Histamine

I have never been as ill in my life as I have been the past 4 weeks. Since moving to Iowa I have developed catastrophic allergies. Not just the itchy watery eyes allergies, but the take over your entire life, close off you airways, do not sleep for 3 weeks, eyes swollen shut, develop bronchitis, strangers on the street ask if you are okay allergies. It has been down right, miserable. This is a picture of me going outside. In case you are wondering those are swimming goggles and yes, I'm wearing a tuberculosis mask. It is almost more than I can take to be inside so on occasion I brave the spring that has sprung and step out of doors. Take something for them you say... Oh, I have trust me I have. You can see how well prescription drugs work.

I must admit, the month of April has been extremely humbling for me. I have realized that even the mama has limits and it is okay to say no. Before being SOOO sick I had agreed to make all of the costumes for Adam's school play, "The Beautiful Butterfly." That was much more time consuming than I had anticipated. I also had agreed to watch a friend's little girl for 6 weeks while she covered maternity leave for a gal. My plate was a lot too full and I was sick and spread thin. It reaffirmed for me the importance of staying focused of the weightier matters of being a mother. Simple things like laundry and dinner aren't as simple as they appear when they all go undone for days in a row. Scrubbings toilets and cleaning showers really is of value. The vacuum is a beautiful tool when it is used. Most importantly, the blessing of health and being able to work long hard days is so often counted as a curse and not a blessing. I feel so blessed to have had my paradigm refocused.

Haiti Day 5 (Tuesday, March 23rd)

Remember those promised improvs? Well, it may be a little tasteless so skim and forgive if you are offended. The week that Jonathan spent in the hospital he worked very closely with a team of volunteers from Italy. The physician that came with the Italian group was an OB/GYN. One of the main problems that they were experiencing was the lack of stirrups to support the legs of the women. With a little clever thinking they found a few I.V. poles and tied the woman's feet with ace wrap bandages for support during a D&C. I don't know if I should be proud of Jonathan for coming up with the suggestion to ace wrap the woman to the pole, but deep down inside I'm sure she was thankful... at least the surgeon was.

Jonathan assisted Dr. Shepherd with a Z-plasty on the foot of a young boy that was malformed congenitally.

The Z shaped stitching was sewn by Jonathan following the surgery on the little boy's leg.

Haiti Day 4 (Monday, March 22nd)

Being in Haiti with limited resources was the cause of much improvisation. This is Aaron trying to cut an O ring from a rubber stopper to use on their oxygen tanks. It started out as a good idea but after much work this great idea proved to be fruitless. However, do not be discouraged, you will yet see in days to come some very clever usage of resources.

A blurry picture of what might have been.

This young Haitian boy had to be at the hospital without his mother. He was having a difficult time being alone, scared and battling the pain of burns. Jonathan spent his available time singing to and holding the sweet little boy.

In good hands.

Thousands of miles away, Jonathan's oldest son was celebrating his 6th birthday on this day. What a gift to know that on such a day if he couldn't be holding his own son, he could be caring for the son of another.

Haiti Day 3 (Sunday, March 21st)

Sunday morning Jonathan started out his day with some dressing changes on this little boy that had received significant burns on much of his body. He showed up sporting sunglasses. Jonathan took care of him several times throughout the week.

In case you were wondering Jonathan is in fact not a surgeon. The fact that all of his medical training specializes in anesthesia had little relevancy in his volunteer efforts in Haiti. He and Dr. Shepard worked side by side on several cases. Aaron and Jonathan would take turns scrubbing in for surgery and providing the anesthesia.

Quick - "Say, Cheese!"

This poor little critter died the night he was found by the uneducated entomologist. Jonathan and Aaron were terrified by this poor wee little millipede. He had the potential to be such a great friend for the two foreigners, but instead he was tragically mistaken as a vicious centepede and was unjustly squished to death. Poor harmless lil' pede. Rest in peace.

Haiti Day 2 (Saturday, March 20th)

Up and running...

Saturday was Jonathan and Aaron's first day in the hospital. Jonathan was helping out in the E.R. that morning when a woman in O.B. was in need of help with the delivery of her baby. There weren't any doctors available so having seen a kid or two born Jonathan decided he could hack this one. (I don't think he had a choice in the matter.) In the panic of delivery he was beckoned to the O.B. wing and there he delivered his first baby. Little Mr. Haiti was born healthy and well. Here is a snapshot of the delivery team with Jonathan... a CRNA, two nurses and an EMT. Welcome little one!

Jonathan and Aaron with their anesthesia machine. Feeling sleepy?

O.R. bed #1

O.R. bed #2

The stockroom for the O.R.

Haiti Day 1 (Friday, March 19th)

Jonathan and Aaron left DesMoines on March 18th and flew to Houston, TX and then on to Miami, FL. They spent the night at the airport in Miami and prepared to fly into Haiti early Friday morning. Jonathan called me on Friday morning before they boarded their flight. I didn't know for sure when we would have the chance to chat again so I was glad to be able to tell him I loved him before he hopped on the plane. The flight into Haiti from Miami was only a couple hours. Upon arrival in Port Au Prince, Jonathan and Aaron were in for a bit of a culture shock.

"Well, we made it. It has been a long day. We arrived, got our luggage, and then we waited for our ride for a couple of hours. Haiti doesn't observe daylight savings time, so we are actually on the current Central Time Zone. That will be nice so we don't have to adjust again. Anyway, when our ride arrived, we had two people who approached Aaron and I holding signs with "Notre Dame" on them, and they took our luggage and helped us get to the car. Well, after the luggage was loaded, they told us that we each needed to pay $20.00, which we understood was the fee for the taxi. Unfortunately for us, they were just asking for a tip for carrying our luggage (I didn't try to converse in French because they were speaking Creole and a little English), so we "tipped" them each $20.00, and then they left. We didn't realize we got "took" for at least 30 minutes when I was talking with our taxi driver and asked him about it. He told us we tipped them "too much". As if I didn't know that already!! Aaron and I just looked at each other and laughed because we were so dumb! Anyway, we made it here to our residence around 2:30 PM and we are very hot and sweaty, but that is to be expected. I have been able to communicate with a lot of the people in French, which has been a great blessing. We will be starting in the OR at 7:30 am tomorrow. We probably won't have a heavy day tomorrow, but we hope things will pick up at the first of next week.I sure love you all! Give the boys great big hugs and kisses from Dad and let them know I love them too. I'll try to update you daily if I can find someone who will let me borrow their computer."

Here is Aaron upon arrival at the Port Au Prince Airport. They were looking for those promised signs, "Notre Dame."

Just outside of the airport people lingered along side the red fence watching the comings and goings. Here's the papa.

Jonathan and Aaron stayed in the Notre Dame Filariasis Residence. Standing on top of the residence they were able to look out over the town of Leogane. Pictured above in one of the countless "Tent Cities" that has become permanent residence for the natives living there.

Children playing soccer.

The big orange, white and blue tent is the hospital. There are six different wings. The operating room was located in the far back left wing. It housed two beds. It was air conditioned and where Jonathan and Aaron spent 99% of their time while on the island. The other wings of the hospital were for O.B., ER/admitting, recovery etc.

Time for bed boys... After many failed attempts trying to get the mosquito net over the bed and one mattress that was located on the floor, Jonathan and Aaron gave up and ended up throwing both mattresses on the floor. Jonathan rigged the net to hang from the above ceiling fan and there they slept soundly.

Dad was headed to the pizza and priesthood session of conference tonight so it was just Mom and the boys for dinner. Me, three happy campers and tacos with spanish rice. The Easter Bunny brought Matthew a candy ring this morning and he really wanted to eat it. I told him he was welcome to eat the candy ring just as soon as his dinner was gone. After 2 hours of tears, complaints, moans and groans, the relentless mother and even more relentless Matthew were still battling over a smidge of rice and taco. Exasperated that Matthew was not getting his way he finally turned to me and said, "Mom, you ruined my life!"

If I keep rolling my "XY" dice just the right way there will come a time when the door will shut behind Mr. Priesthood and Pizza and Lil' Priesthood and Pizza 1, and Lil' Priesthood and Pizza 2, and Lil' Priesthood and Pizza 3 and Momma Mia will have a whole pot of supper and only the dog to torment while the menfolk are away. Here's to hoping that day is still very far off and I can ruin a few more of Matthew's nine lives.