Safari!!!!! Hakuna Matata!!

Thought this warning was kind of funny.... Not like you would see me getting out of the jeep so I could get closer.

The accommodations were pretty awesome. Safari was a great way to end a very busy trip, but it was sad leaving Tenwek, and I started missing my family a lot more at this point. Laura and I had purchased a cell phone in Nairobi a week and a half earlier, that cell phone didn't work at the Masi Mora Safari.

Yes it was a tent but it was a "tent" a real one. Everything all the way to the food was just awesome.

We all paid extra to enjoy a Bush Dinner, the food again was great, and they made us a big bonfire, drinks and desert., and anything else we wanted. There was a port-a-poty out in the bush and all of this even came with its own armed guard. It was a pretty cool experience.

You can see we were definitely spoiled.

These giraffes were sparring. Here we are with the Nouri's Nathan by brother, Ann, Malic and me getting ready to go out on a safari.

This is the Masi village we visited. We were greeted with dancing, singing, and hand shakes. It was also a great way to catch the culture.

The animals we saw were pretty amazing, we saw the leopard on our very first safari. That was heart racing and jaw dropping fun. It is sort of hard to describe.

Here are the girls, just having fun.

Below are the Masi warriors singing and jumping as a part of cultural tradition.

At the very top of the picture you can see a croc, our guide said that the hippos created sort of a kitty pool idea to protect the two babies. In my opinion I don't think security could be any tighter.

At the Bush dinner there was a part in the program where the Masi danced and sang for us again. That was awesome. But by the end of it we were attending Laura's wedding. As you can see from the photo she is carrying the marriage stick.

It was pretty amazing to see all of these animals in their element.

Rain was constantly threatening while we were there but it only rained a little that very first day we went out on safari. We were lucky. The temp was actually quite enjoyable.

The Masi territory made up some 2,100 square miles of land.

This Cheetah was just trying to rest.

This leopard, was pretty incredible. Our guide put us right in front of it. It was hunting a rabbit.

After we all shot pictures with us touching the rhino the guide told us that not much bothers rhinos, and about the only thing that really bothers them is when you mess with their young.

Maybe someone could have told me this before I touched the baby.

All of the giraffe we saw were so beautiful.

Just random pictures

I guess this picture is pretty random, the night before we left, Dr. White and his family invited us over for dinner. Just before we sat down to watch a presentation (which was pretty awesome), his dog Emma decided she needed a hug.

She looks cute and innocent here, but she is far from it, on our way to the mountain she liked to nip at my heals. I thought I was going to get bitten. I declined rabies prophylaxis, who would have thought I might need it because of a dog bite. It would be so much more interesting if I said I was bitten by a Rhino or something. (Of course Emma doesn't have rabies, just being silly)

This is our trek back to Nairobi, to left of the picture is about a 500ft drop to what would be instant/sudden death. It was a fun ride.

I wasn't going to post this, but just couldn't resist, this is a tape worm that was taken from a patient. Worms I guess a real problem in that region.

Cool huh.

It is amazing

This is Chep Koech and Enoch. I have pictures of the others but I can't find them. They were all doing quite well. On Monday the 6th they were all out of the unit and in the Peds area. Some even were going home, that has been the most amazing thing I think I have felt lucky to be able to witness. 13 patients six days, by day 8 they were all doing well enough to move on.

I also was amazed by each of their inner strength and physical strength. I have obviously never had open heart surgery, but I can imagine that it is very painful recovery. Many of them did recieve some pain medicine, but not nearly what I thought I should have given them. We constantly ask if they were hurting, and then would deny any pain, mostly we gave them pain medicine when we could tell they were in the slightest bit of discomfort. Even so, it was mostly tylenol or codeine.

(above) These smiles were priceless.



Sad it was over, it seemed to go by really quick. Of course we were really happy everything had gone ok. Many family and staff prayers were answered.

Each one of them will continue in our thoughts and prayers.

This is Tuesday morning things packed and ready to head off to our safari. We were all sad to leave. Dr. Russ White was there to see us off.

Day of Recovery

This is Tony the Tet, it is hard to believe he had open heart surgery just a day or so ago. He did great. Everyones prayers were answered.

This was our last heart patient. Can I just say one more time, can you believe they just had major open heart surgery just 24 hours ago.

Someone is having a great nap.

Today has just been praying and waiting for our paitents to be able to be moved to the wards. As of now we have three patients left, both remain on a little bit of nasal cannula, but doing much better.

The Tony's father told us he was very happy with his progress, and was one of the sicker patients we have had this week. He was a Tetrology of Fallot patient who's sats were only 40% when he came in for surgery. He was actually what seemed to be a persistant "tet" spell and constantly struggling for oxygen. He also has very prominent finger and toe clubbing. His uncle is the one that thought he needed medical attention. When they took him to the outlying hospital they told the parents that he had a heart condition but that they were not sure what it was so they sent him to Tenwek. He wasn't growing, and definately not having a productive life. I wonder how long he would have lived had he not had surgery. His story is very interesting.

Most of the 13 cases done were a result of rheumatic heart disease which usually is caused by strep throat infection. Isn't his amazing? This type of heart disease is so preventiable with a little education and very inexpensive antibiotics. I wish I had the resources to come back and do more education and help to prevent this from happening.

It has been a great week today we also packed up those things we needed to take back and packed up those items that were going to stay. Amy is going to leave her trunk so we can use it as a place to store all of the nursing items we will be using next time we come back.

Our goal is to get all of the patients out of the by this afternoon mainly because we leave Tuesday morning.

Love you all, this has been a tremendous experience one that I will never forget. Again I can't tell you enough how grateful I was able to come, the families and patients have been so gratious and thankful. Many have even said thank you for "saving me." For many of us this feels very natural and easy, but for these families we are giving life.

Day 6 Final day of surgery

This is the second to the last patient. Tony.

Dr. Patel gave us all soapstone shaped hearts.

This was our second patient, isn't she beautiful.


Today was the last day of surgery, our surgeon Dr. Bichell and heads home tomorrow. to date we have done 13 cardiac surgeries, from shunts to mitral valve replacement and repairs, and also septal defect repairs, to three valve repairs. Only one of those was via thoracotomy procedure the rest were open hearts and only two didn't go on heart lung bypass. Wow what a week, it has been crazy, but fun. I can't believe that it is over, we still have four patients in the unit the two surgeries from today one a BT shunt TET repair, and the other was a cortriatriatum repair. Both are still intubated and on the ventilators but hopefully by morning they will be doing better.

Dr. Barr and Bennett left today, they had to get on the road before 3pm local time per the hospital director. There were also several others who are leaving tomorrow, this is really sad, this trip is coming to a close.

I don't think there are words that can adequately describe my feelings about this trip, not only am I am extremely lucky but I feel just honored to have been able to be serve in this way.

This has been a great trip, with a lot of neat things that have happened.

I am going to go to sleep now but will post more later, thank you again for the thoughts and prayers.

Love all of you and see you soon, I can't wait to share all of my pictures with you.