Nursing

Many, many people asked before we left if I would be nursing in Africa. I remember feeling sad that I wasn't coming here as a nurse. But once a nurse, always a nurse. So with that said, I have been able to do a bit of nursing (very little - but enough to still feel useful).

We have a teammate who works in one of the local hospitals (it would be considered a county hospital - it's not where we would go if we were sick). She is a physio therapist from the United Kingdom. She does physical, occupational, and respiratory (including vents) therapy. It's a foreign concept to me as these roles are quiet different and I cannot imagine some of the physical therapist I used to work with also being respiratory therapist and vice versa (although there are several who could do both - I'm sure). Anyway, she says there are about 3 nurses to two wards (probably 30-40 people). Nurses primarily handle medications and dressing changes.

The patient brings with them an attendant (hopefully). This is usually a family member who cleans, turns, feeds, and provides basic care for them. If a patient does not have an attendant, those basic care needs won't be met. They will lay in their filth and go hungry. On occasion, someone's smell has bothered the others enough that they will move that patient's mattress outside - with them on it. It's definitely different.

The same for children. Remember Daniel, Lucy's first abandoned baby? In the three days he was there, he was fed only a bit of water on occasion and that was by other mothers. Lucy picked another baby last week. He was found on the side of the road and brought to the hospital. When she asked how much he was fed. The answer was that they thought some of the nurses fed him during the week, but not sure if anyone fed him on the weekends. He was one month old and weighed less than 7 pounds. We babysat yesterday, and my heart just breaks. Who will tell this precious boy about Jesus? Will he get enough love at the orphanage? I wish it didn't take 3 years to adopt a child here.

This is Lucy and Isaac.

Well, I haven't done hospital nursing and probably won't. But I have given several shots and first aid. I have treated bee stings with cortisone injections. Let me just take a moment to say the needles are awful! They are dull and flimsy. I gave one injection to a young man here and the needle bounced off his skin - didn't even draw blood! I'm not sure if it was the terrible needle or his skin was so tough. But I felt awful. It's funny to note that I've actually given more shots to cattle than people. At first I had to use the same kind of needles for both. It was really hard to get it through the calf's hide.

Another gentlemen will be receiving 30 days worth of injections (thankfully I won't have to give them all). I get to teach how to reconstitute (mix) the medicine and how to give them. I'm not even sure where to advise him to administer them - you can only give it in the same spot so many times....I guess I'll find out.

One 4 year old niece of a friend was discharged from the hospital with 4 days worth of injections. So I went to visit her 4 days in a row. She never once cried or ran away from me. If it had been Dara or Dade, we would have had 2-3 people hold them down. It's amazing. Maybe it's just so scary to see a white person that she was mesmerized?

This little girl is a neighbor and she was bit by a spider. I went for several days to keep measuring the swelling in her arm. It started in her wrist and moved up to her elbow. She was so tough. I gave her a little bit of pain medicine and some baking soda mixed with water to apply to the bite (Internet is such a helpful tool as I didn't have a good idea of what to do to help her). From left to right...Junior (the youngest in the family), Patience (my patient), me, and William (he likes being in pictures) :)

Now we'll shift gears to animals again - they are just so fascinating here. These ants made a trail towards one of the compost piles. It's amazing how they work together - I've never seen a lazy ant.

You can't really see the ants very well in the picture - sorry. But hopefully their roads show up well and you can see how God likes to use small creatures to accomplish big tasks!

This next picture is of a snail that Joel saw this morning. I thought the shell looked as if it should have been on a hermit crab not a snail. Isn't it nice to know that our God appreciates
beauty - even on the smallest of creatures?!

And, finally, we have another mouse. I was naive to think that there was only one. Last night it was brave enough to run across Joel's bare foot while he was doing dishes! I do, however, have lots to be thankful for...1) I have a husband who does dishes and 2) the mouse ran across his foot and not mine. :) I know God made the mouse too. I confess it's one of His creatures I have no fond feelings for...thankfully, God loves me anyway.