January 16th: Home visits…Visit noodle restaurant… NURS 495 Meeting…Pork Pan

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Today I woke up at 0730 and got ready to head to the community center for the home visits. We had some eggs, snow ball dumplings, and rice and ground pork which was all delicious. We started the home visits off with a 63-year old lady who had been in a car accident 17 years ago and had gotten paralyzed from it from the neck down. It was interesting to hear her story because the rescue team who came to remove her from her car which had flipped upside down did not stabilize her neck when they took her out of the car which may have added to her injuries from the accident. She had a very sweet caregiver with her who has been with her for the past 17 years and who has taken care of her 24/7. It was crazy to think about this woman taking care of someone every day for that long. I really started to see the hard work ethic of this culture and the selfless attitude that many of the people possess. It was also really cool to see that a neighbor had come set up a pulley system for this lady to use to do her range of motion exercises every day. The communities here are so awesome! There is also a neighbor who comes to the house every day to help take the client in and out of bed so the caregiver doesn’t have to do it by herself. The second patient we went to see was a 35-year-old man who had gotten in a motorcycle accident and was not wearing a helmet. He fell on his head and had a lot of neurological issues following the accident including losing the ability to move and talk. He had a feeding tube in and needed full care from his mother and his 12-year-old daughter. This situation was heart breaking as you could tell the strain it was having on the family. There is a nurse who comes once a week and a physical therapist who visits once a month to do additional care, but the mother is the main caregiver. It was so sad to see such a young girl of only 12 years old have to take care of her father because her parents are divorced. This situation was more difficult than the first because the man was so young and was not able to communicate at all other than following a few commands. The third home visit we did was an elderly man who was 82-years-old. He lived with his daughter and grandchildren. This was an interesting visit because before going to the man’s house we were informed that he had bladder cancer but was not aware of this diagnosis. His daughter had decided that she did not want him to know that he had cancer and we are still not 100% sure why other than assuming that it must be because she thinks it will make him more hopeless. It was heartbreaking talking to this gentleman too because he was so confused and kept telling us that one day he was at work walking around and the next thing he knew he couldn’t walk anymore and he just kept saying he didn’t know why he can’t walk anymore. He had mild dementia which added to his confusion, but he was overall just upset and confused about his inability to walk and function the way he used to. He cried and verbalized that he did not know why this was happening and felt it may be god punishing him. It broke my heart that he was living in this kind of condemnation and after each and every home visit I felt defeated because I had not offered them the love of Jesus Christ. Although I did care about the physical ailments of each person we saw, what wrenched my heart even more than these things was the fact that each of these people did not know the healing power of Jesus Christ and the love that He offers each one of us. They did not know the freedom they can live with without condemnation because none of us said anything. For me, it was so frustrating to reflect on the immense opportunity that I had to be in these people’s homes as they opened up about their vulnerable states of health and mind and to have left without telling them about the one true God that I worship and believe in. I know it is important to respect their religious views, but I believe I could have both respected these views and also offered some healing prayer or some explanation about my faith and what I believe because I believe salvation is life or death. I did get to pray silently and release the power of Jesus into these places which is important, but if they do receive healing how will they ever know it was Jesus and not Buddha? I desire more boldness in myself and I will continue to seek and pray for that and not let myself be condemned but instead convicted! After the home visits, we had class meeting on personality types and teamwork which were both interesting topics to explore because they are both things we have all had to think about and work with during this trip! After the meetings, we had some free time before pork pan! We prepared for pork pan and me and one of my buddies went to get some Thai tea. I paid for her tea and she kept screaming no that she didn’t want me to pay for her tea. It is very difficult to treat them and they feel very uncomfortable with it. We started pork pan and it was so much fun! We boiled the vegetables in chicken broth over a small fire and cooked the meat in the middle. It was so much fun to cook together and share food together community style. We ate pork, chicken, and tofu in the shape of faces and crabs. We also put noodles in the broth to cook as well. All the food was delicious, and it was fun getting to talk and laugh together. We even skyped our parents and introduced our parents to each other. After dinner, we taught our buddies how to make smores! They loved them so much! They each ate 3. ? Pork pan and smores was a highlight of the day and time with my buddies was even better!

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