Starkey Mission Day Three: Otoscopy!
Thursday, May 11th. Mission Day Three:
Again as we drive the streets every morning, I get lost in thought imagining what the people's lives are like here on a daily basis. I watched one boy probably no older than 12 stacking big boxes of bottled water onto his motorcycle. He was facing the street with his back to a stack of 4 or 5 boxes and he squatted down and picked them all up behind his back and walked them to the moto like it was no big deal. I was in awe of the coordination and strength of the little kid. Another thing that impressed me was how the people do attempt to keep the driveways of their shops clean. They have brooms made out of a cluster of hay all tied together and sweep the garbage into the piles in the gutters. So yes the piles of garbage are everywhere but their driveways are clean.
Today at the mission I was on otoscopy screenings- again it was such a good clinical experience to just walk up and down the rows of chairs looking into people's ears and marking on their hands whether they were clear, had wax, quick wax, fungus, foreign bodies, infection or a perforation. We'd do screenings for part of the time and then cerumen management for the other part of the time. We got to use these loop scopes that were so cool! Dad, you would have loved it. Well you had your nice microscope so you didn't need it but man I would love my own loops- it made cleaning the ears out SO much easier!! Again for my ear nerdiness :) There's just something so satisfying about cleaning out someone's ears. If anyone wants me to clean their ears out, I would be elated to do so!
Oh my but there was one sweet poor kid in particular, when I looked into his ears, it was just completely black due to a wall of impacted cerumen that has been there for who knows how long. And he was not excited about us cleaning his ears (um duh who would be having to spend forever trying to pry that all out?) After several attempts of having him just sit on the mother's lap with no avail, we had to try another way. I held his legs where another woman and a local ENT held his arms and head with the mother holding the boy and then only then was the Starkey guy able to clean out his ears, the poor kid was crying hysterically. Without it, we couldn't fit HA though. So we pressed forward. The moment we finished and let him go he calmed down thankfully. Oh the poor sweet guy, it's amazing how strong those little kids can be when they don't want to be held down!! #preppingformomlife
We went out and helped with fittings at the end of the day. I felt like I fell into a work mode and was just trying to fit as many people as I could the best I could. The language barrier was rough again. But I'm starting to pick up the keywords!! "Clang (or what sounds like clang) " means too loud, "lemon" with the emphasis on the m, means comfortable and then they would usually just shake their hands if it wasn't loud enough. The most difficult part for me was going through a wave of patients and not feeling like I connected to them. But then I had the reminder that this, all this work, is not about me at all. It's all about these people who have been given a glimmer of hope and physical evidence that someone does care about them and that they are not alone in the world. Just watching their eyes changed me. This is such a rare opportunity to serve people one by one, give them a give that I once was given and that hearing and pathway that completely changed the course of my life and now I get to continue passing that gift along. I can't think of anything more wonderful.
The Starkey Hearing Foundation has done an incredible job making this trip so comfortable and enjoyable for us. It almost feels more like a vacation than a mission trip. (My ideal vacation would be to do a working humanitarian project like this though so…) Tonight they rented a ferry boat thing to ride up and down the Mekong river for a view of the city and sunset from the water. It was appalling how much garbage there was lining the hillsides down to the river, and the shacks were embedded into it looking like a shanty town. And oh the stench. It was sobering to think that people live by and on this water. This is not a river I ever want to swim in or even touch, but the view was absolutely amazing. We had a dance party and just enjoyed everyone's company on the team. It was really fun seeing my professors on a chill, real life level. I'll never be able to forget Dr. Larsen rocking his dance moves!! Oh wow good times.
So playing Nerts (aka Pounce with face cards) is the tradition here on the missions!! I got so excited!! I haven't played in so long!! Brittany, Christina, Dr. Jensen, and Dr. Porter all played and I got demolished! They do not play on teams, they stack their line of four cards like solitaire, you can not stack consecutive cards (I don't even know if that is allowed in our Palfreyman pounce games but I think it should be…) and you can only use one hand to put cards out. Needless to say, I failed miserably but it's ok, Dr. Porter often got the same score as I so we were just the bottom pack while Brittany, Christina, and Dr. J really played haha. I've got a couple more missions to practice on! but oh my I love the fact that they played!! It made me so happy!! Do what ever makes you feel good. Game moto from Dr. J right there. Seeing Dr. J and Dr. Porter get competitive and sassy was such a highlight oh my good times!!
Again as we drive the streets every morning, I get lost in thought imagining what the people's lives are like here on a daily basis. I watched one boy probably no older than 12 stacking big boxes of bottled water onto his motorcycle. He was facing the street with his back to a stack of 4 or 5 boxes and he squatted down and picked them all up behind his back and walked them to the moto like it was no big deal. I was in awe of the coordination and strength of the little kid. Another thing that impressed me was how the people do attempt to keep the driveways of their shops clean. They have brooms made out of a cluster of hay all tied together and sweep the garbage into the piles in the gutters. So yes the piles of garbage are everywhere but their driveways are clean.
Today at the mission I was on otoscopy screenings- again it was such a good clinical experience to just walk up and down the rows of chairs looking into people's ears and marking on their hands whether they were clear, had wax, quick wax, fungus, foreign bodies, infection or a perforation. We'd do screenings for part of the time and then cerumen management for the other part of the time. We got to use these loop scopes that were so cool! Dad, you would have loved it. Well you had your nice microscope so you didn't need it but man I would love my own loops- it made cleaning the ears out SO much easier!! Again for my ear nerdiness :) There's just something so satisfying about cleaning out someone's ears. If anyone wants me to clean their ears out, I would be elated to do so!
Oh my but there was one sweet poor kid in particular, when I looked into his ears, it was just completely black due to a wall of impacted cerumen that has been there for who knows how long. And he was not excited about us cleaning his ears (um duh who would be having to spend forever trying to pry that all out?) After several attempts of having him just sit on the mother's lap with no avail, we had to try another way. I held his legs where another woman and a local ENT held his arms and head with the mother holding the boy and then only then was the Starkey guy able to clean out his ears, the poor kid was crying hysterically. Without it, we couldn't fit HA though. So we pressed forward. The moment we finished and let him go he calmed down thankfully. Oh the poor sweet guy, it's amazing how strong those little kids can be when they don't want to be held down!! #preppingformomlife
We went out and helped with fittings at the end of the day. I felt like I fell into a work mode and was just trying to fit as many people as I could the best I could. The language barrier was rough again. But I'm starting to pick up the keywords!! "Clang (or what sounds like clang) " means too loud, "lemon" with the emphasis on the m, means comfortable and then they would usually just shake their hands if it wasn't loud enough. The most difficult part for me was going through a wave of patients and not feeling like I connected to them. But then I had the reminder that this, all this work, is not about me at all. It's all about these people who have been given a glimmer of hope and physical evidence that someone does care about them and that they are not alone in the world. Just watching their eyes changed me. This is such a rare opportunity to serve people one by one, give them a give that I once was given and that hearing and pathway that completely changed the course of my life and now I get to continue passing that gift along. I can't think of anything more wonderful.
The Starkey Hearing Foundation has done an incredible job making this trip so comfortable and enjoyable for us. It almost feels more like a vacation than a mission trip. (My ideal vacation would be to do a working humanitarian project like this though so…) Tonight they rented a ferry boat thing to ride up and down the Mekong river for a view of the city and sunset from the water. It was appalling how much garbage there was lining the hillsides down to the river, and the shacks were embedded into it looking like a shanty town. And oh the stench. It was sobering to think that people live by and on this water. This is not a river I ever want to swim in or even touch, but the view was absolutely amazing. We had a dance party and just enjoyed everyone's company on the team. It was really fun seeing my professors on a chill, real life level. I'll never be able to forget Dr. Larsen rocking his dance moves!! Oh wow good times.
So playing Nerts (aka Pounce with face cards) is the tradition here on the missions!! I got so excited!! I haven't played in so long!! Brittany, Christina, Dr. Jensen, and Dr. Porter all played and I got demolished! They do not play on teams, they stack their line of four cards like solitaire, you can not stack consecutive cards (I don't even know if that is allowed in our Palfreyman pounce games but I think it should be…) and you can only use one hand to put cards out. Needless to say, I failed miserably but it's ok, Dr. Porter often got the same score as I so we were just the bottom pack while Brittany, Christina, and Dr. J really played haha. I've got a couple more missions to practice on! but oh my I love the fact that they played!! It made me so happy!! Do what ever makes you feel good. Game moto from Dr. J right there. Seeing Dr. J and Dr. Porter get competitive and sassy was such a highlight oh my good times!!
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