The last time I tried to post on my blog, the internet here would not allow me access to my page so my friend had to do it for me. When I awoke the next morning, I learned that I would not have internet again until Monday… MONDAY?! You mean I have to go 3 whole days without internet? I quickly realized how reliant I am on the internet – I use it for everything! Thankfully I was able to catch a break Saturday evening, but was still unable to access my blog. As soon as I can, I will post photos. Until then, thank you again, Brad, for posting my update!
Friday
This morning I joined Dr. Koning on his usual routine: breakfast at 7:10, doctors meeting at 8, rounds and OR to follow. After the meeting at 8, Dr. Koning took Linda and I up to the OR to see about getting us the necessary items to enter. We were promptly sent away to get permission from the Matron so we started to head her way. We stopped in the ICU for a bit and as we were standing in the room with the patients Dr. Koning started discussing ways to clear out catheter waste… I again became a little queasy and decided it would be best if I let the medical professionals handle that conversation. I left the hospital to put my scrubs on, praying that I could stomach the OR. By the time I returned I had missed Dr. Koning’s rounds for the morning and found him and Linda in a small office. He was conducting his office hours and anyone who needed to see him was brought in by a nurse, one at a time. The language barrier is very hard to overcome here in Ethiopia, as there is absolutely no relation to Latin or English. If the nurse needed to leave the room for a minute, the entire appointment would just stop, because even with gestures it was too difficult to understand each other.
After office hours came the OR. I put on my mask, shoe covers, and head cover and was ready to go. I REALLY wanted to be there and I REALLY wanted to be okay… how many other times would I have this opportunity? – Never. The first OR we went into was good… because they were already sewing her up. She had her gall bladder removed and it was sitting on a small tray in front of me with about a dozen little stones next to it that had been pulled out. Gall bladder, stones, no blood… no problem. The woman on the table started to moan, and I immediately had a concerned look on my face. Linda quickly told me this is normal when you start to come out of anesthesia, and that many patients do this.
The second OR we went into was fascinating… but it didn’t fare well on my stomach. The smell when we entered the OR was the worst smell I have ever experienced. One of the doctors was cauterizing the scar tissue off of a young boys deformed leg, and piece by piece it was coming apart like a puzzle. I lasted about 5 minutes and had to walk out of the room for some fresh air. Many nurses stopped to ask if I was alright and I was so embarrassed, but I just couldn’t handle it for long. I tried to go back a couple of times, in and out, in and out for maybe 2 minutes at a time but I eventually admitted I could not handle the smell and decided to leave the OR. Side note: it’s funny how we can become so familiar with a smell or sound that we no longer notice it is there. Customers would come into my family’s print shop and ask if they had just painted or comment on the rich smell of ink – something that we do not even notice when we walk through the door. One nurse said the same thing about the cauterizing of the skin – “oh, that’s funny, I didn’t even notice there was a smell.”
Lunch today was American spaghetti without meat – thank goodness. I did not tell of my first night’s meal, but I will just say after one bite of chicken I swore off meat for the rest of my trip.
Saturday
Today I finally made it on rounds with Dr. Koning. This morning he only needed to see one patient, but we ended up visiting three. The first was a man who had come down with Malaria 10 days earlier. He was treated for this but now was having other complications that were most likely caused earlier by the malaria. We looked through his CT scans, he pointed out all of the organs, and walked me through exactly what he was seeing. The second patient was one who also was treated for malaria and was trying to get back to Holland for more care. The last we ran into was the second patient’s roommate, who had just had surgery to remove the largest bedsore that they had ever seen. There was no dressing on him at the time we were in there as they were cleaning it… I will save you a description of what it looked like, as it was not long before I had to sit down again.
This afternoon we visited the Museum of Ethiopia and toured a large orthodox church. We immersed ourselves in Ethiopian culture for a few hours and had a wonderful time. However, I was anxiously awaiting our meeting with Ferdo (I know I am butchering the spelling terribly, sorry) where I would learn more about the school and how I could help. The medical aspect of my trip has been quite exciting, but I came here for a reason and was anxious to get going.
NEHEMIAH
I do not even know where to begin, because by the time I left Nehemiah my head was going a million miles a minute. From the very limited information I had about the school before I left the US (communication is not a strength of Ethiopians, and they will be the first to admit it) I was under the impression that they started up in the middle of May, were functioning as a school, and needed some structure, resources, training in certain areas, and support. What I found instead was a group of very passionate individuals who care deeply about children with Autism, and an empty house (some chairs, a few toys) for the students to arrive at on June 1st.
So, we are starting on the ground floor and hope to be up and running by Friday. The children were supposed to arrive on Wednesday, but the school is okay with postponing this in order to get everything together. The facility is very nice and will be great for the school. However, there are many details they are still working out. They do not have a van for transportation, they have no tables, they have no curriculum, no boardmaker, no classroom activities… They have big dreams for their school and I hope that we can make most of them become a reality in the next few days. The teachers should be coming on Monday and Ferdo has asked that I train everyone – the administrators, teachers, and assistants – on what to do.. This is a much larger task than I had ever anticipated, but I am so excited for the challenge. God works in mysterious ways, and I am honored to have been given this opportunity.
Friday
This morning I joined Dr. Koning on his usual routine: breakfast at 7:10, doctors meeting at 8, rounds and OR to follow. After the meeting at 8, Dr. Koning took Linda and I up to the OR to see about getting us the necessary items to enter. We were promptly sent away to get permission from the Matron so we started to head her way. We stopped in the ICU for a bit and as we were standing in the room with the patients Dr. Koning started discussing ways to clear out catheter waste… I again became a little queasy and decided it would be best if I let the medical professionals handle that conversation. I left the hospital to put my scrubs on, praying that I could stomach the OR. By the time I returned I had missed Dr. Koning’s rounds for the morning and found him and Linda in a small office. He was conducting his office hours and anyone who needed to see him was brought in by a nurse, one at a time. The language barrier is very hard to overcome here in Ethiopia, as there is absolutely no relation to Latin or English. If the nurse needed to leave the room for a minute, the entire appointment would just stop, because even with gestures it was too difficult to understand each other.
After office hours came the OR. I put on my mask, shoe covers, and head cover and was ready to go. I REALLY wanted to be there and I REALLY wanted to be okay… how many other times would I have this opportunity? – Never. The first OR we went into was good… because they were already sewing her up. She had her gall bladder removed and it was sitting on a small tray in front of me with about a dozen little stones next to it that had been pulled out. Gall bladder, stones, no blood… no problem. The woman on the table started to moan, and I immediately had a concerned look on my face. Linda quickly told me this is normal when you start to come out of anesthesia, and that many patients do this.
The second OR we went into was fascinating… but it didn’t fare well on my stomach. The smell when we entered the OR was the worst smell I have ever experienced. One of the doctors was cauterizing the scar tissue off of a young boys deformed leg, and piece by piece it was coming apart like a puzzle. I lasted about 5 minutes and had to walk out of the room for some fresh air. Many nurses stopped to ask if I was alright and I was so embarrassed, but I just couldn’t handle it for long. I tried to go back a couple of times, in and out, in and out for maybe 2 minutes at a time but I eventually admitted I could not handle the smell and decided to leave the OR. Side note: it’s funny how we can become so familiar with a smell or sound that we no longer notice it is there. Customers would come into my family’s print shop and ask if they had just painted or comment on the rich smell of ink – something that we do not even notice when we walk through the door. One nurse said the same thing about the cauterizing of the skin – “oh, that’s funny, I didn’t even notice there was a smell.”
Lunch today was American spaghetti without meat – thank goodness. I did not tell of my first night’s meal, but I will just say after one bite of chicken I swore off meat for the rest of my trip.
Saturday
Today I finally made it on rounds with Dr. Koning. This morning he only needed to see one patient, but we ended up visiting three. The first was a man who had come down with Malaria 10 days earlier. He was treated for this but now was having other complications that were most likely caused earlier by the malaria. We looked through his CT scans, he pointed out all of the organs, and walked me through exactly what he was seeing. The second patient was one who also was treated for malaria and was trying to get back to Holland for more care. The last we ran into was the second patient’s roommate, who had just had surgery to remove the largest bedsore that they had ever seen. There was no dressing on him at the time we were in there as they were cleaning it… I will save you a description of what it looked like, as it was not long before I had to sit down again.
This afternoon we visited the Museum of Ethiopia and toured a large orthodox church. We immersed ourselves in Ethiopian culture for a few hours and had a wonderful time. However, I was anxiously awaiting our meeting with Ferdo (I know I am butchering the spelling terribly, sorry) where I would learn more about the school and how I could help. The medical aspect of my trip has been quite exciting, but I came here for a reason and was anxious to get going.
NEHEMIAH
I do not even know where to begin, because by the time I left Nehemiah my head was going a million miles a minute. From the very limited information I had about the school before I left the US (communication is not a strength of Ethiopians, and they will be the first to admit it) I was under the impression that they started up in the middle of May, were functioning as a school, and needed some structure, resources, training in certain areas, and support. What I found instead was a group of very passionate individuals who care deeply about children with Autism, and an empty house (some chairs, a few toys) for the students to arrive at on June 1st.
So, we are starting on the ground floor and hope to be up and running by Friday. The children were supposed to arrive on Wednesday, but the school is okay with postponing this in order to get everything together. The facility is very nice and will be great for the school. However, there are many details they are still working out. They do not have a van for transportation, they have no tables, they have no curriculum, no boardmaker, no classroom activities… They have big dreams for their school and I hope that we can make most of them become a reality in the next few days. The teachers should be coming on Monday and Ferdo has asked that I train everyone – the administrators, teachers, and assistants – on what to do.. This is a much larger task than I had ever anticipated, but I am so excited for the challenge. God works in mysterious ways, and I am honored to have been given this opportunity.
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