My first lesson in true reliance on God in Haiti.
Today was a good day. No, I take that back… today was a GREAT, AMAZING BEYOND WORDS day!!!!!!!
Let me tell you why…
So today began like any other day. Medications given first thing in the morning, grabbing a bit of breakfast and coffee (oh, and TANG!), and working hard to get all the children’s ears cleaned before we had to wash their hair. Just after happily finishing cleaning 40-some sets of ears, I was ready to wash hair with Amy for the rest of the morning. One glance out towards the gate to our compound proved to me we would have a few “patients” to see before we could start. I went out to ask why they had come and what they needed as quickly as possible- distracted by my own drive to get what task I thought was important done (hair washing, but of course J!). God had other plans, which I’m finding more and more that He always does.
At the gate patiently sitting was four different situations in need of help. One boy was hoping I could give him a small “pansman” (bandage) for a cut on his sister’s foot, another young girl was suffering from mumps, one gentleman was talking too fast in Creole for me to understand (Thank God for Amy fluently speaking Creole), and then, finally, there was a boy with an EXTREMELY swollen wrist. He had fallen and probably broken his wrist on Monday, and was now seeking help on Friday. I wasn’t quite sure what we were going to do with his case, because generally we have to send them on to the hospital to get treatment since that is beyond what we can really treat.
A few questions later, I realized that the woman who brought him was not his mom, nor was she able to take him to the hospital. Amy, COTP’s seasoned nurse, told me that the hospital probably wouldn’t be able to help him too much anyway. We decided to bring him into our pharmacy (A.K.A. the coolest clinic you’ll ever see!) to evaluate what our options were related to our resources. As we were walking back with him, I kept looking at his swollen-to-the-brim wrist… the skin was entirely taunt with how filled it was. My heart was sinking fast because he was in so much pain and I wanted to help him SO BAD, but how!? How could I? I didn’t have an X-Ray machine, I didn’t have any cast tools, I didn’t even really know enough to help him honestly.
I started praying as we were walking and kept praying for the situation and for him once we had him sit down in our pharmacy. If I couldn’t help him, surely God could. I wanted to at least splint his wrist so it could begin the healing process, so Amy started cutting cardboard boxes up to create a make-shift splint. We discussed options—we could tape it so it didn’t have rough edges, we could try to find something to make it harder, etc. We would do our best, but the cardboard just wasn’t hard enough to splint his wrist and it was looking grim.
But there’s a reason I’m so happy today!!! Amy started looking through a box of supplies donated a while ago for something else to use a splint when there it was… plaster splinting supplies EXACTLY like I had used in the emergency department to splint people last year. I was seriously so excited I could have burst. A few minutes later, we had managed to find every single supply needed to make a stellar splint for this suffering boy! We had absolutely everything we needed, including the know-how to make one. All credit be to God, I had painfully learned how to splint during my time working in the ER. It was never a task I necessarily liked at all, and I struggled to ever perfect the skill. But now… now God was using that to help this boy when he didn’t really have any other options.
I kept on saying “MWEN KONTAN!!! MWEN KONTAN!!” because I couldn’t keep my excitement in.. meaning I’m so happy! I’m so happy! I tried to explain to the woman and boy that I had prayed for this situation and this boy, and God gave us what we needed at that moment! The woman kept giving me a “you-are-crazy” look, but I was bouncing off the walls with joy!
It took a chunk of our morning, but I had the help of faithful COTP people. One cleaning employee who is extremely helpful handed me supplies as I wrapped his hand, wrist, and arm with a Kerlix gauze to help protect his skin from the splint. Thankfully, the plaster splint roll already had a thick pad on the back of it as well. I remembered how to wet the plaster, roll in a towel to dry it enough to put on the skin (something I ALMOST forgot about since it has been so long), and carefully mold it to his wrist without making indentations with my fingers, which would leave dangerous pressure points. I wrapped it in an ace bandage (exactly what we use at the hospital). This boy officially had an official splint that was not too makeshift after all! There it was! My face was all smiles and I kept thanking God over and over again in my head… surprisingly in Creole J. I noticed I have started thinking simple thoughts in Creole now, which is kind of amusing to me. Mesi Bondye. Thank you, God.
I honestly still can’t get my heart rate to slow down. This boy probably would have lost all of his nerves in his hand if the swelling continued like this. Without a splint, the swelling would have never had a chance to go down. We gave him ice for his hand while he was sitting in our pharmacy, which showed improvement while I got everything ready to splint his wrist. Amy was able to tell him, in perfect Creole, that he needed to buy a little ice to keep the swelling down, and I later explained his needed to keep his arm elevated at all times. We were able to give him some Tylenol to help with the pain, though I’m sure no amount of medicine could help his level of pain completely. I honestly have never seen a hand so swollen in my short life.
I cannot believe God provides like He does. It makes my eyes swell up with tears when I truly think about how much He loves that boy who had nothing and show him where to find help and give the people able to help everything they needed. All credit belongs to God… this story is truly one of His.
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