Last post! With a tribute to the team!

There's not too much more to write about the rest of the trip! Except for the fact that I went around with Lexi to most of the post-op kids to have them sign a HUGS scrub shirt! I believe we are going to auction if off/display it at the next HUGS gala. It was really special and cute how excited the kids got to sign it! It is also sweet because they all have 2 first names and 2 last names so they all took up a decent amount of the shirt. : )







Here was a little brother of one of the patients. He was one that was truly amazing at the fact that he could see himself on the digital camera after the picture was taken!






I thought his mother's outfit was also beautiful. I found out that all of the women and kids who were wearing the authentic Guatemalan garb usually were the ones who came from very far away and lived and worked in the campo. The fabrics and patterns and everything are just amazing to me!






I spent a good portion of the rest of the day in post-op helping out Rita and Joe. I love being in post-op although it is sad because the kids are usually kind of sad and just want to be with their parents. But it is good to be there and talk with them and try to get their mind off of their situation. Here was one guy who was a real cutie - his name is Juan Sebastian. : ) He was a combined case; he got 2 surgeries when most of these kids just got 1. 2-3 surgeries are usually needed so it is nice to get 2 of them done in 1 surgery.

That was pretty much it for the last day! We then all met up at a great restaurant for a farewell dinner and a celebration for Penny's birthday which was the day before! It was a wonderful last meal with everyone.

Dr. Quatela said some very nice words about the team and the mission at the end of the meal. Everyone was very pleased with the mission as a whole: the results of all of the patients, the patients and their families in general, the organization and staff of the hospital, the location, everything! It was such a success and the team is already looking into going back next year.




Since we had such an awesome and dedicated team, I think it is necessary to set aside a portion of this blog to display the efforts of the members and their commitment to HUGS! If I got any of the information wrong in terms of how many years you have done HUGS, let me know and I will change it if you'd like!




Dr. Vito Quatela, M.D.: founder of HUGS.


Dr. Tessa Hadlock, M.D. on the left: has been on all HUGS missions and has participated in missions before HUGS.

Dr. Jennifer Kim, M.D. in the middle: 1st HUGS mission but has also been on missions before HUGS.


Dr. Mack Cheney, M.D.: has been on all HUGS missions and has also participated in missions before HUGS.


Jen Chow, M.D. on the left: a past fellow to Dr. Quatela, made Guatemala his 4th HUGS mission.


Christopher Kolstad, M.D.: the current fellow to Dr. Quatela, made this his 1st HUGS mission.


Nancy Mark, M.D. on the left: just finished her 8th HUGS trip!


Antonio Silva, M.D.: had Guatemala as his 3rd HUGS mission.


Jennifer Haug, CRNA: has been on 4 HUGS mission trips.


Debbie Metzger, CRNA: had this past mission be her 7th time on a HUGS mission.


Susan Schroeder, CAA: has participated in 2 HUGS missions.


Patricia Brown, RN: has been on almost all of the HUGS missions!


Priscilla Bach, RN: made Guatemala her 7th mission with HUGS.


Joseph Bretz, RN: has attended 6 missions with HUGS.


Penny Champion, RN on the left: made this her 3rd mission with HUGS.


Rita Rutledge, RN: has been on 2 missions with HUGS.


Karen Moran, RN: made Guatemala her 6th mission trip with HUGS.


Audrey Keliher on the right: has been on 2 HUGS trips.


Laura Rykard: made this her 4th mission with HUGS.


Missy Allen: has been on all of the mission trips with HUGS!


Lexi Silva: has been on 2 HUGS mission trips.


Jack Mark: made Guatemala his 3rd mission trip with HUGS.


Thanks again to everyone on the team for making this such a successful first trip to Guatemala! Thanks also to everyone who has been reading along with my blog - hope you all enjoyed it.

Adios!
Katie

Pictures from Katie

For those who haven't seen the pictures on Shutterfly yet!

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Back in the U.S.!

Home safe and sound. Our trip from Antigua to Rochester was a breeze! Customs, security, and everything worked out very well. We got in pretty late, so I am still feeling tired so I am not going to do a blog post now, but I uploaded pictures to Shutterfly if you would like to see. I already emailed a bunch of the team, but if you'd like me to send it to you if I haven't already, post your email in a comment and I will share it with you!

Will put up another post with more pictures from the last day soon! It was such a wonderful mission overall; in fact, I am missing being there right now!

Thanks to all who have followed me during the trip. Keep checking back so you can see the last few posts!

Adios. : )

Actividades de Tuesday y un poquito de Wednesday

Today is the last day at the hospital! Sad it is coming to an end, I feel like we all just got here! I will start my post about Tuesday now that I am at the hospital. Here is a beautiful picture of the first COMPLETELY clear day on the walk to the hospital!! So beautiful.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. Rita, Joe and I went in a little early so that we could feed the babies that are in the nursery. On the first day of the mission, we had a tour of the hospital which is where we saw the nursery as I said in an earlier post, so we thought it would be special to go do that. Some of the babies are very happy and others are rather stoic. We really have no idea what they have been through, given the fact that they are taken into this nusery, so maybe this is why they are more calm and not necessarily smiley babies. One of the babies that I was holding was very happy and curious, but that was obviously not the case for all of them. A lot of them have many disabilities which is difficult to see, but it is important for there to be new, smiling faces for these kids. There were some older children who were in wheelchairs that we got to feed. This was also sad, but important as I said. The boy I fed was 7 years old and it appeared that he had cerebral palsy. One of the nurses said that his mother had malnutrition when he was pregnant with him, but it seemed that he had more than that. Despite this being hard to take in, it was very special to spend one morning there.

After feeding the little ones, I did some more interviews. They really flowed nicely yesterday because of all of the practice I have been getting. I got nervous to talk with the families initially, but it truly is enjoyable now because I can understand most of what is going on, even with incredibly fast talkers! I feel I have come a long way since Sunday at screening.

I briefly said in the last post that I got to help Dr. Quatela out in the O.R. which was quite an experience! I have scrubbed in as an assistant to my Dad on missions to the Philippines before, but that is my only experience and that was quite a while ago. So it was exciting to be a part of a surgery again just doing little things like holding skin hooks and cutting stitches. The coolest part was watching how he carves the rib. For those who are not familiar with the surgery, the surgeons need to take 3 pieces of rib from the patient which they mold and bend to the shape of an ear.This is then placed into the area of the patient´s deformed ear which the surgeon has loosened and cut up so there is room for the framework of the "ear" made from rib to fit. The carving and sewing of the rib pieces together takes a good amount of time. Dr. Q needs to make sure that the durability is just right. Although the ear will not be as durable and bendable as a normal ear, it is still much better than having a deformed ear. 3 or 4 surgeries are necessary to complete the transformation, so little by little the ear looks more and more natural.

After watching the 2nd patient I scrubbed in again for the 3rd, but then I left when I was not needed to take some more pictures of the hospital and the team. At the end of the day, I went on rounds to see the patients with Chris, Dr. Quatela´s new fellow, and Dr. Q. Some of the kids got nervous for their drains to be taken out which was sad to see, but they are all just a bit pain sensitive a few days after their surgeries which is understandable.

Today, Wednesday, has been pretty regular and low key. The Padre, who had given us the tour and introduction at the hospital, came today to say thank you to the team, share the hospital´s hopes, dreams and plans, and hand out certificates for us! After that, I have just been doing my normal interviews. Lexi, who is Tony´s daughter, tagged along with me to my interviews since she is learning Spanish also and wanted to be exposed to the interactions with the families. I have had the opportunity to talk to all of the kids in my interviews today which is rare! Later I am going to go to post-op and talk with the kids and families from the previous days to see how they are doing. After that, I will probably just be taking more pictures and helping to pack things up! It has been a nice and easy last day so far. Can´t complain.

I am sad to leave, but also very excited to go home to start on this project with making this book! Tonight we are having some sort of last night dinner along with a celebration for Penny´s birthday which will be nice. Some people are staying for some extra time, but most of the Rochesterians will be making the trek home together tomorrow! We should be getting home around midnight. It will be a long day of travel but it all has been worth it.

The volunteers are starting to get crazy as the trip comes to an end...


Will post more tomorrow about our last day!

Day 1 of interviewing/Tuesday post - coming soon!

I am just going to write about Monday in this post and talk about Tuesday and Wednesday in my next post. It is late here and estoy muy cansada y necesito mucho energia para el dia final! Keeping up a blog is harder than I imagined!!!

2 great days to update you all on! Sorry I didn't update sooner - it has been busy as you can imagine! Busy in a good way. Monday was a wonderful first official day - everyone was extremely pleased. The permanent staff here in the hospital is so helpful with everything so it makes the first mission flow extremely smoothly. Apparently this hospital has missions EVERY week! This definitely helps them with organization. Everyone just keeps raving about all of the help they get which is so great for a first mission!

I interviewed 7 families yesterday which went extremely well! We do 6 cases a day so I got to interview all of the families that had surgery done on Monday which is a nice distraction for the parents whose children were in surgery.
All of the families are extremely open to sharing information and are very grateful for what we do. Generally what I found through all of the interviews from Monday was that all of the children live with both their mothers and fathers which is contrary to what I have heard about Ecuador. Dr. Quatela was telling me that it was relatively uncommon for the parents to be the ones to bring in the children for their surgery in Ecuador. The people that are bringing the children in for surgery in Ecuador are usually the adoptive parents or people who simply found the children abandoned. I also believe that microtia is not as common in Guatemala as it is in Ecuador. Most of the parents do not have jobs - most work in the campo which is just working on a field; it is most common for the fathers to have jobs and the mothers to stay home with the children. The parents also give me a lot of information on how these deformities have affected their children's lives and how they anticipate it will change their lives by having this transforming surgery. The parents have gotten emotional at times which is sad, but it also makes me happy that they are so touched that their kids are being helped by this wonderful team. Usually the mothers get tears in their eyes when I ask them the question "Is there anything you'd like to say to the doctors that are helping your child?" I am so incredibly fortunate to have these relationships with these patients and their families by simply speaking their language with them and asking them simple questions about the deformity. So the families have been very generous with the information they are giving to me.

I ask all of the parents if it is okay for me to use the information for a report on this mission and they all say it is fine and one of the mother's responses struck me as something really special. She said that she was willing to give any information that would help the foundation because people need to know about this deformity and how important it is for kids to be given the opportunity to have a normal life and have this deformity fixed if possible. It is wonderful how receptive these parents have been - it has made my job much easier! I got to interview the parents mostly, but later in the day and on Tuesday I got to see more of the kids with their parents and was able to put a name with a face which was really awesome. It is also a really neat thing to be able to establish a relationship with these parents. When I see them now, they will approach me to talk and ask questions. They feel more comfortable sharing information with me after having some conversations with them. They really let their guard down around me which means a lot. I believe tomorrow I am going to do follow up interviews so that I can see how the parents and their children are doing after their surgeries and hopefully I can talk to some of the kids more as well! The kids have been such great sports throughout this whole process; you can see in the pictures throughout this post that they are attempting to give me some smiles through their recovery! I am sure they are just happy to be done with their surgery. Hopefully I will find out more information from them tomorrow in the interviews!

I will write more soon about Tuesday - probably on Thursday when I hopefully have some downtime on the trip home! I have so much to write about - Tuesday was probably the most exciting day for me! A little preview...Dr. Quatela let me scrub in with him!! Details of course will come, but I had a wonderful experience helping out in the O.R. viewing this incredibly amazing surgery! Write soon.

First day at the hospital Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro!

Today was a very great and short day! We made our way over to the hospital this morning after breakfast and met the director of the hospital as well as his assistant. We also got a wonderful tour from a priest who works at the hospital. That was my first translating job of the day - to translate what he wanted to say to the group, but it ended up being okay and I had some help from Tessa who is one of the doctors who is wonderfully fluent in Spanish. I didn't get a ton of pictures of the hospital, but I will post what I have now and I will get more as the week goes on when I have downtime.

This is the beautiful entrance to the hospital! It is a quick 5 minute walk from the hotel which is incredibly convenient. On the way we obviously get to see the authenticity of this beautiful city of Antigua. I promise more photos will come of this amazing area! I can't wait to take many more pictures of it; the quaintness of the city is really something else.

The hospital is beautiful, clean, and organized. It is full of gorgeous courtyards and gardens and a lot of open air waiting areas and facilities which is very unique in comparison to other hospitals on other missions I have been on. It makes being in the hospital very pleasant! Below is a picture of our phenomenal team!


As we got a tour of the hospital, we got to see all of the permanent habitants. This hospital is impressive because it has about 250 individuals, who are all orphans, that live there full time. We got to see all of the facilities where they stayed which were well taken care of like the rest of the hospital. Most of them were disabled which was hard to see knowing they were abandoned by their family or were not able to be taken care of. It was heart wrenching to see the children in the nursery, especially the ones with cleft lips. However, these children and adults are being taken care of possibly more than they ever would be with their own families or on their own. It is really wonderful what this hospital does for their people. Pictures were not allowed on that part of the tour, so I don't have anything documenting all of the facilities for the orphans.

Today was used for setting up and screening. I believe we are doing about 15-20 patients although I am not sure of the exact number. This is nice because we have a smaller team and it is the maiden mission which makes it easier and less stressful for everyone. Before we all started off on our daily tasks, Dr. Tessa gave an information session with Q&A for the families.

Today I helped Dr. Cheney, one of the doctors from Boston, take photos and measure the ears of the children. Of course, most of the children were to die for adorable and were so sweet. It is special to be able to interact with them in little bits in their language. We are able to do most of the patients, but some of them are a little too young but can be operated on when they are older. 5 years is usually the youngest that can be operated on.


The little boy on the right was one who was only 10 months, which is obviously too young, but I thought it was really unique how he and his mother both had the same mole on their faces! He was an adorable kid - one of those who was incredibly amused and giggly about the fact that he could see himself on the digital camera after I took it. : ) It's the simple things that make your day on these missions.

The little girl with the pigtails is one who came into the screening room and gave all of us a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Really too cute. They are truly the sweetest children.

Since we only had a half day everyone went and did various fun activities for the remainder of the day. Tomorrow is the first full day! Exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. I will start my interviews with the families tomorrow. I have been tweaking my interview questions in my downtime and now that I have had some experience the past few days refreshing my Spanish, I am feeling more confident.

More pictures to come! It was difficult to take a lot today, but I will definitely get some more of the patients and the hospital soon. This has been a great mission thus far with a truly awesome and talented team. Wish us luck on our first official day tomorrow!

Arrived safe & sound!

We have arrived in the beautiful Antigua! Flights couldn't have gone smoother. Everyone was up at the crack of dawn; the Rochestarians met at the airport at 4:30. It was tough but it all was worth it now! It really is something else here. It was a beautiful drive from Guatemala City to Antigua. It is quite a different feel between the two cities. Although we simply drove through Guatemala City, it transitioned from a bustling urban metropolis to a more mountainous, old, colonial feel in Antigua! Unfortunately I didn't get to snap any pictures but I definitely will try to take some and post them tomorrow. Antigua is full of beautiful plazas, architecture, and quaint little streets - all with cobblestone roads! The hotel is quite beautiful which is nice to take advantage of after a long day of travel. The hospital is within walking distance of the hotel which is great - about 10 minutes. We are just doing screening tomorrow. Exciting to start everything up! It has been good to practice my Spanish with the drivers and hotel staff to get me prepped for the week. Dinner with the team tonight!

That's all for now - Adios!