Monday Afternoon (again)

Ok I'm back for a bit. Now for some of you (those who worry too easily), I probably shouldn't mention this, but when Tim's crew left after lunch they had to wait about 1 1/2 hours to get through some "demonstrations" just up the road a short way. It's pretty typical down here if there is some political disagreement, they burn tires all across the road so traffic cannot pass? What a lot of good that does?? So the Peoria team had to wait till the tires were burned to get through. When Sheila and I passed through there this morning, we saw all the tire debris, but all was calm and no sign of an uprising.

Our team is doing a phenomenal job with their resources. Jennifer is amazing in PT, working with about 30 patients nonstop all day, I think she manages a couple clinics back home. Dr Noah, Dr Ruben & Dr Rudy with the help of Heather & Max did 4 surgeries and triaged about 40 people. While Bethann, Jeana, Jill & Amy were working with in-patient therapy. I helped them a little and it was amazing how many wanted to get up and around once they saw others getting up and around. Almost like it was contagious! They were helping people walk with walkers, wheel chairs, sitting, standing, in-bed stretches... Jill said, some of them have a very high pain tolerance. She thought if she did back home what she was doing here, her patients would be yelling at her! Jeana even played ball in the yard with a little girl to help exercise her elbow.

The first surgery was a 20 yr old girl, Sherley, who was an earthquake victim. The school had collapsed that she was in and 80% of the students died. A friend of hers dug her out and used a car jack to free her. They originally thought they were going to lose her legs, but she is now able to walk. She does have nerve damage and needed the tendons on the back of her ankles to be stretched so she could walk better. They put her in half casts and today she is back up and walking with cast shoes. They also repaired a humerus fracture on a 6 yr old girl who had a compartment syndrome because it was rapped too tight to heal originally. She was crying alot so I gave one of the dolls that my Erica donated for her. Today she is doing a lot better. It was rather sad last night when they had to tell our guest house cooks that their sister/mother could be taken home today, because there is nothing more they can do for her. She has ankoloysis spondylitis where she is on a gurney stiff as a board, in constant pain. She had a fracture repaired that hasn't healed in 8 months! And many more...

Oh, I probably shouldn't mention this either :-) but there was another scuffle outside the front entrance yesterday afternoon and guess who was in the middle of it - the town mayor again! About 100 Haitians were gathered around watching. They have a different way of resolving differences than we do! But it's calm today.

Till then,