Back in the US

Sadly, our trip is over, but we are so thankful for the time we spent in Peru. God did some amazing work down there and we were blessed to be a part of it. Every single person that we met down there has touched our lives, the patients and their families, the students and teachers at the blind school, the Herrera household (where we lived for 2 weeks), the amazing interpreters, and every beautiful member of the mission team.

First week mission team

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Some of our awesome translators

The container of equipment did finally arrive! Unfortunately it was not until 10:30 on Thursday night, while the three of us were sitting in the Lima airport. The rest of the team that was still in Arequipa unloaded the 40 foot container in 47 minutes. And on Friday the began to hand out some equipment to patients we had seen earlier in the project. So praise the Lord for that! One of the team members is actually living in Arequipa for the next 2 years trying to start a permenant clinic at the Nuestra Senora del Pilar (the blind school where we were set up). She will be handing out the equipment now that the project is over, so everyone will get what they came to recieve. Please pray for Jodee as she sets up this permenant clinic and sees the many patients that are receiving equipment.

The truck! (got these sent from people still in Peru)

New Equipment!

Thank you all for your supports and prayers throughout this mission project. We could not have had this experience without the support of our loved ones. You have all played a special part in this trip and we appreciate everything. Please continue to pray for all of those that we met in Arequipa, as they are now an important part of our lives.

THANK YOU!!!

It's Coming Tomorrow (we think)!!

WOW, this week has been so busy on the adult PT side.  Monday I saw 8 patients, Tuesday 6 and today 9!!  It is true that God gives you strength to persevere through the though times.  There have been lines of patients waiting to get seen all week.  Today, there were women that were changing the order of papers so they could be seen faster.  Every patient comes in with such different situations.  A patient I had on Tuesday was diagnosed with MS 3 year ago.  She came in to the clinic in a wheelchair unable to move or talk and she had so much tone she was unable to lay supine without crying because of the pain she was having.  He husband brought her into the clinic and he was so sweet.  She is totally dependent on him in ALL of her daily activities.  The love and encouragement in his eyes almost moved me to tears during the session.  He was so involved in the treatment and we were teaching him positioning and different stretches to do at home.  Please be praying for this family and women for health and strength. 

Another patient that day was an older 5 foot nothing lady coming in because of back pain.  This women solely taught me the lesson of strength and perseverance.  She seemed to have some other problems then just musculoskelatal issues but we just treated the pain and told her to come back to receive a new cane when the shipment arrives.  It is really hard to paint a picture of the patients we see via blog.  I know I keep saying that I am just awe struck by the strength of the people in Peru and the determination they have in life to keep moving. 

One last patient I want to mention was a man who suffered a stroke 10 years ago.  My first impression of him was that he visablily looked like he was doing really well.  He was smiling and talking to the man who brought him to the clinic.  But after asking a few question I soon realize the there was deep pain in his life.  He lives alone in a rented room because he lost everything he had when he had the stroke.  He lays in bed all day and in the morning, afternoon and night his wife comes to visit and brings him food.  For me, it was hard to understand why his wife only visits him and he never has visitors.  So I made it my personal goal to do whatever I could to brighten this mans day.  He was very responsive to all of the exercises that we were giving him and I even thought of some different adaptive ideas he could use to make his exercises specific for him.  After the session, Tim, one of the PTs, was taking measurements to fit him into a new wheelchair and we sparked up a conversation about music.  It turns out that he used to be quite the singer and he loves Frank Sinatra.  He left the session teaching me a new song and giving me his card to send him a postcard.  I know I said it before but all it takes is a smile or a friendly hello to make all the difference in someones life, even if you do not know the impact that you are making. 

On a happy note, we think that the container of equipment should be here tomorrow afternoon. So we may actually see the stuff we packed before we fly out!

Tonight at the house was out final dinner with everyone :-(.  It is going to be really hard leaving here tomorrow.  Everyone has been so nice and we all have gotten to close.  We had our MMI talent show tonight.  The acts ranged from a rap made up to the fresh prince theme song to the top 10 things of the MMI PT Peru Mission of 2010 complete with Skyped in guests. The 3 of us did head, shoulders, knees and toes in spanish... but not actually well.  Pray for everyones safe travels over the next few days as some of us are traveling home and some are traveling to go sight seeing around the country. 

Tuesday, Another Busy Day

Today was another very busy day at the clinic!  I saw 9 patients today with a variety of problems.  Many are still coming in with overall joint pain probably due to arthritic changes in their joints...So I teach them some strengthening and stretching exercises and send them on their way.  Today I saw the sweetest little old lady.  She was in with her husband (who was blind) and snuck into a PT spot. She was pretty old and had bad posture which was making her back  and neck hurt.  I helped her neck by stretching it and massaging the tight muscles.  I also did a few exercises with her... She thought it was the best thing in the world.  She said I was beautiful and that when I came back to Peru next time she was going to bring me a present.  She also said that when I was giving her manual traction that I took her bad energy and that I should be tired from it!   So cute and so sweet, she really made me smile. 

Later, I had another patient that was a older male.  He had a mining accident 20 years ago and suffered a pretty severe brain surgery and half of his body was weak.  He was confused and only knew his name (not where he was or how old he is).  He was using an old walker and had a tiny little wife that came in with him.  They live in a one room house with a tin roof.  We fixed him up with a new walker that we happened to have left from the last project and tried improving his ambulation.  He tires quickly and had a hard time following directions.  We couldn't give him a wheelchair, but without the shipment here, it was impossible.  We gave his wife a few exercises to do with him, but she can't read and couldn't read the exercise sheet.  I almost cried.  

Overall, many of these patients have touched me just as much or more than I have touched their lives.  Please continue to pray for the people that we get to work with down here.  They are really great, amazing people that are full of love.  I have been repeatedly blessed with getting the chance to know a little bit about them and their lives here in Peru.  Thank you for the support!  Please continue to pray about our shipment, we are getting scared that after all this work we may not even get to fit these devices with the people that need them so badly.  Tomorrow is the day!!  I can feel it.  Pray hard!  God can work miracles!  Thanks:)

Sharaya

Ps.  Tonight after clinic we went into the downtown and walked through a couple beautiful catholic churches and a convent.  This convent was amazingly beautiful, and I'm now thinking of a life as a nun:) hehe.

 

Week 2 Begins

We have started the second week in the clinic. Luckily both Nicole and I felt a whole lot better this morning. Although many others on the mission team have also had the same sickness and have become sick today. We must be passing around a virus throughout the team. So please pray for all of our sick ones (and that Sharaya can be one of the few spared...) Today the clinic was not as crazy as the past week, having 10 cancellations. The equipment has still not come in, so many patients just aren't coming because they have heard there is not equipment. Hopefully it will be coming n the next few days. We lost 7 team members back to the States over the weekend, and miss them greatly. But we gained 3 new members, 2 of which Sharaya and I got to work with today. They are a great addition and will add a lot to our second week here. We had a very relaxed night tonight, playing cards with a few of the interpreters all night after dinner. A game called golpe (I could be wrong in the spelling... considering I keep calling it guapo which means handsome in spanish...). It is pretty much gin rummy with a few different rules. Very fun game, altough Franko (the birthday boy) kept winning because Sharaya gave him all the right cards!! Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Monestary directly after the clinic because we hear it is an amazing experience. Then more shopping before we leave on Thursday! We don't have any specific stories from the clinic today, but I would like to share some pictures with you of the children that have blessed my day!

This is Anthony, the happiest kid I have ever met. He does not speak much, but you know what he is trying to tell you. And he just loves to push himself around in his wheel chair, although he doesn't like to use his left hand! He was very fun to play with, laughing at everything I did, even though I do not speak Spanish very well...

Luis Sebastian got fitted for a new wheelchair today! A brand new one that was left over from last year, and we finally got to give it away. Laura was my PT buddy for the day, along with Franko the interpreter/engineer (and birthday boy!). He put together most of the chair, it helps that he has been an interpreter on many MMI PT projects in Arequipa (so he has seen many chairs put together), and is an engineer major the the university. Sebastian was also a very happy and smiling boy, however not apparent in this picture. But his smile definitely brightened the day!

Ana Maria was a victim of typhoid fever as a baby causing left hemiparesis. She just loved playing with all of her therapists, chasing the ball, blowing bubbles, playing with animals, and for some reason crawling between my legs. She has about a 1 inch leg length descrepency, and we made a lift on her shoe by super-glueing a Spiderman flip flop onto the bottom of the new shoes we gave her. It is amazing the amount of crativityyou can find with limited supplies. But the creation gave her a much better gait and less pain, so praise that! She was so excited when we asked to take her picture, her mother just kept repeating how beautiful we all were. What a wonderful compliment!

Colca Canyon

This weekend we travelled to Colca and saw some beautiful sights. On the bus ride there, we made stops on the side of the road to see animals, the highest point (15,000 ft), and just beautiful overlook views. Saturday night we went to the Hot Springs and soaked in some nice warm mineral water. We then ate dinner at a restaurant with folk singing and dancing. Sunday we made the drive up to the Colca Canyon and were amazed at God's beautiful creation. We made many stops for the multiple views, the last one including the Condors that fly right in front of you. It was a great experience to see the beauty of this land, even though Nicole and Emily were very sick Sunday. Please pray for our health! Our blog today will be pictures of our weekend happenings, even though the pictures don't portray the amazing beauty that we saw.

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Colca Canyon

photo opportunity on the ride to Colca Valley

Baby Alpaca

Road side stop

Hot springs

Colca Canyon

Hanging Tombs

Condor

LLama crossing

Lunch stop

Dinner

First Week at the Clinic Completed

It is hard to believe that the first week at the clinic is over.  It feels like we just walked off the plane at the Arequipa airport yesterday.  During the past week, I had the privilege to treat patients of varying aliments from low back pain to cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus.  It has been very moving treating patients that do not have the same access to health and medical equipment we have back in the states.  The gratitude and value that they put into something as small as a home exercise program to a wheeled walker amazes me.  I found that it is very easy to take for granted the ease of access to state of the art equipment we have back home but this trip has given me a new outlook on the importance of paying it forward.  It maybe something as small as a single point cane in the corner of the basement that could be the difference in someones life to allow them the ability to leave their home. 

Me with my geri friends

I have had many moving experiences with patients and their stories over the last week.  The two that really stick out to me are about an older women and a 14 year old girl.  The older women was diagnosed with CP when she was younger.  She came to us because her wheelchair she currently uses is rented and she needs to return the chair at the end of the month.  To get to the clinic that day she had to go to a police officer to stop the bus in order to get on it.  She folded her wheelchair up and climbed onto the bus, she never explained to me how she got off the bus but I am sure that it was challenging.  The strength that I saw in her eyes during the session led me to make sure that I do whatever I can to get her a chair within the next month. 
The 14 year old girl was diagnosed with brain cancer and a few months ago had surgery for hydrocephalus.  Before the surgery she was unable to walk.  Now she walked, with moderate help from her mom, into the clinic that day.  She was full of smiles the entire session and by the end, after she was fitted with SMOs and a walker, she was walking independently. 

After the passing of each day, I look back and realize that it is not about the newest or the most expensive treatments.  It is about the quality of care and most of the time it is about the little things in life. 

Just  a few other tid bits about my week: 

-I evaluated and treated my first ever pediatrics patients.  I felt like a deer in headlights the entire time but managed to get through it and now have a great appreciation for pediatric therapists. 

- I am becoming very efficient at treating low back pain because 6 out of the 12 patients I have evaluated complained of gross LBP. 

All three of us made it through the first week without getting sick, continue praying for us.  This weekend we have the opportunity to travel to Colca Canyon.  Colca Canyon is deeper then the grand canyon back in the states and it also is full of condors, google it. 

We hope to return with lots of fun stories about our weekend on Sunday.  God bless and continue praying for safety of the team members and patients and the equipment because it still has not arrived. 

Blog de Jueves

Today was another amazing day at the clinic.  We had a very busy day with the adults.  Me and the Amy (the PT I was working with today) saw 8 patients... that wouldn't be too much in the states, but here it's a ton!  I did half of the evals today (putting me at about 9 patients that I was in charge of so far this week) and I'm getting much better!  My mind had lost much of my PT knowledge in the past couple weeks of being off school, but it's slowly coming back!  (good thing since I start clinic the first couple days of being back in the states!)  I've had some amazing patients... They are all so thankful for anything that you can do for them.  They have such tough lives that we can't even relate to.  It's such a different world down here... A couple of our patients this week we really couldn't help with our PT knowledge and it is so hard to tell them "Sorry, there's nothing we can do."  On the other hand, it's still so amazing to see how much patients can improve in just an hour and a half session with us. It's also great to connect with my patients. Today, two of the patients that I have worked with during this past week came back to find me.  One lady brought me and Amy pears.  The other was the lady that tried setting me up with her doctor son that lives in miami.  She gave me and Christina whistles which is pretty cool.  It really is amazing how these people are so willing to give when they don't have much.  I need to take lessons from them... 
  We still haven't recieved our equipment.  Please continue to pray about it getting delivered.  It's so hard to work without having the assistive devices that our patients really need.  We keep asking them to come back next week, so hopefully it will get ok'd by the head honcho in lima asap.  Thank you for all your support!  I really love working with these patients and the local people that help us interpret everyday.  I've also gotten to be close with a couple of the PT's that we work with, and it's been so great getting to know them!  It's been a blessing to have such a great experience so far.  Continue to pray for our safety, for the patients that we see every day, for the future of this mission here in Peru, and for the shipping container to arrive soon.    Thank you!
Sharaya

Ps.  Food has been delicious.  Also, no sign of parasites in me, Nicole, or Em. Yay!

Directing the patient, with translator Beth close by