Blessings........

Today I am thankful for my patient, sweet husband.
Today I am thankful for a niece who calls me almost everyday to tell me the most simple things- today it was to inform me that she got the happy hands award on her report card! Way to go Jos.
Today I am thankful for the knowledge of the Gospel and how it helps me deal with life's surprises and sorrows.
Today I am thankful for wonderful friends who let us impose on them on Thanksgiving.
Today I am thankful for warm, gooey, homemade chocolate chip cookies.
Today I am thankful I was born to amazing parents.
Today I am thankful that I am sandwiched between two really great sisters.
Yes, today I am very thankful.

REALLY

We entitled our community health and cultural diversity experience "Really"
because we had so many momment's where we would just look at each other and say, "Really???"

Here we are cleaning a wound of a man who had skin cancer
(I guess it had maggots in it before we got to it.) His bed was crawling
with ants and was wet with urine. He also had piglets and kittens
running in and out of his room as we cleaned it. So much for a "sterile" environment.

This was taken at our education fair in the town square in Madelena.
Carol is a nursing student at Fanor who also helped us translate and
the man on the right was the town's Dentist.

This was at a very poor part in Fortaleza. I hung out with these cute 3
kids while we took care of their neighbor because the house was not big
enough for more than 4 of us to be in there at a time. We asked them what
they had had for breakfast and they said gum. They didn't remember eating
lunch. We brought them fruit the next day and the little boy in the middle
ate two apples and an orange before I could even blink.

Really, need I say more, I fell in love with this little boy the minute
I saw him. He was obsessed with our camera's.

One of the many creepy frogs that was attracted to me.

These little cuties were with their mom at the clinic who was

pregnant. The littlest one kept saying, "hey woman" to me.

This is Nilton. He was blind and lived alone. I walked up to meet

him and all the sudden he started talking in English!!! It surprised

me. Before I left he went into his home and found a piece of paper

and asked me to write my name on it. He said, "Linzi Brown, like

Charlie Brown." He told me to come back and to never forget him.

I am pretty sure I never will.

As I sit here I am trying to think about what I could write that would even begin to share my experience from these past 3 weeks. I have so many stories to tell about how my life was touched. I saw true poverty and I will never forget that. I met the most loving, giving people. I saw patients with diseases and afflictions that I may never see again in my nursing career.

We spent our first week in Fortaleza, the 2nd week in Madelana, Macaoca, and Union (very small, rural areas), and our 3rd week back in Fortaleza. In short, here is what we did:

-We went on home visits where we did patient assessments, wound cleanings, and teaching.

-Visisted the prison and did presentations on safe sex practices and STD's and gave vaccines.

-Worked in community clinics doing well child exams, pre-natal exams, pelvic exams, pap smears, wound cleanings, vaccines, and suture removals.

- Went into elementary schools and taught about dental hygiene, washing hands, and eating nutritious foods.

- Went to secondary schools (ages 12-18) and taught about safe sexual practices, STD's, and what responsibilities come along with having a baby. (Brazilian people are very open about these things, my jaw dropped at what we were teaching 12 years olds. I told the Brazilian professor that we would have been arrested in America!)

- We got to experience Brazil. The people, the amazing beaches, surfing, the crazy driving, the endless garbage everywhere, the delicious fruit.

-We learned that the fight for health care is a global issue, small and simple interventions make a difference, modern technology is not the only way to save lives, flushing toilet paper and hot water are luxuries, "Brazilian Time"runs about 2 hours late, language barriers are difficult-but can be over come, people do want to take care of themselves and their loves ones-they just need the education and empowerment to do so, and so much more.

Pictures are worth 1,000 words, so here are a few until I get a slide show made of the rest!

Choosing Teams

So, New Moon is out...I'm guessing most of you have heard about that...it's kind of tough to miss the frenzy surrounding it. So many (apparantly) hot guys without shirts...who to choose: Team Jacob or Team Edward? I think the choice is clear: Team Frank!



Personally I think I could skip New Moon and see "Firelight" instead. :)

Roaches, frogs and a large language barrier

Well, I just got off the phone with Linzi. I thought that I'd share a little bit about what's been going on with her over the past two weeks while she's been in Brazil. I haven't been able to get a ton of details about what's going on (you'll have to ask her when she gets back next week), but it sounds like she's having a great time. The picture below is with the group of students from Chamberlain that went down with her. They're posing in front of Fanor, which is kind of like a sister university to Chamberlain. A few of the students from Fanor have been traveling with them and showing them around and translating for them over the last couple of weeks.

She says that its been quite a culture shock with such a different way of life down there, a new language, lots of different foods (she said she was offered chicken heart, but I don't think she partook), and the wildlife. Not really the animals out if the open, but rather the roaches, lizards and frogs that seem to have claimed their bedroom and bathroom as their own. This last week she went out to a more rural area and was able to do some education and other nursing care with the people out there. She says that they are so kind and loving to all of them. She also said that her favorite part was when she was able to do home visits for some of the patients she was seeing out there. The coolest part that I've heard about is how she went surfing last Saturday. They hired some instructors that only spoke Portuguese for an hour or two, and were able to learn how to surf a little bit and she said she got up and everything and loved it.

Anyhoo, I know it's not much, but that's a little bit about what's going on with my world traveling wife. She says that she has taken lots of pictures, so it will be fun to see them and hear all her stories when she gets back. She's doing well, has loved her time there, and has grown to love the country and people over the last two weeks.

Drs. Hot and Cold please

Today was my first day on gynecologic surgery and this morning I got to see (and assist in) a laparoscopic hysterectomy. It was a really neat experience and I think I'm going to enjoy this rotation a lot. Anyways, I went to see the patient before surgery with Aaron Robinson who's on the same team as me right now. We talked to her for a little bit to let her know we were going to be present for the surgery and do a little pre-op physical. As many of you may know, my hands are freakishly cold most of the time, and they didn't disappoint this morning. I've grown used to it and don't really notice it anymore, but the patient this morning sure did. She almost jumped out of her bed when I touched her (not really, but she did squeal a bit and let me know how cold my hands were). Aaron apparantly had nice warm hands.

Anyhoo, this afternoon after the surgery we went to see her again just to see how she was doing post-op. She had just received a lot of pain meds and was pretty drowsy. We said her name a few times to get her alert, and asked her if she remembered who we were. Groggily, she said, "Of course I do...it's Hot and Cold." I'm glad that this is going to be the lasting effect that I have on my patients...my cold hands.

Murder on all Hallows Eve???

Balihi the RogersandHammerstein Monster and Madame Garlique


Mummy Aldrinktotat and Angela Deth, DDS


Hannibal Schecter and Lizzie Bordeaux


Glumda the Wicked Witch of Depressed and Asthmadeus the Prince of Dimness


So for Halloween this year we thought it would be fun to have a murder mystery dinner at our house and then we found out they had one called "An Affair to Dismember" and were sold. It was really fun thanks to all the wonderful actors and actresses who portrayed their characters so well. Chris found out how hard it is to dress as a mummy and we found that our pathetic one-ply toilet paper just does not get the job done. He started unraveling even before he was done raveling and most of his costume was on the ground by the end of the night. After much investigating and interrogating, we found Hannibal the newly turned vegetarian cannibal guilty of murder. Thanks everybody for coming, we had a lot of fun.