Last week

In the last week, we've screened over a thousand patients, hosted the president of Liberia on the ship and I talked with five new palliative care patients. Plus President Bush was in Monrovia for a few hours.

Screening
Screening day was last Monday at the soccer stadium. We left the ship at 6 am and by the time we got there, there were already hundreds of people lined up. I left the stadium around 9 pm when the last patients were seen. I was in the prayer room where people came for prayer if we weren't able to help them medically. We also had a few people who came for prayers of praise and thankfulness when they did get a surgery date. I'll post some photos when our communication team has released them.

My roommate Megan described the whole day in her blog so I'm just linking to hers instead of repeating everything she said! http://megisinafrica.blogspot.com/2008/02/screenig-day.html

Presidents
On Tuesday, Madame President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came to the ship. She's an amazing lady and I have great respect for her and the job she has to do here in Liberia. She gave a brief speech in our large meeting room which I got to hear. Some of our leaders also gave presentations about what our plans are this outreach in Liberia.

On Thursday, President Bush visited Monrovia. Monrovia has three main streets (for a city of 1.5 million) and they closed one of them for most of the day. I had to cancel all of my visits because traffic would have been gridlocked on the other two roads plus I couldn't get to the patients who live off the closed road.

My new patients
I received four new patients from screening and one additional one later in the week. Each one of them has cancer for which there is no treatment. Each one received the news from the doctor and then from June and me that they were going to die from it. Two of them probably don't have much time left here on earth.

There's 75 year old Sarah with a large tumor on the right side of her face. We visited her in her home on Friday and she is the cutest lady. She's pleasantly confused and because of her confusion, she doesn't know the whole prognosis.

We were supposed to visit on Thursday but couldn't come because the roads were closed. She doesn't have a phone so we couldn't call her to tell her we would come on Friday. So when we showed up, she just kept saying, 'Oh my people, my people have come!' It was so cute. She said she waited the whole day by the road on Thursday telling everyone that 'her people' were coming to visit. I don't know if she really did that or she was confused but she was so excited when we showed up on Friday.

Next is 70 year Nemle Wallace (or Old Man Wallace as he told us to call him:) He's a smiley guy who just took his diagnosis in stride - he never stopped smiling. When we visited him on Friday near his home, he was just so happy to see us. We only got to talk for a few minutes because it took us an hour to find him (they don't have street addresses like we do back home). He told us what junction to go to and then told us to just start asking people where Old Man Wallace lives. Well, we did that but no one knew Old Man Wallace! Mainly because we were about a half mile farther than where we were supposed to be.

Next we saw 22 year old Michael. He came to screening because of a tumor growing on the side of his neck. Unfortunately, it's Hodgkins lymphoma. Back home, this is generally an easily treatable and curable cancer. Here in Liberia, it's a death sentence for a 22 year old young man. He goes to school and runs a small business. He's good-looking, strong and healthy. I had no idea how to tell someone that age that he is going to die from this cancer.

He stayed on my heart as well as on the heart of Dr. Shrime who examined him and gave him the diagnosis. So Dr. Shrime, his wife (another Dr. Shrime), June and I are working to find treatment for Michael outside of Liberia. There is treatment in Ghana and Ethiopia but there are many obstacles to overcome for him to go.

When we visited Michael and his family (he's the oldest of 9 kids) on Friday, they were pretty devastated and worried about his diagnosis. We told them we were working to find Michael treatment. Please pray that God will make a way for all of this to happen.

Next there is Deddeh, a 26 year old with advanced cancer. She has a very large tumor protruding from her face and she is skin and bones. She doesn't have much longer to live. She has two small children. When we went to visit on Friday, we found out her family had sent her upcountry to an herbalist (a medicine man) for treatment. We had already told them there was no medicine for her sickness but they said if they didn't send her, the village would think they didn't love her. It's sad because it will cost them a lot of money they don't have but I understand - I'm sure I would do the same if I lived here and believed as they do. So we won't be able to visit her since she'll stay upcountry.

Finally, our last patient Sandi was received on Thursday. He was at screening for some large tumors on his left forearm. We knew it was cancer then but brought him to the ship on Thursday for an x-ray. If the cancer had not metastasized (spread), then we could amputate his arm to stop the spread of the cancer. Unfortunately, it has already spread to his lungs.

It was a sad visit. He's 37 and has 8 children ages 1 - 15. He lives an hour and a half from Monrovia so I won't be able to visit him. I sent him home with 3 months of pain medication and told him to come back after 3 months if he needed more. I don't expect him to live that long.

The hospital
We started surgeries on Thursday and so the hospital is starting to get busy. We currently only have one of four wards open but that will change over the next few weeks as we get more surgeons, more OR nurses and more patients. The dental clinic and eye clinic both open tomorrow (Monday). Those clinics are actually not on the ship - the dental clinic is at a local hospital and the eye clinics are at various locations throughout the city.