babies babies babies

how many times can i mention how incredibly amazing this whole experience has been? the last group just left, so the 25 of us interns and staff just shared a huge Haitian feast behind dr. cheryl's house. the food was amazing and we were all in stitches the entire time. half of us are from the states and the other half are from canada, so we were busting on each other on account of the fact that it is Canada Day. we've all become so close, it really is unbelievable how quickly we've all become so comfortable with each other. we passed the itty bitty twins around as we were all eating, it is so beautiful how the entire mission has come together to raise these two babies who would otherwise have been left for dead. i can't get over this fact. everyone has a role...whether nursing the babies, staying up all night with them, knitting clothes and blankets, donating food, staying with them during the day, taking them to the clinic, it is a community effort. everyone has made some sacrifice or another for the sake of these children, but it is obvious to everyone that it is something that we must all come together to do. again, it is so beautiful.

today was my day off so i spent it in the clinic working with dr. jenifer. it was incredibly busy! the first two patients were newborns...one had been born last night, and the other had just been born this morning. most births occur at home in the huts, so naturally this can lead to infections and complications. they often cut the umbilical with dirty knives cleaned with contaminated water. both babies this morning had to have their umbilicals tied off and re-cut and cleaned. it was crazy to see how even the baby born a few hours earlier was about twice the size of the twins. the majority of the patients today were babies, children, and pregnant women. dr. jenifer said that God must have set it up that way bc he knows that i am leaving soon.

one of the toddlers who came in was covered from head to toe in scabies (insects burrowing under the skin)...it was the first time i had seen this here, but somehow i saw 3 cases of it in one day. some of the kids f/ good samaritan orphanage have it and it is extremely contagious....with all the clinging and climbing they do, i have no idea how i haven't caught it! at least now i know what it looks like. on a side note, i was looking at dr. jenifer's dermatology handbook and i noticed that every single example of a rash, lesion, etc was pictured on white skin. in actuality, many skin problems look wildly different on a dark-skinned person than on a white person. how presumptuous to assume a white clientele. no where did it explain that a tell-tale sign of worms are blanching patches of black skin. to not have even a single skin infection on dark skin shown in an entire dermatology resource is surprising and disturbing. something i may not have noticed hadn't i been working with haitians every day.


one lady brought her twin infants in and one had severe hydrocephaly. what that is is when the baby has excess cerebrospinal fluid in some or all the ventricles and usually the child comes out with a huge head. it is dangerous bc it puts a lot of pressure on the brain which can cause damage or death. when i say severe hydrocephalus, i mean SEVERE. the poor boys head was so big that it was larger than his entire torso. it was so large that he couldn't even lift it up....when the mother was holding him i noticed that it was about the size of her head, if not larger. it was such a bizarre and sad sight to see. the surgery for this birth defect is complicated and dangerous and involves the incorporation of a shunt that will redirect the excess CSF. not surprisingly this is not something covered in haitian medicine. dr. jenifer said that she might know someone who could do the surgery, but the outlook is shaky anywhere, nevermind in a 5th world country. the poor mother was so concerned and desparate for help, it broke my heart to think of what was in store for her and her child. despite the fact that he could barely move his head, he maintained a full smile for the entire time he was with us. this was a little blessing amongst so much uncertainty.


dr. jenifer is adamant about me performing a lot of the exams and being really hands-on when i'm with her. it takes twice as long but she says she likes having me around bc helping me will help even more patients. i've learned how to distinguish between different types of lung infections by listening for subtle differences that originally all sounded the same to me. she started making me examine the patients first and come up with my own diagnosis. it's a lot of pressure, but it's a great way to learn. she's even had me examine the pregnant women...i don't think it will ever cease to amaze me the beauty of a woman with moving living child within her.


one man came in which asthma so bad that he had to sleep sitting up in a chair every night. he was so loud it sounded as if his entire chest was hollow and that air was just bouncing between his ribcages. the wheezing was not like what you normally hear with asthmatics, it was more like a loud whistle from the depths of his chests. it was alarming how much like a machine this man sounded like. i think if i closed my eyes it would sound like i was in a factory. the relief from the nebulizer was drastic, but it seems to be a temporary fix to a permanent problem.


mal was feeling so much better today that she actually worked construction. she did welding this morning and dug trenches in the afternoon. she will be tested again to make sure that she's gotten rid of all the parasites.

i was able to talk at length today with dr. jenifer about practicing this type of medicine, why she does what she does, and how she deals with what she sees. i don't know if i've mentioned this before, but she is haitian and lives right in port au prince. she is an inspiration to me in so many ways. she practices medicine with grace, knowledge, patience, and assertiveness. she says that the most important thing to do is listen to the patient bc when it comes to 5th world medicine, sometimes it is all that you have. she sees patient after patient after patient and treats the last with as much attentiveness as the first. with all the frustrations that come with resource limitations, voodoo remedies, and lack of education, i don't know how she does it. yet she continuously contends that the Lord has blessed her with this position. haiti is lucky to have her, and am so incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to have worked so closely with her.




it amazes me how many heartbreaking things i've seen while i've been here, but even more so how many truly beautiful things i've witnessed. haitians have a way of coming together to make things work. everyone is your neighbor and burdens are beared by communities rather than individuals. they have so little, but what they have is shared. one lady spent the last of her money to bring a young boy to the clinic last week. when asked if it was her son, she said that she didn't know him, but she saw him on the side of the road on the way home from work, so she brought him to us. though she could barely afford one way, she didn't think twice about doing what she felt was the right thing to do. little things like that remind me that while haitians endure material poverty, they are wealthy when it comes to spirit and benevolence. perhaps the worse poverty is that known to the rude american doctor who does not know that his patients are his own brothers and sisters.


tonight i have twin duty again from 1-8am. tomorrow i am in the clinic again. my friday construction got changed to working in the school, so it looks like i've an easy schedule from here on out. i'm trying not to think about leaving, but it is a constant weight on my shoulders. i have to remind myself that it wouldn't be so hard to leave if it wasn't so great to be here. but of course i have much to look forward to when i go home.

peace and bonswa.