We've been fairly busy in the pharmacy lately due to our back to back teams and helping on brigades. Last week after laying the kids down Ryan and I went up to the pharmacy to help Rachel, our new pharmacist, pack some meds and supplies that we needed for the following brigade day.
Meanwhile, the two detectives awoke and had decided to walk up to the mission house to find mommy and daddy. Reed thought he'd be the good big brother and let little Ella go in first. Ella the brave walked into the living room of the mission wearing nothing but her Tinkerbell underwear inside out with her brown dress shoes and asking calmly, "Where's my mommy and daddy?" This may not have been so bad except in the living room devotions were being held for our 30 visiting team members. OOOPPPS!!! (We're all about making things memorable for the short term missionaries and sorry, no pics)
Those kiddo's can be so funny sometimes. With only 30some days to go, we've been trying to decide on a name for the new baby. We often ask Reed and Ella for their input, but we've been getting very different responses from them. Currently Ella's favorite name for a boy is Christopher (after her 6-month old friend who lives at Denny and Donna's). Reed on the other hand thinks that the best name for a little brother would be...are you ready...Cesar!! I do believe the culture is really rubbing off on him.
Ella joined mommy and daddy for brigade on Friday. Once she settled into the new surroundings she had a fun morning passing out stickers to all the kids and being silly with the church and team members. Reed joined us once he was done with school.
More updates later, I just wanted to share Ella's silly story.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Weekend Fun!!
I know it's already Thursday, but it's been a busy week. At least it hasn't been a month, right?We started up with brigades again last week. It was a very fruitful brigade week as you can see from Ryan's entry. Our team from last week was really a lot of fun to spend time with and get to know. The team leaders, John and Helen, were here in August and Reed and Ella had really taken to them then. So, both Reed and Ella were really excited for their return. They had a fun week of helping Helen stock snack trays and making her laugh. They were all a little sad when John and Helen had to leave on Saturday. We had planned on seeing the team off at the airport and then doing some grocery shopping so Reed and Ella decided to ride the bus down to the airport with the team. They like to ride the bus at any opportunity. As you can see they're pretty excited. 
After they closed the museum on us we headed back up the hill for Cake and Presents!! Alejandro had a wonderful fourth birthday! It was a very fun filled weekend!
After a teary goodbye at the airport we made our way over to Pizza Hut for lunch. This was the pregnant lady's request. The kids had fun in the play area while Ryan, I, Denny, Donna, Jesse, and Rachel (fellow missionary friends) chatted. The pizza was great. I don't know what they do different at the Pizza Hut here, but it's awesome. It reminds me of Pizza Hut when I was a kid, I don't much care for it in the states now. Happy Joes is the way to go in MN. Anyway, after pizza we had a giant sundae for all (mostly Reed, Ella, and Denny). Ella was quick to grab the cherry off the top and give it to mommy. Isn't she sweet! Reed and Ella really thought it was great.
After filling our bellies full we got all of our shopping done and headed back up the hill to Denny and Donna's for supper and cake making. You may remember reading about Dilcia, Alexander, Alejandro, and Scarlet (Alison) in one of our early e-mails.
We met the family on our first weekend here and Denny and Donna have been very instrumental in helping this family find Christ. They live up the hill from us in Los Lomas in a small little dirt floor home. It scares me to think where they might be without the help they've been given. The baby, Scarlet, was born at 26 weeks gestation and sent home at 11 days old. She is now almost a year old and thriving. We thoroughly enjoyed her raspberry blowing and smiles. Both Alexander and Dilcia have attended weekend retreats where they accepted Jesus into their lives and this family has been forever changed.
We planned to celebrate Alejandro's fourth birthday over the weekend, so they all joined us for English speaking church on Sunday. Thankfully a translator, Miriam was willing to spend the day with us to help us all communicate. Miriam is one of the many teenagers who live at the bridge house that WGO runs. She is such a sweet young woman and she really enjoys all the kids.
After chuch we grabbed some lunch while the kids played and then we were off the the children's museum. The kids and I were pretty excited to go as we have wanted to since we arrived in May. Poor Alejandro though, he didn't want to leave the play area at the restaurant. That was plenty of fun for him, but as you can see from the photos, he cheered up and had fun at the museum.
Playtime!!! Slides, jungle gyms, dress-up, construction, shopping, loads of fun!
Shopping at the play grocery store was fun. Reed and Ella forgot to go to the play bank to get cash, so Reed went and came back to pay. Ella, well... she took matters into her own hands!
After they closed the museum on us we headed back up the hill for Cake and Presents!! Alejandro had a wonderful fourth birthday! It was a very fun filled weekend!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Friday October 10th
I know that today is Wednesday October 15th, but this blog is about Friday! This a quick review of last Friday and a few of the patients that I saw.
Friday, October 10th
46 individual patient visits to the chiropractor (me).
1 case of 35 year old female:
The dentist Anna, brought down a female patient that was supposed to get some needed dental work done. She was unable to lie down in the dental chair due to significant neck pain. She was suffering from a torticollis that was preventing her from moving her neck without a sharp pain. I began working on her cervical musculature and adjusted cervical vertebrae that was fixed preventing left rotation of the C5/C6 cervical units. After 10 minutes of work the patient had nearly perfect range of motion and was able to go to the dentist comfortably. I was touched to be told by Scarlet, the lead dentist, that this young women told her that she believed that I was in Honduras due to her prayers.
A 40 year old female with wrist pain:
This patient had injured her wrist 4 months ago. She told me that she had ‘sprained’ her wrist. She had visible inflammation present and upon light palpation the patient would recoil due to the pain. I tested her wrist reaction to vibration and upon placement of the tuning fork on the distal ulna she had a significant sharp pain. This was indicative of a cortical break in her wrist bones as vibration will cause the sharp pain. What had happened is she had fractured her wrist 4 months ago and had not done anything to support it while it was healing (more accurately not healing). She was at risk of the distal ulnar never healing and going into necrosis. She needed follow up, so we were able to get her a referral to a hospital here where she could get x-rays and surgery if necessary. This woman had went through our optical station and would have not been able to go to another station had I not been there. I know that even though I was not able to repair her wrist, by catching this before she left, meant that she may not lose more function of her right wrist.
Three patients had returned from the day before that were suffering from daily headaches: At least ½ of my patients in a day suffer from very regular headaches. If it is the first day of brigade, I will have between 1-4 return the next day to get another visit. These 3 women were all suffering from daily headaches that they reported had not went away ranging from 2–6 weeks.
One patient told me that she had her 1st headache free day in 2 weeks after her first visit. She was very excited and grateful for the care that she received.
The other gal said that her headache had come back, but was less intense. I gave her another adjustment and worked on a few hypertonic muscles. I also showed her some things to improve her posture and muscles to due trigger point too in her home.
The third patient was very special to me as I had treated her daughter, 4-year-old Daniella, the day before. Daniella was waking up during the night and crying from ‘bone pain’ she also had a difficult time walking and was mildly knock kneed. I adjusted her low back, her feet and assessed her muscles in her legs. She was very hypertonic in her lateral thighs and her anterior legs. Her feet also had a mild pronation, a curving in of her feet. I did some light muscle work on her and showed her mom which muscles to massage. I believed that the muscles were aching due to the tightness and that was the bone pain that was referred to. I gave them some lotion and had mom demonstrate that she understood what I wanted her to due. Next I treated mom and found out she had been having headaches for 3 weeks straight, but has been having serious headaches for at least a year. I treat the muscles and joints in her neck and had her come back for Friday.
On Friday mom told me that her daughter had not had leg pain that night, which was great to hear. What was so significant for me was when she was waiting in line she was playing with her daughter Daniella. She had not had a headache since the day before! It was such a wonderful reminder to me that not only do these chronic physical pains affect how one feels, but it affects how good of parents they are. It affects many aspects of their lives such as friends, spouses, church members and most importantly parenting. It was wonderful to see how this physical and neurological relief had changed her in just one day.
These five patients stick out in my mind as wonderful results for that day. The other 41 patients will also have relief, big and small. It is tough knowing that I will not see many of these patients again in this world and what we have to offer physically is short term. I take comfort that what the Lord offers is forever! The thing that brought me to Honduras is that all 46 of the patients I saw, also were able to go to the evangelism station. They were able to talk with a Christian that had come from Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, and even a team member from Shakopee, Minnesota. They were able to share in faith and some hopefully came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Friday, October 10th
46 individual patient visits to the chiropractor (me).
1 case of 35 year old female:
The dentist Anna, brought down a female patient that was supposed to get some needed dental work done. She was unable to lie down in the dental chair due to significant neck pain. She was suffering from a torticollis that was preventing her from moving her neck without a sharp pain. I began working on her cervical musculature and adjusted cervical vertebrae that was fixed preventing left rotation of the C5/C6 cervical units. After 10 minutes of work the patient had nearly perfect range of motion and was able to go to the dentist comfortably. I was touched to be told by Scarlet, the lead dentist, that this young women told her that she believed that I was in Honduras due to her prayers.
A 40 year old female with wrist pain:
This patient had injured her wrist 4 months ago. She told me that she had ‘sprained’ her wrist. She had visible inflammation present and upon light palpation the patient would recoil due to the pain. I tested her wrist reaction to vibration and upon placement of the tuning fork on the distal ulna she had a significant sharp pain. This was indicative of a cortical break in her wrist bones as vibration will cause the sharp pain. What had happened is she had fractured her wrist 4 months ago and had not done anything to support it while it was healing (more accurately not healing). She was at risk of the distal ulnar never healing and going into necrosis. She needed follow up, so we were able to get her a referral to a hospital here where she could get x-rays and surgery if necessary. This woman had went through our optical station and would have not been able to go to another station had I not been there. I know that even though I was not able to repair her wrist, by catching this before she left, meant that she may not lose more function of her right wrist.
Three patients had returned from the day before that were suffering from daily headaches: At least ½ of my patients in a day suffer from very regular headaches. If it is the first day of brigade, I will have between 1-4 return the next day to get another visit. These 3 women were all suffering from daily headaches that they reported had not went away ranging from 2–6 weeks.
One patient told me that she had her 1st headache free day in 2 weeks after her first visit. She was very excited and grateful for the care that she received.
The other gal said that her headache had come back, but was less intense. I gave her another adjustment and worked on a few hypertonic muscles. I also showed her some things to improve her posture and muscles to due trigger point too in her home.
The third patient was very special to me as I had treated her daughter, 4-year-old Daniella, the day before. Daniella was waking up during the night and crying from ‘bone pain’ she also had a difficult time walking and was mildly knock kneed. I adjusted her low back, her feet and assessed her muscles in her legs. She was very hypertonic in her lateral thighs and her anterior legs. Her feet also had a mild pronation, a curving in of her feet. I did some light muscle work on her and showed her mom which muscles to massage. I believed that the muscles were aching due to the tightness and that was the bone pain that was referred to. I gave them some lotion and had mom demonstrate that she understood what I wanted her to due. Next I treated mom and found out she had been having headaches for 3 weeks straight, but has been having serious headaches for at least a year. I treat the muscles and joints in her neck and had her come back for Friday.
On Friday mom told me that her daughter had not had leg pain that night, which was great to hear. What was so significant for me was when she was waiting in line she was playing with her daughter Daniella. She had not had a headache since the day before! It was such a wonderful reminder to me that not only do these chronic physical pains affect how one feels, but it affects how good of parents they are. It affects many aspects of their lives such as friends, spouses, church members and most importantly parenting. It was wonderful to see how this physical and neurological relief had changed her in just one day.
These five patients stick out in my mind as wonderful results for that day. The other 41 patients will also have relief, big and small. It is tough knowing that I will not see many of these patients again in this world and what we have to offer physically is short term. I take comfort that what the Lord offers is forever! The thing that brought me to Honduras is that all 46 of the patients I saw, also were able to go to the evangelism station. They were able to talk with a Christian that had come from Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, and even a team member from Shakopee, Minnesota. They were able to share in faith and some hopefully came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
THEY'RE BACK.....
Hi everyone. Sorry for being such a bad blog updater. There really is no excuse other than power outages and internet being down. We had a quite a few power outages recently (5-6 hours at a time) so I finally broke down and bought a lantern on Tuesday because you can't do a whole lot by candle light. We'll since I bought the lantern I haven't been able to use it. You can bet that we've had power outages, but they've been during the daytime instead. I guess I'm saving on lantern oil though.
View of Tegucigalpa from Picacho
So, what else have we been up to? It's really been a great month. Our last team was blessed to stay a few extra days because of Hurricane Ike. We really enjoyed the extra time with them getting to know them better. Reed and Ella really befriended a nice woman, Marie. Reed still asks when she is coming back. He had a lot of fun bringing Marie on his secret trails around the mission grounds. One Sunday we went to Picacho National Park here on El Hatillo. The park has a great big statue of Jesus which overlooks the city. It's kind of nice to have Jesus looking over us from the mountain. I see it as a reminder that he is always watching over us, but we often use him as our guide to get back home when we are lost in the city. Our streets here do not have signs, so as long as we head toward Jesus we know we'll make it home.
We were blessed to have a mini vacation recently as well. Denny and Donna McKendrick were back in their home state, Wisconson, for their son's wedding, so they asked us to do some house sitting for them. I didn't realize how much I would like it. Ryan and I were so excited to have a living room to relax in, watch movies, read and then go to bed in a whole different room. It was also a big treat to put the kids to bed in separate bedrooms. Although it was sweet because one night we found that Reed had snuck into the room Ella was sleeping in and fell asleep next to her. They really get used to that comfort fast! The McKendrick's guard/gardener, Antonio, and his family (Anna, Christopher, and Scooby) live in the basement of the house so we enjoyed trying to communicate with them. Ella really liked playing with Christopher, 6 months, while Reed spent his spare time playing outside with Scooby and Jojo (the pups). We picked up Denny and Donna at the airport on Wednesday. Reed and Ella were pretty happy to have them back, however, they were a little disappointed we had to move back home. Reed said he wanted us to move into their house and they can move into our house.
View of Tegucigalpa from Picacho
So, what else have we been up to? It's really been a great month. Our last team was blessed to stay a few extra days because of Hurricane Ike. We really enjoyed the extra time with them getting to know them better. Reed and Ella really befriended a nice woman, Marie. Reed still asks when she is coming back. He had a lot of fun bringing Marie on his secret trails around the mission grounds. One Sunday we went to Picacho National Park here on El Hatillo. The park has a great big statue of Jesus which overlooks the city. It's kind of nice to have Jesus looking over us from the mountain. I see it as a reminder that he is always watching over us, but we often use him as our guide to get back home when we are lost in the city. Our streets here do not have signs, so as long as we head toward Jesus we know we'll make it home.
The park also has Mayan Ruins, a zoo, and lots of beautiful nature. Everyone climbed the stairs to the ruins, even Reed. Ella was carried by Ryan in a fast dash up the stairs. I think I had only made it 1/4 of the way and they were at the top. I made it up okay, but coming down was a little nerve racking with my decreased sense of balance. I took the steps down sideways only to find out that there was a back way which was not quite so steep and went by a nice little water fall. We had to skip the zoo the day we went as we were running out of time. We will definatly be going back to explore more in the future.
Reed is still enjoying school and likes making new friends at the playground. Ella also has made a few new friends and looks forward to seeing them at church, ladies bible study, and on couple of playdates. Ella is often found talking on her cell phone to her friends. Having social interaction for them is such a blessing.
On September 20 Ryan and I started teaching 6-8th grade Sunday School. We are really enjoying the kids in our class and hopefully they are too. Reed decided to ask his teachers if Ella could join in on his class. She is loving having anything to do with school. Their class is held in the nursery room so when I asked her how she liked it she told me "I like Sunday School, but it's really the nursery. Actually!" Now she tells us it's nursery school. They get smart so fast.
We were blessed to have a mini vacation recently as well. Denny and Donna McKendrick were back in their home state, Wisconson, for their son's wedding, so they asked us to do some house sitting for them. I didn't realize how much I would like it. Ryan and I were so excited to have a living room to relax in, watch movies, read and then go to bed in a whole different room. It was also a big treat to put the kids to bed in separate bedrooms. Although it was sweet because one night we found that Reed had snuck into the room Ella was sleeping in and fell asleep next to her. They really get used to that comfort fast! The McKendrick's guard/gardener, Antonio, and his family (Anna, Christopher, and Scooby) live in the basement of the house so we enjoyed trying to communicate with them. Ella really liked playing with Christopher, 6 months, while Reed spent his spare time playing outside with Scooby and Jojo (the pups). We picked up Denny and Donna at the airport on Wednesday. Reed and Ella were pretty happy to have them back, however, they were a little disappointed we had to move back home. Reed said he wanted us to move into their house and they can move into our house.
We've had a few weeks of offtime from brigade, but we've managed to stay busy. Ryan has been treating missionaries and their families, he also started treating teachers and staff at Pinares (Reed's school) Wednesday evenings. They are all very appreciative of his hands. Ryan also went away to an overnight mens retreat on the SW coast of Honduras. It's a good thing Antonio was with me and the kids, otherwise I don't think I would've been to okay with it. Ryan got to sleep outside on a cot and eat grilled fish. I've still been spending time in the pharmacy and with the kids. The next 5 weeks should be pretty busy with teams so, that will help to make the baby countdown go a little faster. We only have 7weeks to our due date. SCARY!! We are currently planning to have the baby here in Honduras, so we've got lots to get ready.
Oh, the title of today's blog, "They're Back!" Well if you hadn't already guessed, yes it's the scabies. After a few weeks itch free they've decided to make a return. We've all been treated again and disinfected our home. We feel pretty confident the culprit this time may be a little pup named, Scooby. Denny broke out around his ankles a few days after his return and the kids have them at chest level. Those silly scabaroonies!! Hopefully we've got 'em this time.
And now some pics and a video of the kiddo's!
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