A Bike in Every Port

Today is John's 60th birthday...he is not fond of my broadcasting it, but I think its wonderful! I quote, "Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be!" We headed out for an early AM walk to the store to have birthday coffee and buy some grapes for him. On returning to the house, I put the no-fat carrot cake to bake while we went to Home Depot so he could begin buying things for Honduras. We will only have l full day in Phoenix as we depart the country in March, so he needs to get most stuff during our last 2 days here before flying to the NW on Saturday.

You know the saying, "A woman in every port?" Well, we joke about John's "bike in every port". Knowing he'd not had much exercise for that past 7 months, I set out to locate a bike for him to ride during his 5 days here in Sun City. Found that to rent one here would be about $50 daily, and was having no luck finding a used one, so had given up. The last night before he arrived I went to Craig's List once again and made a few calls. One sounded positive, so we followed it up Monday and were able to get a very nice John-quality bike for much less than a rental. Plus it will have the advantage of always being here at my folks when we visit. Thank you, Lord! John has used it at least once daily this week, did 60 K yesterday. Well worth it!

John and I drove directly to Sedona, AZ after reuniting at the airport late Saturday- 6 weeks to the day that John had taken me to the airport to fly up and be here with mom. John's brother Gary and his wife Jane had saved dinner for us, and we also got to visit with Gary's daughter Lynn and her daughter. They are the most awesome hosts in the world, always making us feel pampered and loved. We go away spiritually fed, emotionally tended, physically refreshed. We attended sunday services at Christ Center Wesleyan, one of our supporting churches, and shared a bit impromptu about the work in Honduras. A very warm and receptive group- good visits with new friends afterwards. Monday a.m. I met with the church secretary just to share and deepen the relationship that had begun several weeks before when she had gone to church with Jane and I down in Phoenix. Time well invested.

Yesterday, Mike and Kandee McKlain from OR who have visited us with a team twice now in Honduras came by to see us. They are snowbirding for 2 months near here, and took the opportunity to take us hiking and picnicking. We did some brainstorming re: their 2009 trip next September, and were able to view the awesome album another team member, Shirley, had sent with them. So fun to see our world thru other's eyes. Very encouraging. Kandee left us with another original painting she had done of a Honduran mud hut- John immediately claimed it as I have her first one in my office. They also left us with the video the pastor, Richard, had put together to present to their church after their visit to Honduras. Excellent, and was very good to be able to show it to my folks to give them a better idea of our lives there.

John and I, Kandee and Mike

Our Sarah's baby is now less than 2 weeks from due. Praise God she has navigated these 38 weeks in good health. Our next note will likely be first pictures of our granddaughter!

And, speaking of granddaughters, Eryn, 10, won her school's geography bee yesterday! WOW! We immediately got online and ordered her the National Geographic guide for studying! This is the same brilliant child who just did a science fair project on "The Relative Strength of Various Brands of Gummy Worms". Top that one, you grandparents! :)

Driving Miss Daisy, New guitar

While the rest of the USA hunkers down in record low tempereatures, here in Sun City, AZ where I have been now for over 5 weeks, we walked in shirtsleeves this afternoon, and swam laps in an outdoor pool yesterday! The citrus is coming ripe, so enjoying oranges and tangelos before we head for the NW on the 24th. John is due to arrive in just over a week- this is the longest we have ever been seperated...I get giddy just thinking about his upcoming arrival! (Sorry, John!)

Mom continues to improve- she began doing laps again about 5 days ago, but after 3 days, had some mildly disturbing symptoms so she is back to waterwalking again for a bit. Dad thinks she was doing too much too fast. By the time I swim laps with mom, then go to the gym for a long run on the treadmill or on the elliptical machine with dad, I should be in better shape than ever before. I've enjoyed meeting mom and dad's friends, one widower who has come to dinner twice with us. I joke about "Driving Miss Daisy" daily, but what fun we have! One day, while doing the grocery shopping, I set out to find mom after being seperated from her. I figured it would be easy- just scan the aisles for the short, whitehaired lady. However, since this is a retirement community, there were very few who didn't meet that description!

Today was another milestone, as Mom stepped out without me to go to lunch with 5 girlfriends, and do some cardmaking. Found myself listening for the phone! I had a commitment with one of their friends here at the house for a guitar "lesson"- Dick had helped me do the EBay purchase of my new travel guitar, and had offered to give me some hints and play some. Very worthwhile 2 hours. Now, if I can only remember it all! Been trying to use my time wisely and play as much as possible.

Jack Deere: "A passion for God has to be guarded and cultivated or we will los it. Almost every good thing in my life is all too ready to compete for my time and intimacy with God. The essence of all of life is loving God and then loving His people"

Only One Wee Foot

Women's Health Project

Penny here! Have encouraged John to send out his women's health mailings to our journal list, as many have said they were interested on his perspective also. Be alerted that this tends to lean more to the medical stuff, if you are squeamish! I told him after reading this that I could probably deliver a footling breech with these explicit instructions!

A couple of weeks ago I had opportunity to visit with a prospective full time missionary. As we talked, I shared that never, before coming here, do I "recall" seeing a miracle. I have overheard others verbalize the same. Does our lack of resources teach us to pray and see differently than we otherwise do? I suspect so. Do we understand a bit better than ever before the work of the LORD? I think so. Among my observations about such occurrences is that they do not occur when I am expecting them.

I went to bed that night having no reason to think that I would not get a good night's sleep. As I drifted off, the radio quickly brought me to alertness. Nelsy, the night nurse who is always gracious and patient, had a stressed rapidness in her speech. A mountain village midwife had brought in a patient who, after three days of labor, was ready to deliver. However, "only one wee foot came out". This we call a "single footling breech".

This is not a pretty picture. One foot out... the other foot probably up by the baby's ear. In the absence of a cesarean section the prognosis is grim. Most of the time we do not have anesthesia here and that was indeed the case that night.. The city is at VERY BEST an hour away. This is not the best time of the year to travel.

The trip down to the hospital is quick, a half mile. But I had time to pray for wisdom and grace. Prayer is something that has not come natural for me, but I rarely miss it as I go down the hill. I recall the text books of nearly three decades ago and the few of these cases that one ever sees.

By GOD's design the head (the biggest part) normally comes first, the rest comes easily. In our four plus years here, I have heard (among the village midwives) of only one live breech birth. The picture is so grim that one begins to ask questions. Does GOD not want babies who are born breech to live? Are those born such inherently evil people? (If my picture here is not clear, if you wonder what I am thinking about, the question is: ?Infanticide?)

The single foot complicates it. Get the other leg out, straight, without breaking or dislocating something. The distal half of your of your index finger behind the knee, now flex the lower leg with your middle finger as you gently rotate the hip and pull it down.

Now the arms, carefully, as it’s easy to cause permanent nerve damage at the level of the shoulder.

Now the head, if it is not trapped by an incompletely opened cervix. Don't break the neck. These processes are named for those who first thought out and described the maneuver, I remember the name of this one, the Mauriceau, Smellie, Veit maneuver. With middle finger in the mouth and the ring and index fingers below the lower orbits of the eyes (careful with the eyes) keep the head flexed as an assistant pushes down on the bladder area and you lift the body up so that the head emerges, as it rotates.

You do all this while you are trying to work around the woman's stress: contractions, pain and not easy to control "thrashing about". Do not scare her, hurt her, cause a laceration, break something inside of her. Do this without your own stress (yelling, throwing things) making things worse.

Three days? Maternal dehydration, exhaustion, infection, probably a dead baby. (I had one of those this week also.) To be honest, even recounting such a case raises your pulse. This is why relatively few doctors or nurses want to do OB.

The first miracle was that she was healthy and having no contractions and the baby was alive. Maybe that is three miracles. But time is on our side. The ambulance was there in only 40 minutes (sometimes takes a couple of hours). Nelsy woke up Ritza, another Honduran nurse to ride in the ambulance with me. She woke up Dr. Renee to follow behind the ambulance, to assist, if we had to deal with a delivery en route and get to us home from La Ceiba.

Denia started have some mild contractions a few blocks from the hospital. We arrived there (the public hospital) in 55 minutes; in the rainy season, there is no way! It’s hard to make that kind of time in the dry season. The Labor and Delivery folk at Atlantida have learned that I bring bad news. They were on this lady quickly, gently and kindly. We listened to the baby's heart beat with my electronic stethoscope (they do not have one). I suspect that they held back some tears along with the cheers, but you could hear the sighs. She was whisked off for a Cesarean.

A week later we took out her stitches at the Health department clinic and passed around her quiet and content daughter.

I have recounted some of the miracles. Denia's health, a live baby, no contractions, timing absolutely the best and an L&D staff able to hop on it. It took me a week or so to realize another miracle. The same fairly dry weather that permitted our incredibly fast trip had also made it possible for Denia to cross the streams and get out of the mountains. Without that, the outcome for the baby and mom would have been different. Praise God.

John Alden
The Women’s Health Project
Hospital Loma de Luz,
Balfate, Colon, Honduras