Home again.

Hopefully better late than never will work for the followers of this blog. Apparently some of our posts never uploaded to the blog. I will try to make up for that. I can never rate one mission as better than another. This was another great mission. We may not have done as many surgical procedures as some years but this team is much more about quality than quantity. Sue and I did around 15 surgeries on our bed and they probably did about as many on the other bed. These were 2 to 4 hour operations and a lot of them were on young patients. I am always humbled by the fact that God has allowed me to a part of the way He is touching these patients lives.  I will include some pictures. Hopefully they will upload. The banner was made for the church on the compound where we worship on Sunday. One of the members of the California part of the team made it.  It was beautiful. She and her sister have done several of them for the church. Please note the Husker caps on the men in the first picture. Mom made those.  The guys loved them. She made some women's caps in Hawkeye logo but somehow I couldn't find those. Thank each and everyone of you for all of your support. Dean

What a week!! We are now in Managua at our hotel across the street from the airport. Internet connection was bad in Puerto Cabezas the last few days. We were busy with surgeries & then with packing. Lots of cleft lip & palate surgeries throughout the week. We had such amazing doctors. Lots of experience & top notch skills. Will post pictures after we get home & have more time. We fly tomorrow & will get home tomorrow nite. Thank you for all your support!

Greetings from Nicaragua what an amazing day. Our second day of surgery went really well all things considered. It takes a bit to get use to the surroundings. 
The nicarguan creativity in dealing with lack of supplies, equipment has and still amazes me. We were a little creative ourselves no OR light just tape a flashlight up . The best part is working with a team that is all pulling the same way. We know what a privilege it is to be able to answer the call of this mission.
 what a gift to be here. Thanks for all the continued support. SUE

Some of our patients who have had their surgeries.

Early AM day 2

Just a quick note. First patient yesterday was 2 months old. His 2 year old sister was our third patient. Things went well. Time to start day 2.

Mon. Night. 1st surgery day!

It appears that internet is working well at the moment so will try to get a post to go through. We are done with our 1st day of surgeries at the hospital. It seemed pretty chaotic when we 1st got to the hospital but things finally fell into place & things seemed to run smoothly. Some complicated surgeries with good results. I got things set up as well as I could for a minor procedure area but quickly found that it wasn't adequate. Thankfully Scarleth, a wonderful Nicaraguan nurse who I have worked with other years came to the rescue & found a much more suitable area. We worked till 6 pm. It's always fun on our 1st day to see the people who live here & who we have worked with for several years now & have become such good friends. Morning will come soon so need to get to bed. Keep all of our team in your prayers as well as the patients we are serving. Internet has been VERY unreliable so bear with us. Carolyn

Sunday evening

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It appears that I can post again. We spent the morning in church and then after lunch we did a quick setup at the hospital. Some of the group did a short boat trip up the coast. Carolyn and I chose to pass. We have a full schedule in the OR for the first few days and then we will fill in the rest of the week with carry overs and walk ins. We have a lot of big cleft lip and palates on some very small patients. I will try to add a few pictures.

Update with pictures

I am not sure how I did it but the middle pictue is of Sue and Carolyn on the front porch of our cabana. This is a before and after picture of Daisy the patient I was referring to in the previous post. We are going to be doing additional surgery on her later this week.

Day 3

I got up early to have a cup of coffee on the porch of the new cottage we are staying in. So much has changed here in the last year. There are 3 new cottages and we have hot water for our showers. Yes Hot Water! Last night Suzie had a big surprise for us after dinner she had brought the girl we had done a very large cleft and palate repair on 2 years ago to see us.  She sang a song for us in Spanish. Her voice was very clear and her repair looked great. Not a dry eye in the house. I am having a hard time figuring out how to add pictures but when I do I will do a before and after shot. We will have breakfast and then do our clinic. Suzie is still thinking this will be a light year. I will believe it when I see it. We will only do what God sends us. Dean

Starting day 2 of this adventure. We stayed in Managua last night after sailing through customs without one tote or bag being opened. We had what has become our usual problem with the bank card and our reservation was made for the wrong date. We got that all that  straightened out and had a good night. We are at the commuter terminal waiting for our cross country flight. We have run into one of the docs we will be working with and Julio the man who runs the feeding station you have heard us talk about. They will be flying with us to Puerto Cabezas. Go to go finish checking in.I forgot to ask for your continued prayers and sign this . Dean