If you aren't familiar, Operation Smile is a National Organization. They do surgeries all over the world changing lives one smile at a time. They fix Cleft Palettes, and Cleft Lips. I spent 2 days the hospital and witnessed first hand how amazing this organization is. A public service announcement is put out in the local papers, and word is spread that the mission is coming. Anyone in need of surgery can come to the screening which is held the first day the team is in town. Most of the patients are infants and small children. Some of the patients come for their 2nd, 3rd and 4th surgeries. Patients are only turned away if they are too young (I think the minimum age is 6 months), to thin (there is a weight limit), anemic, or too sickly to undergo the surgery. Some of the babies with this birth defect are malnourished - not only because they are in such poverty, but also because the defect prevents them from being able to properly latch on to a bottle and suck. After the screening, patients get their surgery date and they wait for this life changing event to happen.
The surgeries are done at the local public hospital. The Public Hospital was a shock all by itself. Think of an old public school building with no central air conditioning, no toilet paper in the bathrooms, flies buzzing around, several (and I mean like 6-8) beds in a room - no sheets, no pillow, no blankets, no meals delivered to the room and very few nursing attendants. My description can get the image started, but words cannot describe the overall feeling I got from being there. To get to the wing of the hospital that this group would be occupying for the mission you had to go out side, behind the main building, step over rubble, go around some old baby beds and other miscellaneous objects, and dodge a guy mixing concrete by hand. The part of the hospital that they used was the maternity ward, so the 6 or so young teenage girls in labor waiting to deliver were shoved into a corner of the hallway to pace the floor (labor and delivery in the public hospital is a separate story all together).
My job was to play with the kids who were waiting for surgery. There were about 20 scheduled per day, with the more complicated ones done on the first day because they would be the only ones staying the night. The patients having only their lips done would be released the same day (can you imagine?) Of course, my Spanish skills are in the development stages so at first things were a little awkward, but it wasn't long before we started to bond. One of the administrators introduced me and then I spent the next two days coloring, bopping a beach ball back and forth, and holding crying babies to give the moms a break. It was difficult at first to see such distortion on these young babies and small children. It was just so so sad. Most of the moms were teenagers. They had traveled as many as 9 hours by bus to get here. Many were dirty and so were some of the kids. I can't even imagine how they had been shunned by their communities and even their own families, or how much this opportunity will mean to them.
Jose's coworkers ended up raising just over $500.00 to donate to the mission. They were thrilled and said they would use the money to feed the families that were there. How great is that? The second day the ones that had stayed overnight were happy to see me and were so proud to show me their sweet babies' new faces. What an amazing feeling. It was difficult to maintain my composure. Not much I can say to describe the feelings I felt, but so happy to have been a part of this event that truly changed these lives forever. I hope to be a part of this mission project again next year. These pictures were taken from their website - I don't have any from this trip.
Before...
After.....
So a few days later..... I had the chance to experience the Private Hospital - as a patient! After visiting Texas - I discovered I had some poison ivy on my arm.
My mom had it and so did Lee, but the kids did not. The only thing we could figure is that we got it from Everett's clothes since he still likes to be carried, and on Lee and I, it was in the crook of our arm. The problem was that it just kept getting worse. As soon as it was gone - something else started breaking out on my neck and on another place on my arm. I took Benedryl but it didn't seem to help. I was going crazy!
I felt like I was itching everywhere.
My friend here recommended that I go to the hospital. I thought - surely not!?
I ended up going with Alejandra, who is an administrator at the hospital. She took me into the E.R. and translated for me since no one spoke any English. A young doctor (who spoke English) came and took a look at me, and told the nurse to start an IV!!! I couldn't believe it. The nurse was super nice - no English and NO GLOVES, but she got it done. The IV was attached to a carabiner type hook that slid on a pole above my bed and across the other beds in the ER. Interesting... but so much nicer than the Public Hospital! About an hour later, the nice young Dr. said he'd like me to consult with the Dermatologist to see if she might could figure out what caused the reaction. My friend, Alejandra was awesome. She checked on me periodically and translated when necessary. The Dermatologist came and determined that it wasn't something that I ate (because if it had been, when she scratched it with her tongue depressor, it would have raised up?), she said it could possibly be from my old school fillings disintegrating (I think not!) but maybe not, and finally she concluded that I would need to come back in a few days and take a battery of tests at the lab to determine what it was.... After a few hours of the IV I was back to normal. I got a prescription for like 4 different (benadryl-ish) things and took them for the prescribed time and never went back for the tests. I'm good......
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