Africa Mercy - Ready, Set, Go: One Nurse's Journey

Another post from Marilyn on the Africa Mercy in Madagascar. Cataract surgeries have begun again, and after reading her descriptions, it truly feels like love in action. This dedicated team has their hands full, and moreover, bad weather is headed their way. It's cyclone season in the Indian Ocean!  ----Sharon


(This is a running email post written by a volunteer nurse serving on the Africa Mercy, a hospital ship that travels the African coast).


"Ready, set, go"
23 January 2015

Cataract surgeries begin again on Monday! This week has been a
time of preparation--half the team was in Tana screening for more patients, and half the team remained in Tamatave to screen for local patients and to prepare housing for our Tana patients at the Hope Center. We moved 65 mattresses across town in an open truck bed on a rainy day. We got the first load of 17 mattresses moved just before the rains started, and we were able to move the rest during an intermission in the rain around midday. At least our patients won't have to sleep on wet mattresses! The next day, we needed to shop for linens and dinnerware for 60 people. Can you believe we accomplished it in three stops? 

It truly was a week of many small blessings. Next week, it will feel so good to be underway with cataract surgeries--that's what we came for. It seems like I've heard a lot of inspiring stories lately from elsewhere around the ship. I heard of one young boy who wouldn't smile at first. He went through surgery rather stoically, but didn't interact with others much at all. Then another young boy with the same problem was admitted, and before you know it, the first lad was befriending the second, and now they are great pals, playing all around the ward, shyness forgotten.
 
At the Hope Center, where patients go to live while they continue
their physical therapy or dressing changes after surgery, there was another young boy, maybe age seven. His caretaker was his
grandmother, but she wasn't very nice to him. He was an unhappy
little guy who wasn't putting much effort into recovery. The staff
of the Hope Center started intentionally loving the grandmother, and she really mellowed. The boy perked up, started working on his therapy, and is now happily riding a Big Wheel.  

Then there was the little girl, maybe aged 4, who was the caregiver for her mother. The Hope Center didn't have running water that day (it happens a lot there), so the little girl was trying to lug a pail of water up the stairs, one step at a time. One of our team stopped to help her. At the top of the steps, Kelly asked the little girl which way to go, but she didn't understand. Kelly took the pail in one hand and took the girl's hand in the other. The lights came on, the grin spread from ear to ear, and she led the way to her mother's bed.

Not all the stories are happy, of course. I'm thinking of an old couple who came to the eye clinic for screening this week. The woman was completely blind, but unfortunately, it wasn't due to cataracts, and we couldn't help her. The man couldn't see very well, but his problem, too, wasn't something we could fix. It was hard to deliver such news, but the reason they stay in my mind as the graciousness of their response. They thanked us quietly, and the old man gently led his wife out the door. His kindness to her touched my heart.

It is cyclone season here. Last week a tropical storm crossed Madagascar to join a rather large cyclone, not far from us out in the Indian Ocean. It could have had a significant impact on us, but fortunately, it headed in the other direction. We did get some pretty good swells, though, that broke a few of our mooring lines. Now the captain has announced a new weather pattern nearby that is predicted to produce even larger swells by Sunday. We may need to anchor offshore for a few hours to ride it out--it's safer than being too near the concrete dock. In the event of an imminent cyclone threat, we would need to suspend surgeries, transfer the existing patients to the Hope Center, along with some nurses to care for them, and take the ship north, out of the path of the storm. February could be an interesting month around here!

Perhaps, next time I'll have some stories from our cataract patients. I'm looking forward to that.

Marilyn 


[Click here to learn more about the nurses and doctors on board the Africa Mercy.]
 

Africa Mercy - Time Goes By: One Nurse's Journey

Marilyn's journey on the Africa Mercy continues. She describes a visit to an orphanage - "Grins were priceless," she writes.  ------Sharon

(This is a running email post written by a volunteer nurse serving on the Africa Mercy, a hospital ship that travels the African coast).

9 Jan 2015

Time goes by...but nothing changes.  We still don't know how this field service is going to go for the eye team.  I feel like I'm waiting for the second shoe to drop...and waiting...and waiting.

We have finished the first week of screening in the capital city of Tana, where we had hoped to find an abundance of patients.  They were not abundant...but not so scarce that we need to close down the program--at least, not yet.  Usually, the first day of screening brings out the biggest crowds, but for our first day in Tana, only about 120-150 people showed up, and only 6 of them qualified for surgery.

Discouraging!  But, on the second day, approximately 400 people came, and the number of surgeries doubled.  On the third day, fewer people came, but more of them were surgical candidates, bringing our scheduled surgeries to a total of 42.  I haven't heard yet how the fourth day(today) went.

It's surprising that the numbers are increasing each day instead of decreasing.  Forty-two is not even one week's worth of surgeries, but if the numbers keep on increasing, we may yet find enough patients to keep our surgeons gainfully employed.  Or not.  It is really hard to predict at this point.

We were supposed to begin surgeries on January 19th, one week from now, but they've decided to delay the start-up for another week.  That way, our second week of screening in Tana has a chance of filling the surgery schedule far enough ahead so that we don't run out of patients in mid-week.  Meanwhile, the container with the mattresses for the Hope Center arrived today, so perhaps that will solve the problem of where to house our Tana patients for the two nights they are in town.  I haven't heard if the transportation issues have been worked out yet or not.  I certainly hope so!  Slowly, slowly, the pieces fall into place--pretty much at the last minute, it seems to me.

Meanwhile, those of us who didn't go to Tana had an interesting week here.  Some of our time was spent doing the tasks normally done by the people who were screening in Tana--doing check-ups on patients who had surgery before Christmas, screening random people who showed up at the clinic hoping for surgery in the future.  A couple of days, though, we were able to do some extra things.  One day we went to a nursing home and gave the folks there some reading glasses.  They seemed really pleased to get them.  It was lovely to see how the staff worked with the residents there--so much kindness.

The highlight of the week, though, was our trip to an orphanage for mentally and physically handicapped kids.  We couldn't do much for them, but we briefly examined their eyes and then gave each one of them some cute sunglasses.  There was a mirror in the room we were using, so we'd take them to the mirror to see how they looked.  The grins were priceless.  One little girl went prancing out of the room like a movie star--she knew she looked good!

Next week will again be a combination of post-op checkups and screening, both at the clinic and in a couple of towns outside of Tamatave.  We're still just rolling along, doing the best we can to find patients and to bring a little light and good cheer to the people we meet along the way.

The future?  Well, stay tuned...

--

  Marilyn Neville

[Click here to learn more about the nurses and doctors on board the Africa Mercy.]

Africa Mercy - Christmas, Tana, and Beyond: One Nurse's Journey

Hi, I think Marilyn could use some cheering up and a little prayer. I hope she is able to read this and any comments you might make. The eye surgery team appears to be in limbo as they continue to wait for and locate patients. How different the team's experience is compared to the west side of Africa, where patients walked huge distances, then stood in line all day for a screening.      ------Sharon
 

(This is a running email post written by a volunteer nurse serving on the Africa Mercy, a hospital ship that travels the African coast).

"Christmas, Tana, and Beyond"
27 Dec 2014 

 I haven't written in a while, mostly because I keep waiting for things to settle down on the eye team to know what to say. That day hasn't come yet...

We've had three weeks of surgery, or partial weeks, I should say--two surgeons, seven days of surgery in total. Somehow, the days get full anyway...mostly screening for potential patients. We've now done screenings in a couple of cities north and south of Tamatave, but we didn't find many cataracts. That's good, for the people. Not so good for the eye program.

Now we are in the midst of a two week break, with no eye surgeons scheduled. Hey, it's Christmas! I took several days of personal leave, plus the holiday days. I'm sure I'll work a couple of days getting ready for business in January, but meanwhile, I'm on vacation. Six of us took a four-day vacation trip to a lemur resort located several hours south of here, traveling by speedboat down the canals, rivers, and lakes that form the waterway transportation network up and down the eastern side of Madagascar. The lemurs were delightful, wild and free, but unafraid of humans and eager for handouts, especially bananas. The lake was clear, shallow, and as warm as bathwater. Apart from a two hour hike into the forest to observe lemurs, we mostly sat around reading or talking...or waiting for meals, which arrived on "African time." It was very hot and humid, so we were all pretty lethargic, and sleep was elusive. Five of the six of us arrived home with intestinal issues, despite being very careful not to drink the water or eat things like lettuce and tomatoes. Maybe it was the fruit juice served at breakfast?

Oh, well. It was restful and fun, and I'm glad I went. Now, if I could just get well again...

The first week of January, we are sending a team to Tana, the capital city, to screen. It's an 8-12 hour journey over narrow, winding mountain roads to get there. "They" say that we'll find plenty of patients there who need cataract surgery. The trick is, how do we get them to the ship for surgery, and how do we do aftercare? I do hope that "they" have solved those difficulties, since the first Tana screening is now one week away.

Meanwhile, back in Tamatave, we need to leave part of the team to do aftercare on the patients we've already done, and to screen locally for more patients. I believe that I will be part of the team left behind, which is fine with me. "They" have planned a total of three Tana screenings, two in January and one in February. Our schedule is going to get more and more complicated, stretching to cover all aspects of the program in several different locations simultaneously. A group in Tana, a group here doing aftercare, a group handling the day of surgery stuff, and probably some local or remote screenings of this area tucked into the mix. I personally can't see the forest for all the trees...

I believe that it is now official: we are returning to Tamatave again for next field service. There will be a short break for shipyard repairs in Durbin from mid-June to the end of July, then a return to Tamatave for surgeries from August to the following June. A number of changes in our program will happen as a result. For one thing, they are disbanding the eye team altogether for next field service. Instead, they plan to lengthen the surgery schedule for other problems, especially VVF surgery for women who have suffered fistulas and other damage during difficult childbirths. That's good, for the people. Not so good for the eye program. Disbanding the eye team will make it difficult to restart the program; no one with experience will remain to bridge the gap.

Considering that I have been back to the ship for almost five months, I wonder where all the time has gone and what has been accomplished. It has been a year of setbacks and delays, that's for sure. Hopefully, the next five months will see many surgeries done and many happy people able to see once again. And hopefully, we'll find all the ones we're supposed to help this year, since there is no next year for cataract patients. Well, perhaps our plans will fall into place once we see what the first week of Tana screening brings. Or not. I guess learning to live with uncertainty and sudden shifts in plans is a virtue, isn't it?

Virtue is good; I could use some more virtue...

I hope that the new year brings many plans to fruition for all of you, too.

Blessings, until next time...
--
Marilyn Neville 





[Click here to learn more about the nurses and doctors on board the Africa Mercy.]