Screening

I joined the Max Fax team on Monday morning for screening and to see how they decide who and when people have surgeries. It was fascinating to see what came through the door. My day started by running down the gangway into the little white cabin outside to avoid the monsoon rains, we prayed together for wisdom and guidance for making tough decisions and then started bringing people in one by one from the tents the were sitting in outside.

I saw ladies and men with parotiod tumors- swellings and lumps under their ears which cause discomfort and stigmatisms in their communities. These surgeries can take up to 3 hours so it was not possible to accept the 7-8 people we saw. These growths can also sometimes be a sign of HIV so these patients went for a counselling session before having their blood drawn so they understood that we would have to wait for the result before making a decision about surgery. So many people wanted to know straight away if they would be accepted and some were upset when they found out that we would be screening them for HIV (if positive many would be ex-communicated from their communities).

I saw a little girl, 6 years old with a golf ball size lump on her chin. A man in his 60's that lived with a lump the size of your fist on the back of his head, another man with one on his forehead. I saw a man with a lump over his eye that was starting to push his eyeball back into his head causing pain, a little 2 year old with a big growth behind his ear and the only way to entertain him and get a good look at the tumor was by doing the good old blowing up a glove trick and drawing a smiley face on it!He managed to burst it before he left after chewing it and bopping all the chairs and kicking it around the room!I almost brought him back into the ship with me, so so adorable! We had another little boy come in who nose was completely blocked after an attack of scabies so he found it difficult to breath sometimes, a 13 year old boy with a big tumor on his face which he found very distressing and difficult to fit in among his friends. All very strange and i do wonder how on earth all these growths develop but i am seeing it in such a condescended amount of time and space. I'm sure most of the lumps that develop in England are caught while they are still tiny which is why we don't see such extensive lumps and bumps like we do here.

These patients will hopefully have clear blood tests and as long as we have theatre space we will schedule everyone in if they are fit and well. It was a good day to see how the process works in Mercy Ships and how the screening process goes. It is a hard decision for the doctors and nurses down there every week and i don't envy them their job but they do it with such love and gentleness, it was a blessing to see them at work! Good job Jane and Missy :0)