Saturday in Koutiala

Well, it's another warm day :-)

Enjoyed rounds this morning with Robert, while Craig graciously acted as  my interpreter. I "hear" much of the French, but I don't always pick up on the little things, the "little" aspects which provide the true picture of what is happening. So thankful or Craig's willingness to serve. I like seeing the progression of patients, the returning patients for wound checks, and the new babies born in the night. Always better to see improvement.
No C-Sections last night, and I'm on-call today...so the odds are... 2 am...?

After we finished I went to Peds to see how Jason (Pediatrician) and Kristen (Nurse) were doing. As usual, they were having fun :-) We changed a PICC line dressing together, and saw the babies and children. The boy and girl pictured below are here for chemotherapy. They look so much better than when they first arrived - and both are quite the little characters! Jason and Kristen are as well, but that goes without saying :)

You are looking at 2/3 the CMA team here now, and the entire medical team for the 100+ bed hospital, except for two of the Malian interns.

 Normally there would a CMA team of 35-40 plus children. So, it is a small community at present with various vacations coinciding nicely with the current rebel conflict up North. You don't see many "white" faces in the country at present as tourism is ~completely shut down, and most ex-pats are staying away from the country.

I really enjoy the "team" aspect of working with Saskia (Med Doc/OB-Gyn),  Lisa (Nurse/Anesth), Jason and Kristen as they work with the medical Interns and staff in caring for the patients here. I get to work on "both" sides of the fence - Med and Peds - as the surgical consultant. Sounds like a big deal, but in essence it is helping out wherever they can use me :-)

The toughest thing is seeing children when there is little we can do to help. I won't put their pictures in here - it would turn most people's stomachs.

I will remember the 2 y/o who walks on her hands and feet because she can only see out of one eye. Her other eye is completely replaced by a tumor that sticks out 2-3 inches from her head. Can you imagine trying to learn to walk with only one eye?
She rubs the tumor once in a while and starts it bleeding again. Her mom tries to keep the flies off of her.
In my heart I wanted to take her to the block immediately and enucleate the tumor, but the better treatment would be for her to go through the system already set up in Bamako. It sits like a rock in my stomach that we can't do something for her. She is scheduled to leave Monday.

Or the little 3 y/o girl who came in yesterday with a large tumor expanding across her abdomen. She has a scar along her left side, long and narrow. The parents are quite poor, uneducated, and have no idea what kind of surgery she had in the past. I couldn't find a kidney along her left side, and the tumor appears to involve the one kidney on the right. How long will she live? I plan to obtain a biopsy to check, but it looks like there is little we can do for now. She is quiet and looks tired all the time.
I don't wonder why.

Doctors without Borders is around the corner from here. They send us their complicated patients or the ones who may need surgery. I've thought of working with them in the past, but when I see the attitude and care for the children and women at the hospital here, it is an easy decision to work with groups like the CMA. A place where the patients come and are cared for not just physically, but also spiritually. A place where Jason from Arkansas, Kristen from WI, Lisa from IL, and Saskia from Holland are working daily to see a difference made here - for eternity. These medical servants are living from their heart; not just because it is a slogan on a  wall, or a "mission statement", or somebody somewhere thought it would be nice to treat people well. These men and women live who they are - heart, soul, and body - in a place which gives them the opportunity to express themselves so eloquently.

It has been only two weeks since I landed in Mali. The second time is sweeter.
The days may appear mundane sometimes, but then I catch the glint in a child's eye, see a mom wrap their baby closer to them, or watch a nurse patiently explain for the 4th or 5th time what needs to be done...and I realize that it is in the moments that we truly live life. It is these moments that I live for - to see Life and know God is in it all.
Live the moments.