BUSY BUSY BUSY. Post By Rhoda, Pictures by Jon

     I had just arrived at the clinic for my after noon on call Wednesday, when a something knocked on the door. Or someone. I went to check which.
Two very tired ladies looked up at me as I exited the building. One of them was pregnant, and so I told them she could come inside. After Anita and I had both checked her, and I had spent a couple more hours in the clinic, we decided I could go home for the night. It definitely looked like a long time until a baby would be born. In fact, so much so, that it was not the first thing on my mind when I woke up the next morning.
     Steve came to the door and said that a baby had been born during the very bad rain storm last night. The reason the lady had not come and told us about it, was that she afraid of the rain or the dark, or something.
    I grabbed my coffee, and headed for the clinic. After finding the baby alive, although enrobed in a very bloody sheet, I went to work.
    “What is the baby?” I asked, “A little boy or a little girl?” “I didn’t yet check,” the Grandma said.
    Before long, Mis Megan showed up with a camera. I was very glad for her presence and assistance with clean-up. The Grandma watched and helped where she could. She told me she prayed during the night and acted very thankful to God for the safe arrival of her newest grandbaby.
    Before long, after clinic had officially started, Anita realized that the baby seemed premature. The mother was mentally challenged, so it was difficult to get accurate information from her, as to when the expected arrival time of the baby should have occured, etc.
    A long time was spent warming the baby and getting him to drink. By two o’clock or later, Anita felt he was gettting warm enough that I could take over with his care. I am now spending a lot of time, trying to get that cute mite of a thing to eat. It is hard. Hard on the patience, hard on the back, hard on the mom, and hard on the Grandma. It means we need to go down to the clinic at night time hours. It means we need to sit there for up to an hour, coaxing milk and medicine into a little mouth. It means we sometimes need to warm him back up on the heating pad a couple times a day But if we all survive this hardness, that cute, four pound mite of a thing might turn into a healthy, handsome little fellow who can help his mom a whole lot.
     In the meantime, we are trying to train the mom and the Grandma how to care for the baby well enough that they can take him home and continue life-giving care in their own house.
    While this mom and her baby sit in one corner of the hospital, another mom sits in another corner with twins. She came in with a very high fever. And then, in another corner is the boy who we blogged about the other week, with the huge abscess on his head…he is waiting for daily bandaging. And do you see another lady? She is not there now, because her extrememly bad adema is not improving fast enough. Maybe she has a heart problem. We are not sure. We sent her out to another hospital. Hopefully, she can get help there. Her baby seems to be doing fine at one month old.
    So, yes, it feels like we have been seeing enough of excitement around here for awhile….please continue to pray for the patients, and for our patience, too. God is good, and we want to remember that He never sends us more than we can bear. I’m not sure that He promised that He wouldn’t send more people than our hospital can hold, though…