So...I'm the new girl

Hello Makarios readers all over. My name is Laura and I am about the only person on staff not from Texas. I am from Dayton, OH where I work as a nurse in a pediatric emergency room. I absolutely love my job, but what I love most is that God has given me a skill that is needed everywhere with constant opportunites to serve others and honor him. I came with a small group from work in the fall and it was during that trip that I knew this would not be my last time coming to the DR to work with these kids. God began working in me and I got the time to come off and spend the month of May here with a job description to "heal all the children." I laughed when I heard this. I'm very aware that this will not happen, but I will do whatever I can.

I've only been here a week, but have had many medical discoveries. The usual infected wound, scalp fungus and burns. This week, we have had the pleasure of having Dr. Glennen and his assistant Connie at the school for dental work. They have managed to see every child and pull lots and lots of teeth. I was highly impressed with their skills and how well the children handled it. And seeing how I am always a part of the shoving the tooth back in as opposed to taking it out, this was a learning and interesting experience. Edwin, AKA Bobo, had 8 (yes, count 'em 8) teeth extracted and slept through it! Not only that, he was snoring and had one tooth that had four roots instead of the normal three which made it extra hard to remove. He didn't care. I know he was numb, but good glory, there is still pressure. And we all know the doctor means when he says "you're going to feel some pressure." Oh yeah, he had an infected wound on his leg, so I cleaned and dressed it...he woke up for that, go figure.

I am always amazed at how children react to situations. I think only three of all the kids actually cried and got upset. Only two of them were we not able to work on b/c they wouldn't cooperate. This would have never happened in the States. We would have had to use all sorts of distraction and papoosing. I notice it even with the latinos that come into the ER back home. They are the most well behaved kids and don't cry until we leave the room or are told they are allowed. It's the machismo culture. And never in the States would we be able to just pull teeth without consent to treat from parents.

We will be doing more dental work tomorrow. If you want to see more pictures or see what life is like in the DR for a midwest lady, you can check out my blog. It was created for this trip and will only last a month. http://totheleastofthese-laura.blogspot.com/

For whatever reason, I am not able to post any pictures or video at this time, but I will do my best to post some soon!