**I have patient and Mercy Ships permission to use the first name and age of a patient on this blog. No photos will be used, but this amount of patient info is allowed**
Right now is "ortho season"in the hospital. What this means is 6 weeks of orthopedic surgery with an average of 2 patients a day. 95% of these surgeries are straightening either bow legged or knock-kneed children ages 4-14. I have the absolutely privilege of meeting these kiddos and parents the day before surgery, taking some measurements of their crooked legs and seeing them again the day after surgery when they have full leg casts on. From there we are doing exercises in bed, then standing and even walking with the casts on! As I have written previously, healing takes a long time here so the casts will be on for months. Then the fun of strengthening legs after cast removal, and finally the patient can go home! It's a long journey but absolutely life changing for these kiddos.
Isatu (Eye-Sit-Too) is one of my ortho kids. She is about 10 years old and from a very small town that she has never left. She is here with her dad (all kids get 1 caregiver while they are here) while her mother is home with her siblings. The whole family is giving up a lot for her to be here, but they are also excited for this opportunity to change her life. She speaks a dialect of language here not a lot of people know, which makes her and her father feel more isolated. When I first met her the day before surgery she was very shy and would barely look at me or my translator. She kept her very bent legs covered under a dress and her eyes were at the floor. Her father looked desperate for help for his daughter.
I saw her 2 days later after her surgery as she was in bed, dad at her side with 2 long leg casts up to mid-thigh. Eyes were looking at the other kids who also had the same casts, especially the girl next to her who was about the same age. She speaks a different language but I could tell it was making Isatu feel "normal" for the first time. What a gift.
She is now about 2 weeks post surgery. Leg casts are now bright pink with flowers and stickers all of them. She can walk about 100 ft with a walker and dad by her side. She smiles and waves at me when she sees me in the hallway. I'm learning a few words in her language from her and she giggles at my pronunciation.
Today I walked her down to radiology for her first x-ray since surgery. We lined her up and I took dad and the translator around the corner so we could see the picture of his girls legs. When that x-ray of those STRAIGHT legs came up on the screen that gentle giant papa wept. He hugged me and grabbed my hand and said Tenki Tenki Tenki (Thank you thank you thank you) over and over. The radiologist showed him the x-ray from before the surgery and then back to the new x-ray for today. We got little Isatu and brought her into the x-ray booth to show her and she cried and hugged her dad.
As much as we could all see her casts and knew those legs were straight under there, something about seeing that x-ray made it real. Her legs are straight! She will walk normal and go to school and live her life.
I brought her back to her room, gave her a hug and dad stopped me again. Through the translator he told me he is thankful for me. Thankful I left my home to come here. Thankful I love his daughter. Thankful for the kindness of strangers. We talked openly about Hope and Healing. Hope for a brighter future of Isatu and the Healing of her legs. But then I could tell him of the Hope I have in Jesus. Healing of our lives not only physical bodies.
I have the best job ever. This place is magical. God is doing things here and I get to be part of it. Pray for Isatu. Pray for her dad. Pray I can keep having amazing conversations while I witness hope and healing. This is one patient and one day out of hundreds. I am excited for what is next as we serve Sierra Leone.
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