Long over due....

After over two years...I made it back in Haiti. Such an amazing feeling to be 'home' in the country that first stole my heart almost 10 years ago.

It was about noon on thursday when one of our surgeons approached me at the nurses’ station asking if I would be willing to leave at 6am Saturday morning, for a 2 week trip to Haiti. "Umm, yes! Of course!" So the rest of that day I packed, worked with my amazing boss to cover my schedule, emailed my parents and then left for Quito early the next morning.

Our Ecuador team consisted of three docs and two nurses. (A general surgeon and nurse from Shell, and two docs from our Quito hospital). We arrived in Quito just in time for the 'informational' meeting at 3pm. Afterword’s I met up with a friend for dinner before heading to an all-night bible reading that I agreed to help with two weeks prior. I only stayed till 1130 since we had to leave for the airport at 3:30am. :-) But it was an amazing way to start my trip-with friends and God's Word. 

The trip was with and sponsored by Samaritan's Purse…an organization I had heard much about though the years but had never worked with. We arrived in Port au Prince, the capital and took a short van ride...about 45 minutes to the compound. I knew and expected the capital to be difference since the earthquake but I was surprised of how bad it still was. Pills of ruble were still visible around the streets and tent communities were everywhere. It broke my heart to see the changes from 2 years prior.

So we spent Saturday afternoon getting settled and resting before starting bright and early-6am Sunday morning for the clinic. We arrived at the clinic around 7 and were divided among the various areas for the day. The ‘inpatient’ clinic consisted of two very large tent buildings each with 6 ‘wards’ with about 20 beds in each. Also on campus was a triage tent where patients were first evaluated for either inpatient treatment or only observation and oral hydration. There also was a discharge tent where patients were observed for 2 hours after being discharged from the large tents. There they were educated on signs/symptoms of re occurrence and giving instructions to make oral rehydration at home. 

Triage! 

Convenient holes :-)

The entrance to the clinic. Every entrance had bleach saturated mats and washing stations with bleach treated water

The entire clinic had a range of 150 to 200 patients daily, with about 75-100 admissions/discharges. Cholera is a fascinating yet horrible disease…it was unlike anything I had seen before.  Patients would come in barely able to walk, sometimes carried in or non responsive. Their diarrhea or vomiting had started the day before or sometimes a few hours before. But after a few liters of IV fluids, they would be sitting up and talking and on their way to recovery. The initial protocol for most was 7-8 Liters of IV fluids in the first 2 ½ hours…which is quite a lot. Average stay was about two days and it wasn’t surprising to discharge a patient with an average of 35-50 liters of total IV intake.

Praise the Lord we only had day shift-7am to 6:30ish… the clinic was ran by national docs and nurse during the night. Despite the long days I loved working with the patients, staff and other volunteers. It’s amazing how close you can get to perfect strangers just by serving together. I met some amazing brothers and sisters in Christ from all over the world. People whose hearts and lives are contagious and are beautiful examples of Christ. People, who just by knowing them for a week, taught me so much about trusting God and his presence and direction in all of our lives.

Our team was scheduled for two weeks but I had to cut my time a little short because my parents were flying into Ecuador to visit Kristin and I for a week! God truly has amazing timing because the airline we took usually only has flights to and from Haiti two days a week…and it worked out that my flight and my parents’ were on the same day…and exactly the same time. Literally-we went through customs together! :-)

I am ending this blog short…but don’t worry I have another blog (half done) of what is going on right now with me…but I’m working midnights tonight and have to sleep! haha!  love you all and can’t wait to see you soon…almost 2 months-crazy!!