Hi All:

We are very thankful to be able to return to work in Haiti. As many of you know, I returned from Haiti last month in a somewhat dilapidated condition, running fevers and shaking chills and just glad to get home. I had a bunch of blood cultures that were very inconclusive and we were unable to grow them enough to even get sensitivities, so we have no idea as to what antibiotics to use. I went home from Spectrum Blodgett 2 weekends ago on 2 powerful IV antibiotics, I took them for 18 days after departure and have been feeling good. My infectious disease doctor is puzzled, just mutters that things don’t make much sense, not all that encouraging, I fear. So, we are still trying to make up for lost time in getting things done I would have liked to do while sitting in the hospital for a week. The culture taken last Friday has been negative so far, so glad we could change my catheter over a wire instead of the standard removing the catheter for 2 days and putting a new one in, thankfully, as I am running out of spaces to place lines in my body.

So, we have been able to take off for Haiti on Saturday. We had a very bumpy ride, in fact, Evert, my Dutch colleague who sat next to me suggested that I didn’t need to stir my Cholestyramine, just holding the cup with the mixture for a few minutes could mix it just fine. However, we made it to Port au Prince without any hitches, got our luggage and took off for the hospital even a bit early. However, the demonstrations in Port totally blocked one direction of the road so they were on our side and the usual mass chaos ensured. Several other places had blockages due to the protests, which slowed us down, but we finally got into bed at 12:30 in the morning on Sunday. We have been busy but everything is going smoothly, thankfully. We started out the morning with a gentleman who was using his machete to cut some bushes and cut his wrist, including his tendons, so we started the morning with a bang. That set the tone for the day, so things have been going well.

Once again, God has blessed us with a good crew. We all seem to get along well, despite our varied backgrounds. Evert (my Dutch buddy) has worked on the repairs and installations to the air conditioners and is about to replace the unit in our larger OR as soon as we can spare the room for him to work on it. Ed Bos has worked faithfully in lab, repairing and replacing the equipment as needed to keep it going. Tabitha and Philipp have been helping me in the OR, her sister, Zella, has similar genes as she and has whipped the moving of the OR storage rooms into other places to prepare for the tile layers in February. Tabitha and Zella also have been whipping up delicious meals for breakfast and dinner, we eat Haitian at noon and had good goat for lunch. So, we are not suffering by any stretch of the imagination.

So, thank you for all your prayers and support. The Donkey and his buddies appreciate it very much.

In His Service,

Bill, Ed, Evert, Philipp, Tabitha and Zella