Blood, teeth and Abby on the Floor

This is a typical scene at the door of the clinic. On the left are doctors taking medical information from villagers. Outside the door were many, many people waiting to come in for free medical check ups, dental work, cancer seeking pap smears, etc.

Well, last posting I wrote about our trip to the free medical/dental clinic held by Singapore's Rotarian doctors and dentists, our local hospitals doctors and dentists, and supported by Lippo Ladies (among other groups). That was the first day. Our second day was even more exciting. Abby and I headed out at 7:30 am and we were back at it by 8:30. Initially I couldn't find anything to do but was finally appointed "flashlight duty" with my friend Dalenea. What this meant was that I was to point the flashlight into the mouth of the patient so that the doctor could see properly. Unfortunately, I couldn't shine it in the correct spot unless I was looking AT the spot, so I spent the morning watching needles go in, teeth come out, blood being soaked up with gauze. All those good things. For those who know me and blood, this is pretty much a miracle. Not once did I swoon or even have a moment of light headedness. I have been praying that I would get over my inability to deal with blood and other people's pain so that I can get out and do more hands-on mission stuff. I think that God has begun to answer this prayer and I am very excited about it. It's not over though; a small video clip was accidentally taken of me at the dentist chair and you can tell by my eyes that I am trying not to watch. Abby, however, was in there like dirt. In this photo she's also a flashlight holder and the fellow that she's watching was a really difficult case.

Abby has her own story about holding the flashlight, and that is that while she did so she began to overheat. She didn't have enough water and so eventually came to me. I sent her to get water (I couldn't do anything because my dentist was in the middle of pulling a tooth) and on the way she felt light headed, stopped so that if she passed out she wouldn't hit all the sharp tools that she was standing next to, and slowly fell to the floor. A few ladies nearby caught her, called me (I left the extraction anyways) and we put her in a room to the side. When asked about the blood and pulled teeth that she was seeing, she was quite adamant that that didn't bother her at all. In fact, she came back later and watched some more. Once she rested and rehydrated she was as good as new.


I had someone take a photo of me with a needle on the first day and here it is.








We had an excellent weekend and other than Abby fainting (which she is excited about because it makes a good story to tell her friends at school) I think we did really well. One of my friends that we went with is a dental hygienist and was thoroughly in her element. It was neat to see someone who has skills and is able to put those specific skills to workin a situation like we were volunteering in; her face was lit up the whole time. We were very thankful to the dentists we worked with because they took us on in all our inexperience and were very patient with us as we got in their way, held the flashlights totally incorrectly and weren't able to speak the language to the patients very well.

It was a good weekend.

Thanks for reading.