Continually Amazed

Well, after a long absence, I figure it's probably time to come back. The past month has been a bit disorganized in lots of ways, full of travel out into the country, special ministry events for Christmas, and then some downtime with the clinic closed on random days. I'm looking forward to going back to a somewhat normal schedule in the near future.

Just a FYI, this is super long, so read at you're own risk....

Yesterday I was able to go on some home visits with the other nurses at the clinic. It had been a while since I'd been on a home visit where we spent a good bit of time in the patient's home. It was great to get back into that routine. Our first visit was supposed to be relatively short(a half hour or so). I think we ended up being there for an hour and a half. It always amazes me how a simple assessment visit can turn into a long stay on many of our visits.

We had heard about this elderly woman through a patient at the clinic. As we came into her home we saw her sitting/lying down in some funky contraption of a wheelchair tied to one of those white plastic outdoor chairs(her legs extended into the white chair). I guess it was comfortable for her as we were told that she refused to be in the bed which was just yards from where she was. Turns out this little 90 year old woman had broken here hip(a year and a half ago). After such a long time after the injury, there really isn't anything that can be done surgically, so we had to explain to the family that it was a bit late for any kind of surgical intervention after a year and a half. This woman basically sits in this chair contraption all day long crying on and of (no one's quite sure if its from pain or something else) and not much else. The family told us that she refused to get into the bed and screamed when they try to get her there. As one of the nurses started to do a physical exam of this woman, we found fractures in her fingers which had caused deformities that no longer allowed her to have full function of her hands(again, something that can't be corrected at this point). It was just incredible how many other medical issues we found with this woman and other heartaches with the family the longer we stayed. By the end of that visit, we did get the patient into the bed without screaming(really, the nurses I work with have “special skills”)

I'm continually amazed to see the Peruvian nurses work in these situations. They have such a gift for educating the patients about their medical issues and about things they can do for themselves, encouraging patients and their families, ministering to them on a very personal level, and in all of this sharing the love of Christ. They have such a heart for the people here and I'm so thankful to be learning from them and being involved in this ministry at some level. As I spend more time going on home visits I'm learning so much and look forward to being even more involved in the visits. It's been great to start the new year with getting back into the routine of going on home visits!!

The day got even better after coming home from visiting patients last night. I found out that one of the little girls from La Casa Josephina went home with her new mom and dad yesterday. What a sweet end to the day!!