I am writing this blog post the next morning because by the
time we got back to the hotel it was 11:30 & all I wanted to do was
sleep!!! The day started at 5:30 am to get up get my backpack packed for the
day and be at breakfast for the Team mtg at 6:30. Our hotel is on a river (not
sure which one???) but there was actually a beautiful sunrise over the river.
We are thinking this is a place that folks in West Bengal India might come to
have a “staycation” there is a pool, playground & it is basically tucked
away far from anything except for the little village that is on the road to the
hotel & a brickyard that I assume most of those people work at??? It is not
bad at all and pretty typical for mission standards. The things that make you
realize you are in a 3rd world country are all the same – hot water
that is in a small maybe 5 gallon “water heater” in your room that you turn on,
after about 20 min you hope it has eated up & then quickly shower before
you use the hot water. The towels are pretty gray and very thin and small so
one little miracle is that I packed a towel on this trip – I have NEVER before
brought a towel on a mission and boy and I glad I did here, so that was a bit of
a divine inspiration!!!
We left for the hospital at 7ish (time is relatively fluid
when moving with a large group although they do like to keep a tight plan).
When we got to the hospital there were about the same # of people waiting, we
went inside for our team meeting & then started getting set up for
screening. Valentina the Program Coordinator asked me to be the “Gatekeeper”
which I have done on several missions – it’s a lot of work & organization
but I am fine to do it. Our Clinical coordinator is even more organized than me
so she had a very structured system I just needed to learn – color coded just
like my 5 color highlighter – it was a match made in heaven!
It takes awhile to get all the stations set up – intake
where their chart is started, PIT where pre surgery photos are taken, Nursing
where a medical history is done & vital signs, the they see the
pediatrician, surgeon, anesthesiologist, speech therapist, dentist then
Gatekeeper & we send them for labs if they will likely have surgery. Since
the gatekeeper is the last station & it is typically a slow start I don’t
see my first patient until 1-2 hours after screening starts which gives me a
chance to go out & be with the patients & that is what I LOVE the most.
SO SO many beautiful children with moms & dads & grandmas, very humble
people. We are at a decent private hospital but one that isn’t completely
finished so wires coming out of walls & ceilings, light fixtures are
minimal and on our tour there are no beds in any of the rooms we will use so
clearly we will somehow do a transformation, I was told that typically in ths
are only 1 in 10 people have ever seen a doctor in their lives – 10% so if only
10% have seen a doctor clearly even less have been in a hospital – probably why
this hospital has not been used much in the 10 years it has been here. Also for
most of these kids this will be their first “medical experience” with a lot of
strangers who don’t look like them! But outside in the waiting area they were
fun to see & hold & as always bubbles & stickers are the great
equalizers – they follow you around like the pied piper when you have those. SO
SO many little cuties & LOTS of cleft lips in little ones, school ages,
teens (who mostly wear a scarf over their face to hide it) & adults. This
will be an AMAZING 10 days changing so many lives so simply. I took a lot of
photos while I was outside & posted them on Facebook & Instagram – I
really need to increase my technology skills & figure out how to put them
on my blog in real time – maybe next mission??? Also while I was outside 3
vans/buses showed up with patients – it was like the clown buses as I watched I
could not believe how many people came out of each bus – that definitely
increased the patient # & chaos.
We didn’t get our first patient at Gatekeeper
until 10:30 or so 0 3 of us were there at that station – Mick the CC, Karen
another recovery room nurse I will be with all week who is from Australia &
me. They would look at the charts for completion, one of us would write out a
card to be used for the schedule and I wrote every patients info into a master
log.
It was after 11 pm when we got back after having gotten up
at 5:30 it made for a long day – I posted a few photos to social media then
went to bed. I didn’t fall asleep right away even thought I was exhausted –
just too many things to think about, faces to recall & mostly an overwhelming
sense of gratitude for the opportunity to be here with this team and make a
difference in peoples lives.
Today we will go back & create the Operating rooms &
recovery room. The hospital has 2 OR rooms & we will put 2 tables in each
room & we are also turning a closet into an operating room & a Drs
lounge into an operating room – that should all be interesting. I haven’t heard
anything about the recovery room – more to come after we see it! After set up
is done we will have a “team day” which should be interesting as there is
absolutely nothing in this area – someone said we may play some games. It is
really just about bonding together before we start working together in an
intense environment. More to come.
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