Orthopedic Surgery Week

One of my favorite weeks of the year is surgery team in October. This is the case for multiple reasons including:

~It is life changing for the people & their families who get surgery. 

~It is a chance for me to work alongside Dr. Del and learn 

~I know the difference it will have on my kids that need surgery & the new found independence it will provide them!

Sunday afternoon is always evaluation day. Everyone who might possibly get surgery comes and is evaluated by the surgeons & if surgery is needed they are given a surgery day & time the following week. Unfortunately there are always more people who need surgery then time available to do all the surgeries. I was more prepared this year with a notecard binder of all the referrals I had (including some of the outreach parents & siblings), Phoenix Rising had, and Sonlight had...In total about 30. I bounced back and forth between the 2 rooms where they were getting evaluated facilitating those on my list. I am very blessed that the surgeons always see those on my list first which guarantees if they need surgery there will still be space. I then stayed with Dr. Del as he evaluated the rest of the orthopedic cases. I was able to help out with fitting a boot, referring a couple kids to the Miriam Center to fit for AFO's, PVC pipe walkers, and 1 to the outreach program to receive therapy to be ready for surgery next october. 

I feel extremely blessed to have been able to walk through this process with the following outreach families. I would get up at 6:30 each morning one of the outreach kids had surgery (which was monday-thursday). I would help get them registered, help get them bathed and into the pre-op area, I would sit with them while they got their IV & the doctor & anestecia talked with them. I then would stay with the parent for a few minutes after their child was taken back to surgery and take them to the waiting area. I checked up on the surgeries & would let parents know the progress. I tried to be there when the child came out of surgery and when they were stable and ready I would bring the parents back to see them. 

Yveniaka

Monday Morning this sweet baby girl Yveniaka a 4 month old with 2 severe club feet underwent a 5 hour surgery to correct her foot deformity. At the Miriam Center we have been monitoring Yveniaka since she was a few days old. Her mother delivered her at the birthing center and the nurses there brought her to the Miriam Center for us to see. We had her mother bring her every few weeks so we could monitor her to make sure she was gaining weight and stayed healthy in preparation for surgery in October. 

Yveniaka's mom was having a really hard time with her going in for surgery (I would have to as a mother of a 4 month old) I knew Carlos (my Haitian Therapist) wanted to watch a surgery so I went and got him. He was very excited to go in for surgery and it made Yveniaka's mom feel better knowing he was in there watching. I sat with mom for a long time trying to comfort her and pray with her. 5 hours is such a long time to wait. One of my favorite moments was when Presidue went up to her and spoke truth into her, encouraged her and reminded her to fix her eyes on Christ and find peace in him knowing He has her little girl!

The surgery went GREAT! Mom and Dad were so glad to see her and love on her! What a beautiful family!

JOSEPH

Meet Joseph. He started pulling on my heart strings the first time I met him like 6 months ago. We have a little boy in our outreach program that comes all the way from Gwo Moun about 4 hours by tap-tap away. One day Joseph & his mom came with them. After outreach we evaluated him & I knew immediately how much he would benefit from therapy but unfortunately we have no space in outreach and with paying 1 way transportation I did not think I could pull off financially slipping him into the program as that would be $9US each week. I was able to provide him with a set of AFO's and a PVC pipe walker. And spent a few minutes educating his mother. His mother was persistent. She called every week to ask if a spot opened up. One week she made the drive to ask in person. It was that day when I realized he was a candidate for surgery...I was torn...I put the need out to my facebook friends and immediately got a response. Because of their generosity I had raised enough $ to cover 6 months of transportation for therapy. So I was able to tell his mother that is he was evaluated for surgery and surgery was necessary that we could enter him into the program and provide the follow up therapy he would need. She knew coming into the surgery that he would require ALOT of therapy post surgery and that if she was not dedicated & willing to work with him everyday at home and make that long trip 1x a week for him to receive therapy at the Miriam Center that he could end up having less function after surgery but if she did all the above that he could walk! She was on board and wanted Joseph to receive the surgery. 

Joseph was evaluated by Dr. Del on Sunday and he indeed did say that he was a candidate for surgery. 

Then on Tuesday Morning he was scheduled for surgery. They spent Sunday & Monday night at the Miriam Center instead of making the long drive back home to return in less than a day. So First thing Tuesday morning we got ready for surgery. 

I stayed back from the outreach outing to the beach and since we did not have the therapy clinic open (since all the staff were at the beach) I decided to spend the day in the ER :-)

He did GREAT with his surgery! I learned during his recovery period that he has quite the personality and LOVES to sing worship songs to God!!!! He was released from recovery Wednesday but we weren't sure he was ready for a 4 hour tap-tap ride. So Presidue arranged for them to stay with another one of the outreach families that lived close by for a couple nights and then went home to Gwo Moun on Friday. I am excited to work with this family over the next year. 

ADAM's Brother

Adam's brother (Adam's is apart of the thursday outreach) needed a minor surgery. We were able to help facilitate him getting it Tuesday Morning as well. 

WILDENS 

Wildens has been in our outreach program for the last year and a half. He has a mother who loves him so incredibly much and has sacraficed so much to love him, take care of him, and fight for him. October 2013 he was diagnosed with Arthrogryposis and Dr. Del told his mom he would need 3 surgeries on his legs. Even with these surgeries there is no guarantee he will stand or walk. His surgery last year went really well and mom has been faithfully bringing him to outreach each week and definitely working with him at home. Wildens before this surgery was standing with a PVC pipe stander and AFO's and with assistance from his mom for the first time able to bend his knees and kneel! 

On Sunday Wildens was re-evlauated by Dr. Del. Who decided to do surgery on both of his knees this year. He had surgery on Tuesday morning. 

Tuesday morning Wilden's & his mom arrived bright & early to register and get ready for surgery. 

I had the joy of walking with mom through the morning all the way to him going back for surgery. Mom and Wilden's were both troopers...Mom kept praising God for the opportunity for her son to get the needed surgery.

Wilden's maintained a smile...as long as he was in his momma's arms. I have never seen a stronger bond between a child & their mom...

Wilden's surgery went really well. Dr. Del even decorated his casts!

His mom was relieved when he came out of surgery and beyond ready to hold her son and comfort him. She did not leave his side the entire day and half they were in recovery. It is a beautiful thing to watch her take care and love on her son. What a testament she it!

MADAME SENELISE

Madame Senelise has worked in the Miriam Center for at least 4 years but may be very well even longer than that. She has such a sweet, tender spirit. This Godly women of God lives back in the Gran Moun but would climb up the hill each day to help out with the itty-bits in the Miriam Home. She had a Hernia Surgery in June but unfortunately it did not heal well and she needed to have another surgery this past October. I had the privlidge of helping her get ready for surgery, praying with her before she went in and tried to comfort her after. I am definitely blessed to know & be apart of her life. 

WOODY

Meet Woody...

He has quite the story & God was definitely watching over this little boy!!!! So Tuesday of surgery week I stayed back from the FJS Outreach Beach Trip because I was not completely healthy & I knew the beach trip would take alot our of me. So instead I participated in surgeries instead. We had just finished a surgery around 12PM and I decided to walk through the birdcage on the way to lunch to say hi to all the outreach families that went to beach. Their was on family I did not recognize but I kinda walked past them and greeted each of the families & loved on the kids. As I was getting ready to leave all the outreach mom's grabbed my arm and told me I needed to look at this boy. Immediately they stripped on his pants so I could watch him walk and see that their was a problem with his leg. He definitely walked with a limp. I asked how long he had been limping for. They said he was a normal developing kid till about 6 months ago. He was walking and then suddenly fell and ever since had walked with a limp. Since Dr. Del was in at the mission I decided to have him take a look. I knew he was headed up to lunch and so had him look on his way. I am so thankful he was willing to take the time to look. Neither of us knew what we were getting ourselves into...

Dr. Del agreed that it was probably a dislocation or maybe a leg discrepancy. He decided to send them to get an x-ray. We then found out they came all the way from 4+ hours away but that they had family in PdP. We told them to go get the x-ray then bring it back and we would look at it that day. 

We went on with our day of surgeries. We went back into surgery after lunch with 1 or 2 more surgeries. I can't remember exactly. I remember I left the surgery for some reason and ran to my house. On the way I saw them sitting in the birdcage area with the x-ray so I grabbed the x-ray to take it back to Dr. Del to look at. I decided to take a sneak peak at it and immediately knew something was very wrong with the bone...it looked like a sponge or swiss cheese. I got sterile again & went back into the surgery room with the x-ray & put it up on the x-ray board. All I remember is Dr. Del looking and stopping...and just staring...He then stated that this is not good at all...this boy is going to die if we don't do anything and even if we do...this surgery would be high risk in the states let alone in Haiti...He didn't even know if we could do this surgery in Haiti...and if we did choose to do it we would have to bump someone else out a surgery spot...so many factors...so many unknowns and a possible deadly diagnosis....definitely not what any of us expected from a boy that had such a HUGE smile and was a happy little guy!

It turns out he has some infection that has been eating away at his none to the point I then asked Dr. Del what information we needed to have before we could make a decision. We needed to now if we could cross match blood to find a match in case he needed blood. He would need strong IV antibiotics for 3 weeks followed by 3 weeks of strong oral antibiotics to kill this infection (of unknown origin). He would need to stay on campus for 3 weeks. We also needed bloodwork done to see what his blood levels were and the level of infection....

So I left surgery and started working on getting this information. It turns out we were unable to find a place nearby to cross-match blood, and we could get bloodwork at night but it would cost a ton of $, and he could stay in a room in the Birthing Center for the 3 weeks of IV antibiotics and we could find strong enough IV antibiotics.

By devotion time that evening it was decided regardless if Woody was going to have a shot at life we would need to do this surgery. Dr. Del had decided to do it without access to blood and we ended up doing the bloodwork in the morning. By the time all these decisions were made Woody and his family ended up spending the night at the Miriam Center because it was to late to travel to PdP and they had to be here by 6:30AM to start getting ready for surgery. 

At 6:30AM Wednesday morning we started getting him registered and ready for his life saving surgery. He got bloodwork drawn, got all the paperwork filled out, and all the pre-op procedures completed...

I could tell he was really nervous and so I went to my room and got the IPAD. It was a big hit! He had many of the nurses, doctors, and even a few kids from the short-term teams come and play with him!

With this being a high risk surgery...Their was a big possibility he could bleed out on the table... lots of prayers...lots of preparations...lots of extra measures were taken to ensure he had every chance possible to survive and thrive through this surgery. He did have many things on his side...

1. LOTS and LOTS of people praying

2. An AMAZINGLY gifted surgeon and Anestesiologist with years of experience.

3. State of the Art surgical equipment by Haiti standards

4. A sterile facility to have surgery in since one of the biggest concerns with the surgery was infection.

5. A loving family to support him after surgery

The surgery went well. We monitored blood loss closely. Dr. Del felt that he was able to get most of the big areas of infection out of the bone. The infection had eaten away at the entire hip joint and had spread down the bone most of the way to the knee. He was even able to go in from the front which made it so Woody did not need to be put in a body cast. A drain was put in for 1 day to help with drainage.

This was an extremely painful procedure and of course Woody woke up with a BIG smile

He enjoyed playing with some bubbles...listening to music on my phone...

His mom never left his side...

Talk about a crazy adventure for this family...they came hoping to get their sons leg looked at. They had no idea that their was a surgery team and certainly had no idea their son would need a life-saving surgery. They did not come prepared to stay for over 3 weeks BUT they did! His family took great care of him. 

One of the really cool things was watching the surgery team pull together and donate funds to make sure woody got 3 weeks of super nutritious meals to help with his healing, they bought all the medications and we were able to pay for their trip back home...

I had the joy the first week and a half he was at the mission taking him his meals throughout the day and providing him with some entertainment. He loves to play the IPAD and watch DVD's. I did my best to spoil him ;-) Woody is doing great. This video was taken last week when he headed home. He is walking on his leg with no pain. He will always walk with a limp but the incredible thing is he is alive and he should live a happy life!

This little cute pie had surgery last october to correct 2 severe club feet. I remember seeing her and playing with her on evaluation day. Erin Drescher was holding her and helping her (pretend) to kick the soccer ball then chasing the ball around. The thing I remember most is her huge smile and giggle. I had the priviledge of fitting her with AFO's and getting her a PVC pipe walker to help her gain more independence. Her family also asked if they could put their name on the waiting list for the outreach program.

Well...That is just a glimpse into surgery week...As you can tell God did some incredible things and I feel blessed to have been apart of it....