Suzanne's Mission Adventures

You know I always find it hard to write these things.  I always know how I want to start the blog...but from then on I'm a blank slate...How do I keep it going.  But I guess we will try and see what happens.  Soooo to begin... 2 weeks!  YIKES!!!  In 2 weeks and I am heading back to Senegal to be with Mercy Ships.  Hard to believe that it's almost time to go back.  I've missed the ship and the people.  It will be great to see some old friends and meet some new ones.  I've missed my peeps from there.  But at the same time...I'm nervous.   It's not my first time, it's not even the first time after daddy's passing, it's my third time heading over there, so why am I nervous?  I believe it has something to do with the fact that it's going to be for 3 and 1/2 months.  It's not a for few weeks but it's for longer.  It's long enough that I can actually get homesick, miss my family and munchkins, miss the peeks of bein...

How can I be sitting in the airport waiting for my plane to board? How does time go by so fast? As hard as I thought it was going to be, being back here, I am very glad that I made it back.  It has been like being home.  Being with close friends has made the time fly by.  Working 4-5 days a week will also do that.  :)  It has been a different experience on the wards for me also.  I started right off the bat with training other nurses to the wards and being charge.  The only time I actually took care of patients was when I was working nights and one shift on D ward. I was supposed to have 2 shifts where I had my own patients but I ended up being called off one and calling off sick the other. Yep that's right... I managed to catch a respiratory bug on Friday.  Nothing like working your shift and feeling your throat get sorer and sorer as time goes on.  But now I just have a cough and slightly stuffy nose.  Let's hope it doesn't get worse...

So it's been 4 weeks since I've been back here on the African Mercy. There have been good days and not so good days.  But I can tell that I have been prayed for and that God is looking out for me.  But this week has been a little harder for me.  There have been multiple times that I wish I could text or call daddy and talk with him about things.  Some silly...some serious. It's hard not being able to pick up the phone and text him. That all being said.... Tonight it kinda all came crashing down.  Being honest here...with mommy's passing I became mad at God.  How could a loving God take my mother away when I was only 15? I needed her!  Don't worry God and I worked that out...but feelings have started to come back.  How could God take my daddy?  My sounding board, my encourager, my biggest fan, the person I turned to when I needed help, needed to talk, the one who I told the good and bad too, my support person.  Not only did God take him...

So I know I have a lot to write about but I couldn’t help but posting this first.   Today the hospital opens!!!!   It’s so exciting!   After being here for w 2 weeks, cleaning and getting the hospital set up it’s finally feels real today.   Although I don’t start on the wards till tomorrow.   I think I can handle holding off for one day.   I am back on the general ward, which means I will be seeing a lot of hernia’s and lipomas.   But in 2 weeks we get Max/Fax and we will also get the over flow plastic patients.   So in other words, I like to think of A ward as the dumping ground.   But that’s the cool thing is because we get to see all the specialties, while other nurses/wards don’t. It can be scary at times, but it’s neat to learn new things too.   Plus, it seems like all the other specialties have all the cute babies.   I am attaching a couple of photo's.  The first one is all the crew from the ship and the second i...

It's hard to believe that I am leaving today to head back with Mercy Ships for 6 weeks.  Time sure does go by fast, and I am sure that the next 6 weeks are going to go by just as fast.  It will be interesting to see the beginning of a field service and different.  Last time, I went in the middle of a field service, day crew were trained, the hospital was up and running, and everybody was in the swing of things.  This time though is going to be different.  The hospital and surgery doesn't even start until September 9th.  So in the mean time I will be helping set up the hospital/get it ready for patients after the sail, and helping train new nurses and day crew.  In other words it's going to be different than what I am used to.  Plus I get to see a bunch of people that I know and someone who has become a dear and close friend of mine.  To bad she lives in England. But as exciting as all of that sounds, I'm hesitant to go.  Scared you mig...

So today was a VERY hard day.  Or should I say that this whole month has been a hard month and it all came crashing down today.  So the past 4 and half weeks we have been doing Women's Health, which involves very sad patient stories.  Which is emotionally draining learning about some of these ladies.  Then on top of that the past week and half, we have not been having good outcomes from the surgeries.  One of our patients had an ileus, another had to have an ostomy, multiple have spiked fevers and have been on the verge of being septic, and then we have had 5 to 7 surgeries fail.  So that has all been going on with Women's Health.  It has been hard to work on B ward with these ladies.  (I will write a blog post later about what we do in Women's health) And then today happened.  Today that about crushed or did crush the nurses, doctors, and day crew.  2 months ago we were able to care of a little 4 month old plastics patients.  S...