Wednesday, March 23

Today our meditation was from Joshua Chapter 5. Bro. Bob Beebe reminded us to focus on the Fulfillment of the Promises of God. How God fully provides all of our needs. And He has proved that to us over and over.

Last night we did five cases ending with a man who had a fractured pelvis and femur from being hit by a car. We had packed a tear in his rectum when we stabilized him yesterday, but we needed to do a diverting colostomy (remove the torn piece of intestine and divert the intact intestine to the outside with a colostomy) so that he would not get an infection if he had a bowel movement (this would essentially go into his intestines) and he could die from septic shock. This was an emergent surgery, so we took him back to the OR and put him to sleep. He had already received at least two units of blood and we were waiting on a Hematocrit (blood level) to come back. We already had the patient asleep when we got the hematocrit of 16 (yikes! Normal Hematocrit is around 40). We had 2 units of blood ordered and got two more ordered.

Anyway, to avoid being too graphic, the patient was not doing too well at the end. His breathing was very labored and he was oozing blood from several orifices. Every person on our team was quite helpful (Literally, everyone had a part) and he ended up waking up and telling us to stop talking because he wanted to sleep in peace. Trust me, though, I don't think I can describe how nerve wracking it was for about an hour.

Everyone has been very busy here doing dressing changes on patients (Arthur and Karen), Physical therapy (Shirley), Operating on Patients (Dr. Dixon), Fixing everything (Dad and Bob Beebe), Helping with supplies and witnessing to the Haitian People (Jeremy and Jonathon), Getting supplies and being everyone's right hand assistant (Janet Dixon), working out the kinks with the hospital (Bob Beebe), and doing anesthesia (Joanna and her student Kristin ;) ).

God Bless,
Kristin