Around the Ward

Hello Everyone...I just got done working the midnight shift this past weekend. I am adjusting back to sleeping at night and living during the day. On one of my midnight shifts I took some time to take a few pictures of the ward. After all, this is where I have spent the majority of my time the last 2 months. We are not allowed to take pictures of patients while they are on the ward, so the pictures are of an empty ward. Most of the time the ward is filled with people. When a patient comes in for surgery, more often than not, they bring family with them. Usually this is because the patient is a mother who brings her children with her or the patient is a child who needs to have a parent with them. Last weekend I took care of a patient here for a thyroidectomy who had 6 month old twins with her. I spent more time taking care of her twins, Hope & Joy, than I did actually looking after the patient. (No complaints here - the children were lovely and so cute). So, in the pictures the ward might actually look big. However, when you add in family members sleeping on the floor, kids playing and running everywhere, patients and nurses the room gets filled up quickly.


This first picture is our Intesive Care Unit (ICU). Thank God we haven't had to use it too much since I have been here. This is a 3 bed ICU with 2 isolation rooms as well.


This is a picture of one of our four wards all cleaned up and ready for patients.


This is our "nurses" station. Now imagine 4 nurses all crowded around the cabinets at 8am trying to all get to the same medicine for the patients. It is the same here as at home, the nurses station is never big enough!


This is our medicine cabinet. Mostly pain meds, antibiotics, antifungals, de-worming meds, and vitamins.


And this last picture is one of my favorites. This is a picture of what hangs on the wall in the ward bathrooms for the patients. It is pictures depicting for the patients what NOT to do in the toilet. The toilets are not for doing laundry and not for standing on. Most of our patients have never seen toilets as we know then, so sometimes they need a bit of instruction.

The View from Here

I am so grateful to everyone who is keeping up with the blog and my journey. It means a lot to me that you all are reading. I have had a few requests for some more pictures of my surroundings, view from the ship, etc. So, here you are...

This first picture is of the dock, and the walkway up to the ship. It is our "front porch". Everyone is always coming and going from here.


This picture is the view looking the opposite way from the walkway. In the foreground are our tent clinics. They are an extension of the hospital on the ship. One tent serves as our "admissions" area where people coming to be admitted to the hospital get checked in. The other tent is our eye clinic. We are currently performing about 35 cataract surgeries per day. This tent is where people come after their surgeries to get eye care instructions, and follow up check ups. In the background is a ship that was seized by the government because they found cocaine on board. Rumor has it that millions of dollars of cocaine were found. The ship has been docked for months.


This picture is of me, with Monrovia in the background. This was taken from Deck 7 from the ship.

And this is the view from the front of the ship. We are in one of a few different harbors around the coast of Monrovia.

And this is the view from the back of the ship. This is the first view of the ship that you see as you drive up the dock.

I am working midnight shift this weekend - 7pm until 7am, so I have had a quiet Saturday as I try to sleep to stay up all night. We are also on a "ship holiday". Every few months the ship-workers (except the nurses) get a long weekend. So it is quiet on the ship today. Oh, and as you can see, rainy season hasn't completely taken over. It does rain here, but we still get wonderful warm sunny days too - thank you God!

Darling Boy

Today I am off and I had some plans...but they got cancelled as the true meaning of "rainy season" seems to be making itself clear. Torrential down pouring - no matter how big the umbrella or how good the raincoat. So, a walk to town was out of the question. If not for the rain, then especially for the mud that would surely be everywhere in the streets today. So, instead I enjoyed some indoors relaxation - a book, a movie with friends. Catching up on emails!

This also gives me a chance to catch you up on some of my patients that I have had the absolute privilege to take care of this week. Below is a picture of a boy that has captured my heart. His name is Darling Boy and he lives up to his name in every way. There are many patients with first names that describe them. There was a woman named, "old woman", other common first names for children are "prince" or "princess".


Darling Boy is here getting some wound care for a surgery that Mercy Ships performed on his shoulder. I have had the immense gift of being his nurse the past 2 days. One of the true gifts of being here is that you actually have time to spend with your patients - usually, anyway. So, whenever I had some down time, Darling Boy wanted to play with me. He enjoys blocks and coloring, but his favorite by far has been the math flash cards we have on the ward. That's right - math flash cards! And when those ran out, he wanted me to make up more math problems for him. We worked on addition, subtraction, and eventually some alphabet flash cards too. In between taking care of my other patients, I was a "teacher" too. I loved every minute of it. Even my fourteen year old patient, Fatou, wanted to join in the flash cards. You could tell Fatou had not had much education, she had a very hard time with the flash cards that Darling Boy (who is 6) was breezing through. She kept using her fingers and toes to count, except one foot is in a cast so she had less toes to count with so she used my fingers too.

This next picture is of one of my group of women patients that I call the "Women's Club". For several evening shifts in a row I took care of two women - Bendu and Joanna. Bendu, Joanna, myself, and anyone else that wanted to join in played Uno long into the night. It took a short time but quickly the women caught onto the concept of Uno - and LOVED it when someone forgot to say "uno" and had to pick up a whole pile of cards.



Bendu was badly burned when her mattress that she was sleeping on caught fire from the fire the family uses to cook and keep warm with. She was burned in March of this year, and she is here for skin grafting.

This next patient is Joanna and her daughter Angela. Joanna is also here for some skin grafting. Mercy Ships does a lot of repairing peoples wounds that haven't healed properly because they were never treated when the wound first occurred, or things that were "fixed" years ago in the local hospitals. There is a lot of cosmetic surgery to correct skin and bone issues.

The last 2 days I also took care of this man. He had a tumor removed from his back. I love this man and his beautiful smile.

This last picture is a group photo of some of the patients. The hospital ward is located on the third deck where there are no windows. So, every day we take the patients that can walk, outside for fresh air. This was during our "deck" time. The patients love to go outside, and it provides us a chance to just be with our patients. We sit and talk, share stories, play games with the children. It is a great way to spend an hour of your shift.

What will I be doing?

Friends,

The time is getting short and very soon I will be heading off to Liberia. I cannot believe that after all this time of dreaming and praying that it is finally here. I am so busy these days trying to wrap up all sorts of details. God is good though, because I have peace that everything that needs to get done will - and the rest can wait. I cannot wait to get there!! I cannot wait to finally see what I have been planning and dreaming for all this time.

So, I thought I might explain a litte bit of exactly what I will be doing in Liberia. From what I know, I will be working mostly as a ward nurse. The ship has 4 different wards or wings with different types of patients. Most all of the patients are on board the hospital ship because they have had some sort of surgery. For the patients that are children they are mostly recovering from surgeries like cleft palate repair, or tumor removals. Women patients have had surgeries to repair damage done during the child birth process or from rape. Other patients have also usually had tumor removal surgery, eye or dental surgeries. There is virtually no health care in Liberia so if you are a citizen in Liberia and you have some sort of ailment it usually goes left untreated. Many tumors that develop on patients faces are a result of no dental care. The tumor forms from an abscessed tooth that goes untreated. These tumors can grow very large and disfigure faces. Not only do these ailments cause physical problems, but they also cause social issues for those that suffer as well.

I will be working 8 hour and 12 hour shifts on the ward providing nursing care to children and adults. I will get 2 days off in a 2 week period and I will work days/afternoons/nights - whatever is needed. From what I have read I will receive 2 shifts of orientation to the wards and then on day #3 I will be on my own.

Visit mercyships.org and click on "stories" to read about peoples lives that have literally been changed by the healthcare received on board the ship.

Thank you again for joining me on this journey. I look forward to sharing many stories of amazing people that I meet in Liberia.

Africa Mercy

Well, I have just one month to go before I head out to live and work aboard the Mercy Ship named the Africa Mercy. Everyone has been asking me what will life be like living and working aboard a ship. I have seen some photos of the ship, but really I haven't had a good idea of exactly what I am about to embark on. On the Mercy Ships website I came across a really great video tour of the ship I will be on. If you are interested in viewing the video click the link below. The video is about 17 minutes long, but is well worth it. The video is hosted by Don Stephens - the founder of the Mercy Ships organization. The video shows all the main parts of the ship including living quarters and the hospital area. It also really conveys the heart of the mission of Mercy Ships - to serve the poorest of the poor by following the example of Jesus Christ.

Click on this link to watch a fantastic tour of where I will be living.

I hope you will take the time to watch the video. Everytime I watch it I get tears in my eyes - I am so excited to get to partner with such a worthwhile organization. And, let me just say thank you again to all of you - for your support of me and the Mercy Ships. Thank you for partnering with me to follow the example of Jesus Christ - to love others.