The Home Stretch

Arrived in Colon Panama this morning after a fun time in Colombia. We are at the mouth of the Panama Canal docked at a cruise line docking station. There are huge ships all around waiting to go through the canal and tons of containers waiting to be put on a boat and sent to where ever. It has pored all day today and this morning I got up at 5 am to see a sunrise. It was a bust because of the cloudy skies. it was still nice to be up and outside and be pretty much the only one out there. It takes this ship 2 miles to stop and when I was at the fan tail (the back of the boat) enjoying the piece and quiet the boat started its slow down operations and a huge loud scary noise jolted me out of my zen state and then a huge billow of black diesel smoke came out of a vent pipe and choked me which caused my asthma to flare up. In the end it was quite comical but at the time it happened I had to swallow my heart to put it back where it belonged. I will be going out into town tomorrow to do pre-surgery screening. Hopefully we will start doing surgeries on Wednesday. I can't believe I really only have 1 week left. I am not gonna lie, I am excited to come home. It has been an incredible experience in everyway but I really miss my family and I am going a little ship stir crazy. I don't know how people can last out at sea or on a boat for long periods of time. it would be very difficult. While the rest of the world is decreasing in swine flu cases, Panama is one of the only places that has increased. So this is causing a little bit of a concern.
The area we are in is one of the areas on the rise. We are takiking all the necessary precautions to ensure that no one gets it because if there are any cases, the person would have to be quarantined for 30 days and the ship would be not be able to return until after that period. So tomorrow, while I am out on shore in the 90 degree weather with 100% humidity, I will be wearing a mask. Not just any kind of mask, but a heavy TB mask. Should be fun. I hope I somehow get the gift of tongues but I doubt that will happen. I will be going to my last sacrament meeting tonight. We have been told that Sister Beck, the General RS President, will be on the ship the day we leave to see us. That should be nice. I don't know much more than that. I hope all is well with everyone. Love you, Becky

Panama

Sunday May 17

This morning I attended the Protestant\Catholic church meeting. Although they do things differently than we do, it was a very nice service. The music was a happy clapping and waving of the arms type as well as normal church music that was an experience, with electric guitars and drums. There was also a brass band that was nice. The message was on Matthew 25, and the pastor did and outstanding sermon. We did get to sing a familiar song, How Great Thou Art. There were a bunch of people there in the small chapel, and it was busier than usual because since we are underway no one is at work, also we had the nursing, “blessing of the Hands” Prayer, to end nurses week and prepare us for our next mission. So the sermon was on service and how our service is an extension of Gods hands. I t was very touching and it was good to feel the spirit. A good reminder that truth is truth and when you hear it no matter where you are the spirit is present. They did their communion and thru out the service lots of different prayers were said. After that service we had our scripture study with our small group. It was on repentance and forgiveness. It was nice to have a small intimate group where we felt comfortable expressing our thoughts and questions. I am again grateful for the spirit that I felt. Tonight we will have our sacrament meeting at 8pm. I really look forward to this. I can’t believe that this will be my 3rd Sunday here. Time is going quickly in some ways but slow in others. I am not quite sure how that can be but it is. Last night there was a movie on the flight deck. It is a cool experience because everyone brings there chairs blankets and pillows and get comfortable. They showed the movie against the hanger that holds the helicopters. The movie was “Yes Man”, the screen was huge and the sound good. We were heading towards a storm so the boat was really rocking, especially on the top deck. It was fun. We will be underway until Tuesday evening so we are enjoying the open seas. When we get to Colombia we have liberty leave so I will be going on shore with my group and having fun for a few days in Cartagena Colombia, which is supposed to be a safe place. We had to fill out a form of info about us and distinguishing characteristics about us so that if we are kidnapped they will know it is us from the description the kidnappers give. Nice huh? I hope all is well with everyone. Well I am off to my muster and then fire and abandoned ship drill. I love you and look forward to talking with you soon. Love you, Becky

Pictures From Antigua

Becky w/ CRNA
Operating










Happy Eye Patient

The Dutch Team

Antigua valley church beach nursing get together

Antigua valley church beach

Nurses Outting Before Leaving Antigua

Antigua Nurses Assoc. Dinner Function in T0wn

Service in Antigua

Today we left Antigua and are headed for Colombia. We will have liberty there and I am planning on going to shore and staying in a hotel with my group. We are looking forward to it. It will be a great break before we head to Panama. Panama will be even busier than Antigua with much more need and many more children. At Antigua it was nice because they speak English for the most part. In Panama they don't and most of us do not speak Spanish. We will have interpreters there but it will be difficult. We had great successes in Antigua and left feeling happy for all those we were able to help. One of the pictures is me in the O.R. at the end of a cataract case. our patient woke up and we asked he he felt well enough to sit up in bed for a picture. He was so gracious and couldn't stop thanking us. He had been unable to see for many years and now he will have almost 20\20 vision. He kept saying God Bless America. He gave us all hugs and with tears told us he would never forget and he would make sure nobody else would. He said He was a walking miracle and just kept grabbing our hands. These actions from the Antiguians was very common. One lady in recovery sang at the top of her lungs God Bless America. This is only in the OR area. We did so much more on land to care for the people with other needs. I feel very privileged and humbled to be a part of something so incredible. The long hours and sore back and feet are worth it. There are people all over the world who are suffering and I am grateful for wonderful compassionate people who try there hardest to get to them. We live in a wonderful and caring country. We may not agree with our political leaders or the things we see happening to our country, but our country is still great and as long as we have compassion and the will to keep doing good we have hope. I hope that I am doing my part. I am trying, and again I thank you all for your love, support, and encouragement. God bless America!!! Love you all. Becky

Full Swing

We are in full swing. Another day is done. I did a bunch of Gallbladders and a double hernia repair in a very cute 2 yr old. My day went well, it is nurses week, so today I went to a little nursing day celebration and had a piece of good cake and ice cream. Tomorrow I do eyeballs again. I am just working hard, and loving my pillow at night. We have been having a bunch of tours on the ship for the Antiguains. I don't know if they are from the government or university or nursing and medical schools? but we have had a ton of traffic evereywhere including the OR. It has been fun talking with them. They are all very gracious and speak of all the kindness that has been extended to them and their country. I am off to yet another meeting. Goooo Nuggets!!
Love Becky

Life in the OR

Wolthuis, Heermans, Valhauer



Oops - need a new glove!


Mosquito Proofing

Lots of Stair - BYU Rugby Shirt
Flight Deck

Getting Ready

I am looking forward to tomorrow. Our first surgery is at 7am so I will be at the OR by 6am to get ready. I hope it will not take long to get into the groove of things. I am feeling a little disorganized because it is so different here than my work. The medical group I will be working with is a team from the Netherlands, so I am hoping I can just slide right in and join the party with out to much difficulty. They are all very nice so I am sure it will work out just fine.

The weather here is beautiful and the water is a turquoise green. The island is just like the other Caribbean islands, very laid back and for the most part friendly. It is a place where the poverty level is not as bad as the other places we have been or are going to but there is still alot of need.

Living on this ship has made me take note of so many things that I take for granted. Seeing what this mission is accomplishing and the major preparation that it took to make it happen, has increased my gratitude 10 fold for my incredible blessed life. I am in awe of the military and all that they do. They are soooo unappreciated!! I am very interested in learning all the ranks of the different arms of the military, it is very confusing. I know enough to get by though and that is enough. I hope all is well with everyone. I feel a little out of touch. You can send me email at rebeccawolthuis@gmail.com. Love Becky

More Pictures

OR pals - Kathryn, Patty & Martha
Man overboard drill
Operating Room (OR)

Pictures

Berthing hallway
Bathrooms
Showers
Messing around in the OR

Going onto the USNS Comfort

USNS Comfort

Going to the USNS Comfort

Antigua

Hello all

Frank has been updating my blog for me which I really appreciate. The email here is not user friendly but I am glad to have it. Things are going well here. We are currently achored in Antigua waiting to get things started. We hope to be hopping in the next few days but we will see. I am having trouble uploading phots but I will keep trying. I'll be in touch soon.

Stairs

Today nothing too exciting to report. Just lots of meetings and learning. Just a little side note. I walk up a minimum of 700 steps a day. Yes I have counted. The most that I have kept track of is 1,535 steps. That is just going up steps. So my knees are a little sore. When things get going in the OR my stair climbing I am sure will be drastically reduced. The food here is a bit starchy. My roommates (all navy reserve nurses) said they were going to drag me out of bed at 5am to go and work out with them - we will see how that goes. I am not very optomistic about being committed.

Love
Becky

Monday at Sea

I have had a fun day. We are en route to Antingua. It has been very relaxed and full of activities. We had our steel beach party on the flight deck and proceeded to drive right into a major storm so the party was cut short. The boat is rocking away but I still have had no trouble with sea sickness and I suspect that I won't. Earlier we had a fire drill and an abandoned ship drill. You don't realize how big the flight deck is until you have 95% of the people from the boat on deck and there is still tons of room. I had a meeting with the OR manager and got an update of what the tentative schedule will be. I think tomorrow I will be on the ship getting the rooms ready for surgery and then on Wednesday I will go on shore to do pre-op screening and then hopefully we will start doing surgeries on Thursday. Tonight at the regular meeting we will go over the whole plan while we are in Antigua. It will be nice to start doing something. I am still trying to figure out how I can do pictures. I am taking plenty of them I just at this time don't have a way to transfer them to this computer to upload. I have hardly been outside since I have been here, it is crazy. Believe it or not it is not convienient to go outside because half the time a lot of the decks are closed for the flight deck operations and I don't understand all of the Navy gargin to know what they are saying about where you are alowed to go. I am getting better.
Bye for Now.

First Day On Board

Well I finally can get on the computer!! Not on my account because I can't figure it out yet but some very nice person is letting me use her log in. I can tell already that communication will be very difficult. The computers are few, the demands are many and the time is short. The ship is of course underway and the only thing we can see is blue skies, white fluffy clouds and lots and lots of water!! We left the DR Saturday afternoon and our route to get on the boat was by a smaller boat that took us to the ship where we unloaded onto another boat that then hoisted us up onto the ship deck. The seas were calm so it went very smoothly thank goodness. The ship is gynormous. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the way the ship is set up so the learning curve to understanding how to get around is quite steep. They were not exaggerating when we were told to plan on lots of steps. I AM DYING!!!!! But this is good, right? The air is very humid so I am always glistening. Believe it or not though I am getting use to the stairs and will be a pro stair climber by the time I am done. The food is okay and the water is good. They make their water on the ship with the desalinization process. Everyone here whether military or NGO (non government organization) have been awesome. Very friendly and helpful. I think I was put in the rowdies berething room. I am with three crazy fun girls who are a laugh a minute. They are all nurses as well and are in the Navy reserves. Kathryn is my mentor and is very wonderful and kind. Today I had a bunch of meetings and tonight we will have our little sacrament meeting at 8pm in the small chapel. So today at one of my meeting it was on Acupuncture. The Dr. is very good and I was his subject. I got to be in front of the whole group with my pants legs up, shoes and socks off and peeling legs. It was a little embarrassing but I git over it real quick. I told everyone that I was also a good example of what not do do when you are out in the sun. The Dr. was treating my planters facitis on my left foot. I had needles all over my left foot and up my leg. I had needles in my elbows, one in each ear and one sticking out of my forehead to relax me. I am a skeptic but I have to say that my foot does feel better!! He told me to come and see him everyday for 8 days and he should be able to take care of it. I don't know if I will have the time but I will certainly make the effort. I hope all of you are doing okay. So far I am doing great. I will hopefully be in touch soon.

Love you all

Becky

PS I am not checking my spelling because I don't have time so cut me some slack.

Off to the Ship

Hello again - I don't know when I will be able to write agian - we are now in the lobby waiting for the Navy to come and pick us up. We can see the ship out of our hotel room and it must be huge because it is big from off in the distance. This morning we had the opportunity to meet Elder Cook from the Quorum of the 12. He is here to do training and just so happened to be staying at the same hotel we are. He took the time to talk with all of us and it was a nice visit. We have also met up with other medical groups who are also serving on the ship. they are not LDS but love hanging around with us. What can I say, we are a fun group and very non threatening. We all are wearing our blue polo shirt that the church provided us, with our missionary looking name tags. We have had lots of people stop and look or ask what it is we will be doing. We still don't know if we will get to the ship by helicopter (which we all hope) or if it will be by boat, which I understand is quite and interesting experience (which we don't want). To all of you who think I will be having fun in the sun, this could not be further from the truth. Apparently I will be on the ship the whole time, and not only on the ship, but in the belly of the ship. So it is my understanding that I will become a creature of the underground and come up only for the required 10 min sun exposure once a day. I think my body is going to be is sun withdraw mode for a while and I will have to be reintroduced to the sun when I am finished. Good thing Lake Powell is right around the corner. Well I am off and I will hopefully be in touch soon. Love you all. Becky

Arrived Safely

Well day one in the rears. It consisted of unevenful travel, a crazy drive to the hotel, a trip to the beautiful Santo Domingo Temple, dinner at a local pizzaria that was very yummy for our starving bellies, and then a very comfy night sleep at the Court Yard Marriot.

I'm off

Well I am off. I am trying to update while I sit here in the Miami airport. My departure was a bit more difficult than I anticipated. Frank and I will really miss each other. Airport goodbyes are difficult when one like me wants to sob like a baby. But I made it on the plane and now I am more than half way there so I guess there is no turning back, not that I would want to. I am not sure how often I will be able to update my blog so any chance I get I will. Bye until next time.

Well I am off on my adventure. I can't believe it is here already. It seems like only yesterday that I signed up for this. I have very strong feelings close to the surface at this time; excitement, apprehension, sadness for leaving my family, but joy for what I will be doing. This experience is way out of my comfort zone but I know it is what I am suppose to do. I was set apart for this mission and my bishop gave me a beautiful comforting blessing, so I am going with peace in my heart. As Helen Keller said;

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."

So this is my motto for this experience. Thank you all for your words of encouragement, and your love and support.

Bon Voyage!!

Here are some more pictures as well as the course the boat is taking. I received my itinerary and I leave on May 1st and will fly to the Dominican Republic and from there we will travel by boat to Antigua and will be there May5th to the 16th. After we are done there we will travel by boat to Cartagena Colombia and be there May 20-23rd. Then on to Colon Panama and be there May 24th to June 2nd. My rotation is then finished. We will travel through the Panama Canal that takes one day to get to the other side where I will fly out of Panama City back to Denver. I am getting excited but also a little sad about leaving my family, especially Frank!! I know the time will fly by for me because I will be very busy. I am getting reports from the first rotation and it sounds like an incredible experience. I have 2 1/2 weeks to get my boat legs ready!! Apparently there are tons and tons of ladders and stairs, elevators are very old and are reserved for only a select few things. I will look forward to the traveling days on the boat to the next locations because even though we will be busy getting ready for the next stop there will be some down time. I am hoping that is when I can do all of my journal updating. We'll see.

Well I succumbed to the requests of friends and family to start my own blog. I never thought that I would because I am terrible at doing anything that requires journaling consistency. Because I have started this, does not in any way mean that I will become consistent, but I do enjoy reading other family blogs so I thought, "what the heck."

My main reason for starting is because I have a wonderful opportunity to go on a church mini medical mission from May 1st to June 1st. I will be going as a Operating Room Nurse to the Caribbean, mainly Antigua and then to South America to Columbia then ending in Panama. The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) which I am a member of, has joined with the U.S. Navy and other humanitarian organizations to go to these developing areas that are in need medical help as well as other areas they need assistance in. I will mainly be on the USNS Comfort which is a huge ship that is pretty much a floating traveling hospital. This mission is called "Continuing promise '09."




As I said, I will be working as a nurse in the operating room assisting with the surgeries, and as I was told and I truly believe, this is not a pleasure cruise. I am up for the challenge of long days of standing on my feet all day and short nights without the pleasure of my nice big comfy bed and wonderful husband Frank, which will be replaced with a narrow hard bunk in tight quarters and communal bathrooms. Bring it on!!! I'm ready and excited. You know the saying, "Ignorance is bliss." Well I am in my blissful state, but know that reality is right around the corner. I believe that I can endure anything for a month. Although I am expecting the work to be hard, I am not afraid of hard work and I know this will be an incredible and very rewarding experience. I plan on coming home after my month of service physically exhausted but with a smile on my face and being spiritually renewed with an increased abundance of gratitude for my many wonderful blessings that I have taken for granted. I hope to come home worm and bug free and I am taking every precaution to ensure that I am successful. I will be getting all manner of injections and things to guard against the many ugly possibilities that going to these places might bring. Mainly, hepatitis A&B, Typhiod Fever, Tuberculosis, Yellow Fever, Malaria.....the list goes on and on. I have 6 weeks to get everything in order. Fun stuff!

I will miss my family very much, especially Frank. I am so grateful for the sacrifices that they will make so that I can be apart of this mission. Laura will come home from BYU when she is done the end of April to hold down the fort. Mainly making sure Max doesn't get lax in his school work and finishes strong. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!! I have the most incredible awesome supportive family ever. Next to my Savior, they are truly my greatest blessing.

My hope is to journal through out my experience so that I can remember all the wonderful things I was fortunate to participate in as well as keeping anyone who is interested up to date on what I am up to.