I survived being on call again without the need to go in
& slept well. I decided to wear my pink scrubs for Hump Day but I was
running late so it was yet again a no makeup day (which is almost always for me
on missions) but I did put on lipstick & get several comments – makes me
wonder how bad I have looked other days???
I tend to go to breakfast every other day & then eat
bars the days I don’t go. Today I got creative with breakfast & made an egg
& grilled tomato sandwich on this bread stuff they make.
At the hospital I did my pre-op & post op routine. I was
in Awe of Ganesh & how transformed her looked. I posted a before &
after photo on social media. He & his mom were so very happy! I also saw my
friend Karishmi on post op – 2 days after surgery she was doing much better
that yesterday & will go home today J
Honestly with 30 or so post op families in the ward area I didn’t even
recognize those I gave rupees too & that was fine – it isn’t about making
them feel indebted – it is a gift to them. The 2 older women also looked
fabulous with one bad twist…one of them had paid a man to drive here here. The
Op Smile folks assumed they were family or friends. When she was taken from
pre-op to surgery that man stayed at her bedspace in Pre-Op and stole all her
$$$ (1000 rupee) and all her belongings including her clothes. That sort of put
a damper on her surgery. Bashkar was going to reimburse her the $$$ but I asked
him if I could please do that & I gave her 4000 rupee or about $60 US to
cover her lost $$$, buy new clothes & pay a new reputable driver to get her
back home. She was immensely grateful & I told her there are people all
over the world that want to help her including some of my friends & we are
honored to give her this.
Pre Op seemed to have patients of all ages & as always
some real cuties. We had a pretty quick start to the day with the 1st
4 patients off & into recovery within 10 min of each other but it didn’t seem
too chaotic (at that time anyway) We also had 2 Nursing Students & 2
Translators all from a University 2 ½ hours away so the extra people &
hands are always helpful. The translator Akash was so sweet to everyone – once we
told him the routine & what to say & ask he would just go around
talking to all the parents without us even prompting him. One of my early patients was another young
family – the mom was 19 (but she literally looked 15 & the dad was 24 – I was
able to discreetly give them 2000 rupee with Akash’s help.
There was one little one a 5 mos old age deviation Ghouri & since the anesthesiologists were
getting behind on starting IV’s Karen started her IV before surgery – what a
great idea!!! She is a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner from Australia & I am
loving working with her. I also gave Ghouri one of the blankets & did a
good job at giving out some dresses, hats & clothes. The food for the families
arrived – Victoria was going to have me go see it so I could take pics of the
humanitarian service we provided but that didn’t happen today it was just too
busy. It did seem to help though we had less moms come in ready to faint! With a
lot of palates on the schedule it was a busy day , plus we had lots of kids
screaming as they came out of the black hole of anesthesia & a few we put
back to sleep to see if they would wake up happier on round #2, we also seem to
have an increasing number of flies joining us in the PACU every day &
fanning them off the patients in just the norm.
It was so busy that by 5 pm I had a huge headache because I
hadn’t had lunch – I was also feeling nauseous & thought it was because I hadn’t
eaten but it all went downhill after that…(no need to read the detail of this
paragraph – as always this is mostly for me & I am sure you are wondering
why I want the details about getting sick??? It’s a nurse thing) when I went
back in PACU I felt worse so I took a Tums, I told Predeep the Intensivist I wasn’t
feeling well & he said to take Zofran so I did with no improvement. I was
going to go get fresh air (not that there is much of that here) & stopped
in the store room with Victoria & told her I thought I might throw up – she
said room 122 had a decent bathroom if I needed it & gave me the key. I
went straight there but didn’t quite make it & threw up outside the door in
the hallway – patients were watching & I am sure they were concerned!!! I
went inside & threw up 3 more times. I actually felt better after that
& thought I could manage the rest of the night (it was about 7 pm) I retook
the Zofran & started Cipro & went back to room 122 & laid down on a
stretcher. While I had this issue there was a patient who was bleeding who
ended up needing to go back to surgery so that created a lot of chaos for the
team. A car was leaving about 8:30 so I went in it & sat next to one of the
Jordanian OR male nurses who smoke nonstop & wasn’t sure if I could get
thru the 30 min drive with - that smell
so I rolled down the window. I felt really nauseous again & prayed I would
last the car ride. About halfway to the hotel I also asked to put my head on
his shoulder because I literally could not keep it up. I made it back to my
room & vomited on arrival 4 more times & was pretty miserable &
just laid on my bed. My roommate came in about 10 & was very sweet to me. I
got sick again about 11 & vomited 4 more times & by then I had no idea
what to do – take more meds etc. So I woke Mayra up & asked her to get
Pradeep or Victoria or Valentina. The girls were gone & it sounded like Pradeep
was in the shower. She finally got him about 11:30 & he was very kind &
said try tea etc. At that point all I wanted to do was sleep. I was achy &
miserable & went to bed praying I didn’t vomit again -which I did but just once at midnight. I
have only been sick one other day on a mission so I consider myself fortunate
& I have no idea wher this came from – food I ate, a virus shared by the
little ones I cuddle, who knows but this kind of sick is never fun. I did fall
asleep after that & slept fairly well.
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