Paul and Becca

As I briefly described below, my grandmother is sick in the hospital and we were trying to decide whether or not to come home. We received word this morning that she is getting worse and struggling. Becca and I discussed it and we will not wait any longer. We purchased tickets and will be leaving this Saturday night to go home to see her.

Please pray that God would heal her and that we will be able to see her. Events like this really highlight some of the difficulties of living overseas. We’re thankful, though, that the doubt has been removed and we know we are going. Please also pray for the hospital. Though I’m certainly not necessary for its function, I’ve put enough effort and work into it that I’m worried about being away.

In the mean time, life is running along as ever. On a big picture level, we are still working toward accreditation for the program. This is actually in two directions. First, we are seeking accreditation by the government.  God has guided this process so far and promising strides have been made, though we have a long way to go. There currently does not exist an established way to accredit surgical training in the country, so we are hoping to cooperate with the accrediting body and the established surgical community at the medical school to look at established accrediting practices of other countries to propose a method applicable in this country. Once this is done we can be evaluated. As you can imagine, this is a daunting task and will take some time. Please pray for us that the process would proceed smoothly and with excellence.

In the other direction, we are seeking accreditation by the College of Surgery for East, Central and South Africa (COSECSA). This is an international college of surgery and, if we can gain approval for five years of training, our graduates can take their board examinations and become fellows of COSECSA if they pass. This would allow them considerable credibility to practice in participating countries. We were recently visited by a pediatric surgeon from Kijabe, Kenya, which also has a residency program with PAACS. He has gone through the process of COSECSA accreditation at his institution and came to give us his advice and opinions about our process. It was encouraging but we have a lot to do. In trying to firm up our program, we may look into arranging additional rotations at other hospitals in the future.

Whew, first of all, they don’t teach this stuff in medical school or residency. Second of all, I’m not sure I have what you might call a “gift” for this. Please pray that God will work a miracle and make me actually effective in all this. This is truly intimidating for a guy who had to wait tables in college to learn to interact with strangers since it literally forced him to talk to people. Though on a much humbler level, I can imagine what Moses must have been thinking when he insisted to God that he couldn’t lead the Israelites from Egypt because of his awkwardness.

On a smaller picture level, we are slowly making progress at the hospital. We have started doing laparoscopic surgery and I’m excited to start doing more. I hope it will be a good experience for the residents and help the hospital as well. We’ve taken out some gallbladders and I would like to start doing more.

The administrative work at the hospital continues to grow and I think we are seeing improvements being made. There are so many aspects of medical care that I took for granted in the US because it was already being done. When very little can be taken for granted, it can be overwhelming to try and handle it all. Please pray for the hospital as we look to set up a workable administrative structure with appropriate division of responsibilities and authority. We still have room for improvement.

Just as a side note, I kind of miss the days when I could sink hours of my life into World of Warcraft (a very addictive video game). College and medical school guys! You have no idea how good you have it! Cherish it, love it and don’t take a second of it for granted! In case you haven’t noticed, I definitely have a “Peter Pan” side and am fighting very hard against growing up. Grrr! No way around it though.

We would like to request prayer for my (Paul) grandmother, who is in the hospital and ill. I won’t go into detail for privacy’s sake but she had a fall which required surgery on her shoulder. After surgery, she developed a lung infection and had several other medical challenges. The doctor was telling the family that she would most likely not survive. This is terrible under any circumstance but it has been a challenge to decide what to do while overseas.
My grandmother is wonderful woman and loves the Lord dearly. Since it sounded like a terminal event, Becca and I have made plans to return to the United States to be with her and the family. We were actually planning on going to Addis anyway for a pediatric surgical conference. After arriving in Addis, we are so pleased to note that we received word that she was doing much better. She is still in the hospital and is still not out of the woods, but she has clearly improved. We thank God for this mercy.
Please pray for her recovery, both from the acute problem and for her surgery and future plans for residence. It sounds like she will need assisted care from here on out and I know this is a huge blow for her and the family. Also pray for our wisdom to know what to do about traveling back to see her. We are planning on being in the US this August, but sooner may be needed.

Like most blogs wordpress tells you the search engine terms people use to click on our website. Man is it random. Besides our names or something about Soddo or Ethiopia…
the top searches are:

Goiter

Golden retriever and child

Wired teeth

Stinker Bug

Pretty Stinker Bug

Texas Stinker Bug

7 months Gestation

Photos of Goiter

I find this interesting, so I thought I would pass it on. I am sure most people are not finding what they are looking for in our blog. Say your doctor says you have a goiter and you click to see an Ethiopian out of control goiter…not exactly what you want to see. Sorry.

Six years ago today I opened the door to meet my husband. Little did I know that he was going to be my husband at the time. Before I opened the door that night the only thing I knew about him was that I liked his strong name, Paul Gray. And I had seen a handsome mug-shot picture of him in the infamous 2002 Baylor Book of Residents.

So at my apartment door here began the blind date. If any of you have been on blind dates before you know they usually don’t work out…since Paul and I both had bad blind dates in the past, I think it is safe to say we both had pretty low expectations of this one as well. But I am a dreamer and I still had hopes that meeting this one guy for the first time would be the beginning of something more.

Before committing to this set up…I thankfully got out of a non-committal funk by watching Sleepless in Seattle…where Tom Hanks convinces his son Jonah that he isn’t planning on marrying the girl with the annoying laugh, but just getting to know her. I thought, “I can do that, I get to know people all the time”…so I said okay. Paul basically had to be convinced to put on different clothes besides scrubs. I think he can count the number of times on one hand when he wore “real clothes” for the first 6 months of residency. And I must say he looked very handsome in his khakis and button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I had on a very strategically picked out pair of jeans and black shirt with a tie at the waist, I still will not give away that outfit.

We went to P.F. Chang’s with Chad and Jennifer, the people who set us up. Thanks guys! I remember learning about Paul’s beliefs in Christ and his desire to be a surgeon overseas someday. (This was when “someday” was forever away and wasn’t “the-here-and-now”.) I remember going to play pool after dinner and being thankful that we had a pool table when I was a kid. My dad always said I would thank him someday for learning how to play pool. Because when you date a surgeon you can’t play the ditzy, “I don’t know how to hold this stick.” You have to know what you are doing, or at least look like it. (We did win the game.)

I remember calling and talking to my mom that night and she still remembers the conversation. I told her about my date…actually in her words I said, “Mom, I met someone.” And that is when she knew it was over for me. I told her I didn’t know if he would even call again (this bout of speculation went on for about 5 months…but he kept calling.)

Of course, I could go on and on, but you have been a trooper to read this far into my mushy story, so I will spare you. It has been a great 6 years and I will always look back on those fond memories of getting to know each other with joy and excitement of where we are now.

This is one of the first pictures we ever took. Paul was coming back from a rock climbing trip in Moab, Utah. He drove by himself, since his friends flew, so I surprised him and flew to meet him to drive back with him. This is still one of my favorite pictures…obviously…it is one of the few I dragged to Africa.

There is a patient we have been treating that I want to share with you. But first, I want to drop a bit of a disclaimer. Life at a mission hospital is in many ways a lot like life at any other hospital. Occasionally you get inspiring stories you want to tell but most of the time it’s just “pick and shovel” work. Most of the patients come in with some complaint, we treat them and they get better. So I won’t tell you that every patient is an amazing snatch from the jaws of death but this one encouraged me.

I talked with “Joe” and he gave me permission to share about him. Since many of you are under the authority of HIPAA, however, I’ve withheld his patient identification information. He is an eighteen year old man who came to the hospital nearing death. He had painful swelling over both of his shoulders, right upper back, left upper chest, most of his left arm, his left hip and down into his left thigh. In addition to having a really high fever, his heart rate was high, his blood pressure was low and he was breathing too fast. He was in shock. It looked like he had a severe soft tissue infection. This can be deadly anywhere in the world, but in a developing country without all the big guns of modern medicine, it’s grim.

After giving him our available antibiotics, we took him to the operating room. Before starting the operation, we talked with him about his condition and about his beliefs in God. At one point, Daniel, one of the residents, started praying with him in Amharic. After he finished, Daniel looked up, smiled and said “Joe” has placed his faith in Jesus as his savior. We were thrilled but, with heavy hearts, we commenced with the operation.

Dr. Anderson, our orthopedic surgeon, was in the room as well and the three of us managed to drain multiple liters of pus from the various infections in his body. It was mostly in his muscles and, thankfully, did not spread along the tough covering of the muscles, the so-called fascia (this would have been even worse).

We got him back to our ICU and, over the next few days, he looked pretty bad. He was conscious, though, and we had several opportunities to talk to him about God, our relationship with Him, the problem of our sin and God’s forgiveness in Jesus. He was in pain, but he smiled during those conversations. Honestly, we didn’t think he would survive.

I can happily report that he has hung on and is looking better. I took his picture to share with you. We still have some work to do, but I’m thankful that God allowed him more time. Please continue to pray for God’s work in the lives of our patients and in their healing, both physical and spiritual.

Well, I promised a blog on Nathan and of course…I can’t resist.  He has been so much lately.  I love him learning new things every day.  He turned 13 months at the end of January and is continuing with his strong personality…neither Paul nor I have any idea where he gets that from.  He points at everything until you guess correctly what he wants.  If there is candy within a 10 foot radius you can probably guess that that is what he pointing excitedly at.  (I have to quickly divert his attention elsewhere.)  He is signing a lot and Hannah and Etagainu think it is amazing that he can tell them when we wants “more” or “milk” without being able to talk yet.  He will also sign “ball” at anything that resembles a ball, usually passion fruit hanging on the vines outside or a way to green tomato that he will insist on crawling over and climbing the supports and picking himself. 

Nathan L.O.V.E.S corn flakes!  Every morning he eats 3 Nathan-sized bowls.  I give him the first one and say all done and start to lift his high chair and he grunts and groans and puts his hands firmly on the top of the high chair so I can’t get him out.  Then frantically signs more!  So I give him more and more. 

He is getting really close to walking.  I hear it happens fast and everyday he stands and walks more independently.  He knows he is a fast crawler so sometimes he aborts the cruising and crawls to what he wants.    He also loves to climb.  Often times Paul will turn around to see him crawling up our dresser drawers or trying to get onto the bench, or he will remove the toys from his book shelf and climb in there.  He loves to play in two of mama’s baby proof kitchen cabinets, the one with the Tupperware and the one with the baking pots.  He will work and work at his cabinet while Mama and Hannah make lunch.  He usually ends up all the way into the cabinet with a big mess around us, but we don’t mind.  I figure he is helping.

He has also started to feed himself with a spork.  I find this is easier than a spoon so he can stab food and it will stay on until it gets to his mouth.  He has also become a daddy’s boy faster than I was expecting, but I love it.  He often wants daddy to feed him and hold him and read to him.  And he cries when daddy walks into the other room.  It is so cute and I am actually quite glad for the respite from attention.  Maybe this will come in handy when baby number 2 comes along.  Even more unbelievable… today I handed Nathan to Laa (La-ah), one of the hospital guards, and Nathan walked around with him and saw the trees and sat in the van while mama talked…and then I went to get him so they could go and he shook his head at me.  He didn’t even want to come back to me.  Honestly, I hand him to pretty much anyone I know.  I think it is good for him to get used to being around others and I guess he is.

We are very proud of him already and love his strong character.  He has learned what no means and knows when he is doing something he shouldn’t be.  But so far the discipline seems to be taking root.  Mothers are welcome to give me feedback on this, but I figure if he understands when he shouldn’t be doing things, he is figuring out even faster what he can get away with.

There is a song I sing to him every night that is from a Kindermusik book.  If any of you have heard of that?  It is really sweet.  I will have to post it one day too (this one is getting kind of long)…

This is just a little bit of what our days look like!  The picture above is Nathan with one of his favorite toys.  It plays the horsey song while you push it. (Mom, what is the song actually called? It is very famous classical song…see a comment below to figure it out.)