Day 11- Lord give me Strength

Grandma taking care of her 5 grandkids, no food or water... After carrying Ensure to her house

Diabetic
Woman with Leprosy

Today a woman came to the clinic carrying her child. It took her two hours to get to us. He was running a 103 temp. Once she arrived at the clinic the we soon realized that the mother was also running 103 temp. It was encouraging to see the love this woman had for her child and the strength she had to do everything she could to get him help. It pushed me to a greater level of strength, past the feeling of exhaustion to do everything I could to continue to help those in need. Soon after Jon, Jeanie, Kim and I returend to Sahat with our suticases full of meds and supplies. The first patient I saw for that day was another woman who was having a miscarrage. We set up a spot in the corner where Kim examined her as I held her hand and confirmed. I keep thinking of the mother this morning and praying for the strenght to continue. By day 11 I am feeling emotionally and physically drained, its getting harder and harder for me but I know God will not give me more than I can handle and I dont want God to regret giving me so much to deal with so I keep thinking what I am going through is nothing compared to what the Haitians have and are going through and I can continue on. Next thing I know a translator pulled me to the side and introducing me to this elderly woman. Next to her is a young child who I learn is her grandchild. As I am talking with them I quickly learn that the grandchild's parents died in the quake and her grandmother is now taking care of her. But as we continue to speak I learn she is taking care of 5 granchildren whoes parents were killed in the quake. The grandmother begins to cry as she explains that she no longer has any food or water for her or her grandchildren. She was very distraught so jon and I carried as much pedialight and ensure that we could possibly carry and walked them to her place in the village. She preceeds to tell us her husband was shot and killed years ago and that she had bearly escaped. As we came up to her place after walking through trash and dirty water past pigs and goats we saw her grandchildren who were all malnourished. We set their things down as she began to cry and bless us, we took a picture with her before we left and prayed. I keep thinking to myself "remember God is good" as we walked back to the church clinic. When we finally arrived back we were immideatly faced with a baby who was unresponsive. After checking her over I had no idea what was wrong with her. Jon and I could not get her to wake up, our best guess was that she was severally dehydrated so we started her with fluids. She remained at the clinic for the rest of the day while trying to get fluids through her until she finally came around. Praise God. After we packed up and left Sahat we went back to our main clinic in Blanchard. The second I walked in another woman from our team pulled me into her exam room and asked me to take a look at this woman's foot. I had not put gloves on has I began to exam her, I than called in Kim who did the same. Soon after a Haitian dr. had walked in and told us she came in a week ago and that she has Leprosy. Kim and I immediatly went and scrubbed our hands. Never have I experienced that before. As we were finishing up washing our driver came up to Kim and I and asked if we would go check out the diabetic at his house. I can hardly call it a house because it was completly fallen apart but as we entered we noticed he was still on the cement floor however was awake. His blood sugar was 361 so we gave him some insulin which we are sparing of because its so expensive that alot of times Diabities is just a death sentence and Im afraid soon it will be for this 33 year old man as well. As soon as we are finishing up with this man a woman from another house comes up and asks us to see someone with a fever, we agreed and followed her to a man laying on a matt. I took his temp which was 101, after seeing so many patients with 105 fevers + this temp seemed good to me and so we gave him tylenol and told him if he was any worse to come into the clinic the next day. I felt bad downgrading his problem but after seeing the patients we've had my mind keeps thinking, Ive seen much worse. Once we got back to Blanchard before getting out of the car I was asked to assist an elderly woman back to her place. I thought yea no problem but as Gale was rushing around trying to find me security I was getting a little worried. What do I need security for? She was telling us we needed to hurry and get out of there before dark so I assisted this very malnourished elderly woman into the car literally having to carry her. Kim went along with us as our driver and security guy tells us we need to hurry her in and out. Asking why he than tells us that most of the prisoners who escaped went to this town and this is one of the most violent neighborhood. My heart starts racing as we pull in and you see all the people stop and stare at us as you see all the bullet holes etc. Kim stayed in the car as I jumped out and carryed the woman inside, my heart was pounding. I raced back to the car as we took off out of the neighborhood. We we arrived back at Blanchard where we than gave the mother and son who traveled 2 hours to get to us back home. At this point I am getting frustrated that we are having to take our most critical patients home because the hospitals are shutting down because we only a clinic and are not equipt to handle the situations we are having to face hoping these patients make it through the night. However on a happy note I heard the 7 year old boy we found under the tree came back today, I wasnt told how he was doing but at least he made it another day. As we finally arrive back to our tents we have dinner, rice and our meeting where we are told the 16 year old girl whoes parents were beating her cuz they thought she was pregnat but instead she has a tumor is going to have surgery tomorrow. That is a praise, Now its time for bed as I hear the rain beating against my tent.