Tuesday, November 24, 2009
To my nieces and nephew:
Friday, November 13, 2009
Hello all,
I need a new PC, (I know that sounds ungrateful since this one isn't that old. I have the DVD mostly done, my PC just continues to freeze on me.
I know I know, I guess I am going to have to come to everyones houses and just give a presentation one by one. That is fine by me.
I have been thinking a lot more about the trip as I have been going through hundreds if not a few thousand pictures. What an experience. Just incredible.
Thanks for continued prayers for my PC. I have wanted to be done with for almost two weeks now.
At this rate, it will be next year.
Andy
Monday, November 2, 2009
DVD almost finished.
To those who have been following my trip or who have supported me along this journey, I have been working on a DVD with music and pictures. I promise it will be done by this weekend and will have it mailed by next week.
Thank you again,
Andy
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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.
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.
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)
It is amazing
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.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Day 6 Final day of surgery
Dr. Patel gave us all soapstone shaped hearts.
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.