Jimmy and Chase Miller- Serving Kenya since 2011

 My last week has been full as I try to get all my patients cared for before I leave.  On monday I performed endoscopic sinus surgery on a needy patient with one sided disease.  This is always a red flag that something sinister could be the cause.  fortunately this patient had what appeared to be benign pathology.  She had polypoid disease extending from the front of her nose all the way posteriorly into the pharynx.  All the equipment worked well and I am thankful for a working endoscopy tower.  This is a great need as 2 of the towers I have used in the past are now not working. In the afternoon, I performed a tympanoplasty to repair ruptured ear drum.  This patient has considerable bilateral hearing loss due to ear drum pathology and previous failed surgery.  All went well and hopefully we will be able to tackle the other side next visit. Wednesday, I did my first mastoid surgery this visit. This patient has been waiting 2 years for her sur...

 My eyes continue to be opened to deeper and deeper levels of poverty here.  As the financial effects of COVID continue to depress this economy, health care resources are affected also.  The national governmental insurance costs from 150-500 shillings a month (roughly $1-$4.00 a month).  Many of my Kenyan patients are unable to afford this amount.  NHIF is covering less and less procedures pushing the cost of health care onto the family and their tribe.  The government is delinquent in making payments to the hospital which pushes the hospital debt greater and greater.  Bills aren't paid and hospital suppliers are refusing to provide needed operating room supplies.  I have performed a number of cancer biopsies but reports are delayed.  NHIF approval which used to take 48 hours now takes weeks.  Cancers which were manageable are growing.  The picture below is of a patient that sought local herbal remedies for his cancer because medica...

 I arrived safely last week and thankfully the water filters that I shipped also arrived safely.  The ability to ship the filters is truly a 'game changer' for water filtration projects.  I had a wonderful meeting with THCH (Tenwek Hospital Community Health), they reach into the communities and support pregnant women with vitamins and baby supplies, they provide vaccinations for the children and also partner with local churches for outreach.  THCH has picked two large churches for a water filter outreach.  Each church has its own evangelistic outreach, and they will find those folks that are in desperate need, usually the elderly.  They will share the Gospel and set them up with buckets and a Sawyer water filter. Tenwek Hospital has allowed me to ship filters directly to their supply room so I can now keep the 'pipeline', so to speak, filled.  We tried this for a while, but the project sputtered as I was limited to what I could bring over from the Stat...

 This has been a different kind of trip so far.  I have taken many biopsies of obvious tumors and I am still waiting for results.  The national health insurance NHIF has also been more difficult to work with on this trip.  In the past we would have approvals for surgeries within 48 hrs but now we are waiting weeks.  They are refusing coverage many times requiring us to resubmit and wait again.  Despite these hurdles I know God is in everything and we have been working at a steady pace.  I operated 3 days this week performing a number of small cases including repair of an ear drum, tonsillectomies, ear tubes, tracheostomies, removal of a nasal mass and endoscopic nasal polyp removal.  Everyone has done well which is a blessing from the Lord in this environment.    My general surgery resident in ENT clinic         Preparing for tonsillectomy                       ...

 I arrived safely after an arduous journey.  I did get questioned at customs again and needed to pay a Tarif but it was a reasonable rate this time.  I have been without internet until yesterday so I apologize for a late update. My first week was quite busy in clinic as I screened patients for upcoming surgeries.  We has some late nights but it is great to be back serving the Kenyans.  I have performed multiple biopsies on various tumors.  Unfortunately there is no pathologist here so the biopsies can take up to 3 weeks for results.  We will make daily calls to try to move up the cases urgently. This patient was ecstatic!  He was diagnosed with severe hearing loss in both ears.  I fit him with a digital hearing aid and he was able to hear clear for the first time in years!  They live 5 hours away and were so blessed! This is a typical thyroid goiter for this region.  She underwent evaluation of her vocal cords in preparation for upc...