Another Late Night

Tonight was a great night…It started out with me taking coffee to the night shift, and then I checked in on my people in Maternite, and the girl who had come in yesterday was still there. I thought for sure she would have delivered by now, but it was her first baby - so not super unusual to have a long labor.

I knew the midwife on night shift would need help - so I decided to stay for the baby. After about three more hours, her contractions were slowing down and almost came to a stop, but she was fully dilated. We gave her IV fluids and put her on an oxytocin drip and I kept checking the baby’s heart rate. I started to get nervous as the heart rate gradually dropped lower and lower. When the heart rate dropped too low, we called the nursing supervisor to come in. We couldn’t get him on the radio, so we called Hannah, who brought my phone over and then we called him. He came in a bit and almost as soon as he got there he started trying to get the surgery team together for a C-section. Meanwhile, we started another IV, put a catheter in and took the lady to the Bloc.

By the time we all got there, changed into Bloc scrubs and had everything ready, the rest of the team arrived. We prayed and got started. I had all my stuff prepped and ready to receive the baby - since I was  the receiving nurse from Maternite. Medications, oxygen, BVM, etc. I was expecting the worst. I think we all were. I was terribly nervous.

Then most amazing thing happened - the baby came out crying loudly and breathing. I was so amazed and thankful. It was a complete miracle. We were all thankful. The best part of the night was going out with the baby and meeting the dad outside, and getting to present to him his firstborn son. All he said was, “Thank you Lord!”

We ended the night around 12:00am with getting the mom and baby settled, praying with the family and thanking God for His mercy. 

This was a week of losses. A difficult week for me in Maternity. A reminder of this sorrow on earth.

The 26-week premie that I've been taking care of died yesterday. She hung onto life for about a week, which was amazing. I had been spending so much time caring for her and was sad to see her go. My heart aches for her parents - teenagers who can't even afford their hospital bill.

Here is a picture of her when she was three days old:

This week I delivered my first baby who never even took a breath. The mom was very sick and had come from way out in the village. It was her first baby - a boy, and we did absolutely everything we could. I went home with a sick, heavy feeling. I knew this was going to happen at some point, and I know it will happen again, it's just part of life here. But it hurts just the same.

Yesterday another girl was admitted for a miscarriage of a 17-week old baby. She hadn't been able to deliver the baby so we gave her medicine to open her cervix. I have seen moms die here from their babies staying inside too long. They can easily go septic from this.

When she finally did dilate enough to push the baby out, the other midwife and I helped the baby out. I don't even have the words to describe it. This baby was perfectly formed, fingers and toes and everything. Somehow it reminded me how horrible abortion is - and it was disturbing to see such a tiny lifeless body. Somebody so small who shouldn't be outside the womb.

Shortly after that, another mom came in extremely sick, about 35 weeks pregnant and her baby's heart rate was very elevated. I was kind of dreading what would happen - but thankfully she delivered safely and the baby - only a few weeks premature, is doing quite well now.

Life Around Here

Some snapshots of our life

Finding cold cokes in the market - a real treat

Hannah gutting a chicken for our supper 

(we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and sweet tea that night)

Shoes outside my door

Update

Yesterday, Faith and Arwen left. They were a wonderful help and encouragement to all here. We will definitely miss them and they are leaving a big gap at the hospital. We had a little going away party for them at my house, and invited some friends over. Unfortunately I spent most of the time laying on the couch and watching the festivities because of being so unwell. 

Sorry it has been a while since I’ve posted anything on the blog. I am recovering from being pretty sick, and I’ve only started to feel better today. Everyone has taken good care of me, and lots of people stopped by to check on me when they heard I was sick. Today I am staying home and not really doing anything - just resting and trying to get totally better.

Anyway, please continue to pray for us, and thanks for reading and checking back for when I happen to write! :) 

The Creature

I was the uncertain owner of an uncertain species for about a day. Sadly, our "creature," otherwise known as Bonanza, escaped (or was stolen) during the night. The Creature was a baby, furry, slow-moving nocturnal animal, with a very strong grip.

Some boys at the hospital gave him to me. They told me he ate bananas, pineapple and that he liked water. They had painted his toenails and gotten nail polish on his fur too.

We did eventually find out what kind of creature he was - but if you know or care to do the research, I'll let you look him up. Here are some photos to help you out.

Mapasa (twins)

Today was long and very busy. I started work in Maternity at 5…people love to get going early and babies come at all times. One mom who had come in earlier for a check up, and was already post term, came in again this morning around 9. We checked the heart beat and position of the baby, which appeared to be breach.

Eventually it was decided the mom would probably need a C-section, so we took her to the operating room (the Bloc) and gave her fluids. 

The family didn’t have money to pay for the C-section. They said they had sent a family member to go sell a goat to get money to pay for it, but we really didn’t think we had time to wait for the goat to be sold…. While the nurse anesthetist (Marie Rose) and I were discussing the situation with our nursing supervisor, and deciding what to do, Rufin (who works in the Bloc) came running to find me and tell me that the mom had delivered a baby, and that there were actually twins. “Come quickly!” I grabbed some diapers and the mom’s stuff for the babies and ran back to the Bloc with him, changed as quickly as I could and went in. 

When I got there, one baby was already born, and Paige and Esther were doing a great job taking care of her. The other baby was also breech, and Edwige, the midwife on duty, and I delivered the second baby. There was quite a bit of excitement. The whole Bloc team cheered and clapped after the second baby was born and we praised God for His mercy. Twins. Both breech. Unexpected. No C-section. No complications. Wow. We have so much to be thankful for. 

When everything was settled down and the mom and twins were back in Maternity, the mom told me she wanted to name one of the babies Kate. It was so sweet because she told me when she had come in earlier for the checkup, and I had been the one to do her care, she had already decided to name the baby after me. It was a special moment.

I came into Maternity at 5am this morning and attended to a mom in labor, while people just outside wailed loudly over the death of one of our premies. I had been in last night to check on him and could tell he wouldn’t survive till the morning. I stayed with the mom in labor for the next few hours, and missed chapel and morning report. 

Esther brought me coffee which was just the right thing.

Around 8:30, I delivered a baby boy who had been in some distress - meconium and the cord around his neck. But we got him rubbed down, breathing and crying within a minute. I was so thankful that everything went smoothly. 

Life here can be such a roller coaster. One minute something awful is happening, and the next minute there’s something joyful.

Just like today. One mom pushed out a healthy baby while the other mom left the hospital with a dead child in her arms. 

Beautiful Mornings

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty...

Esther's Little Boy

Esther has worked so hard to get this little boy healthy again. His name is Jean Claude and he is four. He came to our hospital severely malnourished. His grandmother brought him down from their village up the river. They are refugees and MSF helped pay for their transportation to the hospital.

Esther has been so faithful to make sure he got his milk mixture on time, and now he is on to solid food and the peanut butter mixture we give as a supplement. The first day we started work we sat with Jean Claude and prayed that he would be able to keep the milk down - and Esther has been with him every day since then. He started out looking completely zoned out, and wouldn't even move. Now he smiles and walks around and he gave me a big hug when he saw me this morning.

He joined in playing and coloring with some of the kids I had over to my house. After peeing all over the floor we decided to keep a better eye on him when he's over here.

Jean Claude and his grandma will be going home soon, but they are supposed to come back in a month for an evaluation. We will definitely miss this little guy.

Saturdays

Sometimes Saturdays end up being the craziest days. Saturdays are supposed to be at least a little bit more restful than the week. But, we live at a hospital. Which makes every day hold the potential for a lot of craziness. My day started at 5am, when I got called into Maternity for two moms who had come to the hospital in labor. 

Actually my day really started at 2am, when Paige and Arwen and I went to check on a premie baby boy who was born yesterday. We ended up being there for about two hours, then went home, and I managed to sleep for about thirty minutes before being called in.

I stayed in Maternity taking care of two ladies and checking the baby heart beat for both of them throughout the morning. One lady was on her third pregnancy, and the other girl was only sixteen and pregnant with her first baby. She hadn’t come prepared with anything they normally bring - like cloth diapers and such, and she was much more anxious about her labor than the other mom.

I encouraged them and helped them walk around the hospital compound and fanned them as needed and tried my best to keep the younger girl from just laying down. 

Finally around 8am the first mom delivered a beautiful baby girl. Everything went great. It was pretty much a stress-free delivery - at least for me. Once we got the mom settled and everything cleaned up, I decided I’d go back to the house for a bit, eat something, maybe get some coffee and get my laundry done.

Esther and I have a weekly routine of sitting outside at the back of the house where the clotheslines and the faucet is, and washing our laundry while listening to music. We did that this morning, then I grabbed some food and started to go over to the other house to get on the internet. On my way over someone told me they needed me in the Emergency room. I went over there just in time to see a two month old baby girl die. People were already screaming and crying and throwing themselves on the ground by the time I went inside. I don’t even know what happened to this girl, only that she came in early in the morning in respiratory distress. I wrapped her up in a blanket and gave her to a family member, and that was just about all I could do.

I started to go back to the house, but then Dr. Loes wanted me to check on a mom who has really bad infections in her breasts. She also has a two week old baby who she can’t feed - which means the baby is going to die. So back I went to check on this mom. I got Marie Rose to help her get cleaned up and moved into the post-op wards, and then Esther and I made a quick run on bikes to the market to buy formula and a bottle. The baby was already dehydrated and had lost weight. The market was absolutely insane. It’s normally a bit of a struggle but today was ridiculous. People and motorcycles and horrendous noise everywhere. We managed to get the formula and bottles and some baby diapers, as well as some rags for cleaning and a cold coke. We went back as quickly as we could, and I taught the family how to mix up the formula, and then I fed the baby. He was screaming until he got the bottle in his mouth and then he calmed down and drank the milk as fast as he could. 

After that was done, I went back to Maternity to check on the young girl who was still in labor. I ended up just staying there because she was close to being ready to push. This delivery was stressful, and because it was her first baby she had a hard time pushing him out. The heart rate dropped and we were doing our best to coach her to push, but she was pretty exhausted. Finally she mustered the strength to push him out - and God answered all our prayers. Even after being compromised for a while, he came out with good color and crying. We were so relieved. The mom needed suturing after the delivery, and we were out of sutures so I had to go find Hannah for the keys, which ended up being with Marie Rose, so finally we go the sutures we needed and Charnelle did that while we attended to the baby and cleaned up. Once everything was cleaned and I’d given the mom something to drink, it was time to go back to the 2-week old baby in the post-op ward and feed him again. This time the dad was there and I showed him what to do and then let him try. It was really sweet watching him. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen a dad bottle feed a baby here. This is the only photo I have to show for the day:

Anyway, that was an insanely long post, but only those interested will read it. :) Thanks for all your prayers. Keep it up!

My House

We have not had any internet for the past few days, but now it's back on momentarily, at least. I have been working on setting up my new home - and I've included a few pictures below. It's a very cute little house just the right size.

 I am working on getting some shelves put up in the living room and the kitchen, because for now my stuff is all over the floor. I also have some guys repairing the chicken fence outside so I can keep some chickens and a goat. I am looking forward to being able to have animals again.

The butterfly screen door that my dad gave me. I used it for the door between the kitchen and the living room because the main door at the front was too wide.

 My house from the outside. (The blue part) They are doing construction between my house and the neighbors' so that's what the new brick wall covered in cement is.

So far I've had several guests here even though I'm not officially living here yet. But it's been really fun hosting people and I've enjoyed it a lot.

Baby Molly

Here are a few pictures of Molly. She is almost 8 months old; and named after my mother. I met her for the first time this week, because she was born while I was in the States in nursing school. She is very sweet and didn’t mind being held and played with.

Faith and Molly

 Molly with the doll my mom sent for her:

 Molly and her parents, Rufin and Berchavie:

The River

We got up early this Saturday morning and went out to the river. We got to row down quite a ways and then walk to the bridge where we had jumped off last time I was here when the water was high.

We found water lilies along the way collected a few to decorate our canoe...

...and make glasses out of the stems.

 On our way back down the river we stopped at the sand bar, got out and looked at the cattle. The cattle are brought down from Chad by herdsmen who make their living selling cattle as they travel the hundreds of miles. When they've sold them all off, they go back to Chad and get more - and start the long journey over again.

It was a beautiful morning on the river - so peaceful and quiet away from all the noise of the town.

Today after work I decided to have a house-warming party/game night for some friends and the girls I live with currently. I had the brilliant idea to cook for everybody on my tiny little kerosine stove - which is one burner. I made pasta salad with vegetables and tuna, and then I decided I would cook fish. I asked my friend to buy fish in the market on his way over to the hospital, and sure enough he did. They showed up at my front door holding a bag and presented it to me. The bag wiggled violently and I realized with a slight feeling of horror that the fish was very much alive. The fish was a large catfish-like creature about 20 inches long…so we’re not talking tiny or easy to manage. 

I told him I didn’t want to deal with a live fish, so he asked me for something to hit it with. My neighbor kid friend found a stick and I retreated into the house while my friend beat the fish to death with a stick. I thought the worst was over but I still had to deal with a huge fish that continued to move even though dead. Thankfully Mama Anne did most of the cutting up and gutting. I couldn’t have done it properly without her. Hannah and I dealt with the rest of it and then I cooked it up, removed as much of the skin and bones as possible, gave away the head, and mixed up tomato sauce and spices to add to it. 

Eventually I had everything ready for dinner, my guests had not arrived yet, and I got called to Maternity to see a lady, and then to the Emergency room to help pay for a kid who’d whacked himself in the head somehow and needed stitches.

I eventually ended back at the house with Faith, Esther, Arwen, Paige, my friends Rufin and Berchavie, their daughter Molly (named after my mom), my other friends, the kid who’d just had his head stitched up, the motorcycle driver who’d brought the kid to the hospital, another guy named Anderson who used to work at the hospital, and the three Kimwanga kids: Adonai, Mervede and Benonie. It was a party. 

There was enough food to go around and for seconds - and afterwards we washed the dishes and played games. It was a pretty fun evening.