We got a wake up call at 6 am & were to have breakfast & be ready to leave by 7 am. However in South & Central America these times tend to be more suggestions than absolutes & we actually didn't leave until 8:15. It was a 45 min drive to the screening area thru lots of traffic. We seem to be on the outskirts of Downtown Santo Domingo.
The screening area was outside in a park type setting which is a new one for me - fortunately there was plenty of shade as it is definitely warm here & a bit humid. Operation Smile has had an office in the DR for 10 years so they are somewhat of a well oiled machine as far as screening children & people in this country knowing to refer children to OSI. They don't however have any plastic or cleft surgeons in the country I am told - so the surgeons for this mission have come from other South/Central American countries or the US - ours are from Spain, Honduras, Peru & the US. There are also 2 surgeons from Argentina here to get credentialed. There are also no OP Smile nurses in this country part of that is they don't have time off their work to come & get trained & if they could get trained they often cannot take a week off of work to volunteer and lose that weeks income.
They support services however are wonderful & they had "pre-screened" 130 patients fro us to do final screening. So instead of screening 200+ kids to get the patients for surgery we only screened about 150. Often when we arrive for screening we have to set the screening area up - they had all the stations set up & a separate area for the families to wait which helped to manage crowd control because each child comes with at least 2 adults so we still had 500 people here but they brought them over to screening 10 at a time for better flow. I was once again the gatekeeper with Orquida a nurse from Honduras who is a Clinical Coordinator in her own country & has done 35 local missions. I was supposed to train her on this new system our Clinical Coordinator had (which I loved & was all color coded). The challenge was she spoke no English & my Spanglish is weak...fortunately all we really have to do is review & record names, numbers & surgeries so it worked! Orquida will also be in the recovery room with me along with Alma also from Honduras - I definitely need to work on my Spanish!!! They have mostly done smaller local missions here and they were hoping for 100 surgeries but there is a glitch in the surgeons so we may only have 4 OR tables & our #'s will be closer to 85-90 I think. We also added all of the photos to the chart so that added another piece to the process but was fine.
We had a great day at the Gatekeeper Station - of course we are the last to leave so while the RN station was done at 4 we weren't done til about 6 but even that is EARLY compared to other missions where I have screened over 300 patients & been there til MN. There were SO MANY cute little babies who need lip repairs. A little 6 month old girl Alesia that I held was so precious & reminded me of little Baby K at home. This is a bit of a different mission now that I am a MIMI. There is a new place of tenderness in my heart. I have always been touched but these sweeties but it was in a different was as I left Kensie on Wed to come here & see baby girls her age here.
There are always a few heartbreakers - some babies that were not pre-screened & heard about this mission from FaceBook & other media. These are the babies with Multiple deformities - one was blind, had microcephaly (small head) & a cleft palate & lip. The multiple deformities make the NC or not a Candidate which is the right decision but still hard news to deliver :(
MY little friend Luz hung out with us off & on during the day - she was 3 years old carrying around big pink balloons & Manuel another little boy with protruding teeth played near us a well. I got some fun pics of them & a few others but we were steady busy most of the day & I didn't take a ton of pics.
They did not always come to us in specific numerical order so mid afternoon when we saw patient #1 we did a little cheer for him "You're #1" So even though it was super organized it was still busy & chaotic at times. The dental & speech areas all get a little backlogged because they do intensive one on one evaluations - it's just unavoidable.
As we wrote where the patients each came from those here have not traveled the days as I have seen on other missions - most were 1 hour-4 hours away because we are in a large city area. I realized though I have a tainted perspective because many people traveled 608 hours by bus on multiple buses - that is like driving to Arizona from my house or further. Also while I complained about the hotel hot & cold water; I was told that the water & electricity is rationed here so in home you do not have control over when you may or may not have either water or electricity - yet again - PERSPECTIVE IS KEY!!! There is also a Diphtheria, & Cholera outbreak in Haiti (the other side of the island) and after the rainy season dengue Fever & Zika always spike up - these are true health crises/challenges.
Punta Cana where are the resorts are at is about 3-4 hours away from here. I have never really thought of "vacationing after missions" for a few reasons - typically I am tired & need a day or 2 to recover & also my best vacations are with Doug, family & friends so I don't really want o vacation on my own or with folks I have just met - not that a day or 2 at a resort isn't welcome but I can do that at a different time & fully enjoy it.
Lunch was pizza - unfortunately really BAD pizza - so I was glad I brought bars to eat. I am pretty sure I have had pizza in every mission country I have been in!!!At lunch though I got a call from Sister Smith - the wife of the mission president in this area. I try to contact leaders of the LDS Church before I go asking what the local needs may be & heard back from President & Sister Smith that the greatest need is to have couples get married???? They are mostly "common law" families because it is expensive ($200 US) to get married even at a courthouse. Also in the LDS Church you need to be married in order to go to the temple etc. So REALLY this one thing is a HUGE roadblock to the members of the LDS Church here- some save for years & years to do this & THANKS to generous friends at home we are going to make that available to some couples here in the Santo Domingo area. Sis Smith said they have several couples/families that want to be married formally & we are going to make that happen this week! AS a friend of mine said when she gave me a donation "who doesn't love a wedding!" They invited me to the wedding that are in this area (some will be farther away) but I will not be able to attend the marriages at the courthouse as they are only open Mon-Fri when I have mission work but I may get to meet a couple tomorrow :) I am simply the conduit for the good that other people help with & THAT is a humbling role to play....I believe there are always reasons why I go where I go...aside from the actual mission work and this is why I am in Santo Domingo! More to come tomorrow perhaps - stay tuned!
One of our last patients was $85 a little 7 month old boy Jhon who had a Bilateral Cleft lip - those are the ones that look the worst and after surgeries they are totally different babies. I get super excited about those repairs! One patient I saw brought a GO Fish Game so I played that with him during a lull :) We had a 2 year old with pretty bad Hydrocephalus who also had a cleft but got a VP Shunt to help her Hydrocephalus a month ago & was cleared by her Surgeon for this so I think that child well get surgery!
We got back to the hotel just in time to get ready for a team dinner at a nice restaurant that was sponsored by a DR Health Insurance Company - probably because we are doing the surgeries they done have to pay for??? Anyway my mission wardrobe is limited as are other team members so walking in wearing jean capris & a nice shirt I felt a bit underdressed as locals were in dresses & heels - oh well! It was a nice dinner but way to long...I get the casual drawn out dinners of South America but 3 hours into it when I had finished my meal some of us headed back & weren't going to wait another hour for dessert! It was very nice of them to host us though & the restaurant was packed as we left at 10:30 pm.
Tomorrow we set up the OR's & Recovery room at the Policia hospital...a government hospital. Fortunately we don't have to leave until 8 so it wont be too early of a morning. I got to call home then headed to bed! Excited for what tomorrow will bring!
The screening area was outside in a park type setting which is a new one for me - fortunately there was plenty of shade as it is definitely warm here & a bit humid. Operation Smile has had an office in the DR for 10 years so they are somewhat of a well oiled machine as far as screening children & people in this country knowing to refer children to OSI. They don't however have any plastic or cleft surgeons in the country I am told - so the surgeons for this mission have come from other South/Central American countries or the US - ours are from Spain, Honduras, Peru & the US. There are also 2 surgeons from Argentina here to get credentialed. There are also no OP Smile nurses in this country part of that is they don't have time off their work to come & get trained & if they could get trained they often cannot take a week off of work to volunteer and lose that weeks income.
They support services however are wonderful & they had "pre-screened" 130 patients fro us to do final screening. So instead of screening 200+ kids to get the patients for surgery we only screened about 150. Often when we arrive for screening we have to set the screening area up - they had all the stations set up & a separate area for the families to wait which helped to manage crowd control because each child comes with at least 2 adults so we still had 500 people here but they brought them over to screening 10 at a time for better flow. I was once again the gatekeeper with Orquida a nurse from Honduras who is a Clinical Coordinator in her own country & has done 35 local missions. I was supposed to train her on this new system our Clinical Coordinator had (which I loved & was all color coded). The challenge was she spoke no English & my Spanglish is weak...fortunately all we really have to do is review & record names, numbers & surgeries so it worked! Orquida will also be in the recovery room with me along with Alma also from Honduras - I definitely need to work on my Spanish!!! They have mostly done smaller local missions here and they were hoping for 100 surgeries but there is a glitch in the surgeons so we may only have 4 OR tables & our #'s will be closer to 85-90 I think. We also added all of the photos to the chart so that added another piece to the process but was fine.
We had a great day at the Gatekeeper Station - of course we are the last to leave so while the RN station was done at 4 we weren't done til about 6 but even that is EARLY compared to other missions where I have screened over 300 patients & been there til MN. There were SO MANY cute little babies who need lip repairs. A little 6 month old girl Alesia that I held was so precious & reminded me of little Baby K at home. This is a bit of a different mission now that I am a MIMI. There is a new place of tenderness in my heart. I have always been touched but these sweeties but it was in a different was as I left Kensie on Wed to come here & see baby girls her age here.
There are always a few heartbreakers - some babies that were not pre-screened & heard about this mission from FaceBook & other media. These are the babies with Multiple deformities - one was blind, had microcephaly (small head) & a cleft palate & lip. The multiple deformities make the NC or not a Candidate which is the right decision but still hard news to deliver :(
MY little friend Luz hung out with us off & on during the day - she was 3 years old carrying around big pink balloons & Manuel another little boy with protruding teeth played near us a well. I got some fun pics of them & a few others but we were steady busy most of the day & I didn't take a ton of pics.
They did not always come to us in specific numerical order so mid afternoon when we saw patient #1 we did a little cheer for him "You're #1" So even though it was super organized it was still busy & chaotic at times. The dental & speech areas all get a little backlogged because they do intensive one on one evaluations - it's just unavoidable.
As we wrote where the patients each came from those here have not traveled the days as I have seen on other missions - most were 1 hour-4 hours away because we are in a large city area. I realized though I have a tainted perspective because many people traveled 608 hours by bus on multiple buses - that is like driving to Arizona from my house or further. Also while I complained about the hotel hot & cold water; I was told that the water & electricity is rationed here so in home you do not have control over when you may or may not have either water or electricity - yet again - PERSPECTIVE IS KEY!!! There is also a Diphtheria, & Cholera outbreak in Haiti (the other side of the island) and after the rainy season dengue Fever & Zika always spike up - these are true health crises/challenges.
Punta Cana where are the resorts are at is about 3-4 hours away from here. I have never really thought of "vacationing after missions" for a few reasons - typically I am tired & need a day or 2 to recover & also my best vacations are with Doug, family & friends so I don't really want o vacation on my own or with folks I have just met - not that a day or 2 at a resort isn't welcome but I can do that at a different time & fully enjoy it.
Lunch was pizza - unfortunately really BAD pizza - so I was glad I brought bars to eat. I am pretty sure I have had pizza in every mission country I have been in!!!At lunch though I got a call from Sister Smith - the wife of the mission president in this area. I try to contact leaders of the LDS Church before I go asking what the local needs may be & heard back from President & Sister Smith that the greatest need is to have couples get married???? They are mostly "common law" families because it is expensive ($200 US) to get married even at a courthouse. Also in the LDS Church you need to be married in order to go to the temple etc. So REALLY this one thing is a HUGE roadblock to the members of the LDS Church here- some save for years & years to do this & THANKS to generous friends at home we are going to make that available to some couples here in the Santo Domingo area. Sis Smith said they have several couples/families that want to be married formally & we are going to make that happen this week! AS a friend of mine said when she gave me a donation "who doesn't love a wedding!" They invited me to the wedding that are in this area (some will be farther away) but I will not be able to attend the marriages at the courthouse as they are only open Mon-Fri when I have mission work but I may get to meet a couple tomorrow :) I am simply the conduit for the good that other people help with & THAT is a humbling role to play....I believe there are always reasons why I go where I go...aside from the actual mission work and this is why I am in Santo Domingo! More to come tomorrow perhaps - stay tuned!
One of our last patients was $85 a little 7 month old boy Jhon who had a Bilateral Cleft lip - those are the ones that look the worst and after surgeries they are totally different babies. I get super excited about those repairs! One patient I saw brought a GO Fish Game so I played that with him during a lull :) We had a 2 year old with pretty bad Hydrocephalus who also had a cleft but got a VP Shunt to help her Hydrocephalus a month ago & was cleared by her Surgeon for this so I think that child well get surgery!
We got back to the hotel just in time to get ready for a team dinner at a nice restaurant that was sponsored by a DR Health Insurance Company - probably because we are doing the surgeries they done have to pay for??? Anyway my mission wardrobe is limited as are other team members so walking in wearing jean capris & a nice shirt I felt a bit underdressed as locals were in dresses & heels - oh well! It was a nice dinner but way to long...I get the casual drawn out dinners of South America but 3 hours into it when I had finished my meal some of us headed back & weren't going to wait another hour for dessert! It was very nice of them to host us though & the restaurant was packed as we left at 10:30 pm.
Tomorrow we set up the OR's & Recovery room at the Policia hospital...a government hospital. Fortunately we don't have to leave until 8 so it wont be too early of a morning. I got to call home then headed to bed! Excited for what tomorrow will bring!
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