This week in photos.

VBS at Montessori

Fransisco leading a prayer at one of the schools

We are tired!

Photo-op. This one isn't really relevant, I just wanted to add it. Stacy took it!

Nahomy Update

This week we have a youth group here from Colorado, as well as some other visitors. I’ve been going with the youth group in the mornings to do VBS at the DESEO schools, and in the afternoons to Ojos de Agua for basketball camp. It’s been a lot of fun, and the kids love it!

Today, we went to the school in Yarushin, which is where we were for the last medical brigade. On the way out of town, a few of us stopped by to see Nahomy! I should probably back up and say that I visited her in the hospital most days while she was there, and after improving a great deal, she was sent home last Monday taking only vitamins and iron. It made my heart happy to see how much better she felt, and also to see how much she warmed up to me! Today when we stopped by to visit, she came out to greet us with a huge grin on her face. She looks great, and her mom and grandmother say she’s like a new little person! She’s not sleeping all day anymore, she’s back to loving school, and she's playing with her brothers and cousins all the time again.

I have been so glad to receive all of the e-mails and messages about prayers for Nahomy, MUR, and for me! Thank you all for the encouragement. I’m so glad to be able to share stories like hers. Obviously your prayers are helping! 

Nahomy

This week was yet another medical brigade success, gracias a Dios, with a group from Burnt Hickory in Atlanta. We went to Yarushin four days in a row, and saw over 850 patients. The Burnt Hickory group was smaller than others, but it was made up of hard workers that worked together extremely well, so even with 850 people seen we had a very smooth, stress-free four days! The two Honduran doctors (and one of them brought his wife who is his nurse) were INCREDIBLE, which assisted in the ease with which we passed the week. They were from other places in the country, and I hope that they both come to work with us again in the future. They both signed on last minute (which is a whole other story in and of itself about how God provides) but they were both so gracious to pick up and drive across Honduras to help us out.

My favorite story from this brigade is about a PRECIOUS 6 year old girl named Nahomy. When she heard that there was a medical brigade in town she told her grandmother “We have to go,” so thankfully they did. The doctor saw her and recognized immediately her pale skin, the white color of her mucous membranes (mouth, eyes), and the fact that her skin doesn’t blanch with pressure, and diagnosed her with anemia. Sweet Nahomy was so sick that she craves iron so badly that she eats dirt. She was embarrassed about that fact, but her hemoglobin level was 5.7 when it should be 12, which means her body was doing what it had to do to stay alive. She went to the hospital in March to receive a blood transfusion for the same thing, but they treated her anemia and not the parasites that are causing it, so here we are months later in the same situation. Dr. Mauricio did not hesitate to tell the family that she would die very soon if she does not get treated, so it needed to happen immediately.

Before blood transfusion

The doctor sent Nahomy to Santa Rosa with orders for lab work, and told them to return with the results. The next afternoon they returned with results that, in the U.S, would have kept you at the hospital. With multiple critical lab values, Jon, Dr. Mauricio, and I drove Nahomy, her mom, and grandmother right back to the hospital. (Did I mention how much Ioved these doctors? Having him at the hospital made everything go MUCH more smoothly.) We stayed to make sure she got admitted, discussed the plan of action with the pediatrician, and Dr. Mauricio—who is an ENT—extracted foreign objects out of two different kids’ noses.

Yesterday I went back to the hospital to check on her, and after only transfusing one unit of blood and a couple of days of antibiotics and parasite treatments, she looks worlds better. Her lab values have all come back to almost normal, and even her temperament has improved. She was a smiley, giggly little girl, whereas before she had been exhausted, scared, and miserable (understandably). I will keep following up with her, but it makes my heart happy to see such a quick, incredible improvement in a life that could possibly have been lost.

After

Also, I would like to point out the slight differences in hippa/hospital policies. I walked into the pediatric ward yesterday, visited the patient and talked to some of the other patients, asked for and was given her chart, and asked all sorts of questions about her care. Scrubs automatically make you so powerful here! Love it. Also, the fact that Dr. Mauricio was willing to treat a couple of patients at a random hospital was incredible to me, but also that the doctors there asked a man that they had never met to treat their patients is yet another factor that stands out. 

Quinciñera!

I feel the need to go back and write about the Quinciñera from last week. Quinciñeras are a celebration of 15^th birthdays, which I bet everyone remembers from 9^th grade Spanish when I’m pretty sure everyone in the U.S. watched the same video about a girl’s Quinciñera party.

This was one of the most interesting cultural experiences I’ve seen yet. Laura (previously mentioned favorite translator and daughter of Phil and Donna, who started MUR) was on the “court,” which is basically like being a bridesmaid. You buy the dress the birthday girl picks, you walk down an isle with an escort, then they do a cotillion-esque dance with everyone watching. I told her she’s in training to take over my job as professional bridesmaid one day. Starting her early!

Maybe my favorite part of the quinciñera was the rehearsal. Now that I have a car here (pause for celebration!!! Car!!!), I’m able to run errands and be more independent/helpful. Therefore, I was happy to drive Laura to the rehearsal. She was NOT excited, but I was SUPER excited, mainly because I was going to watch her learn the dance. (Sounds mean, but that’s what big sisters are for, and I have adopted her as little sister. DON’T WORRY, GRACE, YOU HAVEN’T BEEN REPLACED.) I’m rambling. Blah blah blah, went to VCOM dinner before rehearsal, blah blah blah, talked two of the medical students and one of the translators into coming with us! It helped Laura feel more comfortable, and was definitely a fun cultural experience for them to see. One of them lived in Santa Rosa for a couple of months a while back and speaks much better Spanish than I do, and the other picked up on a LOT of Spanish that week. During the rehearsal, he ended up having many discussions with the Honduran ladies that were planning and setting up, offering advice about which color of tablecloths or decorations should go where. Slightly embarrassing, but extremely hilarious.

David, medical student, discussing the decorations with Rosa and another lady.

For Skarleth’s quince, there was a mass (that we didn’t attend. Had something we had to do at that time), then everyone goes over for the reception where all of the court precedes her in walking down the isle and being presented. Lawson and Jordan Stacy were also on the court, along with other children. Each pair of niños carried an item down the isle that was presented to her when her turn came. There was a pair of high heels (since she’s a woman now), jewelry (same thing), and a doll (the last doll she’ll ever be given). Overall, Laura looked too cute, she did great during the dance, we ate some delicious food, and I got to check another cultural experience off my Honduran bucket list.

 Skarleth, birthday girl, is the one in the purple. The "court" is dancing around her.

Look at cute Laura!

They had dolls sitting on all of the tables... If you know me you know how I feel about dolls (and clowns, for that matter). Every time I turned around Jordan had this doll turned to look at me. Yikes. 

Laura and her escort, Falker.

VCOM

 Last week we had a group of medical students from VCOM (Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine) here to do a brigade in a number of different villages. VCOM seems like a pretty awesome school. They put a big focus on rural medicine, and they have clinics in Honduras, the Dominican, and El Salvador where students can do mission trips or even do part of their rotations. (Some of those details might be wrong). Plus they all seemed to be secret Auburn fans:).. Or maybe I imagined that.

Anyway, this brigade was VERY different for me from our normal brigades, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. Instead of helping “run the show” I was translating, since they have their own, very efficient, jefes (the Spanish seemed more appropriate). We had mainly second year students come down that had just finished their first year of medical school (got corrected for calling them 1^st years about 100 times), and they brought a handful of MDs to be their attendings. We saw less than half of the patients that we do on a daily basis in our normal brigades so that the students were able to do a full assessment, and the attending docs had time to stop and do some teaching. After I got over the slower pace and quit stressing over it, I really enjoyed listening to them teach, and I learned a lot in the process! There were also a few nursing students that came with them. I enjoyed talking to them, and realized that I wouldn’t go back to where they are(as great as that phase was) for any amount of money.

I actually just read and completely edited this paragraph… But I will say that the nursing students and I enjoyed working with the baby docs so early in their process of medical school. It’s really unique that they’re doing clinical work right after their first year, so they have a lot to learn, but they did a really great job! I really did enjoy, though, (and told the nursing students to remember these stories) having to explain how to do a blood pressure, or use an otoscope, or do a blood sugar, for example. They all worked really hard, did a great job, and made me laugh a LOT.

This was my first time to work as an actual official translator. Yikes. I did fine, thanks to God as always, but it was one of the most mentally and physically exhausting weeks I’ve had since I got here. There were more than a few times that I had to ask one of the “real” translators to come help me or for a couple of words, but overall I think it was fine. Maybe the others would tell you otherwise? Ha. The exhaustion might have also been because 3 of the 5 brigade days we were in villages that were 2.5-3 hrs away, so I was leaving the house before 0600 and getting home as usual around 9:30 or 10:00p.m. With that said, if exhaustion because of translating and long bus rides is my biggest problem, then I don’t have anything to complain about. 

Ohhh P.S. Grace, maybe you should be a DO. Seriously. And I PROMISE I'm going to call you. Worst sister award, I know.. But at least you're getting a shout out in the blog?

One of the students, Larry.

OMM: DO stuff in action.

Killing some time with some VCOM students.