12 hours of sleep

I worked night shift last week, Thursday-Sunday. Monday I went to the beach with some other nurses who were also working nights. What a good break from working, to go and swim in the ocean waves with some friends. It was beautiful weather, and to top it off we had a ride in a mercy ships vehicle, and didn't have to get a taxi. Monday night I didn't sleep to well, and Tuesday night I recovered with a good solid 12 hours of sleep! I really needed it.



I started back to work yesterday with a somewhat busy shift, but it was still nice. I had a little boy who had cataract surgery on both of his eyes, so he had 2 eye patches on, but he was making me laugh. First he started complaining about pain, but when I brought medicine to him, he sat right up and yelled, "I'm not having pain!". It was funny.



I had a woman who had a tumor removed from her face. She has her baby with her, who is a few months old, and so sweet. I can't imagine having major surgery and having a baby to care for too. But of course, the other patients on the ward and the nurses are more than willing to cuddle her little one! I sure was.



So far I can say the encephalocele repairs and other surgeries are going ok. We did have a few unstable kids yesterday, but seems they are moving in the right direction. Praise God for all the talented pediatric and PICU and ICU nurses!

From My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
What Is A Missionary?
"As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you."
John 20:21
A missionary is one sent by Jesus Christ as He was sent by God. The great dominant note is not the needs of men, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in work for God is behind, not before. The tendency to-day is to put the inspiration ahead, to sweep everything in front of us and bring it all out to our conception of success. In the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, the Lord Jesus. The ideal is to be true to Him, to carry out His enterprises.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and His point of view is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary enterprise the great danger is that God's call is effaced by the needs of the people until human sympathy absolutely overwhelms the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, the conditions so perplexing, that every power of mind falters and fails. We forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary enterprise is not first the elevation of the people, nor the education of the people, nor their needs; but first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ - "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations."
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God the tendency is to say - What wonderfully astute wisdom they had! How perfectly they understood all God wanted! The astute mind behind is the Mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the Divine guidance of God through childlike people who were foolish enough to trust God's wisdom and the supernatural equipment of God.

Good morning-O

Its about 1 am on my 3rd of 4 night shifts this week. I am happy to give thanks to God for your prayers and for his answers. The week has settled down from its hectic start. The pediatric surgeries this week went well and without any major complications this week! The power even went out one day for a few minutes, and everyone was fine in the OR's, ect. Praise God. Most of the patients have been discharged to local hospitals to continue the care they will need more long term. As I may have mentioned before, the pediatric doctor that is here now, picks his most difficult cases to have surgery on the ship, because of the anesthesia equipment. Without it, they probably wouldn't be able to have the surgery they need. We have been getting a lot of cases where kids have swallowed caustic substances... there is no poison control center you call, either... so a lot of kids have scar tissue in their esophagus so they cannot swallow anymore and need feeding tubes. But yea, I just do really thank God that everything went well this week, despite a few stressed nurses. It is difficult to see how much medical care people don't have, especially coming from the US, where we are used to plenty plenty resources (a lot).

Next week we'll have a few encephalocele repairs...A little medical lesson: An encephalocele is a birth defect where a piece of the skull doesn't close completely, therefore brian matter seeps out and forms a bulge usually in front of the face, between the eyes. Google search it for some examples. :) So needless to say, the surgical repairs can be complicated, and the kids need spinal taps twice a day post-op. We have one of the cutest babies here on the ward. He's getting some medicine for malaria and he is due for surgery on monday. He's 1 yr old and his name is Moses. He's got an encephalocele about the size of a big mango on his face. He is adorable and has such a sweet spirit. So if you want another little one to keep in your prayers, I am sure he would greatly appreciate it, and so would his mamma.

I am also more than excited to report that I have not gotten the stomach bug! Praise God! I slept really good during the day today- a whole 8 hours. :) I haven't heard of anyone else getting sick either. Thank you for your prayers!

Quick update

I wanted to post an update on the child I had mentioned yesterday. I had him yesterday and he did go to surgery and he was doing pretty well postop. They drained about 2L of fluid/infection off his kidney before removing it. No wonder his belly was so distended. He is so cute though! I want to thank God that this little guy did well in surgery, and also for giving me grace to look after him post op- and for the peds nurses that jump in and help whenever needed. But please do pray- there are a lot of sick kids.

Today I said goodbye to my bunkmate, Erica, and another friend, Sam . Sam was the one who so graciously provided The Office Season 3. I will miss both of them, its sad to say goodbye. :(

I did get some mail today, and it was very exciting!

I'm sorry some of the pictures on my blog are not working... not sure why. Hope that will be resolved soon as I want to keep you updated on what I am doing here.

Sick kids, sick nurses

Hi All! I'd like to post a few prayer requests if you would please pray.

1. This week they are starting to do a lot of complicated pediatric cases here on Mercy Ships... for the next 3 weeks, which means we are seeing a lot of really sick kids coming in for surgeries they wouldn't have a chance of having without the technology on the ship.
-I and some of the other nurses are not used to having pediatric patients, let alone sick or unstable ones.
- That we as the health care team on mercy ships would give them the overall very best care we possibly can
-That the surgeries would go well and God's hand would be over all, to give these kids a better life and that they would heal well with no complications at all.
-That God would strengthen and give wisdom to the nurses, and pediatric nurses
-We had a 2 year old boy come in for removal of one kidney due to severe hydronephrosis, and damage to the kidney. He looked very thin, with a big rounded belly. He had a fever >102 when he arrived for his scheduled surgery. His mom was very scared probably due to the rumors circulating Liberia that Mercy Ships is killing people and stealing their kidneys. So when the doctor was explaining the risks of surgery, the mom was freaking out a bit, understandably. Please pray for this little boy. My heart just goes out to him! He's so small and already so sickly and malnourished. I don't know if they will go ahead with his sugery. A part of me wonders if there is some other etiology to his illness. Maybe a virus that attacks the immune system, like HIV? But I had to forcefeed him tylenol last night for his fever, which he threw up, and then I give him suppositories while he screamed, "No, Oh no, momma, momma, oh no!"

2. The nurses. A stomach bug has been circulating the nursing team (and other crew members on the ship) . A few of the nurses even needed IV fluids or IV anti nausea meds. A lot of the recovery room nurses are sick. So please pray this would stop, that we would be healthy and strong and able to serve the people of Liberia and see God work in their lives. I have not gotten sick yet (Hallelujah!!) but a few of my roomies are sick, and its just miserable to be sick on the ship!


I am thankful though, so far, things have been going ok. Last night we had a busy night with all adult nurses on the ward watching over kids, and although busy and challenging, everything was going pretty well by the end of the night. We had no major complications. Thank you so much for your prayers!! May God bless you!!!

The cutest patient ever and pics of the fishing villiage

The weekend

Yesterday was the 30th Anniversary of Mercy Ships, which we celebrated with a day of competition in 1o different events. We formed teams of 6, our team wasn't formed until yesterday morning, and while most teams came in matching uniforms, (all very creative), with team names like Dentimental for the dental team, our team members just so happened to show up wearing blue shirts and we then came up with the name "Code Blue" -we were all nurses, so it was fitting. Some of the games included water balloon toss, bean bag toss, darts, table tennis, the onion run (similar to carrying an egg on a spoon)... anyways, it was a lot of fun and the patients did enjoy watching us look foolish :) Our team got the award for "Consistent 6" which means we didn't stink too badly. Then we had a barbeque on the dock, with hamburgers and it was really nice.

Today, I went to a local church, it was very western. It was nice to sing familiar worship songs, sit in pews, shake hands on the way into church, and all read the words on powerpoint. Then it rained this afternoon.

I want to leave some words to a song that I really like, and which are really challenging me. They played it at the end of the church service tonight on the ship:

I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned,
In awe of the One who gave it all
I'll stand my soul Lord to you surrender
all I am is yours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-YUU-MRjw4