An unexpected turn to my day

My new set of pills

Waking up this morning was a real struggle; I could not get myself out of bed. Waking up at 6 Monday-Friday was hard enough, because I am use to working night shift at the hospital and rarely having to get up early, let alone 5 days in a row. This morning I just did not feel right, and to add to that, it was extremely cold, but I dragged myself out of bed, thinking thank goodness it is Friday.  I had headache, stomachache, weakness, fatigue and neck stiffness. None of these symptoms seemed alarming to me, I told Harriet and just went to work. I did not bother to tell Julie, our head missionary nurse but Harriet thought they should know. They told me that I might have Malaria and that I should get tested. They took a sample of my blood and put it on a slide to test it once it dried. I decided I wasn’t that bad and keep going on with the workday. I kept feeling tired and weak and everyone wanted me to go home and rest. Around 9 o clock they finally convinced me.

Before I left I had to check on Robert to see how he was doing. He was out of bed and I was very happy about that. He was still in a lot of pain and was throwing up after eating food. I explained to the father he needs to stick with liquids right now and to slowly work his way up to solids. I don’t know if he understood me because he keep nodding and saying “ya” ha-ha, I tired. I went to get him some pain medication, which is only Tylenol (usually after surgery it is morphine, poor kid.) I said my good byes and let him know I would check on him tomorrow, praying Robert will be better, I guess only time will tell.

I went straight home and went to bed, I fell asleep, to be woken up around 11 with Julie entering the house. I thought I was dreaming, it was like I couldn’t wake up. She came into my room, telling me that the slide came back and I had Malaria, I was like “what, there is no way I have it.” I thought I was still dreaming, but I wasn’t and she was there with my drugs. It is a 3 day supply of 8 pills a day, 4 in the morning and 4 at night. So I sat up and took the first 4, still groggy. Then she proceeded to tell me that on Sunday I will need to start taking new Malaria pills, because mine didn’t work haha naw you think. She ended up leaving and I went back to bed. The pills made me feel very dizzy, like I was floating, it was hard for me to fall back asleep. Around 2 o clock Harry came home and brought me lunch, I got up and ate that, and felt a lot better. Then I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I just stayed up and read and did some studying. Everyone from the mission came and stopped by to see how I was doing, it was very nice. They were shocked at how well I looked, they told me I had 160 parasites from the mosquito (which isn’t very much, because they caught it early.) It is a good thing I work at a hospital and they have the resources to treat it and they know the early signs. I did not think I had many but apparently I did and had no idea. Here I was taking a nap everyday which is unusual for me and that’s a major sign.

Well now that I have scared everyone, I am doing a lot better, I will let you know tomorrow, because some times the next day is the worst, but I feel good right now, stayed in the house most of the day. We were all talking about it, trying to figure out how I got it, people don’t usually get it till 7-10 days in the country and I have been here just a week. They said that it usually hits you when your immune system is down and that would make sense because I went 5 days with barely any sleep. So, I am thinking I got it at the flight house or the airport. I did not have any bug spray on and I did not use my mosquito net while there. While I have been in Loloma I have been religious about my bug spray and net at night. You get Malaria from the lady mosquitoes, which are quiet, you can hear the males, so that’s where they get silent but deadly here. I am not itching anywhere so I have no idea where I got bit, so who knows. I am going back to the states and going to get my money back, those were expensive pills and I got Malaria within a week of being here, they need to know they don’t really work. So anyways I am so sorry I don’t have any pictures, and not really any interesting stories, we will see what tomorrow brings, off for now.

Scrubbed up and ready to go....

ya, I actually got a picture in the OR :/

Hernia repair or tubes tied not sure? haha

concent forms here-fingerprints?

Wow, what a day today!! Being in the operating room was quite an encounter. The doctor preformed 6 surgeries in 5 hours, and they were one after the other and he still had 2 more to do before 2pm

The First surgery was on a one-week year old, the little girl could breast feed because part of her tongue was attached to her roof of her mouth. The doctor tried putting her under anesthesia and it didn’t work so he preformed the surgery with no painkillers, the baby was crying away. Let me tell you how hard it is to cut a babies tongue and keep her mouth open while crying. I had to hold the baby’s mouth open, another had to hold her arms and another had to widen her mouth while the doctor cut. That was truly hard to stand through without shedding a tear. But thankfully it only took 30 minutes and I was happy to wrap her back up in her blanket and give her back to her mom.

Roberts arm :( you can see why he was in pain

The next surgery was about 5 minutes later with a 10-year-old boy named Robert! This boy has been in a few of my pictures in previous blog’s. He has just stolen my heart from the moment he smiled at me; he is the taller boy with the baseball cap on. He is so sweet, and friendly, I am so happy he has a loving father because I would want to take him home with me. Anyways, he had a snakebite a while back and had a procedure where they open up his arm to reduce the swelling and take out the venom, now the doctor was stitching him back up weeks later. First off they gave him some painkillers to kind of knock him out, well the next thing you know is his toes and legs are cringing at the pain as they were sticking a needle through his arm sowing him up. I asked the doctor if he could have some more pain meds, apparently in Zambia sucking up the pain is the way to go. I could see his blood pressure go up and heart rate rise and I was just getting sick watching this boy go through this. So finally he got more drugs and he kind of fell asleep, but his toes were still flexing and a one point a tear rolled down his face, and I just wiped it away, I wanted to hold his hand the entire time, my heart was breaking! After about an hour they were down and we rolled him back to the pediatric ward. Hours later I went to go check on him, Robert was sweating, he felt hot and he was in so much pain. I asked one of the nurses if he had any pain medications yet, they replied no. I made it my job to find him some, I wrote on his chart his temperature, my assessment and what pain medications he should get. Then I went and got him Panadol, which isn’t that strong considering his surgery. I wiped off his sweaty face and elevated his poor arm. At this moment I had to be his advocate, he couldn’t speak English and in their culture they just endure everything. I told the father “if he has a fever tell the nurse, if he is in pain tell the nurse.” We need to watch for infection, which is very common after surgery here; this boy was one heck of a trooper.

The next 3 surgeries were women getting their tubes tied. All 3 women had 10 kids each, they were all about 45-50, just shocking at the age women still have kids. We were making jokes saying these women and their kids could be an entire village, the doctor forced these women to get this procedure done, he said 10 is enough ha-ha! What I love about this doctor is he prays before each surgery, and also there is a short gospel message on the loud speaker every morning, being at a Christian hospital is a privilege and I will miss it when I come back home!

The doctor also did a hernia repair and the anesthesia did not work, and here the doctor is digging around in this lady insides and she is just screaming (which I have never really herd from a women in pain yet) and I could not believe he carried on with the surgery, you know it had to hurt like the dickens. You would never see that in America, EVER, God bless them.

Harry and I on our run (well run/walk)

making lemonade-very proud of ourselves

That was about the extent of my morning, keeping sterile is not as strict here and I was aloud to help and stand close and watch, and they wonder why the infection rate is so high ha-ha I wonder why. Later, in the afternoon Harriet and I made our first lemonade from fresh squeezed lemons, which we were very proud of, it was delicious. Then after we went for a run on the airstrip, which is about a mile long. Try running in long skirts, on sand, in 80-degree sun, where the altitude is very high. Lets just say we weren’t running very fast and were really out of breath. That was the first time we worked out the entire time we have been here. We are going to try and make it a regular daily activity. I made a joke to the doctor asking if he would do lipo suction on me before I leave and he laughed and said exercise and don’t eat so much. That is easier said then done when you eat as much as we do. Then we met a 23 year old school teacher on our walk back home who invited us for lunch tomorrow, lets hope it isn’t shima. Her name is Gin and was very friendly; making friends here is so easy. The locals love white people; they call us chandelles (sp?) Later that evening we went to the market to buy food and just relaxed the rest of the right. We are both very happy tomorrow is the end of the workweek, getting up at 6 is not fun! Well I am off, I wrote a whole lot tonight, sorry, but I also have some pictures, which I know everyone loves, till tomorrow!

caterpillars-eww

A little boy, eating caterpillars like peanuts. You get them  in bags and then un-peal them and then eat them, no thanks

try running on this with a skirt on

our new friend, Gin! She loved my phone and that we could take pic ourselves

all my years of nursing school all wrapped into one week

Tonight I am trying to write this blog fast, only an hour till the internet shuts off. You don't realize how the internet is such a privilege, and with my iphone always having wifi. At the hospital today I got to help deliver 2 babies today, pretty amazing! The first birth was a complication and it is pretty amazing that these women have no pain killers at all and she don't even scream or flinch. I am flinching just watching her (I thought I was tolerate to pain, I guess not seeing what these women go through). The baby was face side up and he would not come out, then the doctor had to almost do surgery on her, again with nothing for sedation or pain! In their culture women don't speak when spoken to or don't complain or any of that, just makes me embarrassed for always grabbing Tylenol when I have any kind of ache or pain. A few hours later another lady went into labor, i helped guide the baby out and clean her up, cut the umbilical cord and deliver the placenta ( sorry guys if you find this disgusting). After I cleaned the baby and weighed her and clothed her and gave her to her mom to hold for a bit! She was very happy after 5 boys she finally had a girl! Then right after I took the baby into the maternity room where other women were waiting and when I entered they started cheering and clapping and dancing. It was quite comical, i was right there with them clapping and dancing, they thought that was funny. Down below you can see the picture of me and the baby girl, it was a fun experience!!

Just some beds and wheelchairs chilling outside in the grounds of the hospital

It's a girl!

Later in the night there was a youth group, that was great, almost 50 kids there, it reminded me of a conference sing back home!! (side note: outside my house there is quite a commotion: yelling, singing, clapping. It is very loud, there must be some kind of celebration.) Anyways the kids were all singing bible songs, and this one was in English so i could sing along and understand, I enjoyed it! Then we watched a movie and there was a gospel message and muffins after, it was so wonderful seeing so many young people and all knowing English and knowing about My Savior!!

a picture of a goat just roaming a round-no big deal

Tomorrow I will be with the doctor in the "theater" which means OR, and getting to help and watch his surgeries, hopefully that goes well. I am telling you it is like all my years of nursing school all wrapped into one week, learning so much!! Well better let Harry use the computer now, till tomorrow!!

This lady reminds me of the jungle book!

The youth group

A Wallie, gets rid of mosquitoes, i cant kill these, all over the walls

I could get use to this :)

The charts, with pills!

The middle of the hospital

one of the male rooms

laundry at the hospital

pharmacy

fish at the market

rows and rows of fish, it smelled pleasant

Harry bought sugar cane for 20cents aka 1k

girls at the shop that were playing hide and seek with me

its and to see this one, but the one lady has a baby on her back and the other has a live chicken in her hand

Today, I decided to post more pictures and write a little less. I am hoping to get a call from my mother tonight!!!
The second day at the hospital was a bit different from yesterday, which is a nice change of pace, Tuesdays are a lot more calm. During this mornings rounds, I saw a lumbar puncture done right there at the bedside ( which is a sterile procedure for all of you who wouldn't know that) for a patient that was seizing for hours, she probably has so much brain damage I don't know if she will make it through the night. Also the doctor about did CPR on a patient because she had no pulse and had a oxygen stat of about 70 (normal 95-100%). Rounds took a little loner then normal, but of course we had our tea break after with muffins. Boy, do they feed us to well here. We have a tea break about 3 times a day, im glad I like tea!
After rounds I was sent to help out in maternity, which was nice! I got to assess mothers and figure out what week they were pregnant, and if their child had a heart beat. My stethoscope came in handy today, the object the nurse was using was preposterous. I let her listen with my stethoscope and she was like "wow, you can hear it so well." haha imagine that, it works! But I have to say I enjoyed it, I mastered it after about 10 mothers and I was assessing them on my own and writing it on their charts, which i have a picture of. When they were done we gave them some iron pills and folic acid, i kid you not they were in scrapes of paper. For instance they get 14 pills so in a ripped piece of paper the 14 pills were scrunched in it (interesting). I will be helping her again on friday, which I am sure will lessen her work load, she saw about 50 mothers today. After that I was done for the day, it was an easy one. The sad thing was seeing the lady that coded, died :( first death.
After that my day was great, had a great lunch of chili which looked and tasted like my moms and it made me miss her. Of course we had dessert and what do you know...tea (surprise surprise.) Around 3 we went home and went to the market and bought a few things. Then I took a nap and did some reading till it was time for dinner. For dinner we had home made corn dogs and fries, then brownies and tea again. We played games and talked till we came home, now I am writing you guys-so related to my title I could get use to this!! Well my hour is up, don't want to get to stingy, hope to have more interesting stories tomorrow!

American hospitals have no room to complain...First day at the hospital

Today at the hospital was heart wrenching, seeing things I have never seen before. I think today I saw and did almost more in a 6-hour period then I did in all of my years of nursing school! For all of you nurses that are reading this you can understand what I am talking about. My first shock of the day was getting right next to a TB patient with no mask or anything on. In the U.S we put the patient in a private room, we always have to wear sealed tight masks; and here they are in open rooms with other TB patients. I am thinking my hospital might have to test me before I go back to work. I saw my first cleft lip, hydrocephalus, snake bite, grand mal seizure, also there was 9 babies born yesterday and they were all in one room with the mothers (some slept on the floor with a mattress if anyone was wondering where we put them all.) So that was day one, I wonder what day two will bring us.

 Everything is much more relaxed and free (like you can actually do your job without worrying someone is going to sue you.) I didn’t wear gloves once, re was pancakes there too…fancy-that ha-ha o no I am sounding like I am English, Harriet is rubbing off on me.) Then I washed my hands when I was all done for the day. Compared to after every patient at the Cleveland clinic.and I washed my hands only when we took a tea break (yes, we took a tea break, and the

First, we did rounds with the doctor and that took about 3 hours. The doctor here is very good, a Christian man that told a patient this morning that he was seeing things (hallucinations of colored people) because he didn’t have God and he needed to pray. I laughed at that, because that would never happen in an American hospital! After the rounds I went with Daisy, an older nurse here and helped her with outpatient. I will have to take a picture tomorrow, people everywhere trying to get seen and helped. At one point Daisy left me alone and I was diagnosing people myself and assessing them, and writing it down on a pink sheet of paper, called their “chart.” I had a few malaria patients that needed blood work to be sure they had malaria, a few TB patients that needed x-rays. But the funny part was trying to ask them questions. The nurse Julie wrote down a few key words to say, but I was just laughing trying to pronounce them. Also trying to call the next patients name was a sight to see I am sure, but I must of said it good enough because people came up nodding, signaling it was indeed them.

Seeing all the dirty clothes, and all the supplies the hospital didn’t have and the stench that I don’t think I will ever forget, just heart-wrenching. I wish I could send them so many things and do so much more, you feel like your never doing enough. Tylenol is the only pain killer, almost out of antibiotics, barely any gloves and so many other things that I am sure I can make this list go on all day! But seeing what these people have and how they live and the way the kids light up when you smile and play with them is just amazing (more of a Christian nation then U.S where we have everything, never once complaining of their circumstance, or blaming God for what they don’t have.)

Well now I am just babbling on and on, I am sure I will have more stories tomorrow, bye bye for today!

 Harry and I went to the pediatric ward and the kids just came from every where. Smiling and waving at us, I wanted to get a picture of them and they just loved it and all wanted to get in!

 You can see how the kids are dressed and these pictures, the one boy has no clothes and a big belly, all so happy to see you. We were playing with them and they were loving it, I guess in their culture, kids don't matter and the parents don't play with them, really sad!

 Today we got normal village food- Shima (white mash potato looking thing), they eat it twice a day, everyday, and I can barley eat it once

 Step one put it in your bowl, step two, take the shima in your hand, and taking off pieces and dipping it in whatever other food you have. Yes it is custom to eat it with your hands, my dad wouldn't of been very proud of me. But for the first time it was acceptable.

 Here is Harry chowing down on the last part of shima. The shima is like a thick, doughy consistency. Apparently i will be having it for a week at the girls camp, so they are getting us use to it now :/

if you dont know what to say- smile, nod and say mwane (sp?)

 This is a little girl that just came up to me, I fell in love, sweetest little thing, kept smiling at me and holding my hand!

This is our house, with Becka and Harriet.

Wow, that post I did last night took forever. I will try to write something everyday, but we have internet from 9-midnight, and you can imagine how hard that is with 3 girls living in this house and with the connection being slower then dial up ( which some young people don’t even know what that is). I just wanted to tell you a little about my day today! My first day at church, which I didn’t understand at all. Breaking of bread is at 11;30, then ministry at 12;30, but time doesnt matter here, so we started an hour late. But that gave me a chance to meet some of the people, and children! During the meeting I did a lot of praying and reading to myself, but some of the songs I can sing, just not understand what I am saying. I am getting a lot better at hello, some 2 handed hand shakes and some chapping my hands together while saying mwane (sp?). If you don’t know what to say you say that, so of course that’s what I say to everyone haha!! Hey give me a break, I just got here, give me a week or two.

I am very excited to work in the hospital tomorrow, they said I can do a lot of things, nurse are more like nurse practitioners here, only one doctor. I will be able to tell you more tomorrow on what the hospital is like. We work from 7;30-1;30, and then done for the rest of the day.

We went to the market and saw what the villagers eat- surprisingly it is caterpillars, fish, potatoes, nuts  and other bugs. I am so thankful for American food, that people send to the missionaries. I have had a great meal every night, and there is always dessert…that’s not good for me! I will pot pictures if it loads, but I have 30 min before the electricity turns off, so I hope to post 1 or 2. Well off to bed, because whats to do when you have no electricity...... exactly!

 This is what your feel look like all day long, most just don't wear shoes

 Harriet and I room, we love the mosquitoes nets, we feel like princesses, and oddly more secure.

 Learning how to play cricket- mixture of golf and baseball

 Some Zambian kids!

5 days later....

I am writing with the worlds slowest internet, yes that's means I made it to my final destination in Loloma! I attempted to call my parents on Becka's (friend from Iowa) phone, i got about 3 minutes in and the phone shut off. But I am happy to be able to hear both of my parents voice and to let them know I got here safe. So mom and dad when your reading this sorry the phone shut off, she ran out of minutes, ill try calling again when we get more minutes, love you both!
 The flight to Loloma was an interesting one, I thought i had a tough stomach...haha not so much. For about the entire 2 hour ride I had the barf bag in my hand, I didnt have to use it, but Harriet ( my new British friend) said I looked very pale and i felt like i was going to be sick the entire ride. The plane was very small and very bumpy, it was almost like you were on a roller coaster the entire time (the down hill part at least). When we landed we were greeted by so many smiling faces, I wish I had got some more pictures, but I was just happy to see land! Once we landed we were given a tour and taken to our house. Becka, Harriet and I will be staying in our own house together. The house has running water and beds and we have food here (and no more then leaves, portage and caterpillars). So for all those people I told that I was going to lose weight-maybe not so much.
We had a lovely meal of everything pizzas, we had papaya for dessert with cookies with tea. After seeing the hospital, I didn't realize how different life was here-gloves haha not so much. ( the whole foam in and foam out we do at the clinic just seems a little obsessive now.) I am very excited to get right to it on Monday morning at the hospital. We are 6 hours ahead here in Zambia, and it gets dark every night at 6pm. I am excited to see what the next 6 weeks brings, there are some amazing people here. More pictures to come.