Holy Blog Batman!

I got to visit the school today! The kids wanted to send all my friends back in the states (especially you southerners) a message!!

Things are going AWESOME today! Praise God for that! I've been working the dayshift with Kristen B and Nez showed up around 12pm to relieve us to eat and lend a hand. The unit has 4 patients right now. Duncan went to the "floor". Before he left we asked him how he felt and he said "not good". Later, Agneta (one of the Tenwek surgical residents) said when she went to visit him on the floor she found out he only said that b/c he didn't want to leave us b/c we take good care of him. He was a funny dude. We took him his "hope for hearts" tshirt and he said "I will look very good in this" in his broken english. He's a great success story and I'm so happy he's doing well. Right now we have Caroline, Kip aka Smiles, Beauty aka The Beaut and Eunise chilling with us.

Kip is a 15 year old who weighs about 70 lbs. He came into our clinic on Sunday in terrible shape. He was weak, out of breath, and couldn't even lay down to get his echo. They had to do it sitting up. He desperately needed a mitral valve replacement. Just before he went to surgery he arrested and the team contemplated not going on with the surgery b/c the risk was too high. They decided he would not survive without surgery so they had to at least try. He not only made it through surgery but he's been our quickest recovery! He's not even 24hrs post op and he's up in a chair, off his oxygen, smiling while listening to NeedToBreathe on Kristen's iPod, and ready to go play futbol! He's our miracle boy :)

Caroline is 28yrs old. She had surgery yesterday and I believe she only had a mitral valve repair. She was extubated quickly and was immediately asking for "maji" or "water"! She coughed like a champ and guzzled water. Today, she is up in a chair. She asked us for a turban so Kristen gave her a surgical hat. I'm not sure if it's a cultural thing or she just wanted to look like all of us with our surgical hats on. She definitely says some funny things. She told us she can't wait to work on her family's tea farm; she was too tired to do it before. Made my heart happy. She is currently blowing on her flute (good for her lungs) and singing "God Bless You" to us. We love her!!

Beauty is quite the beast. She is from Zimbabwe! She's a funny character. Very flat affect but occasionally cracks a smile...usually when Kristen asks her if she thinks we're crazy. She nods her head and smiles at us. Beauty wins the award for must dedicated to her party blower to get those lungs working. She fell asleep sitting up with it in her mouth. She is still a bit weak and is taking some time to come around, but it is to be expected. She had a complicated surgery and a ton of bleeding post op so considering that she looks beautiful ;)

Eunice is a surgery from today. She was in the OR from 8am to 4pm. Long day for her! She had a mitral valve replacement, aortic valve repair, and tricuspid valve repair and is doing pretty well. Some small hiccups but considering how sick she was pre-op she looks good. I'm excited for her to get well so we can hear her story!

It's about 8pm here and they started another case a little bit ago. Kari and Kristen D will be on the night shift so pray all goes well!

Last night I got to hang out with the team some and do a small devotional. It was much needed and God knew exactly what we all needed to hear. I haven't shared this with you all yet but the morning after we lost Roger, Kristen and I were walking out of breakfast and ran into Mary Taylo. She had run up to shower and read a small devo after our nightshift before she had to head to the clinic(she pulls like 48hr shifts, no joke. She's unbelievable!). This was a small piece of her devotional after our bad night:


This morning I was reading my bible and opened to Ephesians 3 and 4. A couple verses really stood out to me in relation to this entire trip.

"To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." Ephesians 3:8

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Eph 3:20,21
One of our surgeons said this scripture came to his mind when he saw how well our miracle boy Kip was doing!!

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." eph 4:4 We all serve the same God!

I mentioned earlier that I got to visit some kids at the school today...it was so great to see such young smiling faces. They certainly loved my camera...and my hair! My favorite part of today was singing "Amazing Grace" with the kids in the field. I loved every second of it. They love to sing. They wanted to hear our national anthem so I sucked it up and stood on the steps in front of all of them and sang my heart out. Then I made them sing me their national anthem! Fun times!

I'll leave you with some pictures! Thank you for loving on all of us. Things definitely are looking up from the start b/c of your prayers! Woo hoo!!!!

This is Caroline singing to us with her "turban" on. Not much emotion on the face but she was so sweet.

Our surgeons working away!

                  

Kip! 12hrs post op and look at that smile!

Kristen and I with The Beaut. She's always sleepy...

Cutie from the school!

Attack of the children!

This is Brian aka Obama. The first thing he said to me "so, how bad was hurricane Irene?" and then he asked Kari "How is the economy affecting you in Tennessee?" Yup, Obama sounds right.

Couldn't get enough of this kid!

Love yall!