Joy

My patients! The reason we are here and the source of so much happiness and joy! I thought I'd finally take some time to tell you about some of them.  This post will be on my plastics patients, who are almost all out of the hospital now (good for them, sad for us who love them so much!)

This first group of children were our first family of kids on the ward. Running around, playing with the nurses, practicing with our stethoscopes, using calculators as cell phones, putting stickers everywhere... the ward was so loud and happy.  We'd be gathering meds while holding a child in our arms with another tugging at our pants, grabbing our pens and stethoscopes, tickling the backs of our knees, giggling. Never a dull moment. These two brothers were so mischievous and all over the ward! They rapidly wiggled their way into everyone's hearts. Every time I would come onto the ward, they would look up and start yelling my name (kind of...)  "Mollo! Molloo!" and run at me with hugs and jump into my arms. I gladly accepted the new variation of my name, and actually find myself missing it from time to time.

This was one of my first pediatric patients.  She had come to the ship in 2010. She was badly burned as a baby.  The story I have heard is that she crawled into a bag of twigs and other garbage items to be burned while nobody was looking.  They put the bag in the fire as planned and she was inside.  By the time they saved her, she had been badly burned.  The whole village felt responsible and maybe this is why she had maintained so much of her beautiful character and does not seemed to be shy or ashamed of her outwardly appearance. In 2010 the ship did a surgery to release burn contractures and reconstruct her face.
This time around, her right eye was removed (she could not open and close her eyelid completely anymore, and this provided a better appearance), they created more of a nose from a rib graft (so cool!) and put a skin graft over the eye area.  She was running around, tickling the nurses, playing games with us, and teasing us constantly.  She has an amazing, infectious smile and laugh that leaves you giggling.  She will never look "normal", but from the time she came to the ship in 2010 to now, her outwardly appearance has improved a lot.  Her inner beauty is, however, undeniably perfect and has never required any repair.  :)  She sees so much more joy and beauty in this world out of one eye than many of us ever do with two.

 

 This next patient is one of very few that spoke English pretty well.  I was so happy to have time to get to know her and have good conversations with her.  She is so so lovely! She had a neurofibroma on her face near her eye that we removed and then basically gave her a face lift to help with the drooping of her skin and eye on that side. She was so full of love and joy, and always had such a beautiful smile.  She was incredibly patient and gracious and so thankful for all of her care.  I got to teach her how to knit! She picked it up so quickly and we had so much fun doing that together.  With each dressing change, her appearance approved and that smile just got bigger and bigger.  When she left, she looked for me, and I gave her a huge hug and my heart just sank to know I may never see her again.  How bittersweet.  I miss her and her beautiful, calming presence!

This next little one is undeniably one of the cutest patients we had on our ward! Just look at that face!!!  She had badly burned her feet and was left with burn contractures of her ankles and missing toes.  We did a release of the contractures to straighten her ankles and make it (hopefully!) easier for her to walk and balance, especially as she continues to grow. She has a laugh that will get you laughing and you won't even know why.  She loves to be carried, thrown up in the air (and caught), and she loves to tickle attack.  She is now discharged and running around on her personal boots fit just for her! SO cute!

   These are only a couple stories to tell, but there are so many.  I will try to do more another time.  These patients are so dear to me.  They have such trusting and loving hearts.  They so quickly and easily become a family on the ward and accept us foreigners with big smiles and hugs.  They take their medications, nutrition supplements, and go through painful dressing changes and don't complain (except maybe during the dressings!!!) but instead thank us and trust us and love us.  So much time was spent just playing and loving these patients, and I feel so blessed to have had them in my life, even if just for a very short time.