Week Ten! June 16-22

Ten weeks down, four to go! 

Only one more month onboard the AFM... wow! It is hard to believe that 2+ months have already passed by. It has been an amazing experience already and I know the following four weeks will be filled with more wonderful memories. 

Ship Life 

This week was quite busy in the OR, so I did not have much time after work for activities or going out. I did enjoy two morning runs, but not much else happened during the week nights. 

 

On Friday night, I was able to attend a praise and worship night at the Hope Center, where the patients stay before and after surgery. The band "Reko," a popular Malagasy group from the capital Tana, was invited to perform at the service. Unfortunately no photos or videos were allowed to protect the patients' privacy, but it was a beautiful night worshipping and enjoying community together. I even got to see some of the post-op patients and their families from that week! 

On Saturday morning, I went on a cultural hike with four other Mercy Shippers led by Discovery Tours: Madagascar. This is a common excursion many Mercy Shippers do, and I can see why! We left the ship around 6:15am, walked to the port gate, and met with our guide Fidelys. We then took a 20ish minute tuk tuk ride to the outside of Tamatave where we began our hike. The hike started in a sub-urban area and progressed more into the countryside. We learned about local practices and different native plants. As we continued on the hike, we got to see some more remote houses. Some people hike more than an hour each way to the market each day to sell their product. The path at times was single trek and quite steep! I could not imagine carrying heavy baskets of goods up and down the hills each day. In total, we hiked about 6 miles. It was an educational and beautiful morning seeing more of this country I have grown to love so deeply. 

After a relaxing afternoon at the pool reading and napping, I enjoyed an evening with friends at La Table playing darts, pool, and shuffleboard. 

Sunday was another on-call day, which resulted in me accomplishing a whole lot of nothing (don't ask me what my screen time was for the day lol). Even though I got a little stir crazy by the end of the day, I do think a day of rest is important once in a while, especially since most days are so busy! 

Surgery On Board 

This week, I acted as the team leader for the pediatric general OR. This included going on ward rounds each evening with the surgeons and leading the team briefs each morning. During ward rounds, we checked each post-op patient and also went through the patients for the following day. We typically had four cases a day, so it was important to make sure each patient had the correct surgical procedure consent.

My time in the OR here on the ship is really my first time working with pediatric patients, and it has been a good learning experience! The anesthetic side of surgery can be quite unpredictable since children are so much more sensitive to everything. I have learned many new techniques about pediatric surgery and how to interact with the kids. I have a lot of experience working with children, but I was surprised how different it felt trying to complete my routine surgical "checklist" with them. I really had to channel my nursing school training on the different stages of development in children and the appropriate ways to communicate medical concepts to them and their parents. The two surgeons I worked with were wonderful though and we definitely had a lot of good laughs in OR 2! 

Peds general team from the week

Dr. John La Noue (Texas) and Dr. Harsh Grewal (Pennsylvania)

Being the team leader for this week was a good experience because... I am coming back to the Africa Mercy in the fall to be the adult general surgery team leader!! Lord willing, I will return to the ship at the end of October until the end of the field service in mid-December! Just a few weeks into my time onboard, I spoke with my supervisor about wanting to come back this field service. At first, there was not any availability, but things often change and sure enough, a couple weeks later she offered me an available position! The Lord has been doing amazing things both in my life and on the ship, and I am blessed for this answered prayer of how I can continue to stay involved. I am not exactly sure what life is going to look like in RDU for the 3.5 months before I return to the ship, but I appreciate prayers for guidance. Thank you all for your support and encouragement during this journey! Woo hoo - praise the Lord for continued answered prayers!