Well it is almost 1 am & I really want to go to bed but if I dont blog I will forget some of the precious details about today. The 5:30 wake up call came much to quickly! We had breakfast at 6 where i met up with Erika & Lisa from my Bolivia mission & we were on the bus to the hospital by 6:30 or so. It is about a 25 min ride to the hospital- we chatted the entire way so I didnt really take in the surroundings much but I will have time. When we arrived at the hospital there were literally hundreds of people waiting - I am used to seeing people waiting but this was like 8 EZ ups all with people underneath plus they were standing everywhere...LOTS of people. We ended up screening 258 people...add in siblings parents etc plus the 100 volunteers & it was a 1000 person day in a very tiny space. Jeanne the CC asked erika & me to be the gatekeepers as we had both done that before. She had a VERY SPECIFIC way she wanted it done - I am pretty detailed but this was a big job for me - to keep every patient categorized 1-5 based on their condition, make sure their labs were good, that all the "stations" had signed (nursing, lab, dental, speech, anesthesia, surgeon, pediatrician, parents signed consents etc. Erika & I were a good team but we pretty much worked no stop from about 10 am when we got our first patient at our station until the last one at about 11 pm. This was my longest day of screening on a mission so far!!! Gatekeeping is sort of like riding a bike once you get started all the details come back - I even had things color coded this time thanks to my 5 color highlighter!
In the morning before we had patients they asked me to do an interview on Nicaraguan TV - just a few questions thru a translator - I was already a sweaty mess by then since it was about 100 degrees & super humid but there was no hair or make up person in sight to help me. what was even more funny was that at least 10 locals asked if I was a "guest" and on a TV show here??? Maybe I have a twin who is a Nicaraguan celebrity.
As always there were MANY memorable patients - in Nicaragua there are over 300 little volcanic islands that people live on & places along the San Carlos river so some people took boat rides then buses to get here-one cute family from Ometepe Island :) A few had colds so we started them on medicine in hopes of getting them better so they could still have surgery the end of next week. There was a darling 8 year old boy Rosney who came in & shook my hand when he arrived - he was a crack up - I kept telling him he was "muy guapo" (very handsome) and that I would be his nurse after his surgery. By the time he left he gave me a big hug - those moments are priceless & his mom was smiling the entire time.We typically dont repair lips until the babies are 6 months old but we have about 5 who are between 4-6 months. If they are well nourished we can sometimes do an "age deviation" I am hoping that will be the case for some. by 4:15 we had gotten 100 patients thru our final gatekeeper station. It was pretty clear then that this would be a LONG night but really...that is why I came, that is why we are all here & I woule rather be there helping these people have a chance at surgery than heading back to the hotel.
We saw several adults with unrepaired cleft lips & palates. One sweet lady was 58 & her name was Blanca Nieve (Snow White). She wants her lip fixed so she can wear lipstick -I may just buy her some if she gets on the schedule :) By 8 pm it was dark outside & they were still registering patients. There were a few late nigth "heartbreakers" a 23 day old baby with a large bilateral cleft lip & very young parents who looked scaired & were clearly trying to do their best to feed her but she couldnt suck wekk & it was a tremendous challenge. She weighed 2.5 Kg or about 5 lbs & was very malnourished. We were able to get her admitted to the hospital here to get her better hydrated & nourished and some proper bottles to make feeding her easier. She wont get surgery now but I am pretty confident her life was saved. Another 4 month old had severe unrepaied hydrocephalus with a very large head, a heart defect and a cleft lip and palate & other syndromes. Her mom said she knew we probably couldnt do anythng (and we cant) but she wanted to give her little girl every chance possible so she travelled 2 days to see if we could help. My heart broke knowing there was nothing to be done & this sweet baby would probably go to heaven sooner rather than later.
As it got closer to 10 pm we were all fading & I kept saying Doug's family saying he would tell our kids "Once a job you have begun never quit until its done, be it great or be it small do it well or not at all"....we didnt quit we did it well & in the end it looks like we have about 149 patients who qualify for surgery...sadly we will probably only be able to do 100 but this is a mega mission with another site a few hours away & supposedly they only screened 90 patients so we may send some patients who live near that region there for surgery to get more done.
THe team leaders will do the schedule tomorrow morning and then the patient announcements will happen after that. We were supposed to set up the hospital but we cant get in until Sunday so tomorrow we have a free afternoon & evening & I am going to connect with 2 of the LDS church leaders here & they are going to take me to shop & get some needed items for some of the church members here - I am SUPER EXCITED about that. I am also excited to not get up at 5:30 a.m. :)
Time for me to go to bed...excuse any typos!
In the morning before we had patients they asked me to do an interview on Nicaraguan TV - just a few questions thru a translator - I was already a sweaty mess by then since it was about 100 degrees & super humid but there was no hair or make up person in sight to help me. what was even more funny was that at least 10 locals asked if I was a "guest" and on a TV show here??? Maybe I have a twin who is a Nicaraguan celebrity.
As always there were MANY memorable patients - in Nicaragua there are over 300 little volcanic islands that people live on & places along the San Carlos river so some people took boat rides then buses to get here-one cute family from Ometepe Island :) A few had colds so we started them on medicine in hopes of getting them better so they could still have surgery the end of next week. There was a darling 8 year old boy Rosney who came in & shook my hand when he arrived - he was a crack up - I kept telling him he was "muy guapo" (very handsome) and that I would be his nurse after his surgery. By the time he left he gave me a big hug - those moments are priceless & his mom was smiling the entire time.We typically dont repair lips until the babies are 6 months old but we have about 5 who are between 4-6 months. If they are well nourished we can sometimes do an "age deviation" I am hoping that will be the case for some. by 4:15 we had gotten 100 patients thru our final gatekeeper station. It was pretty clear then that this would be a LONG night but really...that is why I came, that is why we are all here & I woule rather be there helping these people have a chance at surgery than heading back to the hotel.
We saw several adults with unrepaired cleft lips & palates. One sweet lady was 58 & her name was Blanca Nieve (Snow White). She wants her lip fixed so she can wear lipstick -I may just buy her some if she gets on the schedule :) By 8 pm it was dark outside & they were still registering patients. There were a few late nigth "heartbreakers" a 23 day old baby with a large bilateral cleft lip & very young parents who looked scaired & were clearly trying to do their best to feed her but she couldnt suck wekk & it was a tremendous challenge. She weighed 2.5 Kg or about 5 lbs & was very malnourished. We were able to get her admitted to the hospital here to get her better hydrated & nourished and some proper bottles to make feeding her easier. She wont get surgery now but I am pretty confident her life was saved. Another 4 month old had severe unrepaied hydrocephalus with a very large head, a heart defect and a cleft lip and palate & other syndromes. Her mom said she knew we probably couldnt do anythng (and we cant) but she wanted to give her little girl every chance possible so she travelled 2 days to see if we could help. My heart broke knowing there was nothing to be done & this sweet baby would probably go to heaven sooner rather than later.
As it got closer to 10 pm we were all fading & I kept saying Doug's family saying he would tell our kids "Once a job you have begun never quit until its done, be it great or be it small do it well or not at all"....we didnt quit we did it well & in the end it looks like we have about 149 patients who qualify for surgery...sadly we will probably only be able to do 100 but this is a mega mission with another site a few hours away & supposedly they only screened 90 patients so we may send some patients who live near that region there for surgery to get more done.
THe team leaders will do the schedule tomorrow morning and then the patient announcements will happen after that. We were supposed to set up the hospital but we cant get in until Sunday so tomorrow we have a free afternoon & evening & I am going to connect with 2 of the LDS church leaders here & they are going to take me to shop & get some needed items for some of the church members here - I am SUPER EXCITED about that. I am also excited to not get up at 5:30 a.m. :)
Time for me to go to bed...excuse any typos!
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