ward had to be completely overwhelming. This was her time of escape from it all. I spent a few day caring for her. She was one of those patients who initially didn't want to look you in the eye, didn't want to smile. I like these patients, I like to slowly work on them and see if I can get them to warm up. So I was trying my best to win Foatgina over. Then one day as we walked down the stairs to come back from deck 7, she grabbed my hand and held it all the way down. Now we were friends.

So Foatgina went to our hospitality center. A place where patients from far away can stay after discharge typically if they need to return to the ship for physical therapy or dressing changes or whatever the case may be. So she went there to wait until she was at a safe enough gestation that she could be cleared for surgery. Everyone was anxiously awaiting this time because as we waited the tumors grew. So at last it was time and yesterday was the big day.

With big surgeries like this they take lots of time, lots of doctors, lots of resources, and lots of prayer. We anticipated that she would lose lots of blood and tried to be as prepared for this as possible. On the Africa Mercy we have a walking blood bank known as the crew. When a patient needs blood we look through the book of crew members who have signed up to be donors and check for the same blood type then we call that crew member down and make sure the blood matches. Then the blood is taken from the crew member and taken directly for transfusion into the patient.

Foatgina has B+ blood which is one of the more uncommon types its seems for available donors on the ship. At the beginning of the day we knew of 3 potential donors but the doctors wanted to have at least 11. So the hunt began. Before surgery even started they made an overhead announcement asking for anyone willing to donate and not knowing their blood type to come to the lab and check. They got enough to proceed and surgery started midday.

I was just finishing dinner around 6pm when Naomi from the lab came up to me and said they were still needing more donors and were going to have to overhead page again, she wondered if I would come down and help draw blood to check peoples types. I was more than happy to do this. I stopped working on the wards about 2 weeks ago and jumped at the chance to be a real live nurse again, sticking needles into people!!

So after the next 5 or so hours, 3 overhead pages, a little person to person recruiting, and even some guilt trip laying, and some hand holding down the stairs we ended up with about 12 more B+ donors. I even learned how to test for blood types myself... so I may have a future career as a lab tech.

My good friend Lindsay said it was like the loaves and the fishes and oh boy was it. The day started with 3 potential donors and by days end we had 18 separate donors give to Foatgina and some more in reserve! It was neat to see the ship pull together like that. Between the prayers and the blood donors, Foatgina pulled through surgery. They were not able to get all the tumor and she is currently in the ICU but they expect that maybe in 10 or so days after she has had some time to heal, they will try again to get the rest of the tumor. With her pregnancy getting farther along every day, she is about 6 months now, we need to try the surgery sooner rather than later.

Please be prayerful for Foatgina and her baby. Also please be lifting up the nurses and the medical staff. The wards have been very busy and there are currently 3 ICU patients (we only have room for 3). We have been reminded in a big way this outreach that we are fighting much more than disease, we are fighting a spiritual battle. At least we can rest in the fact that we are on the winning side!

We got us a Bladder Scanner!!!!!!!

One of the big prayer requests I had sent out over the last few months has been for a bladder scanner. I have never prayed so much in my life for a piece of medical equipment. The deal is that this particular piece of medical equipment will make a big difference in the quality of care we can provide for my VVF ladies. It means that we will be able to do what we need to do in a non-invasive way with no discomfort for the patient. 

There was a specific date that we needed this piece of equipment by in order to get it delivered to the ship in time for the start of VVF surgery. Well this day had come and gone and I had come to terms with the fact that we weren't going to get it. We would just do the best we could with we have and it would be ok. 

Then yesterday morning I check my email and we got one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is just a loaner and we have to return it at the end of this outreach but I don't care, we have one. Hopefully we can use this time to document the true need for it and then the same company that loaned us one will consider donating one in 2011! The scanner will now be brought here by the VVF surgeon, Dr. Steve when he flies over in 10 days. So here is a big thanks for all your prayers at home, God is good!

Here is a photo of what y'all were praying for... isn't she nice!!!!!!

Antoinette

On Monday afternoon I was just sitting at my desk in the office when I hear my name called, I turn and look at the doorway and notice a mama and her two kids walking by. I didn't recognize them as I didn't really get a good look. A few minutes later Jane one of the post-op nurses comes in and says, hey Maggie come down to the treatment room somebody is asking for you. I open the door to the room and their is Antoinette her little brother and their mama, saying Maggie! Maggie!  Her mama pulls out from her purse a laminated picture of me and Antoinette from last year in Benin when she was a patient for a long time with us.

Antoinette had something eating away at her face. We thought we had it figured out and had waited for months for a special antibiotic to come and were giving it to her to try and stop whatever it was that was taking away her precious face. I remember when she first came to the ward, she was like many of our patients. A little quiet and withdrawn but within a couple of days she had come out of her shell. She was a giggly fun little girl. In the end we found out Antoinette had TB and she was given treatment at a local hospital. I had wondered if the treatment had worked and praise God it has! 

                                                               

It was sooo great to see her and her family again. We were hoping our plastic surgeon could do some reconstruction to help her face look even better but the new skin is still to fragile, for now she will have to wait. But she looks 100% better than she did last year. It's these stories that make it all worth it! 

May 3rd, 2010

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. - Proverbs 3:5-6

Today I have been walking with Jesus for 10 years. Wow. I don't even know what to say. It is a good feeling. It's been a good ride thus far. I would have never guessed 10 years ago that this is where I would be but now looking back, Jesus has been totally setting me up for this. I like that about Him.

My heart is grateful. We had a worship night on the ship last night and it was so good to just stop for an hour and be still and worship. The song on my heart today is very familiar: I love you Lord, and I lift my voice. To worship you, oh my soul rejoice. Take joy my King in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.

God took me in these last 10 years from woodford street to west Africa who knows what the next 10 will bring! I do know this I am excited to find out!

A Good Laugh

Today I was down visitig the wards when one of the patients came up to me bringing a translator along with her. She was a patient who had had some max-fax surgery, I believe she had some kind of facial tumor removed. So she had a dressing around her head. The translator says to me, she says she has a house fly in there, and points to the dressing on the back of her head. I think to myself no way a fly got under that dressing but I will lift the edges up just to maker her think I am looking. Sure enough after lifting the end of the bandage up a fly flew right out at me. It took me by suprise along with the other nurses and the translator we all started laughing so hard. The patient didn't laugh a bit, she knew it was in there all along ;)