Baby Theodore

Baby Theodore got admitted to the hospital almost two weeks ago.  He was so severely dehydrated and malnourished when he first showed up that we weren't even sure that he would survive.  Almost eight months old, he was the size of a newborn.  Sadly, Teddy was also abandoned by his family.  But he got plenty of loving and TLC from all the volunteers.  Over the last week Teddy came to life.  He still can hardly drink anything from a bottle and gets all his nutrition through a feeding tube, but he started smiling and yesterday I got him to laugh!  Moments like that are the best part of being in Haiti.  He was doing so well that he was discharged from our hospital yesterday and transferred to a malnourishment center for long term care and he has an adoptive family waiting for him!

Teddy early on in his hospitalization

Baby Teddy, all smiles!

Teaching Teddy farm animal sounds with the iPhone :)

I went to get a coke and came back with a baby...

Yesterday morning I was heading to the gate to get one of the guards to buy me a coke.  When I got to the courtyard there was a lot of commotion going on in the street, just outside the gates of the hospital.  One of the Haitian EMTs checked on the situation and said that there was a lady about to give birth in the street.  Since, we aren't allowed to leave the hospital property it took some convincing to get the guards to open the gates for us.  But one of them escorted us across the street where the baby was delivered on the road.  Great luck that Joanna, an OBGYN, was working in triage that morning!  Joanna and Mitch stayed to take care of the mom and passed me the baby.  I ran her back to the triage tent to examine her.  Mom and baby both did great and went home that afternoon.  I told everybody, "I was just going to get a coke and I came back with a baby." :) Just a typical Saturday morning in Haiti!

Mitch, Me, Joanna, and Sanja with our special delivery

Healthy baby girl

Jim, one of the Haitian EMTs.  It was his first time holding a baby!

Back in Haiti

I've been back in Haiti for the past week.  I was so ready to get back down here.  As soon as I arrived I felt like I was back home.  There have been several new challenges as a result of funding changes and the loss of a major grant that was previously supporting the hospital.  Despite the difficulties and challenges there are also plenty of moments that bring a smile to my face and remind me why I'm here.  I'm looking forward to celebrating Christmas in Port Au Prince this year!

Bump in the road...

Well, things haven't worked out quite as I had planned.  Unfortunately after being in Haiti for a few weeks, I got pretty sick.  I had a wonderful crew of doctors, nurses, and medics looking after me; and I'm so grateful for all of them.  But after being sick for more than a week and ending up back on IV fluids for the third time, we decided it was probably best for me to come back to the States to get better.  I've been home since Sunday night recuperating.  I definitely didn't expect to be back in Florida so soon.  I've had quite a bit of labwork done, which hasn't really revealed much, aside from being a bit neutropenic.  I was so heavily pretreated with broad spectrum antibiotics that it's pretty unlikely that anything will show up in my cultures at this point.  So I'm not really sure what it was that made me so sick.  All that matters is I'm feeling better!  I'm trying to decide what my plans are next.  I'm hoping to return to Haiti sometime in December.  I'm eager to get back to my patients and friends at Hospital Bernard Mevs!  I'll keep you posted on what's next...

Day 17: You Know You're In Haiti When...

Stolen from Sammie...

You know you are a long term volunteer in Haiti when:

1.) You ask if breakfast is the ketchup sandwich again
2.) Security guards are also your Coke supplier
3.) You think mosquito spray smells like cologne, and compliment men on it
4.) The lights go out when you are in the shower and your roommates illuminate the bathroom with headlamps till you are safe.
5.) GI issues are openly discussed and Typhoid is always the diagnosis.

6.) The roof is the cool hangout/laundry area/bathing area/bar/hideout ect.
7.) You are curious about unknown white people in the hospital compound
8.) 7:30pm is UN bus time....or 7:45....or 8:00...or whenever the driver shows up
9.) The only Creole you know is "Prestige"
10.) Saturday is grocery day/volunteer departure day.
11.) Picking out your scrubs for the day involves the 'sniff test' and the ultimate decision to use Febreeze
12.) Carbs, sodium and snack food are your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
13.) You wake up to Geckos on the wall...next to you.
And finally, the main reason you know you are a long term volunteer in Haiti is...
14.) You wake up everyday, with all your new friends, ready to work, look like crap and and help the most grateful people on the planet.

Day 16: Pizza and Glowsticks

On Friday night we had a glowstick and pizza party in the Peds ward.  The kids, staff, and volunteers all had a blast!  I have a feeling that these will become some of the most memorable moments of the trip.  These kids are awesome!

 

With two of the awesome Haitian Peds nurses, Severe and Winnie

Samantha enjoying her pizza

The Peds crew for the week with a few of our favorite little patients

Day 14: Never a Boring Day

Sunday was an eventful day.  I was working in Triage that morning and things had been pretty slow.  Then, around 10:00, a truck raced up with a badly injured 13-year-old American boy.  He had been in an ATV accident and obviously had major head trauma.  When I got to the truck he was minimally responsive with blood coming out of both of his ears.  His mother, a pediatrician, was down in Haiti for the week volunteering at a clinic.  The staff at the clinic knew that Medishare is the only facility with a CT scanner, so they rushed him here. We got him into our ED and began to assess and stabilize him.  He clearly needed a head CT, but since it was the weekend, our CT scanner wasn't up and running.  But a technician was able to be called in, and after the power initially went out, the generators starting working and the scan was able to be completed.  The CT revealed multiple skull fractures.  But since, the patient was stable and he didn't require any immediate neurosurgical intervention, the staff at Medishare was able to get him med evaced back to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale.  Sammie and I transported the boy on the ambulance ride from the hospital to the airport.  It was kind of cool getting to ride right onto the runway. The pilots and medics that were transporting the patient back to the States were fabulous.  They even brought us some special treats.  We definitely enjoyed our Dunkin Donuts flown in from America :)  Overall, I was very impressed with how well everybody worked together to provide this boy with such exceptional care in less than ideal circumstances.  The fact that he made it to the hospital, was stabilized, got scanned, and was already on a plane back home in less than eight hours from the time of his initial injury is amazing.  Project Medishare did an awesome job!

Day 8: Farewell to the MN Crew

Well, today was the day that I knew would be difficult.  The rest of the volunteers left this morning to head back to the States.  Even though I'm far from ready to be going home, it was tough watching my friends load up and head to the airport.  Sammie and I definitely had a few tears in our eyes as we hugged everybody goodbye.  We had an awesome group here last week.  This past week was definitely the easiest week I've ever had down here, because everyone worked together so well.  I'm glad I've got Sammie for at least the next two weeks!

Day 5: Finally in Haiti!

I arrived safely in Port Au Prince on Saturday.  Today is day five of the trip and so far things are going great!  After all of the planning and prep work, I'm happy to finally be down here.  I've been blown away by all of the progress they've made in Pediatrics since my last visit in March.  I've kept busy seeing pediatric patients that come in to triage or the ED, although today I enjoyed some down time on my scheduled day off for the week.  It's weird to have a day off down here but I've realized I definitely need to enjoy the down time when it comes, because things can get hectic pretty quickly.  It's also nice to have the opportunity to leave the hospital every once in awhile, so I don't go stir crazy.  I have no doubt that coming down here was the right decision.  I'm already wondering if I'll be ready to come home after two months!

Final Countdown...

Only two days to go and I'll be leaving Gainesville to head to Haiti!  This trip has been in the works for a good six months now, and I can't believe it's finally here.  I am totally excited and totally overwhelmed at the same time.  I think reality finally sunk in last week and my practical side couldn't help but think...did I really just quit my job to go to Haiti?  But deep down I know that this was the right choice, that I won't always have an opportunity like this, and that making a decision like this would never be easy.  Right now I still don't know what's next for me after Haiti, all that I know is that's where I'm supposed to be for now and I'm trusting God for the rest.  Thanks for your love and support.  The next update will be coming to you from Hopsital Bernard Mevs in Port Au Prince!

"Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go." -Mother Teresa

Toys from Tyler

In 2005, when I first started working at Shands, I met one of my very favorite patients.  Tyler was five-years-old at the time, battling stage IV neuroblastoma, and having a stem cell transplant.  I got to be friends with Tyler and his family during that time and we have stayed in touch ever since.  Tyler not only defeated cancer, but has gone on to do some pretty amazing things.  He started his own charity, Toys from Tyler.  What started out with his desire to bring a Christmas gift to a friend who was hospitalized over Christmas, has grown by leaps and bounds every year.  Toys from Tyler collects thousands of toys each year to deliver to kids who are in the hospital for the holidays.  This year Toys from Tyler is going international and their first official donation is a box full of goodies for me to take to Haiti.  Thank you to Toys from Tyler!  I'm sure these toys will bring lots of smiles to the patients I will be caring for at Medishare!

Tyler, Me, and Nicole with the toys I'll be taking to Haiti

Can you even believe that these are the same kids? Time flies!

Saying goodbye

Less than three weeks to go and I will be back in Haiti!  Even though I've been planning this trip for a long time, I can't believe how quickly it's approaching.  I have just over a week left at work, which is crazy to me.  After seven and a half years at Shands, I can't believe that I only have a handful of days left working there.  It was sad telling my coworkers that I'm leaving.  But, as I expected, it's been much harder saying goodbye to my patients and their families.  Some of these kids I've known for years and have taken care of them as both a nurse and a nurse practitioner.  After going through so much with them it's definitely bittersweet to give them a hug one last time, not knowing when our paths will cross again.  When I started working in pediatric oncology, I had no idea what I was in for.  It has been the most difficult and the most rewarding thing I've ever done. 

I was examining a 9-year-old patient this past week.  I told him it was the last time I was going to give him his checkup because I was going to be moving away from Gainesville.  "Where are you going," he asked me.  When I told him I was going to Haiti, he got serious, looked me in the face and said, "does this mean you're going to be eating goats?"  And that is just another reason why I love working in pediatrics...

Big Changes

The decision to go on this next trip was one that was many months in the making.  My involvement with Project Medishare first began when I initially volunteered to accompany some coworkers on a week long trip to provide medical care in Port Au Prince following the earthquake.  Over the past two years, I've become increasingly involved with the organization and it has taken on a greater role in my life.  The last time I was in Haiti, this past March, I wasn't ready to come home at the end of the week.  After four trips, many amazing experiences, numerous great friendships, and countless life changing moments...I knew.  Going for a week had been great, but I needed to go down for a longer period of time.

So I began praying about it.  I realized pretty quickly that this was what I was supposed to do.  But the decision still wasn't easy.  Going to Haiti would mean loosing my job here in the States.  So how committed to this was I?  I believed in what Project Medishare was doing in Haiti, but did I believe in it enough to leave a good job and the comfortable life I have in Gainesville?  So I prayed some more.  I got some great encouragement and advice from a few of my friends.  I knew what I had to do.  How often in life do you get the opportunity to really go after one of your dreams?  To live out something that you're really passionate about?  I knew this was something I'd always want to do and that this was an opportunity I'd regret passing up.  So, I decided to resign from my job and signed up for a long term volunteer assignment with Project Medishare.

Several people have also asked me what my family thought when I told them I was quitting my job to go volunteer at a hospital in Haiti.  The responses ranged from..."I'm proud of you, follow your heart" to "why don't you stay down there longer than just a few months" to "maybe we'll come down with you".  Yeah, I'd say my family has been pretty supportive.  They probably weren't that surprised when I told them either.  I think most of them saw this coming.

Some of my friends have told me they just don't get it.  To that I guess all I can say is that if you've never been there, you probably never will.  It's hard to put into words how my life has been changed through my trips to Haiti.  But one thing is for sure, it's made me reconsider what I really "need" in this life.  Coming to this decision over the past few months has taught me a lot about myself, my values, and my faith.

What's next for me after I come back from Haiti?  I'm still not sure.  But I'm ok with that.  All I know is that God is calling me to spend my time serving in Haiti later this year.  After that, I look forward to the next adventure...

Haiti Trip #5

I am getting ready to take my next trip to Haiti to volunteer with Project Medishare.  I'm going to try to do a better job with blogging this time, especially because this time I am going to be in Haiti for a couple months.  I am so excited for this trip and I'm literally counting down the days until I leave.  November 3rd is the big day.  There will be much more to come, I have so much to share already.  But for now here's a link to my fundraising page if you're able to make a donation...


http://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=340675&lis=1&kntae340675=8BE2871F5F094045AF0AA5CA375567EB&supId=362142838

Love this and I think it explains my passion for Haiti so well... 

"How do you find your vocation? You identify where your passion meets the needs of the world. The first part of that equation is to engage yourself in those activities that you feel you were put on this earth to do. The second part of the equation is to carry out those activities so as to benefit others. The world is filled with unhappy people who are doing work they do not care about, all for the sake of making more money or because they are trying to fulfill someone else's dreams" -David Batstone

It's a Girl!

One of the things I love about working with Project Medishare is that they don't just bring volunteers down to Haiti to provide medical care to the patients there.  They are working to empower the Haitian people to be able to run the hospital by themselves.  One of their big goals is educating the Haitian staff, and they stress that to the volunteers that come down.  They want us to share as much of our knowledge as possible with them.  The staff is so receptive to our teaching and I feel like they truly want to learn as much as possible.  However, I've seen that there is certainly a lot that I can learn from them as well.  Daverna is one of the Haitian nurses that I've worked with during my past three trips.  She primarily works in the emergency room and is absolutely AMAZING.  I'm pretty sure she could start an IV on a rock.  She has incredible skills but is incredibly humble about it at the same time.  I didn't even realize until this past trip that Daverna was also a midwife, and that she took care of most of the women that delivered at Medishare.  One day she was taking care of a laboring mom and I asked her if she would teach me about what she was doing.  She told me, "Yes, you deliver the baby.  Put on gloves."  It was an incredible experience.  Daverna talked me through it and I got to deliver my first baby.  Amidst all the sadness, illness, and death that I saw that week I was also blessed with the opportunity to welcome a new life into the world and I'm so grateful to Daverna that she allowed me to share in that.  Afterward, Daverna took care of the mom and I took care of the baby.  Both of them left Medishare to walk home two hours later. 

The newest delivery at Project Medishare

Giving her a checkup

Healthiest Haitian baby that I saw all week!

The first baby that I delivered!

Daverna and me, love this woman!

Everyone Smiles In The Same Language...

Each trip I seem to have one patient who really touches my heart in a special way.  This time it was a little boy named Scheider.  On Sunday he showed up in triage at Medishare.  He had a low grade fever and a mild cough.  I examined him and he looked great at that point.  He was well hydrated, his lungs were clear, and he acted like a typical toddler as he fought against me when I looked into his ears.  I gave his dad a bottle of tylenol and told them to come back to the outpatient Pediatric clinic to follow up in a few days, but to come back sooner if he got worse.

Early the next morning somebody came to wake me up from my bunk because they needed me in the ED to see a toddler that had had a seizure.  I had seen so many kids the previous day that although I recognized Scheider and his dad right away, it took me a moment to recall exactly what I had seen him for.  I remembered the strong willed little boy who had fought against me when I tried to examine him the previous day.  Now he was a lethargic toddler who sat weakly in his dad's lap, with little response as we poked and prodded him.  He now had a high fever, over 104, and as we got a bed ready for him in the Pediatric ward he started to seize again in the ED.  It took several doses of different medications to get his seizures to stop.  So when Scheider didn't really wake up that afternoon it was easy to initially blame it on the medicine.

I spent the next several days trying to figure out what had caused Schedier's high fever and seizures.  I did a CT scan of his head and it was normal.  I did a lumbar puncture and his spinal fluid was normal.  Every test I performed came back normal.  He didn't have malaria, he didn't have HIV, and he still wasn't wasn't waking up.  Almost three days after he had come into the hospital Scheider was still unresponsive.  I had stopped all of the medications that should have been making him sleepy, so I didn't have a good answer to why he still wasn't responding to us.  I was really worried about him. 

Then, around Thursday he slowly began to wake up.  He was extremely irritable and lethargic at first.  He had no muscle tone, couldn't support his head, and was barely able to move his arms and legs.  But he started to make baby steps of progress-staying awake for longer periods of time and making more purposeful movements with his extremities.  Through an interpreter I told his mom that I just wanted to see him smile before I went home.

On Friday Scheider was still a grumpy little man and not feeling well.  He wasn't thrilled when we made him do physical therapy to work on his tone.  He was still so weak, but everyone was excited to see him making baby steps of improvement.  After he finished with PT we put him back in his bed and I was making silly faces at him.  He looked up at me and smiled!  That moment made the entire trip for me.  Here was a little boy who was barely responsive to a sternal rub for three days, now looking up at me and smiling.  The trip was totally worth it just to see that smile.  In that moment I knew in my heart that he was going to be ok.

After I left Medishare I got several updates on Scheider's progress from a friend who was down there volunteering the following week.  He continued to improve and was discharged home towards the end of the week!

Schedier and his mom, she never left his bedside

I examined him several times a day looking for any changes

Tracy helping Gina with Scheider's physical therapy

The smile that melted my heart! Best part of the whole trip!

Haiti's only NICU

Providing healthcare in Haiti is nothing like in the United States.  Resources are limited.  I frequently didn't have the medications, diagnostic tests, or supplies that I wished I had, things it's easy to take for granted at home.  Project Medishare has the only NICU and PICU in all of Haiti.  One day in 30 minutes we literally had three premature babies just show up in our already over capacity Pediatric ward.  All of them were struggling and in respiratory distress.  There is literally nowhere else to send these babies, so turning them away would have been a death sentence.  We shuffled around the patients that we could and squeezed in our newest little patients.  It's times like this where we would have to decide how to use the few monitors we had to best serve our patients.  I decided it was better to take one of our few pulse ox monitors off the baby with the congenital heart defect and to put it on our new 30 weeker.  We knew that the cardiac baby had problems that we ultimately wouldn't be able to fix in Haiti.  But if the preemie had an apnea/bradycardia episode that we could fix.  With our resources limited, we put the monitor on that baby instead and left a baby with a cardiac defect in her crib with no monitoring.  The simplest things, that we just take for granted here...

Michele, one of our preemies, with her mom

Haiti's only PICU/NICU

Baby Christopher-we had to move him out of his incubator to make room for a smaller preemie

My heart is still in Haiti

I am home, back from another whirlwind week in Haiti.  How was the trip?  It was challenging, frustrating, and exhausting.  But it was also rewarding, eye-opening, humbling, and amazing in a way that you could only understand if you've been there yourself.  It stretched me and challenged me as a nurse practitioner and I am so glad that I went.  I saw kids come to Medishare and receive the best medical care in all of Haiti.  I saw others at death's door that were turned away at the gate because the hospital couldn't accept any more children.  This week I delivered a newborn baby and held another baby as he died.  These are experiences that I'll never forget and I'm still processing everything that happened last week.  Thank you for supporting my trip and sending me back to Haiti.  I wasn't ready to come home and a piece of my heart is definitely still at that hospital down in Port Au Prince.  I am counting the days until I can get back down there...

Day 3

Maybe I'm not cut out for blogging, it's just been so crazy the past couple of days it's hard to find the time to update.  Things have been busy as usual but so far it's going better than I anticipated.  The only pediatric volunteers that are here this week are me and a pediatric nurse from Ohio. Thank goodness she has PICU experience.  The acuity in the pediatric ward is pretty high.  We have a lot of really sick babies in there.  Fortunately there is more Haitian staff so there is a lot of coverage by Haitian doctors at different points during the day.  But there are usually several hours in the morning and evening when I'm by myself.  During those times it's usually so chaotic I feel like all I can do is damage control.  This morning they woke me up from bed with a newborn in triage and a seizing toddler in the emergency room.  Considering how the day started, it turned out alright.  More later...

Day 1

It's been a LONG day, so today's entry will be short and sweet.  I arrived safely at Medishare.  The kids in the Peds ward right now are very sick, two on ventilators and pressors, and another one that should be.  It is definitely going to be another crazy week!

The Day Has Come!

After several months of planning and preparation, it's finally time to go!  I'll be heading down to Miami tomorrow evening and catching my flight to Port Au Prince first thing Saturday morning.  Right now I'm just excited to get back to Haiti.  Although this is my fourth trip with Project Medishare, it's also my first time going by myself without any other volunteers from my hospital.  It will also be the first time that I'll be the only pediatric provider there for the week.  As a nurse practitioner who's been in practice for less than a year...that's kind of scary!  I've been doing my best to get prepared but it's still pretty overwhelming thinking that I'll be in charge of managing the care of all of those kids.  Luckily I'll have backup from the awesome ER team that is coming from Minnesota.  I honestly don't think I'd be going on this trip if it weren't for the MN crew, they're awesome!  Thanks again to all my family and friends for making this trip possible.  I'll definitely appreciate all of your prayers next week! I certainly can't do this on my own!  I'll do my best to keep the blog updated while I'm gone, next update will be coming at you from Port Au Prince :)

Haiti Trip-March 2011

One Week To Go!

I'm down to the final week before I head to Haiti!  I have been blown away by the generosity of my friends and family to support this trip.  God has blessed me so abundantly though all of you.  Every time I think I'm done receiving donations, another one will come through online or another check will come in the mail.  Then I get to head back to the store to buy more supplies for the Pediatric ward where I'll be working next week.  I've bought out Target's entire supply of children's tylenol more than once in the past week :) 

Last night I started packing some of the supplies I've accumulated over the past several months and was surprised by how much stuff I've gathered.  I already have two giant bags full of medications, diapers, formula, and medical supplies, most of which was purchased with your donations.  I love going on these trips, but it truly wouldn't be possible without the help and support of so many.  I can not say thank you enough for making this possible! 

How you can help!

Interested in helping me with my next trip to Haiti?  One way you can help is by making a financial contribution.  But you can also help by donating supplies that I'll be taking with me.  Just today I got an updated list of urgently needed supplies for the Pediatric ward.  Here is a current list of things I'm gathering:
*Diapers-preemie sizes or for larger kids
*Powdered formula
*Hand sanitizer
*Mobiles to attach to the cribs
*Underwear for 4-8 year olds
*Children's multivitamins
*Over the counter children's medications-tylenol, ibuprofen, benadryl, etc.
*Thermometers
*Some other meds we never seem to have enough of...iron, oral or IV steroids, albuterol, liquid fluconazole. If you have the ability to donate any of those please let me know!

If you you can donate any of these things that would be awesome!  Or if you'd like to donate money I can purchase them.  Thanks for everyone's help!

Why Haiti?

Why am I raising money and going back to serve in Haiti?  Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.  When the earthquake happened, 220,000 people were killed and more than 300,000 were injured.  1.5 Million people became homeless.  Two years later 650,000 people still live in tent cities.  Conditions are crowded and unsanitary, leading to outbreaks of communicable diseases, including the cholera epidemic.  Access to healthcare is limited and one in ten kids will die before the age of five.  Can you even imagine?  This is not some place worlds away, it's a mere 90 minute plane ride from Miami.

The first time I volunteered with Project Medishare was shortly after the earthquake.  They were operating as a field hospital in tents.  The second night we were there the Peds tent caught on fire and we had to evacuate everyone into a field where we took care of the patients overnight.  The hospital was staffed by volunteers that were flown in every week.  Things were very primitive.

Now, Project Medishare has relocated their facilities to a free standing building.  They have Haitian doctors and nurses working at the hospital, and fewer American volunteers every time I go.  They are creating sustainable change by empowering the people of Haiti to be able to one day operate the hospital on their own.  They have the only critical care capabilities in the entire country, including the only PICU and NICU.  Things are still basic, but they have come a long way and they're making incredible progress.  I've been proud to work with Project Medishare and to be a small part of the big impact they're making in Haiti.

With such limited resources, a small donation can make a huge impact.  $5 covers the cost of treatment for a child with cholera.  $20 provides medical care to newborn babies.  $100 supports a child with HIV/AIDS with medication and education.  Your donation really will make a huge impact.  To help please check out my fundraising page.

First Post

At the prompting of some of my friends I've decided to set up this blog.  God has really given me a heart for medical missions.  I've had some unbelievable, life changing experiences on these trips, and I'd love to share the journey with you.  

More posts coming soon, including how you can help me get ready for my next trip to Haiti-it's only a few weeks away!  In the meantime, here's a video from the first time I ever went to Haiti :)