VVF Ladies Go Home

Hello there. Today was exciting as a bunch of our patients who had successfully had their VVF (Vesico-Vaginal Fistula) repair left the ship for their own villages. Today 8 women were presented with a new dress by Mercy Ships, and we had an opportunity to hear their stories/testemonies and of course sing and dance with them!

Here is Doctor Steve and Doctor Heather with the women on the gangway. The one at the front of the line, Chris had her baby at 14, whilst escaping from liberian rebels. She lost the baby, and has leaked urine constantly since that time. She is now 22, and today is healed! She is a wonderful woman, so positive and such a blessing to all in spite of her circumstances. We have so much to learn from these women about life and God.

It was amazing to hear a story from one woman, who has been leaking urine for 8 years. She had a dream 2 years ago about a house on the water, the house she felt was a church or something similar. Imagine her suprise when she was brought to the Mercy Ships screening by a nurse from her home village in the north of Ghana a hospital on the water. Wonderful stories, and a priviledge to be a part of them.

Elmina Visit

Hi there. I thought I would ease up on the heavy stuff, and tell you about my weekend! A group of 8 people from the ship, did an over nights excursion to Elmina and Cape Coast. It was four hours drive from the Port of Tema, and well worth it! We stayed in a little hotel in Elmina, with the most amazing view out of the window of the river and the famed Elmina castle. It was a wonderful place full of colour, smells and noise. It is a major fishing village, and the locals glide in and out of the river in their brightly coloured fishing boats (which are pretty similar to Waka's) with their catch!

The castle is situated at the head of the river, and its construction was started in the 1400's. Originally it was owbed by the Portuguese, who used it as a trading post for gold, spices and unfortunatlely slaves. The castle was then taken over by the Dutch, who held it for a couple of hundred years until the British took it over, and how it is most definately Ghanain!




It was a very humbling and moving experience visiting the castle, as its major role was that of trading slaves. It was most comparable to my visit to the Nazi Concentration Camp at Dachau, and it was hard to imagine all the atrocities that went on there within those walls. The most awful part was a cell where misbehaving slaves were thrown to die - they would put up to 30 people in these cells, and not dispose of the dead bodies until all the men had passed away. There are horrible stories of rape and torture, which all of us found difficult to stomach.

At the end of the tour, we all read aloud from a plaque on the wall of the castle that read 'NEVER AGAIN'. That's for sure.

We spent some time at the beach swimming in the ocean and were even lucky enough to witness a beach side Ghanain wedding celebration! But were back being tourists the next day at the Kakum National Park, where I saw a real wild monkey! We did the canopy walk there, cantilevered above a beautiful forest. We saw lots of beautiful buterflies, which made coping with the height of the swing bridges a bit easier.




It was nice to get away from the ship, and see some of what Ghana has to offer. I was back at work today, getting ready for our plastic surgery run to begin, now that our Plastic Surgeon has arrived. I am very excited as this is my kind of work. Will keep you posted, until next time, Soph.

I was not able to upload photos today - my server is being difficult - so as soon as I can I will post them!

Life in the Ward

A new week, with new challanges. This is Prince. He is one of many children from Ghana who suffered from a large tumour on the side of his face. He and his father came to the ship on the first evening the ward was open, and Prince was one of the first people we operated on in Ghana, with the aim of removing his tumour.

Prince goes home today! He is 9 years old, very friendly and has the most awesome smile. He doesn't speak english, but we have some very helpful translators on the ward who help us to chat with him. He is now a veteran of the ward, and is basically the boss guy. As he has felt stronger, he has joined us on the aft deck of the ship for singing and another nurse and I taught him how to use a swing. He is pretty good now, but we have to really make sure he does not fall over.

The other child in the photo is Daniel Walls - a kiwi kid who lives on board the Anastasis, who had 'adopted' Prince. The adopt a patient scheme means that crew members who do not have access to the ward like myself, and often have no opportunity to relate to patients are able to have the same opportunities as us nurses. Daniel and Prince get on like a house on fire, and last night Prince came up to the deck to watch us play a bit of cricket - which he thought was hilarious!

It is strange sending patients home, but Im sure prince will have a much better chance at a normal life from now on, and it has been a priviledge to be a part of it! Here he is with some of our other patients on the Aft Deck the day before he went home.

Thanks for your interest!

VVF Screening

Hello there.

A busy time here on the Anastasis, as Monday was our VVF screening day. This screening was separate from the main screening day because the surgeon Dr Steven Arrowsmith only arrived on the ship on Sunday! Three nurses from the ward - myself included, spent the day seeing about 20 women with Vesico-Vaginal-Fistulas. This is a hole that has formed between the Vagina and the bladder/urethra - usually occurring after obstructed labour (sometimes a labour lasting 3-5 days!)

These women most likely loose the baby somewhere through the labour because they are not able to access a cesarean section. THe pressure of the baby on the bladder and internal organs is too prolonged, and these organs necrose (die). As a result these women (and girls) become permanently incontinent of urine. Think of the implications in rural Africa. You can imagine that this usually means the women are outcast from society, their husbands leave them, and they are basically emotionally, physically and spiritually scarred for life.

It was a hard day - on questioning these women it turned out that most of them had lost many children, one woman had 4 out of 10 children still alive. There is so much pain for them, the least we can do is help them out. In most cases we are able to repair the fistula (hole) and restore their continence and of course their dignity. It is a very exciting time, and it has been encouraging to work alonside Dr Steve - who has a real passion for caring for these women. He trained in fistula repair alongside Catherine Hamlin (The famous gynaecologist who has worked in this field in Ethiopia for the last 40 years) and I really reccomend you check out this website to fully appreciate how lucky you are to live in the west.

http://www.fistulafoundation.org/hospital/

On a brighter note, today we were able to take some of our many patients up to aft deck to have some fresh air and join in with some worship African Style! One of the most amamzing patients - a woman called Peace danced up a storm, despite having had a massive tumour removed from the side of her face only 3 days ago. What an inspiration and blessing to us all. I will post some photo's of the event soon!

Thanks for your prayers,
Soph:)

Precious Child

Here is a photo typical of those people we saw at screening last week. Today we attempt to repair about 4 cleft lip and palates on board the Anastasis. This little girl is one of the many people our max fax surgeon Dr Gary Parker can help, and we look forward to seeing her in the ward soon!

Screening Day

Well, I know it has been a while - but I have been waiting for our communications department to post all the photos from screening! We were not allowed to take our cameras so as not to intimidate people - and the official photographers snapped them on our behalf. It is only today that any have come through.



I thought I would just put one up - showing the line of over 3000 people who lined up for up to two days to be seen by our crew! I have never done so many manual Blood pressures in my life, taken so many medical histories - and doing it all through a translator - which is an interesting experience!



Many of the people we were able to offer help to - and have theatres scheduled from now until January! We have been doing a lot of cataract surgeries this last week - Dr Neil Murray from Tauranga has been overseeing those ops and it has been great to learn a lot about eyes. The first max fax surgery was today - and I properly start work on the ward tomorrow morning.



Missing you all and thanks for your prayers!

Soph