Medical brigade day 2

Day 2.

Tuesday was an amazing day! We did not have has many patients as Monday but it flowed well and the team worked well. Some of the team that wasn't helping with the brigade were able to help with the feeding kitchen and they were even able to give the bible story to the children and lead the prayer all in Spanish!! I started catching on again with what to ask the patients. I had a different translator who used different words with the medical lingo do then I was getting loss or maybe it wasn't all getting translated. All in all it was a good day! I saw about 40 people. And we had a case with a child who has febrile seizures. It started when he was an infant and it comes every time he gets sick. The mother complained about his fever always staying high when he is sick, I talked to her about fever management and that if the boy continues with the seizures he needs to go to a neurologist. They may not take him the mother believes he continues to get the seizures because the clinic gives him penicillin. I felt like I was educating all day! I try to talk to the patients on what they need to do when they run out of the medications I am giving them or how to conserve the ones I am giving them. 

I Also saw a lot of patients complaining of white spots. This is not Vitiligo- where skin loses pigment, but it is where they have white spots on their skin randomly and it is related malnutrition. So we give them vitamins and today is the day we ran out of prenatal vitamins. We did not have much to start of with but it is horrible we we have someone who is pregnant and also has the while spots on their skin.

Tuesday we started praying for healing of those who are sick. I have been having a cough all week with hard wheezing when I laugh or cough, after much prayer that night the wheezing went away, praise God! The students also had a high and low talk which was awesome to hear! Just their perspectives on the day, the people and the culture! I am so blessed to be working with them!

More pictures from Delores

                   Seeing a patient with Carlos as translator, not the best picture but its candid!

                                   Honduran medical student with GCU student, Tomas. :)

       Pastor Marvin speaking to people waiting to be seen, making sure thier spiritual needs are met along with thier physical needs.

                                              Delores School

                                          GCU student, Ivy, with delores school children

Its tuesday night and its been a busy week already!

So it doesn't look like i will get a post about today up and still fellowship with the team. So I am going to ask for prayer requests for tomorrow and write about today later.

Our team is going great they have so much energy!
Prayer requests is hard some times but here are some of what God has started to point out to me!
1) this team is flexible but may they be more flexible!
2) I continue to have compassion throughout our last day of the brigade, and that the medicine will last! We don't have much left but hoppefully will last throughout the day!
3) That I will be able to mentor these students and that they may be able to grow in the Lord.
4) Everyone's health, I have been preaching drink more water to everybody i meet!
5) That we will be able to find more support for the ministries in honduras.
6)The Lord will give me wisdom about changes in my life and and guidance for that.
7) travel to the brigade, some of the mountain travel is scaring some of the girls with the bus. :)

Thanks more sooon!

Pictures from day 1 brigade Delores 5/2015

                                                         Our pharmacy at work in Delores!

                                                 Driving through honduras!

                                                 Some of the GCU team on the ride in Delores

    Our guys on the team need to make sure thta our dental chair and meds stay safe on the ride into Delores.

Day 1- Monday!!!!

Medical brigade day 1- in Delores!

What a busy day! Started the day off with a cold shower and ten seconds of warm water. As this is the first time with a big group and a generator we found out today that the widow makers for the showers actually take too much electricity in order to work. They had known that which is why they have a generator but now they know even with the generator it requires more electricity. So the degraded to a lesser model of the widow maker so we have Luke warm showers versus cold showers. A widow maker is a hot water heater on the shower head. It has exposed wires at the top, so it is named widow maker due to men touching the wires while showering and being electrocuted. I'm sure it wasn't just men but I don't think widower maker is as catchy. :)

Anyways I have finally memorized the whole GCU groups names. I still have to think about but I eventually say them correctly. We still had all of them wear name tags so we could call them by their names and there is just so many of them for everyone else to remember their names! We have one guy who decided to write his name in espanol, which is Tomas with an accent but he was going around with out the accent for an hour which means "he drinks", once we realized we all had a good laugh!

Our first clinic brigade was in Delores. In medical I had students who are pre-med or nursing to help me. Between the doctor, an Honduran medical student, and we had three stations for medical. So we had one GCU studs bat each station then I had them rotate after lunch so they could experience more of it. I try to have them sit with me so they can hear the English translation of he medical questions and complaints. Today we had some interesting cases. We a had a child who had a lump under his chin that has been there for 2 months. It gave home some pain and he actually had an appointment at the hospital the next day for tests. Dra. Gladys and I believe it is a strain of lymphoma, which is not good outcome. The students kept asking me what I did for the child; I prescribed Tylenol for the pain of the lump. They could not believe that is all I could do. And it is just one of the things that shocked them. This brigade was held in a school while school was gong on. So the students were allowed to participate. So several children checked themselves in with their complaints of cold, cough, and fever and were treated accordingly. Many just received vitamins, yet some were actually sick and required antibiotics for their ails. Dental saw it too, children checking in for a bad tooth, and on the brigades we do not do preventive dental we just pull teeth. GCU students were amazed that a seven year old would take themselves to the doctor many of them would have not think of going to the doctor with out their parents. We also have two women come with lumps in those breasts. We then told them to go to the hospital for the mammograms and biopsy. The only problem is financial for most of the people, the hospitals tend to have them prepay before they receive the tests. I felt sluggish as I saw patients trying to remember what to ask and what to prescribe, but I prevailed!  I feel myself doing more and more teaching. I taught them the non pharmaceutical treatments because they tend to only receive 30 day supply of medications. And if it is a chronic problem it will be with them for the whole year.

All in all it was a successful day. The students are having tons of fun and I had to have a talk with them.

Because I was not involve with their training I did not know if there things that had been talked about. So we had a talk tonight. I had to explain to them what was in a GO bag. They have been asking last night what they should take, I had mentioned their water bottles and what they may need for the day. What I found was that I always pack things and I tend to forget that I pack some things automatically. So we went over the basics. Always pack toilet paper, wet wipes/ hand sanitizer, food, money, and meds. Some of them this is their first trip they didn't know I just felt so bad I wasn't able to tell them before we left AZ.

Stan has been a great encourager. I am so glad he is here to mentor and encourage the GCU students. Well on to tomorrow. I am trying to figure out how to post pictures....

And we have arrived!!!

And we have arrived!

After several of the students with horror stories of the landing strip in Tegucigalpa we landed ok! And pilots received a nice round of applause.

After an hour at the the hot and humid airport, our bus arrived and we took our four hour drive to la Esperanza. The team kept asking me what it would be like and I couldn't describe it. They were so excited as we went through el centro de la Esperanza, (the downtown). Like I have mentioned before la Esperanza is small yet big enough for a super market and several hotels and various shops.

Sunday we packed for the medical brigades. Various pill counting and labeling and then sorting: The dental chair is finally here! I can't wait to see it in action! I would like to thank everyone who contributed to help raise money for that chair it is much easier on dr. Leta's back.

Tomorrow is our first brigade in Delores, that is also where the team will spend the next week and half in the schools and evangelizing.

Until tomorrow!

We are off again!

As I packed this morning I could not think of what I was forgetting. It was bad enough that I waited till the morning of the trip to pack. I could not believe how little stress I  had. There I was packing and I was totally chill, I still left on time too! Meeting all of these college kids I miss my own mission trip friends. There are 15 GCU students and then Stan and I.I feel like the redheadedstep child, I have been forgotten on reservations, matching stuff and in general just added on to stuff. I have not been with this big of a group since Kenya. I remember all of us being so excited for Kenya and hanging out and joking while in the terminal. This group is so loud but that is what happens when you have a big group who are all friendly with each other! They keep asking me questions about Honduras, there responses have been varied but my favorite has been, "ok that's what Dennis said, buts it's good to hear someone else other than Dennis say it." Many of them are calling there parents reassuring them of the trip. I was very surprised if your parents are not reassured now then they are not going to be reassured later after I tell their children about the dangers they need to be aware of and why it is custom to clap after landing at the tegucigalpa airport. And I like to say there is no turning around now!
And it is definitely a small world! There is a girl on this trip whose boyfriend is the little brother to one of my best friends! It was odd seeing my friend Jordan's little brother last night cause I met him when he was 12, and now he is in college. I am starting feel very old.
If I haven't mentioned, Stan is a pastor I have worked with on the Navajo reservation, he lives in Kaibeto which is near Paige, AZ. His Christmas ministries is where I was introduced to Navajo culture and of course I had my first Navajo taco there. I now know a lot of Navajo culture! Anyways I am very excited Stan is here! He is a great encourager and has a chill personality. Stan will stay the whole time with GCU kids but I will be with them for one week. We will see what God has in store for us!
I do have some prayer requests!
First for our safety with traveling, we are taking two days for travel this time. I don't know how my Travel will be coming back but it might also be a 2 day trip. It is the raining season so the roads can be slick. Last June a bus had crashed due to the speed while turning on the slick mountain roads. We must have driven past it within 15 minutes of the crash. Everyone was ok but they were lucky for guard rail, lots of the highways don't have the guard rails.
Second I need prayers for my health, I feel I always get sick before a trip, I don't know if it is the spiritual warfare or I am internalizing the stress. I do think my cold is related to stress. I have been working a lot and I have had a cold, it was getting better but I had an extremely stressful weekend last weekend and I feel it just brought the cold back in force. I am prepared with my cough syrup, sudaphed, and various head ache medicine- I'm prepared to deal with migraines as I have been dealing with daily migraines this last two months.
Third trip request is for guidance. This trip I am asking God to guide me what to do with my life or where am I to go? And when I go do I continue to develop my skills as a forensic nurse? Or do I stick to clinic/ER nursing? Do I go closer to my family or farther away? Do I go back to school?  (school I will return eventually but when, where, and what major?-are also the questions.) I have considered just going to seminary but I just don't know where God wants me, I feel very stagnant in Gallup but it has taught me how to be independent of my family and only seeing them once a month or less.
Fourth is to cover us with prayer and give the whole team opportunity to share the love of christ! Honduras is the country where I learned door to door evanglism. I feel awkward but I have seen the fruit of the labor and I know the people are hungry for it. Most of the students on the trip are new to the world of missions and I hope they will show the love of God to all.
I am enjoying internet while I have it but tomorrow is our long day of traveling. I gave a customs lecture at dinner. There will be no goofing off in customs, I have had to hold my tongue not to tell these kids off. They are over 18 but some of them do not act like it. They are carefree college kids, so they got my "you will be detained if you goof off" speech.  Customs is not joke... there is a reason there is a show called "locked up abroad" Tegucigalpa is a dangerous city and we have to be on gaurd. We will see if sunk in tomorrow. Until I get internret next!
Nicole