Tracking Ed Monroe as he travels to Haiti and other exotic(?) places

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Saturday afternoon July 19

Happy Saturday. We finished this morning around 11:00 AM but I do not have the number. I’ll try to get it before I post this update.
Note to Linda Damery: Message delivered and that was fun. I came out to triage where your man works and called out his name, Dieudon. That worried him at the start as to why I would be looking for him. I am usually only out at triage to check weights or to chase Dieudonne with the water gun so he may have been worried that I was coming after him with my trusty squinter. The message back to you is that his wife is doing much better and that the baby will be full term next month and they will bring the baby to the September clinic. We will need to alert Linda and Kent Bryan so that someone in triage takes pictures for you of the family. He reported that, indeed, they lost one of the babies and they are still saddened by that. He thanked me profusely for the message and told me to thank you for thinking of him.
Speaking of babies, we had two hydrocephalic babies come in today and it was very sad. I know the first one really got to Gary and he needed to take a short break. Sometimes, especially down here, you really feel so helpless. On the good side, the first baby was bright and cheerful, very inquisitive, very much in love with his dad, and very healthy. I did not get to see the second baby as I was somewhere else when that baby came through. The same goes for Dory, the little girl who came to Peoria in January for the surgery. I have missed her now for two clinics in a row so I can’t tell you much except the provider who examined her said she had quite the American attitude.

Dr Nelson, our Haitian doctor who works with our surgeon and sometimes as a provider on our teams, came for a short visit last night. He had been in the Dominican Republic for something or another. The DR is where he went to medical school. He will likely join us tonight at Ambians for dinner. He did invite us to come to his clinic for the poor of Jacmel tomorrow morning after church. I do not know if we will make that or not. I had fun stealing his hat off of his head and making him laugh. I have also been doing that to Dieudonne at triage. Nelson took some of our outdated drugs for his clinic.

For those of you who might have been wondering, Eric arrived at the clinic around 10 to 10:30 AM. He tells us that the lovely East breeze that is kicking up the sea caused a few problems for American Airlines and the Missionary Aviation Flyers pilots. So the cool breeze continues today from the East. Yes, I am on the West side of the building-darn it. The wind continues today and the waves a sea are beautiful to behold and I am glad I am not out on it. Rumor has it that the full moon is the cause of this wind. I wonder what effect it will have on Ti Moulage beach tomorrow. The under tow may be so great that we can’t go out very far. Gary brought up the hurricane fan so I’ll get a second good night’s sleep tonight.
From what I can tell from here the link that I posted on the blog for Lisa’s pictures works well. I am trying to load 65 pictures from Becky so you can see some of what we see here. Unfortunately, the internet is not cooperating at this fifth try.

We have run out of vitamins for infants as I knew that we would. I was unable to purchase them until about 1 week before clinic and I could not find the 300 bottles I knew that I would need. I did manage to obtain 100. Note to September and November teams, but the as soon as you can or have some one special order them. We also did not bring enough triple antibiotic ointment. I could only get a few dozen at a good price.
Everything else is going up well and that makes our life easier. We will likely have to do our greasy grind (Griseofulvin) for the small children that cannot swallow a tablet. We are showing the moms to crush the chewable vitamins and give to the small ones.
Jamie’s screaming baby returned today for a dressing change and never cried until Jamie began to apply the last dressing. That was a blessing, but we still had lots of tears today and some major infections today that we gave the Rocephin.

We are still way ahead on pill packing thanks to team members who, without complaining, helped get pills packed so we could get a head start on our mission in the pharmacy. I have two pill packers and 3 interpreters on this mission and I manage to keep the working most of the time.

Okay, I am taking a short break-or it may be a longer one as it is now near time to go to town and all of us are going this trip. I’d better wash up, change out of the scrubs and get with the program. On second thought, I will try to upload this to the blog before we leave.

3 comments:

Kay said...

Ed:

We are enjoying the up to date reports from the clinic. We loved the photos and hope you keep sending them. It is hot here today but our thoughts and prayers are with you as you serve others in the Hot Haitian Sun. Give our love to all.
Kay and Larry

John K said...

Ed,
Glad to hear things are going well. tell Sue and Dick I say hello. Have a Prestige ot two for me this weekend.
Blessings to the team,
John Krajewski

Kay said...

Ed:

We have enjoyed all the details and especially the photos...keep them coming. It is very hot here but we are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers as you serve those in the hot Haitian sun...God bless and give our love to all.

Kay and Larry