PTgypsy: What was your favorite memory of 2017?

I know the real reason you guys read my blog is to hear about patient updates so I'll start there! Julienne is a 13 yo girl with an encephalocele. Julienne's encephalocele was in her frontal/facial bones, creating the mass in the first picture. That mass is actually brain matter and cerebrospinal fluid out side of the skull. An encephalocele is a congenital defect in the skull that allows brain matter to escape the skull. As you can imagine, this is very dangerous and needs to be fixed immediately. My first two weeks here I had the joy of attending two inservices about Encephalocele operations and I learned so much! At the inservice Dr. Parker explained that in 25+ years he has never seen an encephalocele in an adult, which leads him to believe that they usually die young due to brain trauma or infection. The surgeons take out the whole frontal bone, reshape it, then take out a sliver of bone between the eyes to narrow the eyes, and they use that bone to create a nasal bone and to correct the boney defect to protect the brain. Julienne was my patient right after her surgery because she couldn't walk due to the inevitable post-op symptoms. She was dizzy, had a headache, and had pretty bad balance. We worked together for about a week, starting with sitting at the edge of bed and finally graduating by climbing the 4 flights of stairs to deck 7! I honestly didn't expect her to remember me because I saw her so close to her surgery but every time I see her she jumps up to hug me! She is so sweet and I am so excited for her! My favorite part of these surgeries is the change in the patient. She is much more confident and loves her new face! I got to see her at the Hope Center Christmas Eve service and we sat together. Later that day the patients and caregivers were given Christmas presents. Every woman was given 6 yards of fabric, and all the kids were given toys and a pair of chones. I didn't get to go on the gift trip to the Hope Center but I took some photos from the share drive of the kids that I know getting their gifts. Later in the week I asked the children about their cadeaux(gift) and they were SO excited to show me what they got. They were given simple items, a baseball cap, a transformer, a jump rope, chones, and a coloring book. The children were SO grateful. They kept going on and on about how much they were given and awesome it all was. One of the boys was showing me his gift and he just kept saying "It's SO many things" with the biggest smile. It was so different from Christmas in the US. It has been so fun to watch them play with and hoard their gifts this week.

Julienne, a 13 yo with an encephalocele

Julienne post op

Julienne(background) at the Christmas celebration

Angele, Christmas gift day

Damaris, Christmas gift day

Tresor

Jordan, he's a communications patient so he knows how to cheese it up for the camera. I think they chose him because of that great smile though!

Maeva

I hiked Mount Cameroon this weekend and to be perfectly honest, it was really stinkin hard and I struggled! I did a lot better when the people around me were talking and distracting me. So I began to ask this question to everyone over the weekend: What was your favorite memory of 2017? Inevitably they would ask me in return and I would just start to rattle off story after story! 2017 was such a great year, and I ended the year the way it began...on a mountain! I started 2017 skiing in Steamboat Springs and ended it across the world on top of Mount Cameroon!
Some of my highlights this year include:

Climbing, skiing, and camping on as many Colorado mountains as I could!
Boat tours on Kauai, Maui, and the Big Island with friends new and old
Exploring Pearl Harbor and the lava flows with my Dad
ALL the visitors! I think I had 12 total between Steamboat and Hawaii, with some repeats to both!
Jet boating and white water rafting in Idaho for my parent's 60th birthday party
The weeks spent in NYC with Lauren and her boys, AND being together for both of our birthdays this year!
Spending the day in Retiro park in Madrid, Paella on the beach in Valencia, the stained glass at La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona-so many laughs with Tiffany!
Arriving at Mercy Ships, meeting some Chimpanzees, and climbing Mount Cameroon.
Most of all-Meeting so many new and incredible people and growing deeper in existing sweet friendships.

What being here at Mercy Ships has taught me most is gratitude, and being overwhelmed with absolute contentment with what I have. I hope that I can harness that for the rest of 2018(and the rest of my life). I want to say Thank you more, I want to live with less, I want to pray more, I want to travel and adventure more, and I want to LOVE more! I also want to get a haircut 😂(sorry mom). I can't wait for the adventures, friendships, and fun that 2018 will bring!

2017 had some rough bits too-We lost my aunt Katrina this year, and as many of you know she battled breast cancer for over five years. She passed away at the end of May and as sad as it was I have actually just felt relief since her death. Relieved that she is no longer in pain, no longer struggling for each step she took. Of course we all miss her, especially this time of year because her birthday was Christmas Eve but I can't help but be so happy for her too. Maybe this is a weird grief emotion or maybe it's a normal thing to believe when people you love live in pain? I still kick myself when I eat pork chops because I never got her smothered pork chop recipe! Let this be a lesson to you-get your favorite recipes from your loved ones while you can! As I was hiking I thought several times about how this hike was the most physical pain I have felt and my greatest struggle of 2017! How incredible is that? My greatest struggle was a hike that I voluntarily went on?! It made me stop to pray several times for my friends and family that have struggled with much more this year, and thank God for the time we had with my aunt and thank God that she's no longer in pain. I'm hoping and praying for healing, happiness, and more great memories for 2018 for everyone!!

I just want to leave you with some pictures of the hike! It's harmattan here right now, which is a winter trade wind that blows ALL the sand from the Sahara into the sky. It is nearly impossible to see the actual sky right now. Apparently we hiked above harmattan because we got clear skies! My favorite part of the hike were the blue skies, stars, moon, and sunrise at Hut 2 where we camped! I've never been so happy to see blue skies, I didn't realize that I missed them so much!

The story of the hike could be an entirely different blog so I'll make it quick then add photos. We started at around 1000 meters elevation, then hiked through the jungle to Hut 1 to eat lunch. We stopped for a break at the intermediate hut(which is just a tease and you're still SO far from camp). Then finally stopped for the night at Hut 2 which is about 2700 meters, it took us about 7 hours to get there. We camped at Hut 2, and ate the most delicious spaghetti of my life. The next day we hiked to the Summit and back down which took about 8 hours(5 up and a little less than 3 down). I almost quit at Hut 3 with only a half mile left because I couldn't breathe! Luckily my good friend Michelle had waited for me at hut 3 and wouldn't allow me to stop, and I'm glad she didn't! But man that altitude was rough! The summit is 4090 meters/13,400 feet, and is the tallest mountain in west Africa. The trail was SO steep, it literally just went straight up the mountain. No switchbacks or planned route-just straight up. The trail was also littered with trash, which was really sad for me. When I hike I try to leave the trail cleaner than I've found it but it was impossible on this trail. I've realized that cleanliness and trash removal is a real luxury. There is trash EVERYWHERE here, I don't know why I expected the trail to be different. I kept thinking that a non-profit or hiking club should sponsor a trail maintenance effort to clean and maintain the trail. But then I thought about how many people here are starving and how ridiculous it would be for money to be spent cleaning a trail when people are hungry and the streets are lined with trash. DUH Sierra, duh. First world problem! Maybe some day!

My feet are blistered and going down stairs is a little rough but otherwise I'm in good shape and I'm glad I did it! Before coming to Cameroon, hiking Mount Cameroon was the only thing I really wanted to do, and now I've done it! Now I feel a little weird not having any plans for the rest of my time here or for 2018! Who wants to go somewhere with me?! Iceland? South America?

My friend Michelle and I blissfully unaware of what lies ahead!

Trail head-it was the middle of a town , we walked through quite a bit of farmland before we got into the jungle.

A natural little tree house

Entry way into the Mount Cameroon National Park

My trail "buddy" Natazsa and I, we were so happy for Hut 1 and lunch!

The porters had bags that we provided them to take some of out stuff up, they were good backpacking backpacks and they still carried them on their heads!

Intermediate Hut, so deceiving! We still had SO much climbing left!

So happy to be at Hut 2, the stopping point for the night.

The best Spaghetti ever!

Meal hut

The Huts at hut two were built by Germans, and Oh so beautiful. All the supplies were carried up with man power only! Wowsa!

Our tent at Hut 2

The sunrises were incredible!

One of the guides named Luma/Frank. I was so far behind that I kept joking that he was my personal guide, hahah. He was a horrible distance estimator. He kept saying we were almost there, and he was never ever close. It was a joke by the end of the trip. He was so patient with me but I'm sure that I was driving him crazy! I thanked him profusely for his patience and apologized for how slow I was, and all he would say is "It's my job". We talked African and American politics, lack of Cameroonian recycling, culture, and black magic(apparently people actually believe in it, but we were promised that the spirits wouldn't bother us!)

Walking straight up the mountain, this is a good example of the trail.

Finally made it!

How I really felt at the summit, Michelle took this with out me knowing but I love this candid shot. It reminds me how relieved I was to stop climbing! If I ever complain about being exhausted I want to remember this moment!