Fresh Air

It has been quite a week! I have been able to experience so much here this week! At the clinic specifically. This past Saturday, I was able to do most all the pap smears with the gynecologist. There was one where I could not locate the cervix to obtain the specimen we need for a pap smear. I am telling you people, this line of work is not what American nurses are allowed to do! I am not forced to do anything, I am asked and I for sure take the opportunity. I will never get another chance like this! Along with more opportunity there comes different ways of learning. Their clean technique is their only one. As nurses from America know, there is clean and there is sterile. The sterile technique rarely applies here. I don't even use gloves when giving shots, because it makes the people here feel "dirty". I have learned that is just the way it is. I am loving learning new and different ways to practice and different techniques that they use here with the health care they provide to patients. The clientele is still steadily high; having an average of 50 patients per day. I am exhausted by the time the day is over, but ready to come back the next day to do the same thing over again! This older lady came into the clinic on Friday of last week and was screaming about her body. She said she felt weak, her heart felt slow, her breathes felt harder to take, and her blood tingled. I had to help calm her down. I sat by her wheelchair and held her hand, but missed a great opportunity. I heard God telling me to pray for her, but I did not obey. I was upset with myself and missed a great opportunity. I know there will be more times like this, but I reassured her that there are doctors here to help her and that she will be fine. Hello Melissa, you should have reassured her that God is with her. I told her when she was leaving "Dios te bendiga" (God bless you) and all she said was "tu eres muy bonita y Dios está a tu alrededor" (you are very beautiful and God is around you). She touched my heart. I prayed for her that night and asked God to forgive me for not listening. I definitely learned my lesson! Yesterday, Tuesday, I was able to remove stitches out of a woman who has cancer and had to have a colostomy bag because her colon was removed. She was the sweetest old lady. She was scared because she thought it would hurt when removing the stitches. Little did she know, I have never done that before. I am so thankful for that opportunity. It was very fun, and I was also able to do a dressing change on a woman who came in this past Saturday with a cut all the way down to the bone and had to be taken to the hospital by the two doctors at the clinic because she needed stitches. She was much more calm and she said I was very good at going slow and causing no pain when I changed her dressing. I was jumping with joy after that compliment. I also had to clean a wound on a lady that said it hurt when I poured providone iodine over her wound. I learned that with every different person, comes a different level of pain tolerance. I have been blessed to do the things I have been able to do. I was also assisting the Doctor who does ultrasounds and helping him point out the parts of the body while looking at ultrasounds. Diaphragma (diaphragm), rinion (kidney), higado (liver), vesicula (gall-bladder), utero (uterus), ovario (ovaries), aorta (aorta). I am learning all these words, I love it! I also experienced seeing that one lady came in and only had one kidney! She was having pain on the side where she had her only kidney and the doctor realized she only had one! I was amazed. She was too! I have been learning much more about God and his faithfulness this week. I have been watching the series from Church of the Highlands called Fresh Air (hence the title of this weeks blog). Chris Hodges is an author of the book titled Fresh Air (the nest book on my "To Read" list, along with Greater by Steven Furtick). This week I have learned about falling in love with Jesus and everyday you have a choice. As a disciple of God, I have the choice of receiving what has already been done, receiving God's love for me(Romans 5:8),and obeying out of delight (john 14:15). I have a choice to chose life vs death every day (Deuteronomy 30:19)! I realized the condition of your eternal life has nothing to do with external things; but rather, it has to do with your relationship with God. It is such an amazing thought. I listened to another sermon titled Good Medicine. It was about attitude. And everyone could always improve this part of their life. This was about making the choice everyday(Heb 12:1). Chris Hodges shared that life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% is our response to what happens; think about that, because it is so true. Making the choice everyday to get up and have a positive attitude no matter what is an awesome way to start my day! I feel so much happier when I chose to follow and love others as He loves me. Develop a high appreciation for life is another note that I wrote(2 Corinthians 6:10 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18). Another note is to find something positive in everything, which may be hard sometimes, but it is worth a try! God will bless you much more when you thank him for things, even when they seem hard and impossible at the time. And the last note I took was turn everything over to God (Philippians 4:6-7 and 1 Peter 5:7). In all these things, I decided I need to have a Christ like attitude. I must do these things to fully satisfy my time here and I am fully aware that these things need to be thought about and done each and everyday so that I can be fulfilled while I am here. I am so excited to do these things and watch the outcome. Please keep praying for me and allowing my life to be touched by the people here and that my love chines through me and pours out onto the hearts of the broken and needy. I love this place and this country. I love my family. They have been the perfect fit for me. It reminds me of home. Not everyone is home all the time, which is just like my house. My sister has school every week night and does not get home till later, my brother works every night and does not get home till later as well. My sister in law is home the most and so is my mom. My mom teaches class at our house everyday from 2:00 to 4:30 with 30 kids. My dad is traveling a lot because he is part of a music group. My youngest brother is either at school or soccer practice. He won an award today at school and I got to attend to see him receive it. It was because of his academic excellence. I didn't understand a lot of what was being said, but it was nice to be able to be a part of this celebration with my family. My nephew always wants to play and always welcomes me home with "HI MELISSA!" He is the cutest thing. I love every part of this adventure. Please keep me in your prayers! I love and miss you all!