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I heard from my new great friend, Dr. Beatriz Thompson this morning. She gave me an update on the patient that I had written about in the previous post.”Beckie little Kaleem’s tube is out. I drove Raquel, the lady who kept givin direction with green houses, and a volunteer to Stann Creek ie 105 miles. I do not know how Raquel tolerated such a long ride without complaining. The oncologist saw her and ordered blood transfusions,Chest X-ray, doppler ultrasound and then said after those things he will start chemo. Raquel was also running a fever on arrival therefore no chemo could be started.He explained the need for amputation. So right now she is in hospital so that tomorrow she can get USG,she has gotten first blood transfusion.She has hope that she will raise Kaleem and see him become a lawyer.”
Please continue to pray for our team who will be going in February that we can provide the right training and support for this team who are beginning their palliative care association there in Belize.
Dr. Beatriz Thompson, on the left, and a few volunteers started seeing cancer patients in their homes last year. She would do what she could to care for them in their homes and the volunteers would pray with them, read scripture and visit with them to make their days more pleasant. Dr. Thompson’s ministry has grown as word has spread about these caring people. Belize has no Medicare or similar programs. These people are all volunteers, including the doctors and nurses. Many work 6 days a week and then see patients on their day off.
From these volunteers, The Palliative Care Association of Belize has formed. They have worked hard to put together the paperwork needed to be recognized as a formal association in their country. I had the great privelege to meet with them last Wednesday night. There were around 18-20 people there – doctors, nurses, cancer survivors and other volunteers. These people are smart, kind and willing to ask for help and learn. They laugh – and eat together, too! More things that we share!
One of the things that we will be doing there in February is to do some training for this team.
The trip was everything that I had hoped for. I was able to meet the people from The Word at Work that will be hosting us and being our guides while we are there in February – and best of all I was able to meet Dr. Beatriz Thompson and her team at the Palliative Care Association. Dr. Thompson allowed me the great privelege of riding with her as she set up oxygen for one patient who the hospital was sending home. The systems and infrastructure in the country of Belize prevent tasks from happening quickly. It seems to be a constant struggle to get anything that the patient needs.We also did a couple of ‘home visits’ and my home care nurse passion ‘kicked in’. Mrs. Carmen was a lady in her 80’s with liver cancer. She had such a joy for the Lord but many heartaches along her journey in life. I am convinced even more that between women everywhere we are more alike than different. Mrs. Carmen and I laughed about our husbands (sorry Rick) and cried over the loss of a life she should have had with her children and grandchildren.
We left there to find Racquel. She was a new patient that Dr. Thompson was seeing who had been reported to her as needing help. Dr. Thompson is so tiny that she has to sit on a pillow to drive. So we were quite the sight driving through the neighborhood of the poorest part of Belize looking for “the house next to the big green house”. Of course there were about ten big green houses on the street. It was much like home care in the states when the patient says “Oh, drive down the FM road and turn left by the barn”. When we arrived at the shack on stilts, where Racquel was living, her neighbors who had reported her condition were there too. Racquel’s situation was unbelievable. She is an emaciated 21 year old with a beautiful 5 month old baby boy. The sheet was covering her as she lay on the tiny sofa – but when the neighbor removed the sheet we saw what kept her from walking. Below her knee was a tumor almost the size of a volleyball. When we asked questions we found out that she had been in Los Angeles trying to get treatment for her tumor. She was seven months pregnant when they did a c-section to take her baby so they could remove her leg and begin the process for a prosthesis. For some reason, Racquel left before any of that could be done, bringing her premature baby back home with her. The baby was responsive with beautiful eyes. He was taking a bottle. But when the neighbor lifted his shirt there was a tube with 3 ports coming out of his abdomen. I assumed that it was some sort of feeding tube. Dr. Thompson gave Racquel morphine right there and left some for the neighbor to give her in the night. She instructed them to bring mother and baby to the hospital the next day. When I saw Dr. Thompson at noon as she was leaving a c-section (she is an anesthesiologist) she hadn’t heard from them – but she was ok with that as she was going to Racquel’s home that afternoon.
I considered it an honor and privelege to be with Beatriz Thompson. She loves Christ and loves her patients. We can learn much from her as we begin serving the people of Belize.
After a lost (and found) bag, a lost (and found) passport, sleeping on a rustic island, sleeping in a beautiful bed and breakfast, eating loads of rice and beans and making new friends I am home. We leave in six weeks where our team of 15 women representing Christ and 26:12 will go to learn more about a different culture and serve the best we can.
“Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!” Luke 12:48
