Nov. 18, 2013

Well I just got another year younger or older.  Anyway Dolores had the expats over for cake and home made ice cream Wed evening for my birthday.  Thank you to each one of you that sent birthday greetings via email.   I am not that old although next year will be my 50 year college class reunion at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska.  We are planning to be there for that.

The birthday was just another day at the hospital.  We did a bilateral orchiectomy and amputation of scrotum for necrosis and necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum.  Hopefully he will live but it is looking doubtful as his necrotizing fasciitis or whatever has extended up through his cord and now today appears to be into his abdomen in spite of every antibiotic we could give him.  The relatives are wanting to take him home to die there as I think he is dying anyway.  Also did a partial amputation of clavicle for severe osteomylelitis from a previous fracture.  He  also had an old healed fracture of his femur that was shorter.  Another little boy has osteo of his clavicle and osteo of his femur and of one metatarsal and they claim there was no trauma.  Tues I had to redo the girl with the fistula but appears to be holding this time.  We also did another skin graft on a leg.  Sun we had a strangulated hernia and another one today.  We had another lady with kerototic 1 or 2 mm nodules only in the folds of her palmar skin.  I am told that these are benign and there is nothing to do for them.  

We have Hector, Kathy, and Michelle Figoroa from Florida here for two weeks.  Michelle was a student missionary here a few years ago.  Hector is an anesthetist.  

I don’t know what you hear in the media but BBC reported about a priest that was abducted in Koza, Cameroon and has not been heard from since.  The following is an email from Bekki and Scott Gardner (Olen’s uncle) who had been planning to go to Koza as a surgeon there.  They are presently in France studying French for another month then??    

“I don’t know what all you hear in the media but  I guess the first requirement to be a missionary is 'flexibility.' It is still very disappointing. We don't know what the GC will tell us or what will happen with the governments and the Boko Haram. The priest definitely needs our prayers. I read on the BBC website that he had emailed or texted the french embassy 4 hrs before he was kidnapped and must have been in the process of evacuating when they came. His empty suitcase was found on the side of the road the next day. The BH has been pretty active the last 6 mos. They went into a mosque and killed a bunch of people, pulled kids out of a school and set them on fire, attacked and massacred students in their dormitory at a government agriculture school and then set the buildings on fire, they dressed up in Nigerian military uniforms and set up a checkpoint (from the description in the news I think it was on the road between Koza and Ndjemena) anyway they stopped cars, pulled the people out and started shooting and hatcheting the people until they got a call on their cell phones that the real military was on the way, then they took off on their motos. It doesn't appear that they stole anything or that they even wanted the cars. They are a very strange group. They don't seem to have much of an agenda except to kill, destroy, control and terrorize. They do want money for weapons but they don't really seem to be stealing much. I suppose they don't bother with petty theft when all they have to do is kidnap a few westerners a year to collect millions so they can go back to terrorizing and killing.

The couple from Jengre had to leave early this yr. They actually didn't tell anyone they were leaving. They had a moving truck show up. Literally threw their things in and left with out saying good bye or anything. They had spent the better part of the last 20 yrs there and felt that was a horrible ending but felt for their own safety that was the way it had to be.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.

Bekki "

The Boko Haram has been officially declared a terrorist organization similar to Al Queda by the US state department.  They are the ones that were making trouble in Mali and Niger and northeast Nigeria and now Cameroon.  There was a French couple abducted a few months ago in Cameroon also.  They have especially been active in northeast Nigeria and in Mali.  Jengre, Nigeria is where we were 40+ years ago and we had once thought of visiting there but that looks unlikely now.  

So far here in Chad it is quiet and no evidence of their activity here that we know about.   I have not heard of any problems here other than frequent military check points when traveling on a main road and if one travels anymore it is helpful to have a letter of explanation from your organization such as hospital of why you are going to wherever so that they let you through faster.    We are way out in the bush and in no danger.  

Continue to pray for all missionaries of all kinds.    The devil is active trying to keep people from learning about the Saviour.

Our emails are dfbland01@gmail.com and  drbland@sbcglobal.net  

Love,   Rollin and Dolores

Nov. 12, 2013

    We have about finished moving all our stuff out of the apartment and
to our “new house." There are some other volunteers coming that will
need to stay in the apartment in a few days. It seems we have
accumulated more stuff in the last two years. Of course we have put
some stuff that we are not using right now back into the container.
   Friday we had a strangulated inguinal hernia but the intestine was
still viable so no problem.
   Sabbath was busy as I taught English Sabbath School class then
preached a sermon that was translated into French and Ngere. In the
evening we had two maternity cases with one that was dead baby before
she arrived that delivered and then had to have a manual removal of
the placenta and the other was a very difficult forceps delivery with
baby that had a heart beat but never responded otherwise to
resusitation. Then about midnight a man presented with a
strangulated inguinal hernia but when we operated he had about 10 feet
of dead small intestine from a strangulated volvulus which we removed
and reanastamosed to about 6 inches of terminal ileum . The
strangulated hernia had also necrosed his cord and testicle on that
side so had to remove that but that made his hernia repair easier
His hernia incision had to be extended cephalad quite a way to get
enough exposure to figure out the problem. 

   Sun we had what appeared to be a perforated ulcer but turned out to 

be acuteappendicitis. Also saw lady that had burns on her face and arms 

from boiling oil thrown on her by her husband then he would not let her
come in for treatment for two days but she finally got away and he is
in jail. Often times when a husband abuses his wife nothing will
happen to him. Also saw a girl with edema, ascites, shortness of
breath, pulsating neck veins, and a severe systolic heart murmur heard
over most of chest but more in left mid axillary line. Also on
Sunday put in a chest tube for empyema. We had another cancer of
cervix and uterus (not sure which was primary) that we debulked but
not cured.
   As we think of this holiday season time of year we turn to
thankfulness. We are thankful for the plan of salvation that Jesus
has provided for us with his perfect life and sacrifice. We are are
thankful for the friends and relatives that think of us and continue
to pray for us. We are thankful for the emails and notes that some
send us. We are thankful for the donations that have been provided
so that various projects can continue. We are thankful for the
Adventist Service Industries, Maranatha, and Adventist Health
International that have provided many new building shells but now we
need to finish them up on the inside with interior walls and plumbing
and electric wiring, etc. We are thankful for the large and small
donations that have been made to help provide equipment and interior
necessities such as sinks and stoves. More are needed. We are
thankful for the volunteers that have come and that will come to work
to make this place a better place with their various talents. We are
thankful for the Parkers that have done so much to direct the
construction and help with the school. We are thankful to be able
to work with Olen and Danae in the mission hospital work and of course
to be with the grandkids here (now three). Much more is needed to
make everything useable. We are thankful that Bere Adventist
Hospital is one of the better hospitals in the country (but still has
lots of room for improvement). We do more surgical procedures than
any other hospital in the country (will be over 1200 this year). We
are thankful for your prayers for each patient and employee. We are
thankful for the buildings that have the shells for the volunteers
that will come. They need to be finished with walls, plumbing, sinks,
toilets, stoves for cooking meals, etc. For instance a cook stove
for each place is over $300 plus $150 for gas tanks, gas and hook ups
need about 12. We need interior walls for the private wards,
maternity and OR areas. We need fans for each of the volunteer
buildings, as well as the private wards and other places. The new
buildings are designed with lots of ventilation so that air
conditioning is not really an option except hopefully in the OR.
Besides air conditioning takes lots of electricity which we have only
so much generation capacity. There is not and will not be any
public power available in the forseeable future. I am amazed at how
much is done with so little to work with. I am thankful for how
much the Lord has blessed the work here in Bere, Chad.
   Be sure to read the blogs on www.missionarydoctors.blogspot.com
Keep looking up "for our redemption draweth nigh" but there are still
many people in the world that do not know the love of Jesus. God
is waiting for all of us to let them know Do your neighbors and
friends know Him?

Our emails are drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland01@gmail.com
Love, Rollin and Dolores

November 7, 2013

We are going batty. Dolores found a bat in her skirt when she put it
on after she had brought it in and layed it with the clothes. She
had taken it off the clothes line the day before.

Past Wed we had a very large ovarian tumor that came out easily but
there were inguinal and periaortic nodes so I’m not sure if cancer or
just lots of inflammation. Then I did a myomectomy of a 12 cm
fibroid from the apex of an uterus (she wanted more children) and
amazingly the uterus looked nearly normal when we got done with it
also normal tubes and ovaries. Then had a hematouterus with lots of
old blood in the enlarged uterine cavity but no products of conception
but appeared to be old retained menses. Her internal os of cervix was
stenosed closed so opened it and did a curettage and found nothing
else. In the past week we have had two sets of twins and one set of
triplets then another set of twins two weeks before which was from a
lady with ecclampsia so she was delivered by c-section and did ok but
the others were all vaginal deliveries. We now have 3 that have the
abdominal wounds packed open. One was a previous c-section that had
gotten severely infected and another was a typhoid perforation that
had multiple perforations repaired but developed another or else we
missed one so repeat surgery closing the fistula and packed her open.
The third one was a previous that was infected and now is almost
closed.

We are moved into our “new house” although nothing is organized yet.
We don’t have hardly any shelves up yet so we can put stuff away.
We are able to sleep in the bed there and it is much quieter than
where we were in the apartment for the past two years. We now don’t
have the roosters crowing under our window or the dogs barking at the
door or someone sweeping the yard by the door all of which usually
began about 5:00 am. I still wake up with daylight anyway. We
have spare beds in the other bedrooms so come visit us. Although the
bed rooms may have to act as storage places for awhile. Of course we
still have the shipping container that we are using for storage of
some things. It seems that the bugs moved in with us so I now have
sprayed pyrethrin around the outside and inside where the metal walls
are sitting on the cement and around the windows and will see if that
helps. We have our kerosene refrigerator going and it keeps stuff
real cold and we have our large freezer running that is supposed to
use no more power than a 100 watt bulb or max of 140 watts. We are
also using our new stove from America that was in our container that
even has electronic ignition and a large oven. Dolores really likes
it as compared to the one burner stove and small oven that we have
been using the past two years. Dolores is trying to get some
curtains made for the windows for looks as the windows are semi-opaque
anyway. She is even making some ice cream and some smoothies (all
vegan). They really taste good esp on hot evenings.

Zane and Lyol already have malaria with fever and are taking quinine.
There has also been some GI bug maybe Giardia or some virus going
around. So far Dolores and I are healthy. Two of the student
missionaries have malaria again.

We enjoy emails even if we might be slow answering sometimes. Our
internet service is only part time and very slow and costs as much as
back home would be for good service.

Our emails are: dfbland01@gmail.com and drbland@sbcglobal.net
Love Rollin and Dolores