Tuesday, July 08, 2008
July 2008
Hello again dear readers. It is almost time for another trip to Haiti with the Friends Of The Children Of Haiti medical mission team. We will leave Peoria at 6:00 AM for Chicago, catch a plane for Miami, run for the plane to Port-Au-Prince, dash to the small airport in PAP for our flight to Jacmel and arrive at the clinic in about 12 hours. That is, if everything goes our way. We only have under 50 minutes to get from the plane from Chicago to the plane to PAP. Also. we are flying a smaller plane from Peoria to Chicago so I wonder f our baggage will fit on that plane. Then there is the issue of getting our bags to the PAP plane from the Chicago plane. Do I have any bettors in the crowd? Out team has 22 members, including Dick and Barb Hammond. We will travel there with 19 people. There are 18 from Central Illinois and 1 coming from the Seattle Washington area where she recently relocated to from the Chicago area. Nine of the team are new to Haiti so we have a nice mix of new and old. I am excited that there is a second pharmacist along and hope I have not scared him already. We will have two physicians and this will be their first FOTCOH mission. We'll have two brand new RN's and I am very proud of them as I have worked with them on previous teams. The wonderful Steiner family is along on this trip, Carol to help me, Dan to cook, and Bruce to tease. Ha! I'll introduce more to you on later posts. I just wanted to get this first post up and running before we leave. I is good practice for all of you to watch out for all my grammatical mistakes. Thanks again for readin this and thanks for all of your prayers and support.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Monday April 7
Hello from Illinois. We finally made it back but it was quite an adventure. We arrived in Miami around 9 PM. The Air France flight was nice with a free bottle of wine with our snack. I sat next to a lady that I had spoken with earlier in the day. She was a very interesting lady, having lived for 35 years in Africa with her husband who was a contractor. She has family in the USA that includes a grandson who is attending Harvard on a full tuition scholarship and a granddaughter who is attending Columbia Univeristy Medical School on a full tuition scholarship. As we exited the plane and began a very long walk to immigration she became short of breath so I stayed with her until we reached that area. It tool well over 1 hour for us to get through the line and as I was at the rear, I did not get to say goodbye to many of my team mates who were rushing to American Airlines counter before it closed. By the time we collected our bags and crates and got to American it was already closed. Lynn Garber’s husband had rented a 12 passenger van and hauled Katie, Liz, John and myself to Fort Lauderdale and dropped us off at a Hampton Inn near the Fort Lauderdale airport. Lynn has family in Fort Lauderdale and her husband was there and that was a wonderful help. I understand that Katie & Liz ordered a pizza. John and I just crashed only to be awakened by a welcome phone call from Linda that they had arrived safely into Chicago. Returning to sleep, I was awakened by John as he thought he had lost his case carrying his passport and all of the important papers. It was located under his bags and we finally got to sleep. We awoke at 5 AM and helped open the breakfast bar at the Hampton and all of us rode the shuttle to the American terminal. It was driven by a man from Port-Au-Prince. We had little trouble getting to the departure lounge for our 8 AM flight. I managed to cut my finger at TSA security and I have yet to figure out how. Liz and Katie did not have seats and that was a worry as Liz had a wedding to go to that afternoon in Chicago. We were assured that she would be given a seat after all had been checked in and that was the truth. Our flight to Chicago was a little turbulent and the pilot was given instructions from air traffic control to use another route and we arrived earlier than expected. After quick god byes to Liz, who lives in Chicago, and John, whose wife was meeting him at the airport, Katie and I had a bite of lunch at the Chili’s restaurant and took the 12:30 PM plane to Peoria. Katie’s dad met us and hauled me and 3 crates to my car in the far end of the parking lot. I was home a little after 2 PM and very glad to get here. I did take a nap around 6:30 PM and went to bed at 8 PM. I awoke around 6:30 AM and we managed to take in 7:30 AM Mass and had a quiet breakfast. We worked outside in the yard and attended the 2 PM picture part for the February team. It was a great reunion and the pictures brought back memories. We left a little after 4 PM as I was getting sleepy so I took another long nap and again headed for bed at 8:00 PM. This morning I feel a bit more rested but did doze off this afternoon when I sat down on my son’s couch. He is stuck at home recovering from his Achilles tendon surgery so we went over to help him clean his house for an upcoming birthday party of his oldest daughter. Donna explained to me that she had use some wart removing pads and the foot doctor told her she removed the entire wart on the bottom of her foot. She is still frustrated about the hour long wait. So all that remains is to send you some pictures and that may take a week or so as Katie is assembling them onto a CD.
I want to close this portion by saying how very proud I was to be a part of this tremendous team. Your work ethic was inspirational. The cooperation between all of you was outstanding and meant a lot to me. I loved working with you and hope I can do it again sometime. If there is ever any way that I can be of help, encouragement, prayer, or just to be a listened I am always available.
I want to close this portion by saying how very proud I was to be a part of this tremendous team. Your work ethic was inspirational. The cooperation between all of you was outstanding and meant a lot to me. I loved working with you and hope I can do it again sometime. If there is ever any way that I can be of help, encouragement, prayer, or just to be a listened I am always available.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Friday April 4
Friday April 4, 2008
Hello from Haiti. I am starting this at the departure lounge of Air France and it is about the time we were to be flying out of Fort Lauderdale to Chicago on our way home. Today has not been a good travel day so far. It started around 5:15 AM when I awoke to the first light streaming in my window and my good buddy, Sparkey the rooster, calling out the breaking of dawn. I went out and started the coffee and then traveled up to the third floor to put away my computer. It was after 10:30 PM when I finally got to bed. I had left the computer hooked up as it was used by several of the team to email and check on things while we were at the clinic. Around 6:45 AM we assembled and boarded Son Son’s tap tap and Dick’s truck for the trip to Jacmel airport. Our plane was to be in at 8:00 AM. We had chartered a special Tortug Air flight and there was only 1 seat unfilled for our return trip. Here is where the problems started. The Tortug plane arrived at 8:15 AM and there was no Tortug employee to check and load the baggage or to check us in. Fortunately the pilot and co-pilot did the check in and the employees of another airline did the bags. We had a nice flight to Port-Au-Prince (PAP) at the airport for the local planes. We got our bags and took 3 vehicles to the main airport. There was a larger than normal crowd at the airport entrance and we should have suspected problems. Boyer did not have his passport and was not allowed to enter into the airport with us so we waved good bye. He had some business in PAP and was returning by bus to Jacmel. After we were in an long line for over an hour we found out that our 11:00 AM American Airlines flight had been canceled. We managed to get some one at American to rebook most of us on the 6:00 PM flight on Air France that we are presently waiting for in this lounge. It is 4:30 PM as I type this but it is quiet and comfortable so the time will pass quickly, I hope. Linda and Renee managed to get booked on the American flight at around 4 PM and well be back in Chicago yet this evening. It is just pulling out now and is late. Some of the team’s cell phones worked so we first called Dick to alert him to the problem then we began to text message family and friends in the USA for assistance. Some cell phones worked and some did not. American did give us food vouchers so we had the famous PAP hot dog, the 16 oz soda and, after a very long wait, some pomme fries (French fries). I got a message to my son and I hope he was able to reach my wife. I will be sure to call her from the USA. At Miami we will likely split up as some of the team will stay in the area for a couple of days, Diana heads off for Nashville and the rest of us will head to Fort Lauderdale for an 8 AM flight to Chicago. Katie and I will then get a 1:30 PM flight to Peoria, or at least I hope so. There appears to be three other groups of American missionaries on this flight and they were booked on the American flight that was canceled. One team was doing a construction project and I am not sure what the other team was doing. We are trying text message to get American’s phone number so they will pay for our hotel in the US tonight. Every one is tired. All of this waiting around drags a person’s spirit down. The team has shopped the gift shop and is mentally ready to be home. I am typing this on my laptop in Microsoft Word so I can publish it later when I get an internet connection. A funny thing about this airport, there are no landing lights here so we have to leave before dark or not leave at all. Papa Dick had made arrangements at the Wall’s Guest House in case we would have had to spend tonight in PAP. He was relieved that we would be getting out of Haiti tonight. Our leader and I agree that FOTCOH needs to purchase a Digicel phone for use here in Haiti so we can get better communications while we are here. We were so lucky that two of the 14 team member’s cell phones would work. Quick aside, one of the construction team members came over and gave Diana an Eastern Kentucky University hat. That is where Diana has applied for entrance into their nursing program. It is a small world, indeed.
Back to our flight fun, we hope to get to Miami by 9:30 and clear customs by 10:30 PM. Then we will decide if we go straight to the Fort Lauderdale airport and how we will do that. Liz wants to get a hotel room as she has a wedding to attend tomorrow in Chicago. At this point we have yet to decide whether to get a room or just cap out at the airport. It will be a short night in any event. The Air France plane has landed and I will save this for later.
It is 5 AM on Saturday and I am sending this from s hotel on Fort Lauderdale, FL. Details to follow soon.
Hello from Haiti. I am starting this at the departure lounge of Air France and it is about the time we were to be flying out of Fort Lauderdale to Chicago on our way home. Today has not been a good travel day so far. It started around 5:15 AM when I awoke to the first light streaming in my window and my good buddy, Sparkey the rooster, calling out the breaking of dawn. I went out and started the coffee and then traveled up to the third floor to put away my computer. It was after 10:30 PM when I finally got to bed. I had left the computer hooked up as it was used by several of the team to email and check on things while we were at the clinic. Around 6:45 AM we assembled and boarded Son Son’s tap tap and Dick’s truck for the trip to Jacmel airport. Our plane was to be in at 8:00 AM. We had chartered a special Tortug Air flight and there was only 1 seat unfilled for our return trip. Here is where the problems started. The Tortug plane arrived at 8:15 AM and there was no Tortug employee to check and load the baggage or to check us in. Fortunately the pilot and co-pilot did the check in and the employees of another airline did the bags. We had a nice flight to Port-Au-Prince (PAP) at the airport for the local planes. We got our bags and took 3 vehicles to the main airport. There was a larger than normal crowd at the airport entrance and we should have suspected problems. Boyer did not have his passport and was not allowed to enter into the airport with us so we waved good bye. He had some business in PAP and was returning by bus to Jacmel. After we were in an long line for over an hour we found out that our 11:00 AM American Airlines flight had been canceled. We managed to get some one at American to rebook most of us on the 6:00 PM flight on Air France that we are presently waiting for in this lounge. It is 4:30 PM as I type this but it is quiet and comfortable so the time will pass quickly, I hope. Linda and Renee managed to get booked on the American flight at around 4 PM and well be back in Chicago yet this evening. It is just pulling out now and is late. Some of the team’s cell phones worked so we first called Dick to alert him to the problem then we began to text message family and friends in the USA for assistance. Some cell phones worked and some did not. American did give us food vouchers so we had the famous PAP hot dog, the 16 oz soda and, after a very long wait, some pomme fries (French fries). I got a message to my son and I hope he was able to reach my wife. I will be sure to call her from the USA. At Miami we will likely split up as some of the team will stay in the area for a couple of days, Diana heads off for Nashville and the rest of us will head to Fort Lauderdale for an 8 AM flight to Chicago. Katie and I will then get a 1:30 PM flight to Peoria, or at least I hope so. There appears to be three other groups of American missionaries on this flight and they were booked on the American flight that was canceled. One team was doing a construction project and I am not sure what the other team was doing. We are trying text message to get American’s phone number so they will pay for our hotel in the US tonight. Every one is tired. All of this waiting around drags a person’s spirit down. The team has shopped the gift shop and is mentally ready to be home. I am typing this on my laptop in Microsoft Word so I can publish it later when I get an internet connection. A funny thing about this airport, there are no landing lights here so we have to leave before dark or not leave at all. Papa Dick had made arrangements at the Wall’s Guest House in case we would have had to spend tonight in PAP. He was relieved that we would be getting out of Haiti tonight. Our leader and I agree that FOTCOH needs to purchase a Digicel phone for use here in Haiti so we can get better communications while we are here. We were so lucky that two of the 14 team member’s cell phones would work. Quick aside, one of the construction team members came over and gave Diana an Eastern Kentucky University hat. That is where Diana has applied for entrance into their nursing program. It is a small world, indeed.
Back to our flight fun, we hope to get to Miami by 9:30 and clear customs by 10:30 PM. Then we will decide if we go straight to the Fort Lauderdale airport and how we will do that. Liz wants to get a hotel room as she has a wedding to attend tomorrow in Chicago. At this point we have yet to decide whether to get a room or just cap out at the airport. It will be a short night in any event. The Air France plane has landed and I will save this for later.
It is 5 AM on Saturday and I am sending this from s hotel on Fort Lauderdale, FL. Details to follow soon.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Thursday night April 3
I am ready to come home. I am packed and we have had our last team meeting, I had a great bunch of people to work with and my inventory went smoothly and they even helped me to clean the pharmacy and pack up everything for the May team. I will be bring two totes home as we found an empty one late this evening so I repacked my stuff into two totes rather than one. Katie will be riding with me to Peoria so I will have some help in case I cannot find my car at the airport. I am playing Elvis off of my computer in the background for Renee, our Elvis fan. And I have just returned from escorting Liz to the spooky pharmacy to get a gallon zip lock bag for all of her treasures. No, I did not get a manicure. The manicurist took almost 1 hour on each of the 5 girls and it was dinner time by the time it was my turn, I know my family would have been shocked if I would have come home with nail polish. Ha! We did reach the 1900 patient level and I could not be prouder of the members of this team. We came together from Washington, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Illinois as strangers and leave enriched by the friendship and camaraderie we have gained by this experience. Yes, we may never again be on the same FOTCOH team but we will always treasure our time together. I thanked them for putting up with me. Those who know me will truly understand that remark. I took time to clean up Dick’s desktop and laptop computer of a bunch of junk that has been growing on his computers. I also downloaded a program that I want him to run after each mission to clean up the websites that attack his system when we use it for email etc while we are here.
I was done with the inventory around 4:30 PM but I did not get to the beach or to Son Son’s but I did not mind. I did compliment Dr Nelson as this was the best job I have ever seen home do for FOTCOH and I was very impressed that he now has gotten used to FOTCOH and has read and will follow our protocols. I am sure the FOTCOH Medical advisory board will appreciate that fact. I also complimented my 3 pill packers and 3 interpreters. I had the least problems with them than on any of the 7 previous missions.
Boyer’s brother Jacky, who is also Andrita’s brother, did an outstanding job on this mission and I was very proud of him I can’t wait to tell his sponsor, Carolyn, how well he did on this mission. It is a hot muggy night and I hope I can sleep better than the past few nights. I do thank the Lord for giving me a pain free two weeks as I worried each day that the back pain would return and He blessed me with His peace. Diana had a beautiful prayer to close our team meeting and Dick said the Grace and brought a few tears to my eyes. I know that I will be back in July and I am anxious to get home and be with my family and friends. Tomorrow we will be at the airport in Jacmel at 7 AM for an 8AM flight and I will be back in Peoria by 10:00 PM if all goes well. This is wild, as I type this I am carrying on an online conversation with my friend, Stella Marie, who is at her desk in Malaysia. The wonders of the internet boggle the mind. It is wonderful to hear from this very spiritual lady. I pray for the day that I can see her again. I met her in Cologne in 2005 at World Youth Days and we became very close friends along with David who was traveling with her. They took such great care on Grandpa Ed. Time for bed for this old man. I hate to stop viviting with Stella Marie. I said good night and she remineded me that It is aleady tomorrow morning over there. OOPS. No matter it was wonderful to hear from her. I'll try to sign on in the morning before we leave for the airport. Otherwise it will be sometime Saturday before I will be back on line. Thanks again for reading this blog.
I was done with the inventory around 4:30 PM but I did not get to the beach or to Son Son’s but I did not mind. I did compliment Dr Nelson as this was the best job I have ever seen home do for FOTCOH and I was very impressed that he now has gotten used to FOTCOH and has read and will follow our protocols. I am sure the FOTCOH Medical advisory board will appreciate that fact. I also complimented my 3 pill packers and 3 interpreters. I had the least problems with them than on any of the 7 previous missions.
Boyer’s brother Jacky, who is also Andrita’s brother, did an outstanding job on this mission and I was very proud of him I can’t wait to tell his sponsor, Carolyn, how well he did on this mission. It is a hot muggy night and I hope I can sleep better than the past few nights. I do thank the Lord for giving me a pain free two weeks as I worried each day that the back pain would return and He blessed me with His peace. Diana had a beautiful prayer to close our team meeting and Dick said the Grace and brought a few tears to my eyes. I know that I will be back in July and I am anxious to get home and be with my family and friends. Tomorrow we will be at the airport in Jacmel at 7 AM for an 8AM flight and I will be back in Peoria by 10:00 PM if all goes well. This is wild, as I type this I am carrying on an online conversation with my friend, Stella Marie, who is at her desk in Malaysia. The wonders of the internet boggle the mind. It is wonderful to hear from this very spiritual lady. I pray for the day that I can see her again. I met her in Cologne in 2005 at World Youth Days and we became very close friends along with David who was traveling with her. They took such great care on Grandpa Ed. Time for bed for this old man. I hate to stop viviting with Stella Marie. I said good night and she remineded me that It is aleady tomorrow morning over there. OOPS. No matter it was wonderful to hear from her. I'll try to sign on in the morning before we leave for the airport. Otherwise it will be sometime Saturday before I will be back on line. Thanks again for reading this blog.
Thursday April 3, 2008
Our last clinic day here will be a busy one. We will see patients in the morning, have our lunch, and then take inventory, clean up, and out the clinic to bed until the May team arrives. It was funny to see an email about their upcoming packing party date, time, and place, in my inbox the other day. This coming Sunday, I will be attending the picture party for the January team that I was a part of. That team is made up primarily of people from the Peoria, Illinois area so we get together and exchange photo CD’s and printed pictures and catch up with each other, since this March team is so spread out over the country, Katie has volunteered to assemble all of the digital pictures on a CD for the team. I am not sure how we will see the pictures from the disposable cameras that I have seen.
Papa Dick has just turned on the generator so we will have the electricity for the coffee making and the Internet. EDH power was off at 1:30 AM when I checked. I was supposed to be on until 3 AM. I am told, but I have no faith that this will happen, that EDH will provide electricity 24 hours a day starting on April 14. Diesel fuel for the generator costs over $ 7,00 USD per gallon here. No, I do not know how many hours per gallon the generator gets but I will try to find out. The goat chorus has begun as the small children take them out to the rocks to graze for the day. Somehow, one of them got into the compound yesterday so I told Diana, the veterinary tech, that it needed attention as she has been complaining about not being able to handle small animals. I had so much fun with that remark, I went on to tell John, our leader, that he was now not the only old goat on the property. Yes, I’ll do anything for a laugh!
Wow, I just went on line to check my email and I heard from all of my littlest grandchildren last night. That was a great and pleasant surprise. They had questions about Haiti, questions about my work, questions about different animals that might be on the island, questions about my behavior on April fool’s day, and some love messages that made a tear or two in my eye. As I said earlier today, I really start to miss home about this time every mission.
The Scrabble game went until after 10 last night and it is fun to hear the laughter and joy that a board game brings to people. I just drifted off to sleep and all was dark and quiet a little later in the evening so all must have made it to their beds. Holly just went by and asked if I had said anything mean about her on my blog. I told her that as far as I knew I had told everyone that she had done drugs with me here in Haiti as she has helped us out in the pharmacy when she was done seeing patients. That ought to shock her 17 year old daughter some, and he husband as well. Liz just breezed. She told me yesterday that her sister was broadcasting the things I have said about Liz to all of her friends. Fortunately, I have only divulged half of it. She and I have a “thing” going on in the morning after her shower. I will not say anymore about that but leave it to you to imagine. Ha! Liz is at the desktop computer and Lynn is on the other laptop so the computer center is back up and running. Liz and Renee asked me yesterday if I knew of any single men so here is your chance, you single guys, to meet two beautiful, charming, cheerful, dedicated nurses. Just let me know and I will be happy to make the introductions. Somehow, I feel like I am digging myself into a hole with them but no matter. They have probably gotten used to me by now. I have spent some time with Mo discussing various things. She teaches, runs a nursing agency, has a charter boat, owns some condos, loves to do the book keeping each day, and is just a pleasure to be with. I can say the same for the whole rest of the team. I thank them daily for all of the help that they give me, all of the smiles that I get from them and for their wonderful work here in Haiti.
I’ll close on that note and head for the breakfast table. Thanks for reading this.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Wednesday night 9 PM
Hello. This will be a short note after a long day. We saw 258 patients today even with Jeremy gone and David under the weather with tummy problems. He is much better now so please do not get alarmed. Today's total brings us to 1797 patients so far so I suspect we will reach 1900 after tomorrow. I had projected 1500 and John1200. Dick will be right after all. Darn I hate when that happens. Today went very well and we cleaned off the benches so that no one who needed to be seen was left outside and we even saw a few who really did not need medical attention. They wanted what ever they could get free from us-shoes, clothes, tylenol, etc.
A request for a prayer as my wife is getting some foot surgery tomorrow. Thanks. She had her cataract surgery when I was here in February and it just seem to work out that way. I wonder what will happen when I come back in July. Before and after supper I helped Dick make his first Ebay purchase. We tried to bid on two items and lost the bid at the last second. We finally were able to get what he wanted and he will have it shipped to my home and then shipped to him when he is in Florida later this month.
I saw a pelican today. That is the first one in the 8 missions that I have been here. It so reminded me of my place in Florida. The Scrabble game is going on but I will try to go to sleep in spite of that. I had a rough night with David's unrest so I am tired. More tomorrow!!
A request for a prayer as my wife is getting some foot surgery tomorrow. Thanks. She had her cataract surgery when I was here in February and it just seem to work out that way. I wonder what will happen when I come back in July. Before and after supper I helped Dick make his first Ebay purchase. We tried to bid on two items and lost the bid at the last second. We finally were able to get what he wanted and he will have it shipped to my home and then shipped to him when he is in Florida later this month.
I saw a pelican today. That is the first one in the 8 missions that I have been here. It so reminded me of my place in Florida. The Scrabble game is going on but I will try to go to sleep in spite of that. I had a rough night with David's unrest so I am tired. More tomorrow!!
Wednesday April 2 early morning
It is 5 AM and here I am typing in the dark again. Our EDH power goes off at 3 AM and we will switch over to the generator when Dick wakes up. So I am sitting here, with the aid of my flashlight and the laptop screen and blogging again. This will be a lot of rambling thoughts that I made some notes on last night. After I signed off last night I made a trip up on the roof for a few minutes of star gazing. It is one of my favorite past times while I am here. There is very little ambient light and the stars glisten in the night. One is able to see the entire sky. As I type, Jeremy is preparing to leave for Port-Au-Prince. He is ready to go home. He has been a great friend, a wonderful caring doctor, a patient teacher, and we have had a good time. Thanks again to Lori F for sharing you man with us. I will miss him
Every morning, as soon as the sun comes up, one can hear sounds from the property to the West of the clinic. The sounds are being made by 1 or 2 men as the try to break up the rocks with a sledge hammer and throw the rocks into the bed of a dump truck. This goes on until almost dark. I am told that the property is being cleared for a resort, at the current rate of rock breaking and the rocky nature of the land it will be many years before the resort is a reality.
I was told by Lynn yesterday that I need to do a better job of proof reading before I post to the blog. I told her that I had heard that request time and again and the advice never seems to sink in. I’ve been thinking about buying a voice recognition software program. I have always been a two fingered typist and it takes quite a bit of time to put the words on the page. I wonder if that is available at Overstock dot com.
Another first on this mission was the arrival of a drug rep. Two men drove up with a van filled with boxes; Dr Nelson had invited them to visit. Papa Dick and I spent about 45 minutes and I will be bringing back samples of their wares for the pharmacy committee to evaluate. I will also be bringing back their current price list so that I can convert it into USD. We did purchase all of the cough syrup that they had on their truck as we had just run out of our supply and every patient we seem to see yesterday had a cough. I ended up splitting the 4 oz bottle into some of the empty bottles that I had left from previous missions. Mark will need to purchase more 2 oz dropper bottles, 2 oz amber grads, and 4 oz amber grads for the May team. We have used the bottles to send home a variety of medications. One of the most interesting is the suspension of Griseofulvin that we must prepare for the children. We only have 500 mg tablets available so we calculate the child’s weight in kilograms, multiply it by the dose per kg, multiply that by a 30 day supply. Then we have the total number of milligrams required. That number is divided by 500 and we have the number of tablets that we now must grind up in a mortar with a pestle for our mixture. Next we add water to make the suspension and dispense it in the dropper bottle with a dropper that puts out a 1 ml dose. Why, you ask, don’t we purchase it already made? The answer is the cost is prohibitive. On previous teams we were able to purchase some short dated bottles at a great price but I have not seen that since.
On every mission we constantly hear the complaint that our patient has run out of medicine and we discovered a new reason yesterday. Several patients have complained that they were told to take the medicine twice a day by the interpreters in the pharmacy when the order was written for once a day. The great folks a triage brought me a sample early yesterday morning and I was easily able to see how that could happen. There was a comic strap that I have not seen for sometime. The character was named POGO and he often would say “We have met the enemy and it is us.” Yes, our poor handwriting and abbreviation shortcuts got us into problems again. One of the physicians, and I will not name names here, had written for the drug to be given 1 q day however the q looked very much like a two so either we could have written for two doses per day on the bag or, more likely, our interpreter, who reads the orders off of the dossier and not off of the bag of medications, could have told the patient to take it twice. This issue will have to go to the pharmacy committee and the medical advisory committees for discussion. I will be bringing back a copy of the order. I will also be bringing back some of the concerns of this team that they want to address to the medical advisory committee. That will be a longer meeting that the normally long ones that I have attended in the past.
More random thoughts: The suppliers that made the visit had medications from a company in the Dominican Republic so the labels were in Spanish. They did have some horse Viagra available but I told them we did nit have a protocol for that medication. By the way, we did have several requests for Reglan and I am sorry that I did not think to order it.
I may have already told you in a previous blog that I heard from my friend in Malaysia since I have been here. She manages to catch me on line via MSN Messenger. It blows mind that one can talk with someone on the other side of the world from a computer in a third world county.
I seem to have inspired another blog. You can find it at www.xanga.com/sunandsea. I have enjoyed teasing Davis with it and now my son has written to the author and that caused a red face on David again. Ha! Speaking of my son tonight is his night with the kids so I hope to be on line sometime when they are also on line. Also a note to Liz’s sister: thanks for the ammunition. I had a blast with her once I found out her age. Keep up the good work.
For my readers from previous teams, this is my scruffy period when I do not tae time to shave but home is coming soon so it is off with the scruffy today, sometime or another.
Another important fact is that beet potato salad is great but it goes in red and exits at the same color. Nuff said there.
We will run out of Ivermectin today. I want to refer you to Diana’s blog (www.xanga.com/aniaDiana) to read the song that I first hear from Dt. Bill about Ivermectin. We have exceeded the 1200 patient level that was predicted so now we will do the best that we can. We are also out of stool softeners and I’d recommend that we order a larger supply.
Time for breakfast and then to work so I’ll try to get this posted. Weather is cooler today but the sun is out so that will not last long. Please keep those comments coming.
Every morning, as soon as the sun comes up, one can hear sounds from the property to the West of the clinic. The sounds are being made by 1 or 2 men as the try to break up the rocks with a sledge hammer and throw the rocks into the bed of a dump truck. This goes on until almost dark. I am told that the property is being cleared for a resort, at the current rate of rock breaking and the rocky nature of the land it will be many years before the resort is a reality.
I was told by Lynn yesterday that I need to do a better job of proof reading before I post to the blog. I told her that I had heard that request time and again and the advice never seems to sink in. I’ve been thinking about buying a voice recognition software program. I have always been a two fingered typist and it takes quite a bit of time to put the words on the page. I wonder if that is available at Overstock dot com.
Another first on this mission was the arrival of a drug rep. Two men drove up with a van filled with boxes; Dr Nelson had invited them to visit. Papa Dick and I spent about 45 minutes and I will be bringing back samples of their wares for the pharmacy committee to evaluate. I will also be bringing back their current price list so that I can convert it into USD. We did purchase all of the cough syrup that they had on their truck as we had just run out of our supply and every patient we seem to see yesterday had a cough. I ended up splitting the 4 oz bottle into some of the empty bottles that I had left from previous missions. Mark will need to purchase more 2 oz dropper bottles, 2 oz amber grads, and 4 oz amber grads for the May team. We have used the bottles to send home a variety of medications. One of the most interesting is the suspension of Griseofulvin that we must prepare for the children. We only have 500 mg tablets available so we calculate the child’s weight in kilograms, multiply it by the dose per kg, multiply that by a 30 day supply. Then we have the total number of milligrams required. That number is divided by 500 and we have the number of tablets that we now must grind up in a mortar with a pestle for our mixture. Next we add water to make the suspension and dispense it in the dropper bottle with a dropper that puts out a 1 ml dose. Why, you ask, don’t we purchase it already made? The answer is the cost is prohibitive. On previous teams we were able to purchase some short dated bottles at a great price but I have not seen that since.
On every mission we constantly hear the complaint that our patient has run out of medicine and we discovered a new reason yesterday. Several patients have complained that they were told to take the medicine twice a day by the interpreters in the pharmacy when the order was written for once a day. The great folks a triage brought me a sample early yesterday morning and I was easily able to see how that could happen. There was a comic strap that I have not seen for sometime. The character was named POGO and he often would say “We have met the enemy and it is us.” Yes, our poor handwriting and abbreviation shortcuts got us into problems again. One of the physicians, and I will not name names here, had written for the drug to be given 1 q day however the q looked very much like a two so either we could have written for two doses per day on the bag or, more likely, our interpreter, who reads the orders off of the dossier and not off of the bag of medications, could have told the patient to take it twice. This issue will have to go to the pharmacy committee and the medical advisory committees for discussion. I will be bringing back a copy of the order. I will also be bringing back some of the concerns of this team that they want to address to the medical advisory committee. That will be a longer meeting that the normally long ones that I have attended in the past.
More random thoughts: The suppliers that made the visit had medications from a company in the Dominican Republic so the labels were in Spanish. They did have some horse Viagra available but I told them we did nit have a protocol for that medication. By the way, we did have several requests for Reglan and I am sorry that I did not think to order it.
I may have already told you in a previous blog that I heard from my friend in Malaysia since I have been here. She manages to catch me on line via MSN Messenger. It blows mind that one can talk with someone on the other side of the world from a computer in a third world county.
I seem to have inspired another blog. You can find it at www.xanga.com/sunandsea. I have enjoyed teasing Davis with it and now my son has written to the author and that caused a red face on David again. Ha! Speaking of my son tonight is his night with the kids so I hope to be on line sometime when they are also on line. Also a note to Liz’s sister: thanks for the ammunition. I had a blast with her once I found out her age. Keep up the good work.
For my readers from previous teams, this is my scruffy period when I do not tae time to shave but home is coming soon so it is off with the scruffy today, sometime or another.
Another important fact is that beet potato salad is great but it goes in red and exits at the same color. Nuff said there.
We will run out of Ivermectin today. I want to refer you to Diana’s blog (www.xanga.com/aniaDiana) to read the song that I first hear from Dt. Bill about Ivermectin. We have exceeded the 1200 patient level that was predicted so now we will do the best that we can. We are also out of stool softeners and I’d recommend that we order a larger supply.
Time for breakfast and then to work so I’ll try to get this posted. Weather is cooler today but the sun is out so that will not last long. Please keep those comments coming.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Late Tuesday evening
Today was a much better day for me in terms of my mood. I have heard from some of my family about health issues at home and problems at home that have been solved or are in the process of being solved. Many of the team is off to the beach now and it will be a little quieter for awhile. Tonight’s dinner will be with beet potato salad and I am a most happy fellow. I always enjoy the beet potato salad and we now make it at home in the states.
Lots of crazy things happened today and I do not know where I should start. Ha, I started this at 5PM and it is now 8: 07 PM and the team meeting is over. I have lots of information for the medical advisory board of FOTCOH. Oh crap, it is now almost 9 PM. We have been talking here at the computer stations and I have not gotten very far with. On top of that my friend from Malaysia has been on MSN Messenger and we have been talking together. It is not that I mean to neglect my blog readers but I am having problems juggling all of the balls I have in the air at this time do I will post this tonight and continue in the morning when it is quiet. Jeremy is off to the airport at 6 so I know I will be awake long before that. I apologize to those who were waiting for some delicious gossip.
Lots of crazy things happened today and I do not know where I should start. Ha, I started this at 5PM and it is now 8: 07 PM and the team meeting is over. I have lots of information for the medical advisory board of FOTCOH. Oh crap, it is now almost 9 PM. We have been talking here at the computer stations and I have not gotten very far with. On top of that my friend from Malaysia has been on MSN Messenger and we have been talking together. It is not that I mean to neglect my blog readers but I am having problems juggling all of the balls I have in the air at this time do I will post this tonight and continue in the morning when it is quiet. Jeremy is off to the airport at 6 so I know I will be awake long before that. I apologize to those who were waiting for some delicious gossip.
Early Tuesday April 1
Good morning. Happy April Fool’s Day! I am reading a new book called “A New Earth” and the chapter I am on discusses ways we gain attention. So today, I will try to pass up the temptation to pull some April Fools jokes on my team mates and do just a little less teasing. The author is trying to get me to let go of my ego and to find my inner Presence. So far, I am enjoying what I have read. My thanks go to Oprah for her recommendation.
The power is back on, using our CAT generator, so I’ll go and make the coffee and come back in a moment. Due to the power fluctuations, I write this in Word and paste it to the blog when I am able to get out on the internet. Ahh, I do enjoy the Haitian bleu coffee here. I slept well after I got to sleep. I quit trying to post pictures around 8 PM and showered. There was a Scrabble game going on in the kitchen so it did not quiet down until the game was over. That gave me time to reflect on the day, say some prayers for the deceased man, for this team, for my family, and for myself. That is a good thing.
A note to Mike: Thanks for the comment on my blog. I had some fun with Renee by telling her it was from a fellow by the name of Dave and she could not figure out who Dave was until she read the comment. I appreciate also your kind words. Also this is a note to Lori Ann, our David’s friend, who was inspired by my blog to create her own blog on the Xanga site. If you want to find the web address, you will need to reach Lori Ann’s comment on my blog. Also a thank you to Victoria, Lori Ann’s daughter for helping this team have so many reading glasses to pass along to the Haitian people. My translator, Belanay, or Oh Baloney as we call to him-Thanks to Sharon D of the January team, just loves to fit people with the glasses. Yes, we have run out of shoes for everyone. We are also, as mentioned previously, out of baby bottles and formula. I alo want to say Thanks to my team mates fan clubs as the reports of my blog are brought to me almost as soon as you send them. It makes the time that I take to write this much more enjoyable when I know that people read it and appreciate it. Today we will be taking our team picture as Jeremy is leaving the team early so he can get to San Antonio and close on the new house that Loti and Jeremy have purchased there in Texas. Note to Lori: Thanks again for sharing Jeremy for this mission. You know that I love to work with the both of you and miss you two in Peoria.
I do want to comment on the weather on this mission. In spite of the rain, this is the most favorable temperatures that I have encountered on the 7 previous missions that I have been on. This past January was hot and sticky and I suspect the upcoming July mission that I will be on next will be hot and muggy as it was last year. By the way, for those new to FOTCOH, we now hold 6 missions (one every other month) to Haiti. You can find more information at www.FOTCOH.org if you are ever interested in going on a mission, have someone who would like to go on a mission, or have some extra money to donate to our mission work. We are not a religion based group and so we depend on friends, relatives, and some corporate donations for our existence. The costs to run this organization, hold our clinics, order medications and supplies, run the sponsor child program, and all of the other details runs over $500,000.00 per year. Our fund raising efforts are huge and, I am told by the board of directors, we are seriously in need of cash in order to pay a large bill for medications for the next two clinics. We purchase the bulk of our medications from MAP International (www.MAP.org). Among their duties is supplying medications to missionaries like FOTCOH at some very low prices. They too, raise money from donations and we sometimes get extra help with our shipping costs as well as our drug costs from MAP. There is a main office in Holland and we work closely with the wonderful people of MAP in Georgia. So you get to hear my soapbox speech today but I have developed a strong passion for the work that FOTCOH does here in Haiti and a special love for Dick and Barb, the founders. It sounds like every one is up and rolling along. NO reports of mosquito attacks so the coils must be working. I’ll close this and try to post.
The power is back on, using our CAT generator, so I’ll go and make the coffee and come back in a moment. Due to the power fluctuations, I write this in Word and paste it to the blog when I am able to get out on the internet. Ahh, I do enjoy the Haitian bleu coffee here. I slept well after I got to sleep. I quit trying to post pictures around 8 PM and showered. There was a Scrabble game going on in the kitchen so it did not quiet down until the game was over. That gave me time to reflect on the day, say some prayers for the deceased man, for this team, for my family, and for myself. That is a good thing.
A note to Mike: Thanks for the comment on my blog. I had some fun with Renee by telling her it was from a fellow by the name of Dave and she could not figure out who Dave was until she read the comment. I appreciate also your kind words. Also this is a note to Lori Ann, our David’s friend, who was inspired by my blog to create her own blog on the Xanga site. If you want to find the web address, you will need to reach Lori Ann’s comment on my blog. Also a thank you to Victoria, Lori Ann’s daughter for helping this team have so many reading glasses to pass along to the Haitian people. My translator, Belanay, or Oh Baloney as we call to him-Thanks to Sharon D of the January team, just loves to fit people with the glasses. Yes, we have run out of shoes for everyone. We are also, as mentioned previously, out of baby bottles and formula. I alo want to say Thanks to my team mates fan clubs as the reports of my blog are brought to me almost as soon as you send them. It makes the time that I take to write this much more enjoyable when I know that people read it and appreciate it. Today we will be taking our team picture as Jeremy is leaving the team early so he can get to San Antonio and close on the new house that Loti and Jeremy have purchased there in Texas. Note to Lori: Thanks again for sharing Jeremy for this mission. You know that I love to work with the both of you and miss you two in Peoria.
I do want to comment on the weather on this mission. In spite of the rain, this is the most favorable temperatures that I have encountered on the 7 previous missions that I have been on. This past January was hot and sticky and I suspect the upcoming July mission that I will be on next will be hot and muggy as it was last year. By the way, for those new to FOTCOH, we now hold 6 missions (one every other month) to Haiti. You can find more information at www.FOTCOH.org if you are ever interested in going on a mission, have someone who would like to go on a mission, or have some extra money to donate to our mission work. We are not a religion based group and so we depend on friends, relatives, and some corporate donations for our existence. The costs to run this organization, hold our clinics, order medications and supplies, run the sponsor child program, and all of the other details runs over $500,000.00 per year. Our fund raising efforts are huge and, I am told by the board of directors, we are seriously in need of cash in order to pay a large bill for medications for the next two clinics. We purchase the bulk of our medications from MAP International (www.MAP.org). Among their duties is supplying medications to missionaries like FOTCOH at some very low prices. They too, raise money from donations and we sometimes get extra help with our shipping costs as well as our drug costs from MAP. There is a main office in Holland and we work closely with the wonderful people of MAP in Georgia. So you get to hear my soapbox speech today but I have developed a strong passion for the work that FOTCOH does here in Haiti and a special love for Dick and Barb, the founders. It sounds like every one is up and rolling along. NO reports of mosquito attacks so the coils must be working. I’ll close this and try to post.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday bedtime
I have been trying to post more Ambians photos and they take 20 minutes to download so I'll call it quits for tonight and get some much needed sleep. I did share my M & M Peanuts tonight and they were a big hit. We had enchilada's tonight for supper. Larry S, I am not missing you cooking too much. We saw 229 patients today as we cut off early. The entire clinic is in mourning for our deceased man. It really affected the team, our Haitian workers, and many of the patients. There were several bad cases today and one fammily is in need of a sponsor if any of my readres would care to sponsor this 6 month old, failure to thrive baby whom we sent to the Cuban pediatrician at the San Michel hospital. The cost is $ 300.00 per year or $ 25.00 per month. Just let me know and I will take care of it from this end.
PS, I need some ideas for some good April Fools jokes on my team mats so send in those comments, please.
PS, I need some ideas for some good April Fools jokes on my team mats so send in those comments, please.
Early Monday evening
Wow, the internet is still working and it looks like rain. I’ll try to rush. I did get Dick’s main computer back working again. There was a problem with the anti virus and I figured out where the conflict was and I was able to resolve it. Yeah for me-Ha! My day started very early as John had a rough overnight with his sore foot. I gave him some tramadol and it made him nauseated but he is much better now, Next, Renel, one of our outside helpers and a young man that always has a smile for me, came to me to fill some orders. I understood most of them but I had questions abot the third. Renel’s English is fair so I asked him where the patient was so I could question the person as to what we were treating. We began to walk out of the compound and Dick stopeed us to ask what was going on. It turned out that the order was for Renel’s mother-in law and he was taking me up to his home on the hill ( about a mile away) to ask her. I am very glad that Dick caught us. Later in the day, we showed the order to Dr Nelson and, as I had suspected, it was an order from Dr. Bertrand for blood work. About 8:30 our ambulance driver (he carries patients in his wheelbarrow and makes a sound like an ambulance) came screaming by the pharmacy. Long story short, he brought in a man who died about 9:30 of acute liver failure and we were almost helpless to comfort him. That set a pall over everyone and every Haitian employee and every team member had to pay their respects. I asked Diana to pray for him and I lost my composure as I am a big softy. Next, Mark P, our pharmacist on the upcoming May mission had emailed me to look for some of his notebooks so I did a little-very little-cleaning and discovered a document that someone had left and I wish I had found it earlier. I have to find the author of the Auto-Sub list. For those in Renee’s fan club you will have to ask her how I cured her leg cramps. No, I did NOT get to massage them-darn! She tells me that her fan club is very curious about some of the remarks that I have made about her. Please be advised that I can be bribed with a financials contribution to FOTCOH in her name. I will alert the FOTCOH treasurer to watch for the flood of mailed in money. We have begun to run out of some medications and are hoarding others. That makes my job more difficult to switch meds to solve the same problem-IF I am able to find a substitute. We did use the last of the infant formula so any who truly wants to do a good deed, please help FOTCOH with baby formula donations and baby bottle donations. We never seem to have enough. My thanks to Carol Miller, APN of the September team for all that we have had for this mission. The Cubs are on TV in the lounge, my wine is tasty, and I want to try to post this and some pictures so I’ll try again later. Thanks to my family for the emails today-they carried me a long way when I was in tears. Well, the internet went out again and so this will go later. I have also found out that we will have a manicurist here for our last day so we can look “pretty” for our trip home. I wonder if I will have time for one.
Wow, the internet is back. THANK YOU to my readers for the comments. I love them!! They inspire me greatly.
Wow, the internet is back. THANK YOU to my readers for the comments. I love them!! They inspire me greatly.
Monday noon time 2
I was able to get two blogs posted and MAYBE I'll get to send some pictures at the end of clinic today. Thanks for all your prayers.
Monday March 31
It is 5:15 AM and I am up. Our unfriendly neighborhood rooster decided at 5 AM that it was time to announce the day to the world. I did not sleep very soundly last night. I went to bed at 8:30 PM and that is not a typographical error. I awoke at 11 PM and decided to try to post to the internet. Renee was still awake and on the laptop and had made a connection. I was not so lucky. Liz, her room mate was still awake and reading. I tried for an hour to get out but with no success, even on the main computer. A little while later, I light a mosquito coil for the girls in the other upstairs bedroom as they were getting bitten as they slept. Morning is coming as I hear Diedudone whistling outside the clinic. He rides his bike from Jacmel to the clinic and is always the first to arrive. Back to my night, when I returned to bed I laid awake for a long time. Some time later, I heard John awake and got up to help him. He managed to twist his ankle yesterday and it is painful. David, my other room mate was also up several times overnight.
The weather today is stormy. There was thunder and lightning all night long and a great downpour is occurring outside. At some point overnight the electricity from EDH stopped and my fan no longer gave me comfort. When Papa Dick awakens he will turn on the generator. We have been giving it an extreme workout and it is wearing out. We could sure use about $ 30,000.00 USD to purchase a new one. The breeze from this storm is cool and coming from the south. I am sitting on the third floor near the computers and enjoying the cool breeze and it is really raining hard. As I type this, I am praying for our patients who are outside the compound waiting to be seen. They must be huddled under the tarp that we have placed there as a temporary shelter. I am sure they are wet and cold and maybe a little scared. With all of this thunder and lightening I wonder how we will hold a clinic today. If we do manage to hold one we will track lots of mud and sand on to the slick tile floor and have an accident waiting to happen. Barb just woke up and passed by. The sky is getting lighter in the south and east so maybe the rain will stop, the sun will come out, and the internet will up and running. Papa Dick is awake and soon I’ll hear the generator running. Jeremy, who sleeps on the third floor balcony and not on the roof, must have been awakened by the rain that had to be blowing on him.
I failed to mention, yesterday, that Diana attended a Haitian church service at the time we were having our prayer service. She hated to miss our group and had stayed up till 11:30 PM the night before and written a note to each team member and placed them on a kitchen table in the form of a cross. She shared later that she sat with Suzette, one of our Haitian pill packers and they shared a song book. Diana was invited to sing a solo and I imagine, with her beautiful voice, that it was very moving. Diana reminds me so much of my young friends in Peoria who are involved in the Teens Encounter Christ program that I have worked with over the past several years.I hope Dick gets the power on soon so I can make the coffee. Ha! Diesel fuel for the generator costs over $ 5.00 per gallon here. I am sorry that I cannot report how many gallons per hour that the generator consumes but I know this is exceeding our budget. Ah, we have lights and I hear the sound so I am off to make the coffee
The weather today is stormy. There was thunder and lightning all night long and a great downpour is occurring outside. At some point overnight the electricity from EDH stopped and my fan no longer gave me comfort. When Papa Dick awakens he will turn on the generator. We have been giving it an extreme workout and it is wearing out. We could sure use about $ 30,000.00 USD to purchase a new one. The breeze from this storm is cool and coming from the south. I am sitting on the third floor near the computers and enjoying the cool breeze and it is really raining hard. As I type this, I am praying for our patients who are outside the compound waiting to be seen. They must be huddled under the tarp that we have placed there as a temporary shelter. I am sure they are wet and cold and maybe a little scared. With all of this thunder and lightening I wonder how we will hold a clinic today. If we do manage to hold one we will track lots of mud and sand on to the slick tile floor and have an accident waiting to happen. Barb just woke up and passed by. The sky is getting lighter in the south and east so maybe the rain will stop, the sun will come out, and the internet will up and running. Papa Dick is awake and soon I’ll hear the generator running. Jeremy, who sleeps on the third floor balcony and not on the roof, must have been awakened by the rain that had to be blowing on him.
I failed to mention, yesterday, that Diana attended a Haitian church service at the time we were having our prayer service. She hated to miss our group and had stayed up till 11:30 PM the night before and written a note to each team member and placed them on a kitchen table in the form of a cross. She shared later that she sat with Suzette, one of our Haitian pill packers and they shared a song book. Diana was invited to sing a solo and I imagine, with her beautiful voice, that it was very moving. Diana reminds me so much of my young friends in Peoria who are involved in the Teens Encounter Christ program that I have worked with over the past several years.I hope Dick gets the power on soon so I can make the coffee. Ha! Diesel fuel for the generator costs over $ 5.00 per gallon here. I am sorry that I cannot report how many gallons per hour that the generator consumes but I know this is exceeding our budget. Ah, we have lights and I hear the sound so I am off to make the coffee
After the beach
The internet is down and it was too slow earlier to download all of the pictures than I wanted to send. Sorry about that. The Kansas game is going on and we have an alumnus, Dave, on our team. It is now sunset so I’ll pause and check out the sunset over the mountains and under the clouds. It was beautiful and I even saw the green flash that I do not see in Florida. Thank you, Lord,
It rained and poured at the beach and we sat under the patio of the partially finished “resort” for quite awhile. The usual vendors appeared and it was quite crowded but the girls enjoyed the shopping. The veterans will understand that we had problems with the pushy Tee shirt lady. Franz, our interpreter, Papa Dick, and the manager of the building all tried to shoo her away and she kept putting her wares deeper into the building to protect them from the downpour/ Finally, Dick banned her from the place and no one purchased a tee shirt from her. Wow, the game in the background is getting noisier. It is hard to think, let alone type when the crowd is screaming loudly. After the rain, we got out on the beach and into the water. We also walked the beach and Renee and Liz were treated to a strip show by a two year old boy and his slightly older brother. They played on the beach as we walked along and really wanted the attention. Yes, we have pictures that I’ll try to load later but they may get censored. I showed Renee, Liz, Holly and David the beach house where clinic was held a few years ago. We walked up to the fishing boats on the west end of the beach and past the partially constructed building, I do not know if it is a house, restaurant, or what ever. In any event there has been quite a bit of progress on it since my February visit and all of the partial concrete that exposed the empty cement bags that had been thrown into the cement and built into the building were covered up and the concrete smoothed over. This is the building that used empty 55 gallon plastic barrels for concrete column molds and they are set at an irregular fashion.
The band that we enjoyed last July was playing in the east side restaurant and came to entertain us once again. Our meal of fish (said to be snapper but much more bony that the Florida snapper) was excellent Lots of rice and beans, lots of fried plantains, fresh tomatoes, and pickly (a spicy Cole slaw). Every one had a good time and it was another great day. Kansas has just won and the noise level is very intense. Go Kansas. Final four is all number 1 seeds. Dave, our Kansas fan, just asked if he should turn down the TV. No was the reply but you can turn yourself off. That was funny! I enjoyed another one of Jeremy’s special cigars at the beach. It was very excellent. The beach was littered with garbage and trash and we watched it get washed into the sea. It was a very sad site. I hate to end on that note but it is time to do some exercise and stretch out my back. It continues to stay pain free but I did get hollered at this morning by David as I slept for awhile on my back and snored. David put in his ear plugs and went back to sleep. Both of us had joked that we wanted to be far away from John as he has snored loudly in the past and this time it was me. Yes, I apologized As always, thanks for taking the time to read this. I would love it if you would care to send along a comment or two. So far, only my family has been brave enough to comment. Come on fans!!!
It rained and poured at the beach and we sat under the patio of the partially finished “resort” for quite awhile. The usual vendors appeared and it was quite crowded but the girls enjoyed the shopping. The veterans will understand that we had problems with the pushy Tee shirt lady. Franz, our interpreter, Papa Dick, and the manager of the building all tried to shoo her away and she kept putting her wares deeper into the building to protect them from the downpour/ Finally, Dick banned her from the place and no one purchased a tee shirt from her. Wow, the game in the background is getting noisier. It is hard to think, let alone type when the crowd is screaming loudly. After the rain, we got out on the beach and into the water. We also walked the beach and Renee and Liz were treated to a strip show by a two year old boy and his slightly older brother. They played on the beach as we walked along and really wanted the attention. Yes, we have pictures that I’ll try to load later but they may get censored. I showed Renee, Liz, Holly and David the beach house where clinic was held a few years ago. We walked up to the fishing boats on the west end of the beach and past the partially constructed building, I do not know if it is a house, restaurant, or what ever. In any event there has been quite a bit of progress on it since my February visit and all of the partial concrete that exposed the empty cement bags that had been thrown into the cement and built into the building were covered up and the concrete smoothed over. This is the building that used empty 55 gallon plastic barrels for concrete column molds and they are set at an irregular fashion.
The band that we enjoyed last July was playing in the east side restaurant and came to entertain us once again. Our meal of fish (said to be snapper but much more bony that the Florida snapper) was excellent Lots of rice and beans, lots of fried plantains, fresh tomatoes, and pickly (a spicy Cole slaw). Every one had a good time and it was another great day. Kansas has just won and the noise level is very intense. Go Kansas. Final four is all number 1 seeds. Dave, our Kansas fan, just asked if he should turn down the TV. No was the reply but you can turn yourself off. That was funny! I enjoyed another one of Jeremy’s special cigars at the beach. It was very excellent. The beach was littered with garbage and trash and we watched it get washed into the sea. It was a very sad site. I hate to end on that note but it is time to do some exercise and stretch out my back. It continues to stay pain free but I did get hollered at this morning by David as I slept for awhile on my back and snored. David put in his ear plugs and went back to sleep. Both of us had joked that we wanted to be far away from John as he has snored loudly in the past and this time it was me. Yes, I apologized As always, thanks for taking the time to read this. I would love it if you would care to send along a comment or two. So far, only my family has been brave enough to comment. Come on fans!!!
Monday Noon
Internet finally working so I'll try to catch up. Please say a prayerfor the man who came in with acute liver failure and we did all that we could to try to save him. It is sad to report that he was dead by 9:30 AM.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Back at you
Papa Dick wanted to shut the generator off for awhile so I quickly published the blog just in case the internet goes out in the mean time. I’ll revert back to typing this in Word and cutting and pasting to the blog later when we have power.
We had a nice time at Ambians last evening. I stayed back at the clinic to rest while most of the team shopped in Jacmel. I needed rest more than shopping. They found some nice bargains and we met up at Ambians around 4 PM. We had the place mainly to ourselves which was better than the crowds at Karnival time. The street was as busy as ever and the stop light was not working until 5 PM. It is hilarious to watch some Haitians obey it and usually 1 or 2 motorbike operators ignore it. We did not see any wrecks however just 1 close call. I did get to enjoy my meal of conch (I do not think I have spelled it correctly) and it was delicious. I sat between Dr Nelson and Holly and we had a good visit. Jeremy shared one of his Honduran cigars with me and it was excellent. Jeremy was able to talk with his wife on Dick’s cell phone to let her know he was doing okay. Prestige beer was $ 2.00 at Ambians and the rum punch was $ 5.00. No, I will not divulge how many the team drank or even how many I consumed. I did enjoy sitting in the warm sun at Ambians and people watch-both Haitian and my team mates. There were very few “blancs” in Jacmel on Saturday. Blancs are anyone who is not white (Blanc = white). I was surprised at that as our plane was full of missionary Blancs and I had expected to see a team or a stray while we were in town. I expect that I’ll see some this afternoon at Ti Moulage. I also hope to get more warm sunshine time today.
It is too bad that we will not get to show off “Basin Bleu”, the waterfall in the mountains west of Jacmel, to this team. I suspect the road is not repaired from the January rain damage yet. You at home, who have the program “Google Earth”, can find some pictures of Basin Bleu, Jacmel, and Ti Moulage when you do a little “flying” with Google Earth on your computer. Try it some time, as I find it to be fun.
I wish I had more gossip to share with you but it is more fun to keep you and the team guessing what I will say or do next. I teased Diana that I wanted to buy her a beer or take a picture of her with a beer bottle but I was a good boy, for a change. I will share that David and Boyer were flying insect magnets at Ambians and I attribute that to what ever cologne they were wearing. It was interesting to see the cloud of insects hovering around their heads. Liz and Renee were on their best behavior – I say this to assure their family members who will better understand the hidden meaning of my remark. All in all, we just had a fun time with food, drink, laughter, and fellowship.
I just browsed through previous posts and I want to apologize for the many miss-spelled words. I am embarrassed and will try to run the spell checker and do a better proof read before I publish. To put it in to Target Pharmacy lingo-you must do a triple check-.
The internet is acting up again. The pages load very slowly, if they load at all.
The clinic is beginning to come alive so I’ll try to publish this and write more later.
It is now after the Sunday morning prayer service and the sharing was as wonderful. You learn more what this mission means to others and, from Dick and Barb, how the Haitian people appreciate the work that we do. I’ll again state how great it is to work with this team. So far, they have not been too annoyed by my teasing and my jokes. I understand that Katie has downloaded her pictures to one of the computers so I’ll put them on our jump drive and download them so you will be able to better picture our activities. It is time to save this as we are about to have electrical problems again. Wow for the first time in a week we can shut off the generator snd rely on EDH power.
We had a nice time at Ambians last evening. I stayed back at the clinic to rest while most of the team shopped in Jacmel. I needed rest more than shopping. They found some nice bargains and we met up at Ambians around 4 PM. We had the place mainly to ourselves which was better than the crowds at Karnival time. The street was as busy as ever and the stop light was not working until 5 PM. It is hilarious to watch some Haitians obey it and usually 1 or 2 motorbike operators ignore it. We did not see any wrecks however just 1 close call. I did get to enjoy my meal of conch (I do not think I have spelled it correctly) and it was delicious. I sat between Dr Nelson and Holly and we had a good visit. Jeremy shared one of his Honduran cigars with me and it was excellent. Jeremy was able to talk with his wife on Dick’s cell phone to let her know he was doing okay. Prestige beer was $ 2.00 at Ambians and the rum punch was $ 5.00. No, I will not divulge how many the team drank or even how many I consumed. I did enjoy sitting in the warm sun at Ambians and people watch-both Haitian and my team mates. There were very few “blancs” in Jacmel on Saturday. Blancs are anyone who is not white (Blanc = white). I was surprised at that as our plane was full of missionary Blancs and I had expected to see a team or a stray while we were in town. I expect that I’ll see some this afternoon at Ti Moulage. I also hope to get more warm sunshine time today.
It is too bad that we will not get to show off “Basin Bleu”, the waterfall in the mountains west of Jacmel, to this team. I suspect the road is not repaired from the January rain damage yet. You at home, who have the program “Google Earth”, can find some pictures of Basin Bleu, Jacmel, and Ti Moulage when you do a little “flying” with Google Earth on your computer. Try it some time, as I find it to be fun.
I wish I had more gossip to share with you but it is more fun to keep you and the team guessing what I will say or do next. I teased Diana that I wanted to buy her a beer or take a picture of her with a beer bottle but I was a good boy, for a change. I will share that David and Boyer were flying insect magnets at Ambians and I attribute that to what ever cologne they were wearing. It was interesting to see the cloud of insects hovering around their heads. Liz and Renee were on their best behavior – I say this to assure their family members who will better understand the hidden meaning of my remark. All in all, we just had a fun time with food, drink, laughter, and fellowship.
I just browsed through previous posts and I want to apologize for the many miss-spelled words. I am embarrassed and will try to run the spell checker and do a better proof read before I publish. To put it in to Target Pharmacy lingo-you must do a triple check-.
The internet is acting up again. The pages load very slowly, if they load at all.
The clinic is beginning to come alive so I’ll try to publish this and write more later.
It is now after the Sunday morning prayer service and the sharing was as wonderful. You learn more what this mission means to others and, from Dick and Barb, how the Haitian people appreciate the work that we do. I’ll again state how great it is to work with this team. So far, they have not been too annoyed by my teasing and my jokes. I understand that Katie has downloaded her pictures to one of the computers so I’ll put them on our jump drive and download them so you will be able to better picture our activities. It is time to save this as we are about to have electrical problems again. Wow for the first time in a week we can shut off the generator snd rely on EDH power.
Sunday morning
The sun is up, I]ve slept late, the coffee is made, and the internet is back working. We lost the connection sometime yesterday morning and regained it this morning, I tried every remedy I could to fix it but the porblem was with Hughes Net and I did not have a way to do satellite repairs. Ha!
On Friday we saw 265 patients and then 131 yesterday for our 1/2 day clinic. This team has become very efficient and effective. Ther are very dedicated, fun loving, and easy to work with. The interaction between them as they share information about patients and problems would take a lot longer to be as smooth as it flows if we were in the States with all of PC problems and such.
Early Saturday morning, my friend Nego appeared at the patient staging area, Renel came to find me and I got to meet Nego's two sisters and made sure that they were seen. Nego is a young man from Jacmel who is involved in youth ministy here in Haiti. We try to visit each time I am here. He leaves for Ft Myers soon for a month's training with the Christian ministry group that he works with. I came back to the clinic and brought out Diana who is involved in youth campus ministry in Kentucky. She enjooyed meeting with him and was able to pray with a sick patient on the way back. This will be brief as the power is about to go off
On Friday we saw 265 patients and then 131 yesterday for our 1/2 day clinic. This team has become very efficient and effective. Ther are very dedicated, fun loving, and easy to work with. The interaction between them as they share information about patients and problems would take a lot longer to be as smooth as it flows if we were in the States with all of PC problems and such.
Early Saturday morning, my friend Nego appeared at the patient staging area, Renel came to find me and I got to meet Nego's two sisters and made sure that they were seen. Nego is a young man from Jacmel who is involved in youth ministy here in Haiti. We try to visit each time I am here. He leaves for Ft Myers soon for a month's training with the Christian ministry group that he works with. I came back to the clinic and brought out Diana who is involved in youth campus ministry in Kentucky. She enjooyed meeting with him and was able to pray with a sick patient on the way back. This will be brief as the power is about to go off
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Picture 3
Yes, this is Renee's pictures if you could not tell.
David and friend
Bad burn on baby
Baby
Saturday March 29
Good morning. He sun is rising and that seem to chase the clouds away so the internet signal gets through. We did nt get the rain yesterday that I expected but the past two days have been cooler and less humid or I am getting used to the weather. Either way, I have not been drenched in sweat during the day nor even overnight. Yes, I am hydrating well because I make frequent bathroom visits.
I helped nurse Renee set up and write to her blog. We downloaded her pictures on this laptop so there are a few for you on this post.
An important part of The Friends Of The Children of Haiti (FOTCOH) is the sponsor child program. For $ 25.00 USD someone can sponsor a child with FOTCOH and that child is given money for food, clothing and school. It costs money to go to school in Haiti and unoforms are required. My child came for a visit the other day and I was very busy. Boyer, our main man here in Haiti, brought him into the work area of the pharmacy. The boydid not recognize me even though I had spent some time with him and his father when I was here in February. I ran upstairs to get the markers and color book that I had brought for him. I forgot the papers from my grandchildren and their pictures that I had for him in the rush of things. I did share my jelly beans (one of my favorite candies) with him. Boyer encouraged him to put it in his mouth and he looked confused until the sweet taste took over and then we got a smile. The girls that I work with made a fuss over him but we failed to take his picture even though the camera was nearby. Darn, he always comes when I am the busiest.
By now, I hope you read about our early Christmas present of rescue inhalers and other breathing medications. We saw 265 patients yesterday and 243 the day before so this it the little team that works. Our leader, John, joked a the team meeting that many of us were complete strangers until last Monday and now you would never know it. I have not noticed the fishermen out on the open water on this mission and Papa Dick tells me the water is too rough. To go along with this, the Ambians restaurant where we are to eat tonight has only 3 lobster meals so we are having the newbies enjoy that treat. I hope to have conch. I ordered it in February but never got it and settled for grilled shrimp.
I’ll load this and some pictures now. Today will be a half day with shopping in Jacmel this afternoon.
I helped nurse Renee set up and write to her blog. We downloaded her pictures on this laptop so there are a few for you on this post.
An important part of The Friends Of The Children of Haiti (FOTCOH) is the sponsor child program. For $ 25.00 USD someone can sponsor a child with FOTCOH and that child is given money for food, clothing and school. It costs money to go to school in Haiti and unoforms are required. My child came for a visit the other day and I was very busy. Boyer, our main man here in Haiti, brought him into the work area of the pharmacy. The boydid not recognize me even though I had spent some time with him and his father when I was here in February. I ran upstairs to get the markers and color book that I had brought for him. I forgot the papers from my grandchildren and their pictures that I had for him in the rush of things. I did share my jelly beans (one of my favorite candies) with him. Boyer encouraged him to put it in his mouth and he looked confused until the sweet taste took over and then we got a smile. The girls that I work with made a fuss over him but we failed to take his picture even though the camera was nearby. Darn, he always comes when I am the busiest.
By now, I hope you read about our early Christmas present of rescue inhalers and other breathing medications. We saw 265 patients yesterday and 243 the day before so this it the little team that works. Our leader, John, joked a the team meeting that many of us were complete strangers until last Monday and now you would never know it. I have not noticed the fishermen out on the open water on this mission and Papa Dick tells me the water is too rough. To go along with this, the Ambians restaurant where we are to eat tonight has only 3 lobster meals so we are having the newbies enjoy that treat. I hope to have conch. I ordered it in February but never got it and settled for grilled shrimp.
I’ll load this and some pictures now. Today will be a half day with shopping in Jacmel this afternoon.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Christmas in late March
Yes, folk, there is a Santa Claus. Or rather, my thanks to our good and gracious Father God. He does make all thing possible. We obtained today-the same that we ordered them 100-yes dear readers-100 rescue albuterol inhalers. Dr Nelson ordered them from a new supplier he has in Port-Au-Prince and they shipped them out today and they arrived around 4 PM. We paid $ 3,75 USA dollars for them. With shipping costs, we could not have paid that low a price with our USA close out supplier. International Aid. I am thrilled beyond words as now we can better treat 100 more children. Not only that but the case of medications that I culled from Methodist Medical Center pharmacy arrived today. I shipped it on February 22, 2008. It has several corticosteroid (drugs to keep the asthma in check) so we will treat our asthmatics even better now. God is good all the time-all the time God is so good!
It is supper time but I wanted to rejoice with this news as soon as I could as I am bursting with joy. I also learned that my son's operation went well but that he is in a lot of pain. This is his weekend with his 4 children and I know they will care and comfort him. Again I say "Praise the Lord at all time! Praise the Lord!
It is supper time but I wanted to rejoice with this news as soon as I could as I am bursting with joy. I also learned that my son's operation went well but that he is in a lot of pain. This is his weekend with his 4 children and I know they will care and comfort him. Again I say "Praise the Lord at all time! Praise the Lord!
Frday March 28
Hello again. We have rain again this morning. Yesterday we had a light shower for a better pat of the afternoon. It also looks like it rained most of the night but I did not notice. I was tired and in bed just after 9 PM.
It is so interesting to be on a team other than my normal group as I see things from another perspective. This team, uses little Rocephin (an injectable antibiotic). They are seeing less goiter and using no additional folic acid. As expected, we are seeing a lot of fungus so Griseofulvin use is high. We have run out of rescue inhalers for asthmatics and that is not good. We will try to get some locally but have doubts that we can. This team used lots of clotrimazole vag suppositiries and they are now gone so it is back to the nystatin ones and we have a quantity of that. One of my helpers, Diana the princess, is involved in youth ministry in her home in Kentucky. She sings beautifully and the pharmacy is filled with song, which make the day pass quickly. The interpreters did manage to tease her about the word shot which means cat in kreole but they refer to it in the American slang way and her face got a little red. Note to Becky and Marna from July: There are two pediatric nurses from Children's Memorial in Chicago who are the work image of you two and I would love to see the 4 of you get together sometime. They are constantly looking for work to help me and any one else. They are bubbly and smiling all the while and they thirst for knowledge. Great to have them on the team. Another item about the team is that I have less reason to leave the pharmacy to clarify and order so I do not get as many breaks as I do on the February team. The last patient we saw was a woman with three children, ages 12, 2 and 3 months. They were all terribly skinny, the babies looked the same age, both seemed lifeless; the little family came from the mountains, and had walked a long time to get to us. The 2 year old's hair was red; black babies hair turns red because of malnourishment.
I invite you to view the blog of Diana, the princess (yes she loves to be called the princess) to gain another perspective of this mission. It is located at www.xanga.com/anaiDiana
Time for breakfast, My back is still holding up well. I am worried about a friend back in Peoria who is in a nursing home and may not be alive when I return, so keep him in your prayers, please. Thanks for all you do for me, for FOTCOH, and for the Haitian people.
It is so interesting to be on a team other than my normal group as I see things from another perspective. This team, uses little Rocephin (an injectable antibiotic). They are seeing less goiter and using no additional folic acid. As expected, we are seeing a lot of fungus so Griseofulvin use is high. We have run out of rescue inhalers for asthmatics and that is not good. We will try to get some locally but have doubts that we can. This team used lots of clotrimazole vag suppositiries and they are now gone so it is back to the nystatin ones and we have a quantity of that. One of my helpers, Diana the princess, is involved in youth ministry in her home in Kentucky. She sings beautifully and the pharmacy is filled with song, which make the day pass quickly. The interpreters did manage to tease her about the word shot which means cat in kreole but they refer to it in the American slang way and her face got a little red. Note to Becky and Marna from July: There are two pediatric nurses from Children's Memorial in Chicago who are the work image of you two and I would love to see the 4 of you get together sometime. They are constantly looking for work to help me and any one else. They are bubbly and smiling all the while and they thirst for knowledge. Great to have them on the team. Another item about the team is that I have less reason to leave the pharmacy to clarify and order so I do not get as many breaks as I do on the February team. The last patient we saw was a woman with three children, ages 12, 2 and 3 months. They were all terribly skinny, the babies looked the same age, both seemed lifeless; the little family came from the mountains, and had walked a long time to get to us. The 2 year old's hair was red; black babies hair turns red because of malnourishment.
I invite you to view the blog of Diana, the princess (yes she loves to be called the princess) to gain another perspective of this mission. It is located at www.xanga.com/anaiDiana
Time for breakfast, My back is still holding up well. I am worried about a friend back in Peoria who is in a nursing home and may not be alive when I return, so keep him in your prayers, please. Thanks for all you do for me, for FOTCOH, and for the Haitian people.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Thursday March 27, 2008
Okay so I was off by one day on yesterday's blog. As ususl, I am a day late and a dollar short. That would be me-Ha!
This morning the sunrise is blocked by the rain clouds. I am sitting at my usual ricking chair on the third floor balcony but away from the railing. He rain is a fine mist and there is a nice cool breeze along with it. We did not get rain yesterday but today may be the day for a rain.
We saw 253 patients yesterday so it was a busy day. We finished in the pharmacy at 5 PM and I was happy about that. One of the strange things yesterday was that we had several large families to deal with at the end and therefore lots of screaming kids. I teased crowd control that the mix was intentional foul. I understand that we treated a severe burn case but I did not get to see it.
My back held out for another day and I experienced no pain. I do my stretching and exercises and that is working so far. Diana, again, sat on my back to help me to stretch. She has learned that I am strange. Ha!
Just after I came up from the pharmacy at 5 PM, Barb introduced me to Gerald Jean. He is a young man that helped build he clinic and is currently studying Architecture (sp?) at a college in Port-Au-Prince. The rain has driven me inside. Several people help to sponsor Gerald Jean and they collected money to purchase a computer for him. I managed to order it and carry it into the country. So, instead of a rest, I helped him to set up the computer. Our internet connection has slowed down and long story short we finished at 9 PM with time for dine and team meeting in between. Gerald Jean loves to sing and had some Christian music he was trying to learn. Diana taught him the song? Doxology”. She is involved in youth ministry at her home in Kentucky. She also has a beautiful voice and sang for us. The guitar made out and she is trying to tune it. I was amazed to find out you can use the internet to tune a guitar.
Katy was assigned to help me in the pharmacy yesterday and was very nervous and cautious all morning long. After lunch I told her that I was comfortable with allowing her to work independently and she really did a good job then. She double and triple checked her work and asked questions when the need arose. I am very proud of Katy.
This team continues to work well together and laughter is the medicine of the day. They are a hard working, fun loving, and very professional group. It is so neat to watch them all pitch in to help whenever help is needed. I am proud to work with them.
I got up a little later today as it was after 10 when I finally got to bed so breakfast calls. Thanks for your prayers. We feel them down here.
This morning the sunrise is blocked by the rain clouds. I am sitting at my usual ricking chair on the third floor balcony but away from the railing. He rain is a fine mist and there is a nice cool breeze along with it. We did not get rain yesterday but today may be the day for a rain.
We saw 253 patients yesterday so it was a busy day. We finished in the pharmacy at 5 PM and I was happy about that. One of the strange things yesterday was that we had several large families to deal with at the end and therefore lots of screaming kids. I teased crowd control that the mix was intentional foul. I understand that we treated a severe burn case but I did not get to see it.
My back held out for another day and I experienced no pain. I do my stretching and exercises and that is working so far. Diana, again, sat on my back to help me to stretch. She has learned that I am strange. Ha!
Just after I came up from the pharmacy at 5 PM, Barb introduced me to Gerald Jean. He is a young man that helped build he clinic and is currently studying Architecture (sp?) at a college in Port-Au-Prince. The rain has driven me inside. Several people help to sponsor Gerald Jean and they collected money to purchase a computer for him. I managed to order it and carry it into the country. So, instead of a rest, I helped him to set up the computer. Our internet connection has slowed down and long story short we finished at 9 PM with time for dine and team meeting in between. Gerald Jean loves to sing and had some Christian music he was trying to learn. Diana taught him the song? Doxology”. She is involved in youth ministry at her home in Kentucky. She also has a beautiful voice and sang for us. The guitar made out and she is trying to tune it. I was amazed to find out you can use the internet to tune a guitar.
Katy was assigned to help me in the pharmacy yesterday and was very nervous and cautious all morning long. After lunch I told her that I was comfortable with allowing her to work independently and she really did a good job then. She double and triple checked her work and asked questions when the need arose. I am very proud of Katy.
This team continues to work well together and laughter is the medicine of the day. They are a hard working, fun loving, and very professional group. It is so neat to watch them all pitch in to help whenever help is needed. I am proud to work with them.
I got up a little later today as it was after 10 when I finally got to bed so breakfast calls. Thanks for your prayers. We feel them down here.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday morning, March 25
Good morning from Cyvadier. The sunrise will not be as beautiful this morning due to the rain clouds in the sky. The clouds are also slowing down the internet connection. Oh well!
I had another great night of sleeping. I went to bed at 9 PM tired, in very little pain, and happy to be a part of this team. We were able to see 130 patients on our first day. That made life for me much easier here than the February crush of 200 plus. I am very impressed with my team mates. I was apprehensive about working with a group of people whom I had never met before. Silly me, they are very dedicated, hard working, friendly, caring, and they tease well. It is nice to be a part of a smaller team as the wait for a bathroom is lessened. The crowd in the dining room is less so no one has to eat on the stairs. There are less opinions at the team meetings and the ht water for showers stretches later in the morning.
I also want to compliment them for giving me so much help in the pharmacy and so much concern about my back pain. I feel very comfortable and protected. Diana, the veterinary technician, got stuck with the job of being my assistant. She was excellent to work with. I mean no disrespect to Carol S, Mary H, Sharon D, and others who have worked with me on previous teams, but having a helper who knows the medications ( we us the same rug on dogs) and knows how to calculate doses save me lots of time. She is very accurate, is willing to learn new things, gives back as much or more teasing as I can give her, and over all fun to have around. Note to Mary H, another problem with mooning occurred with Diana and darned if I did not get forced to discover that you did know how to moon after all. Katy jumps in to help when she can and Liz, Renee, and Linda showed up after they finished and we closed up at 5: 30 PM. That is good for the first day. The rains came about 3 PM, hard and cool so we moved the providers and our patients into as much cover as we could find. It stopped just as we closed the pharmacy. This morning looks like a rainy day also. David is in to exercising as is Jeremy so I have people to keep me motivated for my back exercises. I did have to stop yesterday about 3 PM and do some stretching in the prayer position and that was a smart idea. Diana got stuck with the task of sitting on my back at the end of the day. She enjoyed inflicting the pain, darn.
Our temperatures have been tolerable as my sweat level was less than February. The rain did cool things off for awhile but the humidity is as high as usual. We had lost of little babies yesterday to enjoy and our usual quantity of screamers. My water gun got turned on me several times and my team mates may try to steal it away soon. I do need to report that this team is using quite a bit of Ivermectin and Sue B may have been correct after all. Dang, I hate it when she is right. We are also having problems with the green return to clinic and I wish we would have gone over that better before we started. Oh well! A note to Donna, your favorite tree with the purple spiked flower has only one flower remaining. A note to Chip, the shower is dripping and I can't get it to shut off and the corn is ankle high and is looking good. A note to Carolyn W, Jacky is doing okay but seem to expect that I bring home something on each mission. A note to Colson, your brother is not working on this clinic so I still have his gift. A note to all of you, thanks for your prayers, support and love. It means so much to me. The sun is up and breakfast is ready so I'll close and say a short prayer for all of you. Bonde bene ou= God bless you.
I had another great night of sleeping. I went to bed at 9 PM tired, in very little pain, and happy to be a part of this team. We were able to see 130 patients on our first day. That made life for me much easier here than the February crush of 200 plus. I am very impressed with my team mates. I was apprehensive about working with a group of people whom I had never met before. Silly me, they are very dedicated, hard working, friendly, caring, and they tease well. It is nice to be a part of a smaller team as the wait for a bathroom is lessened. The crowd in the dining room is less so no one has to eat on the stairs. There are less opinions at the team meetings and the ht water for showers stretches later in the morning.
I also want to compliment them for giving me so much help in the pharmacy and so much concern about my back pain. I feel very comfortable and protected. Diana, the veterinary technician, got stuck with the job of being my assistant. She was excellent to work with. I mean no disrespect to Carol S, Mary H, Sharon D, and others who have worked with me on previous teams, but having a helper who knows the medications ( we us the same rug on dogs) and knows how to calculate doses save me lots of time. She is very accurate, is willing to learn new things, gives back as much or more teasing as I can give her, and over all fun to have around. Note to Mary H, another problem with mooning occurred with Diana and darned if I did not get forced to discover that you did know how to moon after all. Katy jumps in to help when she can and Liz, Renee, and Linda showed up after they finished and we closed up at 5: 30 PM. That is good for the first day. The rains came about 3 PM, hard and cool so we moved the providers and our patients into as much cover as we could find. It stopped just as we closed the pharmacy. This morning looks like a rainy day also. David is in to exercising as is Jeremy so I have people to keep me motivated for my back exercises. I did have to stop yesterday about 3 PM and do some stretching in the prayer position and that was a smart idea. Diana got stuck with the task of sitting on my back at the end of the day. She enjoyed inflicting the pain, darn.
Our temperatures have been tolerable as my sweat level was less than February. The rain did cool things off for awhile but the humidity is as high as usual. We had lost of little babies yesterday to enjoy and our usual quantity of screamers. My water gun got turned on me several times and my team mates may try to steal it away soon. I do need to report that this team is using quite a bit of Ivermectin and Sue B may have been correct after all. Dang, I hate it when she is right. We are also having problems with the green return to clinic and I wish we would have gone over that better before we started. Oh well! A note to Donna, your favorite tree with the purple spiked flower has only one flower remaining. A note to Chip, the shower is dripping and I can't get it to shut off and the corn is ankle high and is looking good. A note to Carolyn W, Jacky is doing okay but seem to expect that I bring home something on each mission. A note to Colson, your brother is not working on this clinic so I still have his gift. A note to all of you, thanks for your prayers, support and love. It means so much to me. The sun is up and breakfast is ready so I'll close and say a short prayer for all of you. Bonde bene ou= God bless you.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Monday March 24 6 PM
Arrived here safe and sound(?). No major problems. I am excited by the enthusiasm of this team and the strength of the veterans and the can't do enough attitude of the newbies. This will be brief as we are having power issues at the present. We are having a new automatic cross over switch from the EDH power and the generator. EDH is supposed to be on but I hear the generator. Very Haitian. Just waned to let everyone to know we are here and all is well.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Friday before we depart
Hello again. It is so great to be in less pain for the upcoming mission. With the help of the Depo Medrol injection, my chiropractor, Mt Buettner, and the folks at Body Fitness gym, I have managed to go the entire week relatively pain free. Of course, when I over extend myself the pain returns to a lesser degree than before the injection. The difference is I know what to do to relieve it. I have taken much less Ibuprofen and tramadol this week than before so I am making progress.
The exciting news is the D. Jeremy Ufert, M.D. is joining us for the mission. I have served on 3 other teams with Jeremy and it is wonderful that he is available to come to Haiti with us. I have already hear from his wife that I am to watch over him so he stays healthy. On his last trip to Haiti, he became very ill and we had to send him home with his wife very early in the mission. I hope he has fully recovered. He and his wife have moved to San Antonio, Texas where his wife is teaching at an orthodontics school.
I am almost packed. I still have my back pack and carry on to finish. I was called to work at a pharmacy in Lacon, Illinois today and worked for 3 hours there and will work for 4 1/2 hours tomorrow. It is a test of my stamina and how well my back holds up to standing. Fortunately, I am able to sit down often and I suspect I will have to do the same in Haiti. I hope Dick has built that stool for me. I also have to pick up some items for Dick and Barb from their grandson but we are having trouble getting together. I'll try again tomorrow.
I do not know if I'll get the chance to post anymore until we reach Haiti so the next time you hear from me may be Monday night or Tuesday morning. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Thanks
The exciting news is the D. Jeremy Ufert, M.D. is joining us for the mission. I have served on 3 other teams with Jeremy and it is wonderful that he is available to come to Haiti with us. I have already hear from his wife that I am to watch over him so he stays healthy. On his last trip to Haiti, he became very ill and we had to send him home with his wife very early in the mission. I hope he has fully recovered. He and his wife have moved to San Antonio, Texas where his wife is teaching at an orthodontics school.
I am almost packed. I still have my back pack and carry on to finish. I was called to work at a pharmacy in Lacon, Illinois today and worked for 3 hours there and will work for 4 1/2 hours tomorrow. It is a test of my stamina and how well my back holds up to standing. Fortunately, I am able to sit down often and I suspect I will have to do the same in Haiti. I hope Dick has built that stool for me. I also have to pick up some items for Dick and Barb from their grandson but we are having trouble getting together. I'll try again tomorrow.
I do not know if I'll get the chance to post anymore until we reach Haiti so the next time you hear from me may be Monday night or Tuesday morning. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Thanks
Saturday, March 15, 2008
My back
It is Saturday night and I am again pain free. Thanks to Dr Li and Depo Medrol! I was able to sleep through the nigh pain free for the first time since Feburary 16. Hooray. There is still a tingle and just enough to remind me that I can't quit exercising and stretching to keep the pain at bay. Getting old is HELL after all! So, it is on to Haiti in less than 9 days. The team emails are reaching snowstorm levels as I had expected. I have MOST of the stuff packed. I just got word that Dick and Barb in Haiti have more items for me to bring so I'll have to squeeze the in somehow.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers and a BIG THANK YOU for reading this blog
Please continue to keep us in your prayers and a BIG THANK YOU for reading this blog
Thursday, March 13, 2008
More team photos
Lynn & Diedonne
Laurie and a friend
Linda
Maureen & Dr Frantz Nelson
I am sorry that I do not have photos of the remaining 4 team members YET.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
March Mission to Haiti
Hello once again.
Here comes the March mission, rushing forward like the proverbial March Lion. We leave on March 23 in order to get to O’Hare airport for a 6:15AM flight from Chicago to Miami. Our small team is made up of 9 nurses, 2 non medical people, and your favorite pharmacist-me! There are 4 people coming from the state of Washington, 1 from Minnesota. 1 from Kentucky, and 6 (I think-I do not have addresses on two but I assume they are from Illinois) from Illinois. I am not sure, at this point, how many are FOTCOH experienced workers and how many are first timers. We do not have a USA physician. We will need to rely on Dr. Frantz Nelson. He is a Dominican Republic trained Haitian physician. He helps out Dr Garron Lukas, our FOTCOH surgeon, during Garron’s trips to Haiti. He also works with Dr Martinez, the Jacmel OB-GYN physician who has our operating suite in his office and lets us do surgeries there. So this will be a most interesting mission. I doubt that we will be able to do much in the way of treating new patients and I think our focus will be on refills for existing Haitians. It is a wait and see situation, for sure.
The geographical separation of the team is making it hard to get all of our needs shipped in our two 50 lb allowed baggage. For example, I have almost 280 lbs of vitamins and no way to get them in to Haiti on time unless I have them carried in. In times past, we have had bags seized by Haitian customs when they contained medications. The customs people want us to pay them a duty in order to get our bags. This causes a long delay and often costs hundreds of dollars. Not a good use of FOTCOH’s donations, for sure. I am still hopeful of a better solution. In the mean time, I will ship out the excess that I have so it will be there for the May team.
One other issue that I should mention is my health. During the Valentine’s Day week last month, I drove with my wife, my sister-in-law, my nephew and his girl friend to Dallas Texas for a wedding. It was about a 14 hour ride. The ride down was uneventful except for some ice we encountered around Springfield, Mo. We enjoyed ourselves at my nephew’s wedding. On the way home, I allowed my 47 year old nephew to drive my BMW X-5. He proceeded to drive around 95 MPH while returning calls on his cell phone. Needless to say, that made me quite tense. The next driver was my wife. She recently had cataract surgery on both eyes and this would be the first time she drove with her “new” eyes. Again, I got just a little tense helping her to navigate the St. Louis Mo. Interstate puzzle. We arrived home around midnight on Friday. Saturday was a great day and we caught up on a few projects. Sunday was a different story. My back and right leg hurt so bad I could not get out of bed to go to Mass. I went to my internist on Monday for my regularly scheduled yearly checkup. He prescribed a muscle relaxant. This did not make any dent in the pain. On Tuesday, I had a therapeutic massage and that gave me some relief. On Wednesday, it was off to the Chiropractor. Dr Mark has now worked with me regularly since and I am relatively pain free-IF I do lots of stretches and exercises. I have also been seen by a rehab doctor who specializes in spinal trauma. So now it is almost two weeks later. I am spending over 1 hour in the gym each day, doing lots of stretches, going to the chiropractor 3 times a week for bone cracking, spinal traction, and heat/ice therapy. I have just come from the spinal rehab doc and she will give me a spinal injection of Lidocaine & steroids on Friday, March 14.
That should ease the inflammation and pain and allow me to go on the mission as planned. I will have to figure out which exercises I can do during the trip and at the clinic to avoid the flare ups. There is a lot of arthritis on L-5. I must be getting older. HA!
As I stated earlier, this should be a most interesting mission. I hope I have not bored you with my medical problems. I also hope you will continue to follow the blog. I appreciate all of your prayers and support.
Here comes the March mission, rushing forward like the proverbial March Lion. We leave on March 23 in order to get to O’Hare airport for a 6:15AM flight from Chicago to Miami. Our small team is made up of 9 nurses, 2 non medical people, and your favorite pharmacist-me! There are 4 people coming from the state of Washington, 1 from Minnesota. 1 from Kentucky, and 6 (I think-I do not have addresses on two but I assume they are from Illinois) from Illinois. I am not sure, at this point, how many are FOTCOH experienced workers and how many are first timers. We do not have a USA physician. We will need to rely on Dr. Frantz Nelson. He is a Dominican Republic trained Haitian physician. He helps out Dr Garron Lukas, our FOTCOH surgeon, during Garron’s trips to Haiti. He also works with Dr Martinez, the Jacmel OB-GYN physician who has our operating suite in his office and lets us do surgeries there. So this will be a most interesting mission. I doubt that we will be able to do much in the way of treating new patients and I think our focus will be on refills for existing Haitians. It is a wait and see situation, for sure.
The geographical separation of the team is making it hard to get all of our needs shipped in our two 50 lb allowed baggage. For example, I have almost 280 lbs of vitamins and no way to get them in to Haiti on time unless I have them carried in. In times past, we have had bags seized by Haitian customs when they contained medications. The customs people want us to pay them a duty in order to get our bags. This causes a long delay and often costs hundreds of dollars. Not a good use of FOTCOH’s donations, for sure. I am still hopeful of a better solution. In the mean time, I will ship out the excess that I have so it will be there for the May team.
One other issue that I should mention is my health. During the Valentine’s Day week last month, I drove with my wife, my sister-in-law, my nephew and his girl friend to Dallas Texas for a wedding. It was about a 14 hour ride. The ride down was uneventful except for some ice we encountered around Springfield, Mo. We enjoyed ourselves at my nephew’s wedding. On the way home, I allowed my 47 year old nephew to drive my BMW X-5. He proceeded to drive around 95 MPH while returning calls on his cell phone. Needless to say, that made me quite tense. The next driver was my wife. She recently had cataract surgery on both eyes and this would be the first time she drove with her “new” eyes. Again, I got just a little tense helping her to navigate the St. Louis Mo. Interstate puzzle. We arrived home around midnight on Friday. Saturday was a great day and we caught up on a few projects. Sunday was a different story. My back and right leg hurt so bad I could not get out of bed to go to Mass. I went to my internist on Monday for my regularly scheduled yearly checkup. He prescribed a muscle relaxant. This did not make any dent in the pain. On Tuesday, I had a therapeutic massage and that gave me some relief. On Wednesday, it was off to the Chiropractor. Dr Mark has now worked with me regularly since and I am relatively pain free-IF I do lots of stretches and exercises. I have also been seen by a rehab doctor who specializes in spinal trauma. So now it is almost two weeks later. I am spending over 1 hour in the gym each day, doing lots of stretches, going to the chiropractor 3 times a week for bone cracking, spinal traction, and heat/ice therapy. I have just come from the spinal rehab doc and she will give me a spinal injection of Lidocaine & steroids on Friday, March 14.
That should ease the inflammation and pain and allow me to go on the mission as planned. I will have to figure out which exercises I can do during the trip and at the clinic to avoid the flare ups. There is a lot of arthritis on L-5. I must be getting older. HA!
As I stated earlier, this should be a most interesting mission. I hope I have not bored you with my medical problems. I also hope you will continue to follow the blog. I appreciate all of your prayers and support.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Saturday February 2, 2008
Happy Ground hog day! Yes, we are on the ground and back in the USA but it was quite a trip. I was up at 4 AM to see Larry & Kay Shank, Dory and her mother, Boyer and crew, an all of our bags off to Port-Au Prince on the bus. After that, I just relaxed and kept the coffee going till every one was up. We tap-taped to the Jacmel airport at 7 and I think our plane arrived at 8AM. The flight over the mountains was as beautiful as ever and I enjoyed it. Then it is the race into and out of the small airport, board the bus, and drive to the mail airport. There we claimed our bags and totes and proceeded through the first security. The Miami plane passengers made up the line to the ticket counter so we stood for 1 hour while they checked in. After our turn to check in, we cleared immigration with no lines and that was unusual. Next came the second security screening and again encounter no wait time. Next I proceeded to the upstairs shopping/eating area for our traditional hot dogs & beer. I browsed though the shops for awhile, purchased my 5 bottles of rum, and went to the departure lounge, and the third security screening. The inbound flight was late so we sat for quite awhile. We landed in Fort Lauderdale around 2 PM and it took 1 hour to deplane, pass through immigration, get our bags and pass through customs. Next we walked to the terminal 3 where our next plan was located. We ate some lunch (I had a great salad) and waited for the next flight. At the gate area, American Airlines announced that we had a plane but no flight crew so we waited. It seems that the pilot was in Miami and had to be driven to Fort Lauderdale. The first officer was due in on another flight so we did not leave Fort Lauderdale much before 6:30 PM. We arrived in Chicago and had to circle to the west to land. When we landed, the announcement was made that we had no gate so we waited some more. When we exited the plane we supposedly had short time to get from the H concourse to the G concourse for our next flight. Various rumors floated that the plane as either on time, delayed or canceled. We were able to contact Kay & Larry who were joining us on the last leg (they were flying with frequent flyer miles and had different connections). They told us they were t the gate and the flight was set to go. So we rushed to G and were told that, again, there was no crew for the plane. So, at 10 PM we were finally told that the flight was canceled. American Airlines did contact Peoria Charter Coach and the 10 PM bus was held up so we could run over to the bus staging area to catch it for our ride home. We arrived at Peoria airport at 1:30 AM after stops in Pontiac and Normal to discharge passengers. I got a ride home with Mary & Jay Hedges and walked in the door at 2:00 AM. So, yes, I am tired today.
Some small points then it is off for a nap. It was fun watching Dory, the small Haitian girl that we brought back so she could have an operation to correct some birth defects and her mother react to the snow and the cold. I ordered a Strawberries and Cream Frappacino from the Starbucks counter and let her try the last of it. I never got it back as she loved it. They did shiver in the cold as they had no warm clothes so we loaned them some of our travel blankets. They were going to go to Shellie and Jerry Coleman’s but it was decided that they should sleep at Sue & Eric Behrens’s home due to the lateness of our arrival back in Peoria. I wonder if Dory gets to play in the snow today.
I need to finish my inventory but I’d better leave this and spend some time with my wife. So, until next time, I‘ll sign off for another day. Thank you for all your prayers for our safe return.
Some small points then it is off for a nap. It was fun watching Dory, the small Haitian girl that we brought back so she could have an operation to correct some birth defects and her mother react to the snow and the cold. I ordered a Strawberries and Cream Frappacino from the Starbucks counter and let her try the last of it. I never got it back as she loved it. They did shiver in the cold as they had no warm clothes so we loaned them some of our travel blankets. They were going to go to Shellie and Jerry Coleman’s but it was decided that they should sleep at Sue & Eric Behrens’s home due to the lateness of our arrival back in Peoria. I wonder if Dory gets to play in the snow today.
I need to finish my inventory but I’d better leave this and spend some time with my wife. So, until next time, I‘ll sign off for another day. Thank you for all your prayers for our safe return.
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