The Medicine of Jesus

To be perfectly honest (like I've been anything but honest in this blog- I wrote about my diarrhea 2 blogs ago... for someone who doesn't do “poo talk”, that's some brutal honesty!), our outreach phase of our DTS was not what I expected. In fact, it wasn't even what I wanted. Nor was any of it what I would have chosen. Generally speaking, I hated our outreach. Couldn't wait for it to be over. Longed for the end to come.

But I wouldn't have changed anything about it for the world.

When Sitara told me she was leaving 3 weeks into the outreach, I had this momentary sense of panic and maybe even some slight feelings of abandonment. We weren't great friends, but she was the closest to me on the team in terms of age and culture, so we understood one another, we related to one another and we leaned on one another. The panic and abandonment didn't last long- thank God- because out of that fleeting moment of dread, He put things into perspective for me really quickly:

“Did you come to Fiji for Sitara or for Me?”

Darn, that God is good... fixed me right away. I didn't even have to go back to my first blog to know the answer to this. I came to Fiji for God and for no one else. For my relationship with Him, to help my relationship with others. To be stretched, pushed and challenged. To grow. To be challenged some more. And that's precisely what outreach did to me. I didn't ask for easy and that's not what I got. I may not have always enjoyed it, I may not have always loved the stretching, the pushing (I may have even pushed back a little... you're shocked, I know.) or the challenge, but God took that outreach and made something of it, maybe even made something of me... and for that, I wouldn't have changed our outreach for the world.

And, it wasn't all bad. There were definitely highlights: walking into a shop in Sigatoka and having a frank discussion about Christianity with the devote Muslim shopkeeper. Praying with Farmer Joe and his family as they accepted Jesus as their Saviour. 

Remember Farmer Joe?

Shopping for groceries and watching love come to life through giving (and seeing the true meaning of gratitude from those that received). Watching team members, who I doubted so often, come to life with purpose and love by serving others. And, of course, the biggest and most impacting highlight for me was our medical outreach.

I still remember having a conversation with my sister many years ago about what she was going to do after high school. She told me she was thinking about becoming an Emergency Medical Technician. Truth be told, I had to ask her what that was. When she told me, I literally felt something “click” inside. I knew, without a doubt, that was what I was suppose to be. Now, as a paramedic, I know even more that I am doing what God designed me to do. I love what I do. There has never been a day in my career where I thought, “I need to get a new career”. And, in a sense, that is how I feel when I do a medical outreach. This was my 3^rd medical outreach and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Our large team- 29 people from 12 different countries- provided free medical, dental and optometry services to 2 different communities, Vatakoula and Nadarivatu. Vatakoula is a gold mining town about an hour away from Lautoka. The gold mine has a doctor for the miners and there is a hospital in nearby Tavua. However, there is still a great need in this area with many who have very little and have poor access to transport. Nadarivatu, on the other hand, is a remote village in the mountains that is a 2 hour drive (on bad roads) away from a hospital or a doctor. There is a nursing station in Nadarivatu, but they've been unable to find a doctor for their clinic for a long time, so seeing a doctor is difficult for most people in the area who cannot afford to travel down the mountain. Generally speaking, healthcare in Fiji is light years behind that in first world countries and there is a lack of public health education, making the medical need in Fiji great.

The primary health care area had one doctor and one nurse. Our dental area had 2 dentists. Our optometry area was set up for visual acuity tests, evaluations for cataract surgery (to be done by another team later this year) and reading glasses dispensary. Our team was made up of more non-medical people than medical, but as in all medical outreaches, you learn to do by doing (I just realized that is also the 4H motto- I was a 4Her for many years when I was younger... ). Jobs ranged from eye examiners, sterilizers, educators, translators (thanks Tikiko, you were an awesome help!), registration, pharmacy assistant and, of course, prayer people. I was put in primary health care registry, so every patient for the nurse and the doctor had to go through me or my partner first. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed I wasn't able to help with the actual medicine, but that soon changed as I started registration. I soon found my niche in this outreach as I played “detective” with every patient, trying to get a solid history for the doctor or the nurse. Being a good detective is all a part of being a good paramedic, so I am thankful to say that, even after being away from the job for 4 months, I got back into the groove of things quickly. I also had the opportunity to sit and learn from our doctor, Mispa, after registration closed. Thanks Mispa for all the teaching- it was great!

We saw patients with all kinds of problems- everything from back and knee pain to breathing problems to heart problems to skin problems- in fact, I now think I'm a bit of an expert in spotting scabies and ringworm... I also took some of the highest blood pressures I have ever seen- 260/170 was one of the higher ones that I recall and the patient had no symptoms! Hypertension (fancy word for high blood pressure) is a huge problem in both the Indo-Fijian and Fijian populations- as is medication compliance. Most of our hypertension patients did have some sort of prescription at one time, but once the medication was finished, they assumed the hypertension was gone. Or they could not afford to refill the prescription. Or there is an inability to access a chemist. So many people were literally walking miracles as they had not had a stroke or heart attack yet.

On our last night in Nadarivatu, we even had an emergency case. A man was brought in with severe shortness of breath. Of course, it was late at night and we had already packed up our medications and equipment. Mispa and a couple of others saw him first and I was woken up by Stephanie, a Manitoba girl who was on the New Zealand DTS team. She had run up the hill to where I was staying and breathlessly told me that someone was having a bad asthma attack and Mispa wanted some help. As we made our way down the hill, I did what every paramedic does: start planning for the worst case scenario. Unfortunately, since we were only a primary healthcare clinic, I wasn't even certain if we had the medications and equipment needed for the worst case scenario (and unsure if we could even do a “plan B”). However, when I got to the clinic and saw the patient, my worst case scenario was downgraded. The patient was resting comfortably after Mispa's treatment. An ambulance was on it way up the mountain as there was still concern. We spent the next couple of hours waiting for the ambulance, trying to figure out what could be wrong with this man. I always laugh when people say things like “glad we have a paramedic with us”, because of course, I do not have my meds or equipment with me, so really, all I am is a glorified first aider. This was really apparent as we were trying to figure out this man's condition. There was probably half a dozen test we would have ran, if we had the means. But the nursing station was under-equipped and so were we for emergency patients. Fortunately, this man did well and was transported to the hospital in Tavua.

We spent 6½ days in clinic, a total of 4 days in Vatakoula and 2½ days in Nadarivatu. This is a breakdown of the patients we saw over those 6½ days:

595 Optometry patients:

• 403 reading glasses given away

• 91 sunglasses given away
• 23 people referred for cataract surgery

517 patients seen by the nurse, the doctor or both

• 45 physiotherapy treatments performed
• 257 people received physiotherapy education

365 patients seen by the dentists

• 73 teeth restored (fillings)
• 828 teeth extracted (yes, you read that correctly!!!)
• over 300 people received dental education

As you can see, we all worked hard during our short time in clinic, and everyday I was amazed at the hard work, dedication and extraordinary attitudes of everyone on the team. Despite some long hours, some undesirable tasks and a whole lot of fatigue, our team happily persevered to serve those around us. It really was an inspiration to watch such a large group, from so many cultures and backgrounds, come together in unity to serve others for God in such an impacting way. Our DTS team returned to Vatakoula later on and people were still talking about our medical outreach, the services we provided and the attitudes of love and joy we showed while we were there.

It was an amazing time, with some amazing people- thank you to everyone on our large team for all the fun times and hard work. And, of course, vinaka vaka levu to the communities in Vatakoula and Nadarivatu for hosting us and making us feel so welcome!

Here are a few pictures of all that we did, please check my Facebook album HERE for more pictures.

 The Vatakoula Primary School- our clinic and residence for the week

Our doctor with a patient 

Our pharmacist with one of the cutest patients 

Praying 

Normally this is a classroom, but we turned it into a dental clinic 

Most often seen by our dentists... which explains the high number of extractions 

 The Mercy Truck full of medical equipment, heading up the mountain to Nadarivatu

The Nadarivatu Health Centre 

 Can you read this with your new reading glasses?

 The busy doctor

 Any cavities?

 Physiotherapy class

 Getting the patients registered

Optometry

Thanks for reading,

Christy