Days 11, 12 & 13- Coming to the End

Day 11

Today is a National Holiday in Haiti. Schools are closed and most people do not have to go to work. Last night before going to bed Stecy told us that they would need all four of us volunteers to go to the hospital this morning because many workers will not show up to work at the hospital. We left for the hospital in the Land Rover with Cindy because the moto drivers were not working today either. When she dropped us off she went to the market because she is making an American style dinner for us tonight. When we arrived to the hospital Jessica went directly into labor and delivery while the other three of us went to check on our ICU mom. We were told that she was able to get out of bed yesterday and walk! We had a small celebration of cheers when we were told that. She is still unable to move her right arm but much of the swelling has gone down. We hand expressed a little milk out of both breasts and told her that is it important to continue multiple times a day to do it. Hopefully they can bring her babies to her soon and they will be able to stimulate milk production. After assessing her we went to go round on postpartum. The smell at the hospital today was horrible. A rat had died somewhere and they had not been able to locate it until right as we arrived. The trash was also being collected at the same time and they were wheeling it around in a wheelbarrow. It literally made all of us gag. I cannot think of another time in my entire life that I have smelled something so awful. There was only one midwife in the postpartum units. Between the three of us, we whipped through vital signs and assessments. The midwife then only had to come by the patient do education and discharge instructions. She was so grateful that we were there to help.  We found multiple things that needed to be address. Severe range blood pressures, febrile newborns, tachypnea (rapid breathing), and completed IV infusions. It seems like such simple stuff to find, however there is one midwife managing 2 separate rooms with 11 beds each. I honestly do not know how she would have finished caring for all the patients today. After all of our assessments were done we went to check on Jessica. The woman that was laboring had delivered. Jessica said everything went great and the mom and baby were both recovering well. It was so wonderful to hear that there was a normal healthy delivery. There was only one other patient that they were inducing and she would not be delivering anytime soon. Instead of wasting time, we decided to go back to the house to see if there was something we could be doing for them there.

One of our moto drivers was outside the hospital, so Winter and Megan hopped on. Instead of waiting for him to come back to get us, Jessica and I decided to walk home. We made it a little over half way before the moto driver made it back to us. Back at the house they were having dance lessons. They have been trying to find an instructor to come to the house for a while and they were finally able to find them. The group was dancing compa when we got back home. The dance instructors asked if we would be interested in a trial dance lesson today and then they would come back later in the week. The decided to teach us salsa. Let’s just say some caught on more quickly than others! Stecy is working out prices with the instructors and hopefully they will return before we leave on Saturday.

After dance lessons we all gathered to eat lunch. The food is all very good still but it is just on continual repeat. I am ready for some variety! After lunch we organized direct relief boxes for Perrine. The intent is that each of the 32 students will have a box of supplies when they go off to their integration sites in a few weeks.

I ask if anyone wants to go for a walk after a little down time. Cindy is making an American dinner tonight and it is going to be later then usual. Megan, Perrine, Jessica and I decide to go walking. As we started our walk we noticed that this group of boys was throwing something in the air. As we get closer we see that it is a baby bird that lost its nest. The baby bird isn’t far from being able to fly and Perrine comes to the rescue. She picks up the baby bird in her hands and she protects/carries it all the way back. The boys are following us saying that they want to bird back and Perrine threatens to go to their houses and tell their moms what they have done. They all cower to Perrine. It was almost a little funny. We were about 20 minutes away from the house in the open field when we notice all the cows and goats running. Pretty soon all of the Haitian kids start running for cover too. We finally look up and notice that there is a wall of rain coming towards us. There is not much we can do other than stand under the tree or start the walk home. I am clear, not a great idea to stand under a tree in an open field with lightning. We realize the rain is not stopping anytime soon and we are no longer dry. We start the trek back to the house. We are laughing so hard, screaming when the lightning cracks and sliding all over in the mud. We are all absolutely drenched. We finally make it back to the house with the little bird in tow. We put the baby bird in a basket with a towel, give it some food and water and let it dry off. Everyone back at the house had a great laugh when we returned like wet dogs.

Dinner was ready shortly after. We set the table and had family style spaghetti and homemade rosemary focaccia bread. It tasted so good! Perrine made a Moroccan orange cake for dessert. Our bellies were so happy! We played a few rounds of heads up and then made our way to bed. Tomorrow I will be working at the hospital.

Day 12

I can’t believe it is already Wednesday. I woke up before my alarm and had some alone time before the other were up. I started the coffee pot as Cindy wandered downstairs. We talked over our coffee and then made some breakfast. It was going to be a busy day at the house because a potential clinical site was coming to evaluate the program to see if they would be interested in hosting some of our students for integration. At 8:15 I was off to the hospital by myself. Megan was working in the classroom and Jessica and Winter went off to mobile clinic. The hospital was busy when I arrived. I met up with Isabel, my translator for the day, and went to check labor and delivery. There were patients laboring, but nothing imminent so we went to help in postpartum. There were only three couplets in there so I completed my assessment, reported to the midwife and continued onto post op. In post op there was not an empty bed. Apparently the doctor was having a special on c-sections. So obnoxious because they charge so much more for c-sections when most the patients have no money anyway. I was done with my assessment but the c-section dressing needed to be changed. I had Isabel ask the midwife if she wanted me to change it or if she would take care of it. She said she would do it after she finished with the patient she was assessing. Out of the corner of my eye I can see that her patient is lying in a puddle of blood. Her dressing was completely saturated and soaked her sheet. I asked if she would like my help. She didn’t really respond to my translator so I took that as a yes. As I came over to her I asked if her uterus was firm. The midwife barely touched her stomach and said yes. I asked about the blood pouring out of her vagina and she said that it was urine. Clearly it wasn’t. She had a foley catheter in and urine was in the bag so it was obviously in place. At this point I decided I would start my own assessment. I touched her stomach and I could feel how distended it was immediately. I straightened out her foley catheter and it automatically filled the bag with urine. It had a kink in the tubing and so her bladder was completely full. Once her bladder was drained I vigorously massaged her uterus. A ton of clots and blood came out of her vagina. I was so glad that her uterus was firm and her bleeding was decreasing. I asked Isabel if someone else could come to assess this patient because it became obvious that it was over this midwife’s head. She went and got one of the other midwifes. I do not know what her issue was, but as soon as she saw that it was me that had concerns, she instant turned off listening to what I had to say about my assessment. I was very offended by the way she spoke to me and her body language. I made sure the patient was safe and cared for and left the unit. After taking a second to compose myself, I went into labor and delivery. The patient that was laboring in there earlier was now in active labor and going to delivery relatively soon. I was able to breathe with her through contractions, explain to her what was going on, and most importantly, hold her hand. She was a first time mom and because they can not have family in the room with them, it is very scary.  I labored with her for about an hour and a half and she delivered a beautiful baby boy. She was so grateful after the deliver that I had taken the time to care for her while she was laboring. It was a great last experience to have at the hospital.

After I was done at the hospital I hopped back on the moto and went back to the house and had lunch. Megan and I chose to go back to the orphanage because we had purchased nail polish to paint their nails. When we got to the orphanage all the girls remembered that we had said we would come back to paint their nails and instantly swarmed us! I had purple and Megan had pink. They could all choose which color they preferred and lined up quickly. They are not allowed to have their nails painted at school, so we painted their toes. None of the girls had shoes on and their feet were rather dirty. They were amazed by my blonde hair and as I was painting toes a few of the little girl started playing with my bun. After I was done with that set of toes I took my hair out of the bun and they were so excited to braid my hair. Holy cow can they braid fast and they pull it so tight! After everyone got their toes done we left back to the house.

Toro, is one of our security guards at the house. He is very quiet but always friendly and super reliable. He walks two hours to and from work every single day. He works 12 hour shifts so he is gone 16 hours a day. His wife has to stay at home with their daughter who has some disabilities and is epileptic.  Our group of volunteers learned about how far he was walking and decided that we needed to do something about it. We started to research how much it would cost to get a new moto in Hinche. Megan started a go fund me page and we received all the funds we needed to purchase him a moto. This will literally change his life. Anytime he needs anything in town he has to walk. He carries large bags of rice and anything else up into the mountains that his family needs. He does not feel bad for himself and he never complains. I can’t wait to be able to gift him with this.

The dance instructors arrived and taught us more salsa and compa. We had so much fun dancing together and laughed the rest of the night. Overall it was a great day and I am already sad thinking about leaving Haiti.

Day 13

I woke up this morning with a raging headache. It is the first time that I have not felt good since we arrived. I didn’t sleep well and hope that it goes away quickly. I had some cereal and banana and got ready to go to mobile clinic. Mobile clinic wasn’t too far away today and I was glad that we weren’t in the car for too long. The grounds of the clinic today were beautiful and run by a catholic organization. It is basically a self-sustained compound with beautiful gardens, animal and many buildings. They have 900 students, preschool through sixth grade and a medical clinic onsite. We met the father that was in charge and he showed Megan and I the grounds. We were done working at the clinic when one of the volunteers came to see if we would come check on one of their other volunteers. She was feeling very sick. When Megan and I got up to her and assessed her we both looked at each other and said we think this is a kidney infection. Severe flank pain, nausea, vomiting, urgency to void. We found IV supplies, started and fluid bolus and went through the pharmacy they had their and came up with a game plan. Hopefully she will start to feel better but we told her if nothing is better in 24 hours or anything gets worse, she would need to go to the hospital. They were grateful for our help!

We left and came back to the house for lunch. I still wasn’t feeling well so I laid down after lunch and closed my eyes until we needed to leave for home visits.  

Megan and I went on home visits with Pleasure, our translator/driver. The first mom we saw was doing really well. After assessing the mom, I went to go assess the baby. My jaw literally hit the floor when I unwrapped the baby girl from her blankets. She only weighed 1.2kg (2lb 6oz)! She was so tiny. The mom said she was born at 32 weeks and only spent two days in the NICU. Her vital signs were all stable and we had the mother breastfeed so we could look at her latch. She was obviously jaundiced so we instructed the mother to take her outside during the day to receive sunlight. There is not phototherapy here and so feeding and sunlight is the only treatment options that we have. The second home visit was a post op c-section. She delivered approximately one week ago at 30 weeks for severe pre-eclampsia. The baby is still in the NICU at the hospital. I took her blood pressure and it was 210/138 with headache and blurred vision. She was already taking two separate blood pressure prescriptions so unfortunately, we had to transfer her back to the hospital in order to receive proper treatment. She was very understanding and her husband thanked us for coming to check on her and giving them good instructions.

Back at the house Perrine tells us that they were able to buy the moto today for Toro. We have come up with a plan to go to his house and give it to him near his house. It was awesome to drive there because it really gave us an appreciation for how far he has to walk to work. It was so beautiful up in the mountains but it is a serious trek. I do not know how he does that day in and day out. We when presented it to him Perrine explained why we decided to do it in Creole. He literally didn’t know what to say or do. He said thank you very much and gave all of us individually a big hug. We all had tears in our eyes and it was a very special moment. We made the long journey home on the motos and dinner was ready when we got back. At dinner I remembered that we needed to check on one of our postpartum blood pressure moms. Perrine, Judnel and I took the car to go see her. I was glad I was going to get to say good bye to Melencia and brought her a bracelet. She was so excited to put it on! As we were leaving her mom told her to give the bracelet back because she thought Melencia had taken it from me. I had them tell her that I brought it to her as a gift. Her mom asked her to thank me and she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. That little family stole my heart. Consistently kind, grateful, and welcoming. And to top it off, moms blood pressure is much better now. She is definitely a success story for MFH. Without the home visit program who knows what would have happened to her.

We collected money from everyone at the house and stopped to get some Prestige beers. It is probably the last time we will be able to hang out and have a drink together as tomorrow is our last night. I can’t wait to go home and experience those comforts and to see my family. However, I will be leaving a piece of my heart with these people and Haiti and know that I must return. As I lay in bed looking back at the past 2 weeks my heart is happy. So much has happened both good and bad, but for now I choose to only think of the good. We don’t have a plan as of now for tomorrow but I think I will sleep well tonight!