Ginn Family Missions

August 2024

Recently, Brian walked you through what a typical week looks like for him as a missionary surgeon. His weeks tend to be slightly more predictable than mine, but I want to give you an idea of what a week for a missionary mom and pediatrician looks like.

This is an excerpt from the last few days of July and the first few days of August.

Monday: I am rounding in the special care nursery this week, so as soon as Henry’s nanny arrives in the morning, I head off to the hospital for rounds. Our special care nursery cares for babies who require more care than a healthy newborn, which could mean that they require oxygen, IV fluids, seizure medications, or more intensive feeding support with something called an NG (nasogastric) tube. This particular Monday, I am discharging twin boys. I had attended their mom’s C-section the previous Thursday as a “baby catcher,” which means that I am one of the designated people in the delivery room whose sole job is to care for the baby (or in this case, babies) once they are born. It was particularly special to be there when these twins were born and to also be the doctor who go to discharge them from the hospital. After I finish rounds (usually around 9:30-10am), I head off to clinic for the rest of the morning. Around noon, I head home to make lunch for Henry and myself. After he finishes eating, it’s naptime for him and I usually sit down for a few minutes before the nanny comes back and I head back to clinic for the afternoon. My day in clinic typically ends around 3:00-3:30pm because that is the time that the nanny needs to leave for home.

It may be helpful for you to get an idea of what the clinic looks like at our hospital too, especially since it functions very differently than many clinics in the U.S. Patients from within our province, and often from other provinces too, come to clinic early in the morning to “get in line.” There are no appointments and it’s more of a “first-come, first-served” idea but with more structure and triaging of medical conditions. We have nurses and other staff who screen patients, get a basic history, and take their vital signs before they come into the doctor’s line. On any given weekday, there are 3-6 medical doctors in clinic, so after you finish seeing a patient, you just call for the next patient in line. We don’t have our own radiologists or ultrasound techs, so we read all X-rays that we order and we perform all the ultrasounds too. Thankfully we have a fully staffed lab, so if we send a patient for blood work, the lab draws and runs the test for us before sending the patient back to us for review. If a patients requires admission to the hospital, we walk them over to the Emergency Department, fill out all the necessary paperwork, and do any non-surgical procedures that they require (lumbar puncture, incision and drainage of an abscess, reduction of a broken bone, etc) before they are sent to the ward for admission.

Tuesday: Round in the special care nursery. I see a baby with respiratory distress, so I find and apply CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) in an attempt to help the baby’s lungs open up so that they can breathe easier. After rounds, I head to clinic for the rest of the morning and afternoon. Before going home for lunch, I check on the baby in the nursery again to see how they are doing. During the afternoon in clinic, one of my colleagues asks if I can see a patient for a palliative care referral. The patient that I see is a 30-40 year old woman with very advanced mouth cancer. Her tongue is so full of cancer that it fills most of her mouth, making it very difficult for her to eat, take medicines, and talk. As best I can, I assess her symptom burden, discuss her disease, and pray with her. After clinic is over, I head back home to spend time with Henry. After we eat dinner as a family, we head to one of the other missionary’s back yards for an impromptu bonfire and s’mores. Henry loved running around with all the other kids!

Wednesday: Round in the special care nursery. I don’t typically have scheduled clinical work on Wednesdays, apart from rounds, which allows me some time to study or work on other special projects. Recently, one of the residents and I have been collecting data from our special care nursery including number of monthly admissions, common diagnoses, and overall mortality. So, after rounds finish, I head to medical records to pull nursery charts and look at data with this resident. We work on data collection until lunch time and then head our separate ways for the afternoon. In the afternoon while Henry naps, I catch up on work emails and other things that need to be done around the house.

Thursday: Round in the special care nursery. I am normally in clinic on Thursdays after rounds finish, but on this particular Thursday, Henry’s nanny is attending a special church event, so I’m home with him for the day. We like to play outside and go for walks in the morning since much of the afternoon is naptime for Henry. While Henry naps, I work ahead on dinner. We are hosting a short-term surgeon and his wife for dinner, so I bake a lemon meringue pie for dessert. Randy, the son of one of Henry’s nanny’s, was playing with Henry that morning and was an eager sous chef in preparing and baking the pie with me.

Friday: Round in the special care nursery. After rounds finish on Fridays, we have doctor’s educational conferences. During our conferences, we discuss a myriad of medical topics including common diagnoses or illnesses that we encounter in our work and how to best approach them. After conference ends, I head home to hang out with Henry. Friday afternoons are generally non-clinical time for the doctors since our clinic is closed on Fridays. I take some time to work in the garden and then babysit for one of the other missionary’s daughter.

Saturday: We normally spend time together as a family just relaxing on Saturdays. However, this weekend we needed to go to town for our monthly grocery shopping. We left before 8am to drive to Mt. Hagen, which is a sizeable city about an hour’s drive from Kudjip. There are several grocery stores, hardware stores, and houseware stores that we want to stop at. We manage to accomplish a lot of shopping in about 4 hours before we drive back to Kudjip in time for Henry to get his nap in. In the afternoon, I participate in the weekly missionary volleyball game and then we spend the evening relaxing.

Sunday: We attend church (either the local Nazarene church on station, a nearby “bush” church, or we watch our home church online if Brian is on call). This afternoon, we were invited to attend a “mumu” by another missionary family that 2 of their PNG friends are hosting. A mumu is a celebratory feast that is prepared on special occasions (weddings, big church gatherings, etc). Traditionally, food is cooked in a pit in the ground on top of rocks that have been heated in a fire. Food is placed in layers which are usually separated by banana leaves. Cooking time depends on the type of meat (chicken vs pork) being prepared. We had a wonderful time eating and chatting with our new PNG friends, Apa and Betty. When we return home in the evening, it’s time to get Henry ready for bed and for us to prepare for the week ahead.

A few final thoughts: We have been continually blessed by our community and the many new friends that we have made. Henry has loved playing with the many missionary and PNG kids. The medicine here continues to stretch and challenge me in ways that I did not expect. Although my clinical time is not 100% devoted to the care of children, I am learning many new things about adults and getting to perform procedures that are new to me (which is both exciting and scary).

Prayer Requests:

• I will be taking my hospice and palliative board exam in November and I need prayers as I study for this exam
• Henry and I have been getting sick frequently this summer, so prayers for us to have a nice stretch of being healthy

Praises:

• Many of the missionary families that were on home assignment this summer will be returning soon
• Thoughtful and kind women who help care for Henry and missionary women who are willing to help fill in when the nanny isn’t available

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. They have sustained and encouraged us on many hard days!