a warm shower.

I'm spending the weekend at the hotel nearby. It's my first time away from the hospital for more than 7-8 hours. The first night away in six weeks. The water in the shower was warm tonight, which was amazing. It's very refreshing to take cold showers when it's consistently 97 degrees with no AC, but honestly being covered in goosebumps the whole time makes the cleaning process go much faster. The warm water was an excellent break...and a shower curtain too! Oh the things I miss =)

I've once again decided that I need to be taking formal Creole lessons. I'm slowly getting better at understanding it. But speaking is still difficult and it's so much easier to just use a translator. Maybe Amy and I can set up some scheduled formal lessons. I think it's the only thing that will really work for me.

A brief update on the patient I mentioned before. He made it through his surgery...which was actaully miraculous, because the next morning he looked terrible. His oxygen sat was 81% and only 93% on four liters of oxygen. He also had a distended, tender belly for the first time. I knew his only chance was getting him out of our hospital back to a General Surgeon. Brooke and I decided from his chest xray that he had a pneumothorax (collapsed lung). His chest also looked uneven and it would explain the 02 sat. We didn't have a surgeon that could place a chest tube...and two surgeons and an IM doctor disagreed with our diagnosis anyway.

I called the German Red Cross explaining the situation and basically informing them that they would be taking the patient back. He had his ortho surgeries and we really needed a General Surgeon to evaluate the mess he was quickly becoming. They agreed to take him although their anesthesia was away for the day. The transfer was uneventful and the next day I called a very upset Medical Director to ask what had happened.

"That patient caused a meeting of my entire medical staff to assess what happened" he said. "We put a chest tube in him and it immediately dumped 800cc'c of blood (amazing what and ICU and ER nurse can diagnose together). He had a massive hemopnuemothorax." Things went downhill from there. He needed to be taken to the OR immediately due to his internal bleeding but the lack of anesthisia made that impossible. They had tried to transfer him again without success and he had passed sometime shortly after that. Even if surgery had been an option, in a country without a CT scan and xrays diagnosing internal bleeding...the future is bleak for anyone.

The GRC felt responsible, for clearing him (before they sent him to us the first time). There was no way for them to know that he'd been slowly bleeding to death inside, and probably the same result would have occurred if they had known. But nonetheless they decided to revamp their system. "Sometimes these things just happen." He'd kept assuring himself.

On a brighter note I have a baby kitten. I heard her crying outside my balcony and fed her a couple days before one of the gardeners walked in with a sack holding something. I looked inside and it was my kitten! She's pretty wild and wouldn't let me hold her for a couple days but she's doing well now. I treated her with people medicine for parasites (thanks google) which cleared up her bloated belly in a couple days and she actually looks very healthy now! She still hisses when you approach her but gets over it when you start to pet her. She misses her mommy I guess.

Junior (I've mentioned him, he's the orphan that lives with us) named her Maiyla...I need to ask him how to spell it...but it sounds beautiful in his Haitian voice.

She'll hopefully be moving into the house with us in a few weeks (Amy said is was okay Nathan =) Maybe it's being optimistic but it looks like things are actually moving forward on us MOVING OUT of the hospital.

My little brother David left yesterday. I already miss him dearly! Makes me wish I'd spent even more time with him while I could have. He's a stud, loves Jesus and people so well and is wise beyond his years! Can't wait to visit him someday in CA. Please have a hot brownie and icecream for me. That's what I want right now.

This last week was crazy productive with Dr Scott at the steering wheel. Anxious to see what it will be like after he leaves Tuesday, but I think he's cleared up a lot of chaos and questions I've had. Sometimes I think there is no way I can do this for 6 months. Other times I can't think of doing anything else. The emails and prayers are always welcomed. Thanks for reading.