This week's highlights

As you can see from the picture I posted Wednesday, our noma patient has had his second surgery, and now has a new nose and roof of his mouth. The surgery involved cutting the pedicle flap away from the nose and unrolling it back onto his scalp, and releasing his tongue from the roof of his mouth. One of my coworkers had the opportunity to observe the surgery, and she said that the surgeon, Dr. Parker, was impressed by how clean everything was. He said "there's obviously been some excellent nursing care going on in the ward." We all gave ourselves a little pat on the back for that. ;-) The patient is just as much to be praised for how well he's doing. What he's gone through the past 3 weeks would be difficult for anyone, with tube feedings, living off of soft foods and ensure supplements, having his nose suctioned every 4 hours, and multiple dressing changes and mouth washes. But he's endured it all with a smile on his face and a cheerful wave every morning for the nurses, never complaining, and being more than compliant with every treatment. I wasn't on shift when he returned from his second surgery, but everyone said that he came back wearing the biggest grin yet, and asking for a mirror.

Monday a group of about 30 new people arrived on the ship, so there have been lots of new faces to get used to. This happens every couple of months, and it's always a little disorienting at first. The ship feels like a different place for awhile, but soon everybody gets used to each other again and routines continue. I'm a preceptor on the ward now, so I've been helping to orient some of the new nurses. It's reminding me of how out of place I felt when I first arrived, and how strange everything first seemed. Now the way we do things in the hospital has come to feel more normal, and those thoughts of "we would never do it this way at home" don't cross my mind nearly so often.

About a month ago I joined a women's Bible study here on the ship, and we've been going through Beth Moore's Esther study. Watching the lesson every Monday night with the other ladies has been a highlight of every week, and the daily "homework" has helped me stay in the Word more consistently. I was really excited to be in a Bible study like this, because the past few years I haven't had the ability to, due to moving around so much and working crazy nursing schedules. Since most of the women in the study work shifts, they show the lesson Monday mornings as well as evenings so that everybody has the chance to come.

In my time off I've been trying to sign up for more of the "Mercy Ministries," like the women's prison and Missionaries of Charity. Yesterday I joined a group going to visit an orphanage outside the city, called Fatima Home. The orphanage is run by a local couple who started it for war orphans about 10 years ago. Some of those original children are still there, and more have joined them since. Living on a piece of land outside of Freetown, the children are provided meals, clothes, beds, and an education. Exams are expensive in Sierra Leone, and the Mercy Ships crew recently collected a donation large enough to pay each child's school fees for a year! When we pulled up to the home in our land rovers yesterday, it was raining but the kids were all standing outside anyway, jumping up and down eagerly and waving, big smiles on their faces. We all crowded into the living room inside the couple's house, to get out of the rain. While we took seats in the chairs and couches around the perimeter of the room, all the kids settled on the floor. Denise, the lady leading our team, said "don't be shy kids, you can sit in our laps!" The kids stayed where they were on the floor and just looked at her, obviously confused. Then the man who runs the orphanage translated what Denise said and within seconds the floor was cleared and every lap was filled. :-) We all had fun cuddling the munchkins while Denise taught a lesson on the fruits of the spirit, with the translator's help. Then we sang some songs and gave the kids coloring pages and crayons. The time passed all too quickly, and soon it was time to load up and make the bumpy hour-long drive back to the ship. Hopefully I'll be able to go back again in a couple of weeks.

The rest of my free time this week has been filled with walks on the dock, admiring the sunsets after dinner, reading books, movie nights with friends, and calling home to make sure my family's safe amid all the Texas wildfires. It's strange to think that my time here is more than half-way over; sometimes the next 3 months seem like forever, and other times I feel like they're going to just fly by. I've been battling a little more homesickness and burnt-out feelings than usual this week, so I'd appreciate your prayers that I would make the most of the time I have left. I want to relish every opportunity I have here in Sierra Leone, but I know that come December, I'll be more than ready to see Texas again.

Hospital Updates

Max-fax has been slow the past few days, so D ward has been pretty quiet. They haven't been doing as many surgeries, but it should pick back up again shortly - I think we're waiting to get the anesthetists we need to do pediatric surgeries.

One of our general surgery patients, a lady who had a thyroidectomy, developed some complications and is now in the ICU. She came down with severe malaria, typhoid fever, and congestive heart failure-like symptoms. I cared for her the past 3 nights, and she stayed about the same over the weekend. Not doing any worse, but not really much better either after receiving antibiotics, diuretics, ACE-inhibitors and a blood transfusion. Please keep her in your prayers, that she will respond to the treatment and take a turn for the better soon. Also, typhoid is contagious and not all the nurses have received the vaccine. I have, thankfully, but please pray for the health of our nurses and everyone on the ship.

The man with the noma nose and palate reconstruction is going back for his second surgery tomorrow! He's been doing well, although losing weight. I'd lose weight too if my tongue was sutured to the roof of my mouth! We started him on nutritional supplements a couple of days ago, so hopefully he'll gain the weight back and his wounds will heal faster. Everyone's looking forward to his second surgery tomorrow, to release his tongue and replace the pedicle flap back on his scalp.

The plastic surgeon who was here at the beginning of the outreach returned this week for another round of plastics. The plastics patients take months to heal, and we finally sent the last ones home last week. Now we're about to fill up A ward again with a new set.

That's all for now. I just worked night shift the past 4 nights, and I'm tired!

Life Goes On

Life onboard the Africa Mercy continues to be busy. In addition to working shifts in the hospital every day, I've been spending time with friends, saying goodbye to many of them as they return home, and taking trips into Freetown. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

"Tea at ten" has become a tradition every night in the dining room

Goodbye party at The Country Lodge restaurant

Saying goodbye to sweet friends

Everyone gathers on the dock to wave goodbye

Spending time with patients at the Hope Center

Views of Freetown

B, C, D, and Hope Center

This week was so packed and busy, it seemed to go by really fast! I worked day shift (7am-3pm) Monday-Thursday, and evening shift (2-10pm) Friday. I was a ping-pong ball this week, bouncing around from ward to ward. Monday I got pulled to B ward for the first time, which is where the general surgery patients are - mostly hernias. Tuesday I worked in D ward (where I'm usually assigned, max-fax), but it was so slow I went back to B half-way through my shift to help them out. Wednesday I was in B again, and Thursday I worked in C. Up til about a week ago, C ward has been left empty. Now we have overflow, low-acuity max-fax patients in there. That day consisted mostly of wound care and dressing changes for me, then playing with balloons and bubbles with the kids once my work was done. Friday I was back in B. It was a good week, but I did feel a little displaced. D ward has come to feel like my home, and I missed it a little. After work we had various meetings and worship services, so I didn't have a whole lot of down time this week. Here are some more pictures from the wards this week:

worship time on D ward

Ursina with some of the kids

Natalie (the max-fax team leader) playing with Lamin

2 of our little ones making friends

Juanita, me, Hannah, and Beth

crazy B ward nurses, with 2 of our translators and one of our patients

Despite the business of the week, I did have time one day to go visit the patients at the Hope Center. That's our outpatient facility down the road from the docks. When patients live too far away to go home, they go stay at the Hope Center to wait for their surgery or follow-up appointments. Going there definitely lifts my spirits - as soon as I walked through the gate I was surrounded by kids who wanted to talk and play and arm wrestle and hold my hands and sit in my lap.

this week's recap

Well, my walk into town to visit the market on Monday didn't happen. Sunday night, about half of our group that went to the beach came down with a nasty case of food poisoning and we spent the day in our beds. Our sweet friend Rachael became our private nurse, and visited everyone in their cabins bringing us gatorade, bread, and encouragement.

My stomach's been a little upset all week, but I was well enough Tuesday to go back to work for night shift. All was quiet on the ward for 3 nights in a row - which was good for our patients, but made it very hard to stay awake! I got a lot of reading done this week, while listening to the heavy breathing of sleeping patients and their family members. The only "exciting" thing that happened at work this week was finding my little 4-year old (see the last picture) asleep without his bandage on, and having to get my coworkers to hold him still for me while I did a dressing change at 3 am.

Last week the photographer took some pictures in the wards, so here are a few of the patients I've been caring for the past couple of weeks. The first 3 are out on deck 7, where we take the patients out for an hour every afternoon to get some fresh air, and to let the kids run off some of their energy.

2010 was a crazy year

Once upon a time, a young nurse came down with a case of wanderlust. She could find no cure for this malady but to quit her job, stuff all her worldly belongings into her car, and drive off into the sunset to find adventure.

(this is actually a picture of a sunrise, but we can pretend)

During her travels the nurse learned many things...like flexibility and self-confidence in her career, how to be more outgoing than came naturally to her, how to drive her car on icy roads without crashing, and how to snowboard. She never did crash the car, but the snowboarding part didn't turn out so well.

After losing her job and getting kicked out of her apartment, the crippled traveler limped home to rest and recuperate with her family's loving support.

Three months later her body was healed and her brain was bored. The combination of her increasing restlessness and decreasing bank account sent the nurse to central Texas. It wasn't quite where she wanted to be, but she was thankful for her job.

Over the next few months, her conversations with God went something like this:

"I'll work this job, but only for a few months."

"Ok, I'll stay a little longer, but I don't really need community."

"Maybe it would be nice to have friends after all, but I'm not putting down any roots."

"Well, a few roots wouldn't be so bad, but I'm not going to date anyone."

You see where this is going.

So, this adventure-seeking, root-shunning traveler was having a lovely time with new friends, working hard and planning where the road would take her next...when someone rather unexpectedly caught her eye.

And unbeknownst to her, she had caught his eye as well. These two were both very cautious in the area of relationships and content to get to know each other as friends, so it took a couple more months for anything to happen between them.

Finally the village matchmaker...er...I mean, their good friend Cheryl, got impatient and took matters into her own hands.

With Cheryl's relentless "encouragement," the two friends became more than just friends on January 1, 2011.

It was pretty much the Best New Year's Ever.

yes, i'm still alive

so...i realize i've been MIA from the blogging world for even longer this time. a picture's worth a thousand words, so long story short:

thankful for my feet

after 2 air splints, 3 casts, 1 walking boot, 1 ankle brace, multiple x-rays, doctor's appointments, physical therapy and medical bills...my ankles are now back to normal. and my 3 months of unemployment are finally coming to an end! next stop: Temple, TX for travel assignment #3.