Saturday, September 27, 2014
How many ways can you come up with to expand little lungs and encourage hesitant boys to exercise body parts that are sore? We’ve had to be really creative today. It always helps when the nursing students come to visit too. Blowing bubbles continues to be a mainstay, but today we added balloons. Doctora Moncada took two small straws, placed them down in the balloon a little way, and taped the balloon shut around the straws. It takes a fair amount of effort to blow into two straws and get the balloon to blow up. Our boys saw this as a challenge. Once the nursing students arrived, we added exercise class to increase the range of motion in our patients’ arms and get them more active. Little Suany, who had the first surgery, had to show off and dance around everyone else. You could never tell she had heart surgery five days ago.
Our moms received another nutrition class today. They asked great questions and their applause for the students who taught was heartfelt.
Elvin and his mom left for home this morning. He and Genesis Abigail will be having surgery in February now. Elvin’s mother never said anything about being disappointed and if there was disappointment, it did not show. She said she was thankful for everything that was being done and looked forward to being with Genesis and her mother in February. We will miss Elvin as he was the best cheerleader for all our post-op patients.
Melvin Joel returned to us this afternoon. He is not quite as enthusiastic about moving around and blowing bubbles, but we are really going to work on him tomorrow. Some of our guys need a little more encouragement than others.
So we danced and sang, clapped our hands, played on the swings and watched a movie or two in between times. Each patient continues to heal and improve. Slowly those precious smiles return, and they act more like other children their age. Our bodies are amazing things. Sometimes we need a little help with healing. And we all need help with becoming the best we can be. These children have been given a new start so they can do just that.
Please continue to pray for Axel, Genesis Nicolle, Dayani and Loyda as they continue to be cared for in the hospital. Also pray for safe travels for those of our team who head home tomorrow. They each have been the hands of healing and we feel blessed to have had them here.
