The Middle

 Hello.

I didn't forget that this blog exists.

I've just been stuck in the middle for a while.

In the middle of a crisis, or of a break, or a journey, or a transition. Always in the middle of something.

At this exact moment, I'm in the middle of a hammock, in the middle of the Atlantic in the middle of a journey between Tenerife and Dakar. So although I'm still in the middle of something, it's at least something that gives me a good opportunity to write an update. 

Last year's field service in Senegal wrapped up well. It was a seemingly never-ending challenge, with last-minute changes and scrambles to get our patients all safely home, but God got us all safely through it. 

I also ended the year in the middle of two jobs. I was asked to step over into a new role, as Hospital Quality Manager. Officially, this starts this year, but I started helping with some of the more time-sensitive pieces back in October. I'm grateful for a job that will allow me to still spend a little time in the wards where I love working best, but without being 100% in the people zone all the time. My enneagram 5 self is looking forward to a bit less of a constant drain on my social energy. As 'HQM', I'll be 'facilitating' a lot of things...policy updates, clinical incident reviews, implementation of measures to improve patient outcomes; things like that. Lots of spreadsheets; which I don't mind.

Once I moved over to my shiny new home, the Global Mercy, I officially took over that role for the hospital here. Oh yeah, and my parents came for a lovely visit!!

Both ships sittin' pretty together in Tenerife!

Mom & Dad on the GLM

This hospital is brand new, and years of planning have culminated in these last couple months of preparation for its first field service. There's plenty to figure out still, but it's incredible to see how much has been accomplished. The obstacles have been enormous, too. COVID, immigration snafus, and the latest wrench in the works, affectionately nicknamed by our Managing Director, 'PBBPP.' Or in other words, 'Project Bring Back Peppa Pig.' 

We were without internet (and most of our information systems) for nearly a month. Some of the kids really missed their Peppa Pig, among other things. Here's where I quote the company line, to make sure I don't say anything I shouldn't. "We detected a threat to our IS systems, and our team quickly responded. It takes some time to completely assess what was impacted, and we are in the process of slowly and carefully bringing our systems back online." 

So that was fun...in the ramp-up to another 5 months of surgery we lost access to our policies & procedures that guide us (all hosted online), our digital patient database (requiring networking), printing capability, simple phone communications....the list goes on and on and on. Instead of updating our existing protocols, we've spent the past few weeks creating brand new work processes to be able to do everything we normally do without relying entirely on technology, and without compromising patient safety. 

'Ted' testing out our ICU facilities

The hospital team in the operating room as we walked through our patient flow processes from start to finish.

Gratefully, we've seen great plans fall into place in case our systems are still impacted, but also answers to prayer as the most critical systems have been restored. 

Sailing alongside the AFM before she heads off for maintenance in South Africa

And so, with great uncertainty only a week ago, we are now confidently cruising our way towards Dakar for the GLM's inaugural field service. It's a little shorter than most, with a gradual ramp-up as we're adapting all our usual processes to a brand-new environment. 

And that's not all that's new!

Some of our patients from last field service will be back for follow-up, while most will be new (our patient selection team has been working hard in-country to find the people who can benefit most from free surgery). Most excitingly, some of these new patients will also be coming from a different country: the Gambia!

The Gambia is a really unique nation which is nestled entirely within the middle of Senegal (with the exception of a tiny bit of coastline). Its flag represents the Gambia river which runs directly along the middle of this little country. I'm really looking forward to meeting and learning from the Gambian people over these next few months. The two countries have a close partnership, and are sometimes jointly referred to as 'Senegambia.' And of course, as is the case with this entire part of the world, so many people groups have homes and identities which ignore political borders. Their community is where their language is spoken, and that's never been constrained by imaginary lines. 

I'll look forward to my next opportunity to report how things are going once we're back in country and surgeries are happening!

Until then, a la prochaine,

-D