Hi All:
We finished out the week well, doing all the cases that came our way and finished off a few more on early Friday morning. As we were finishing, a lady came in, with arrested labor with her baby in distress. We gave it a try as she had delivered 2 children already normally and we figured the space was adequate for the little one to pass on out. I left the nurses and Dr. Moise to do this while I finished packing my carry ons, cleaned up the room (I try to leave all spic and span to reduce the influx of cockroaches that make the place their home in our absence) and loaded the truck. We only had the kitchen to wipe down and we would be on our way when Dr. Moise came to suggest that the baby would not be able to find it’s way out and wanted to do a C section. We did it, very thankful that we made the decision as the uterus was paper thin and the baby in major distress.  We were able to finally get the little one breathing on it’s own, repair the lady and take off for Port.

You notice that I didn’t mention the gender of the little one. Everyone is amazed that I didn’t notice but all I ever care about is keeping the mom healthy and having a healthy baby, whether it is a boy or a girl seems like the last thing on my list (and I get a lot of ribbing over this). My priorities seem a bit different than others in that department, for which I get a goodly amount of grief. However, the little one was really wedged in the pelvis and we were covered with sweat trying to get him or her out of the belly alive. I woke up the next morning with a significant strain of my neck, bouncing back home on the plane and in the airports didn’t do a lot to make it better and it still gives me some grief. I have had a couple of physical therapy treatments by my good friend, Todd Wehrmeyer, and they have helped, but am ready to have those aches and pains go, especially as I get another immunotherapy treatment tomorrow and it tends to cause aches and pains all by itself, especially as they up the dose each time I visit them.  Ibuprofen does a lot more to help me feel better, but that little remnant of stomach I have left does not tolerate it and Tylenol is like sending a child to do an adult’s job, makes me feel better but the patient, not so much.

Dr. Bartlett’s PA, Heather, called me 3 days ago and said that they were happy that the cancer progress seems to be slowed down to maybe stable and want me to continue the treatment as long as possible/tolerable. So, will submit to it tomorrow and appreciate your prayers that it will continue to kill cancer cells instead of me and, Lord Willing, prolong my life and productivity. My partner has been on vacation, so the office has been a bit of a rat race, especially as my neck is still stiffer than it should be.

I had a nice visit with Dr. William on Friday night as he came to see us on our way out. I was encouraged as he seems to be more perky, likely because he can “see the light at the end of the tunnel” and the second 2 years are less punishing than the first two years, as the lower two years do all sorts of “grunt work” to keep patients happy until the older doctors can do the surgery. A bit different, maybe more than a bit, than what we do here in the US. We talked a bit about his plans for next year, they ship them off hither and yon to round out their training, in theory, a good idea, we will just leave it at that. Dan, Duane and the wonderful team of Haiti USA members loaded a 40 foot container with stuff for the hospital as well as Rod and Debbie Wray on the 30th, so that is underway, thankfully. Since Karen and I and our family members always did this the years we were in Africa, we greatly appreciate the number of folks who help out in this area.

So, as this has been written in a couple segments as I have time between patient duties, will send this off and update you a bit later on some of the information of what we have done at CSL Haiti in the last year, etc.  As always, thank you so very much for your help and encouragement.

In His Service,

Tom and Bill