Tom led a D group in the endoscopy suite this morning and I got to attend. Afterward, he told them all how much he appreciated their compassion, kindness, humility and team work. They also expressed their appreciation to him, for his help, his wisdom and perspective, his willingness to come and just his presence. It was very cool.

The endoscopy team

 For the bible story, we read and discussed the story of Jesus calming the sea in Mark 4:35-41. I love the differences in how we all look at things, and I learn so much from the Kenyan people every time we come here. Today I was struck by a couple of things. First, when you ask what they are thankful for, no matter the age, a good percentage (1/4th to 1/3rd) will say, "The gift of life." Every time I hear someone say that, there is something about it that really captures me. I have to confess, sometimes I think it would be easier just to go on to heaven. But, I do simply want to be thankful for the gift of life.

Also, as we discussed the story, I asked whether they thought the disciples should have awakened Jesus when they were afraid. They all immediately said "Yes! Absolutely! They had too! Their unified response kind of took me back. I had actually been considering whether they just should have kept a stiff upper lip, tried to have faith, and waited for Jesus to wake up. He knows everything, can do anything, and even though the boat was filling up with water He would have gotten them to the other side, right? Maybe, but I think they grasp something about needing Jesus and the interaction between God and man that I forget. In the story, Jesus points out their fear and lack of faith. I was trying to think what the disciples could have done to demonstrate that they did have faith. But after reading this many times, I think the lack of faith was shown in their question, "Don't you care about us?" and not by their need of His help.  Another thought is that maybe He wanted THEM to believe and rebuke the wind? Anyway, Jesus's stories are so multifaceted; so deep and wide in their application and stimulation of thought. I'm sure that's why He used them. I want to try to think about them more.

I'm on call today. (Tom) It began with a patient dying in casualty before we really got started. He was a young man that I really never figured out. Probably a mixture of trauma, alcohol, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So far today was a busy day of hard cases. Five admissions, one consult on an OB patient with oligouric acute renal failure, hyperkalemia, hyponatremia, severe anemia with pancytopenia, probable sepsis, and she delivered a baby that died 2 days ago. I had to read about that one with many trips to the unit. We had no blood to give her as the hospital was out, and she was O positive. It didn't take me long to remember my own blood type is O pos. She needs dialysis as well, and her potassium was 6.3 on last check. I had an unfortunate poisoning patient who tried to take her life by ingesting Triatix. She was really sick and we had to intubate her and put her on a ventilator. But prior to getting the ventilator, I had to take another patient off a ventilator. Hopefully they will do ok. We only have so many. It's nine in the evening now and I think there are only 4 more left in casualty that are coming in, hopefully none too bad. I have another day of call tomorrow and then I am finished with call. Anyway, I'm getting my money's worth. It takes me back to when I was young. Way back. Things continue to go well here and I am looking forward to this next week. We leave for home Wednesday afternoon, so plenty of time for more adventures. We went to tour the hydro plant and the beginning construction of the new hydro-electric project this morning. We are here with Jerry who is working on this new project.  He was one of the original team that built the dam back in 1986. What a story.

Tom giving blood for his patient

Anne and Jerry walking up the construction site on the side of the dam.
As Jerry said, 'It is sturdier than it looks"