Serenity in Paradise

Breast Cancer Awareness Scrubs

“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference” (Serenity Prayer, Reinhold Niebuhr).

Each day we see many patients and think, if they were in US, things might be a little better--like a patient with diabetes and an amputation who can’t get a prosthesis.  We cannot change that and must accept that…





Working in a developing nation, like St. Lucia, is eye-opening.  We marvel over the changes that have been made here.  Like the fact that, St. Jude Hospital burned down 2-years ago and today, they are fully functioning in a sports stadium!  Wild!  They amazingly merge many local staff with supplements of volunteers like Dr. Lisa Fletcher who has been coming here for over 10 years for 12 weeks per year.  And, there is Ferhn Henry, the director of the PT department, who has ambitious goals and strives to make improvements in the lives of her patients and in the services provided by her department.  It is a remarkable place!

People think we as PTs help others but truly, our patients give us so much more.   

 

Today was another great day!  We have clean laundry!  Unfortunately, Barb’s big bath sheet now resembles a hand towel and Becca and Steph’s clothes have bleach marks but we are thrilled to have clean clothes!  

Using his daughter's cell phone to capture his home exercise program

We saw many patients with diagnoses we seldom see in US!  Steph had a 13-year old boy with severe genu varum (bowlegged) due to Blount’s disease (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002551/).  Steph made a home visit to see a patient with paraplegia from a cervical spinal cord injury, who spends his days in bed with multiple pressure ulcers. Frances and Becca both were involved in wound care several times throughout the day. It was slightly scary to see what a mosquito bite gone wrong can look like, haha!  They also handled treating and evaluating patients while Barb was providing an in-service for the regular PT staff.  Barb had a patient who had multiple trauma injuries resulting in generalized weakness of his leg coupled with an uncorrected leg length discrepancy.  It was cool to have this man’s 16 year-old daughter take pictures of her dad on her phone so she could help him with the exercises!  We found another use for Carole Bernstein-Lewis’ textbook!  Just wrap the book in Theraband and use it as a lift on his shoe!  We are in awe of how technology can be integrated in rehab in this developing nation yet, there is a paucity of prosthetic and orthotic devices.

Using a textbook to increase leg length

In closing, Barb would like to share one of her favorite quotes from Albert Schweitzer (2009).   “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”   We hope you find the happiness we are found through our patients and colleagues in paradise!  Blessings to you and yours!

Bloggingly yours,

Barb, Becca, Birthday Babe Steph, and Frances