An Unusual Use for Ultrasound Jelly

Another successful day at clinic!! We were at a bigger church which had a lovely brand new hostel for us to see people in and we definitely saw more people than yesterday.

Our EKG gave us another fright this morning (this thing has been causing so much drama!!) context: the stickers were able to be washed, dried, and reused. (You might remember that they regained their stickiness, which is awesome!!) But then, on the first EKG of the day we put all the stickers on and go to print the EKG and there’s just flatlines! And clearly my patient is alive so…. I ran and got Kirk and we tried brand new stickers on the limbs and got a reading. So the problem was clearly the stickers.

Kirk guessed that I had scrubbed them a little too hard and the conductive jelly from the actual electrode had washed off. Thankfully, someone wonderful had bought me a brand new baby Doppler (not sure if we will get to hear any heartbeats this trip because most of the population has been elderly folks, but perhaps). This Doppler came with ultrasound jelly, of course, which is the same stuff used on the stickers!!!

So we plopped a little bit of jelly underneath the stickers and it worked perfectly!!! Praise God! I am so grateful for how He provides in such creative ways. The craziest part is that we probably were going to bring a bunch of jelly with us for the butterfly ultrasound machine we were trying to procure but that fell through at the last moment. And with it, we no longer needed the jelly so we chucked it for the weight. But God knew what we still needed  and provided.

I really had such a great day talking with and serving all of the people who came :)

To help with the flow a bit, in between tests I would run vitals on people waiting to see a doctor and since they were there with all their friends (and not laying in front of me with their goodies exposed, if you catch my meaning) there was a lot more playful banter and smiles and conversations which made my heart so full.

Interesting artifact from the Soviet Union is that doctors here rarely treat their patients like humans. Lots of the patients were saying that when they go to the government doctors here, they are told to take their clothes off and lay down and then the doctor pushes and prods to do what they need to do. They were really shocked when we talked about the procedure before and during. It seems normal to me to tell people what I am going to do (you know, consent and the like) but they kept commenting to my translator that this was extremely unusual.

Another similar vein, when I was doing vitals, I was crawling around on the floor, as you do, because they were in full rows and I didn’t have a table or anything so it was easier to write on the floor. To me, no big deal — I feel like most of the time I’m on the floor more than in a chair 😆 but this was very shocking to them! Some gasped, some asked if I wanted a chair, some laughed! One lady said that local doctors sit in thrones far away from them and asked if all American doctors were like me. Moments like these make you realize how worlds apart you can be, even if there is “modern” medicine and you’re not in a third world country.

During the planning stages of this trip, that was one of the goals: to reframe healthcare with an emphasis on the care part, but it didn’t really click until today.

One thing I am grateful for in a weird way is the vulnerability taking EKGs has provided. Lots of people started sharing personal stories and hardships with me probably because we were already having to be so comfortable with one another.

Trigger warning…

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An older woman shared what it was like after World War II when the Germans began to throw Jewish children out of moving trains and how her and her family tried to desperately save them.

Another woman spoke of being placed in a fireplace.

People spoke about being Russian or speaking Russian and having their lives turned upside down when all of this started. People turning on them. Suddenly not being able to understand anything being spoken. So much stress and uncertainty.

Still others shared about how their husbands, sons, grandsons, brothers, and friends were fighting on the frontlines, had been captured, were MIA, or had been killed.

One lady told me that the story she had shared, she had never told anyone before, not even her family. She said that she knows that sharing is good for you, but she’s never felt comfortable enough to share until today. All I can think is thank goodness we have The Comforter!! That is one of the things I prayed over many of my patients today: that the God who is the ultimate Comfort would be with them in everything. And to me, it seemed like He was definitely in the room with us comforting every patient.

I hadn’t even considered that many of the people we are serving have already been through war and persecution and hardship in their lifetimes!! And to have it happen again… ugh… I cannot imagine.

I don’t know. I may be rambling again, but this is definitely a different trip for me and I am trying to hold on to God and His plan through it all and it is encouraging to see the results of His work each day.

The evening ended with dinner, a sticker washing party, and some tears, which was initially embarrassing that I got caught crying but ended up being a really good space to love on and be loved by our medical student.

I am utterly exhausted and we still have five more days of clinics!! Aahhh!!! I pray for strength and comfort and safety for my team, for the churches, and for our patients.

May the God of Comfort be with you.