It's been awhile..

I feel like I have missed out on a lot of things to share because I don't keep up with this everyday. Yesterday in the ward, WMBI broadcasting was doing a story. They are on the ship for a week I guess. For those of you who don't know, WMBI is Moody Radio 93.1 in Chicago. They are doing several stories I think. They interviewed our charge nurse with a patient named Rita. Rita is 9 years old. One of the young OR nurses was on a day trip to the Bong Mines with a group of people and saw this little girl from the vehicle and took pictures of her. Her legs where so bowed that it almost looks like you could put a big round exercise ball between her legs. The nurse showed the pictures to some of the doctors and they said they could help. She then went back to the village and asked random people if anyone knew this little girl. They ran into a woman who knew Rita's grandmother. So long story short she had her surgery and now her legs are straight. It is definitely a life changing experience for this little girl. So they took video of her coloring etc. and told the story. It is amazing that God worked in such a way that they found this little girl. One of the admissions nurse was telling me that when they were out near a market her and several other women saw a women who had bad burns on her face, and they felted compelled to pray for her, and a few days later she showed up to the ship--she had already had an appointment card.

Anyway, back to Rita. The story is remarkeable but it isn't so cut and dry and wonderful as it will seem in print, or on radio. Today she started screaming and crying and was almost inconsolable. It was horrible. She was having muscle spasms. She was already on Morphine. While her nurse went to get a small dose of Valium that was ordered for the spasms, I went and stood by her bed with the mother. She kept screaming and crying--mom, mom, mom, and pulling at her mom, and at one point she grabbed my hand and put it on her chest as if she wanted me to feel her heart. She was just wailing, and laying her head on my arm and I felt so helpless. It took me everything to not cry while I watched this little girl with her now straight legs stuck in full length casts. She was in sooo much pain. Can you imagine having completely bent legs for about 9 years of your life and then having them surgically straighted.

Fortunately, in the last two days she has appeared comfortable. This was only the 3rd time she had an episode like this and thankfully it subsided and she was fine after about 20 minutes. So those of you who listen to WMBI remember you got the real story here first. More to come....