Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hopelessness, Dry Laundry, Market Day and Near Death Experiences

September 19, 2010 (Sunday)

I was on duty today. It was the first day that I’ve broken down. I feel completely clueless and useless. When I first got to work, there was a couple that came in with a little boy saying that he couldn’t sleep at night because of his ‘stuffed’ nose. The problem was that there was nothing really in it or at least that would come out of it. The child was screaming the whole time I was trying to get his pulse and listen to his lungs. Leah and I decided to admit him into the hospital, but the family didn’t want to do this. Apparently he was fine during the day so they said they’d come back later.

Later there was a woman that came in to get an injection. Normally we do it intravenously with a small butterfly needle, but we had none in the hospital so I had to use a larger needle. Unfortunately I blew the first vein so I had to use the other arm.



(Later)

Our laundry is dry! It’s amazing, we don’t have to wait till Wednesday and there was no reeking of mildew. Woot woot! So, after my lovely escapade in the hospital this morning I went over to Colwell’s for hot chocolate. (They have fresh ground coffee/hot drinks every Sunday morning) I ended up buzzing Ben’s hair, he’s one of the Peace Corps guys. I attempted to convince Moriah to do it, but she was too afraid to ‘ruin’ it…ya know, it’s pretty hard to buzz cut! J


September 21, 2010 (Tuesday)

I was the lucky one to go to market today. It was actually a lot of fun since I was able to just look at all the various items that were being sold. Christiane was helping me out in the beginning, but then she had to head home. So, I decided that I would do some shopping on my own. I was ubber excited when I found an English-French dictionary, (I think the guy ripped me off, but I only spent about 5 dollars so I’m not too sad.) Oh, and something else that made super excited was that we finally have a bucket to wash our clothes in. No more borrowing. Yea!!


This evening I made some ginger chai, fried breaded okra and peanut rice dish, which was pretty scrumptious. That’s something I’ll enjoy this week, trying out different recipes, which hopefully will turn out! And I’m going to have to start writing them down.


We admitted our first patient of the week- it was another admittance of a man to our women and children’s hospital! It was really sad, he had to be carried in and was in the later stages of HIV. What was even sadder was that had a fairly young family and a little boy that stole my heart :)


Anyways, on to something a bit lighter: When asking a patient if he was constipated, he said, "No." but then went on to say, "I haven't stooled in 2-3 days. (Wouldn’t that be considered constipated??) And then a little while later trying to assure us that it was okay he said, "I can stool when I want to." (I’m so proud of him! Teehee!) Oh, the joys of working in the hospital! :P


September 23, 2010 (Thursday)

Wow! I am soooo tired! This week I have been doing the night shift and haven’t had the greatest sleep so far. We’ve only had 2 in patients, but between the two of them we’ve been kept busy. The first patient that I’ve already mentioned came in on Tuesday and has been on pain meds the whole time, not completely sure why he has stayed since they don’t have money, and there’s not much we can do for him. Then again, I suppose at this point he’s comfortable, so we are doing something.


I must say though that the man’s little three-year old boy was pretty cute! The first night they came he wouldn’t look at me, but by the second day he was my little shadow! I had taught him the ‘high-five, to the side, down-low, too slow’ game and he wanted to keep playing it. Eventually, I convinced him to go running with me up and down the breezeway. It’s so cute, the last two days I’ve asked what he’s learned at school and his answer has been ‘ABCs’ in his little African accent. (The kids here start school at about the age of 2, which is basically daycare/preschool.)


The other patient that came in was a young lady with malaria/typhoid. She had some of the worst veins, I’ve seen. They were so tiny, and you couldn’t find any on her. Another problem is that we don’t have the IVs with catheters so if you’re not careful the needle can blow the vein. With this combo, it made for some interesting and frustrating needle sticking. I think we tried sticking her about 6 times before we were able to get any success. And then that blew about one hour later so the process was repeated. By this evening we have resorted to sticking the IV in her foot because we couldn’t find any other veins. She doesn’t take to pain very well, in fact she has a very low pain tolerance. And yet, I don’t blame her. I think that if after so many sticks and being sick I would be kind of tired of it too! Her last treatment will be this evening so she will be leaving either tonight or in the morning.


I felt pretty useless at night. For one thing it doesn’t require two people to check an IV drip or give meds and secondly, I don’t know how much of what to give/when to give the meds/drips. This leaves Christiane to do most of the work. I’m really hoping this will get better soon.


After I got off work this morning, I decided that I would head up to the bank to withdraw some money. The hike up there was only about 2 miles, but since Buea is build on the side of Mt Cameroon and there’s only one main road with most of the businesses, I had to go up hill to get to the bank. I decided to take Jordan, Colwell’s dog, with me for the company since Moriah was working at the time. (That’s not to say that Jordan is a good substitute for Moriah’s company, I would have much preferred having Mo come along with me J) The trip was done in about 2 hours and I came back all sweaty and ready for a nap.


Once I woke up I made some ‘pancakes’ and sweet rice with ginger and headed over to the hospital to see if Moriah was ready to eat. This is when I met the crazy women- no, not Moriah. She was a lady probably in her 30’s and she had an abscess on one of her breasts. Apparently she was in a lot of pain, because before I headed up to the hospital I could hear the cries of pain. Once I came into the ‘OR’, which was just one of our patient rooms, she had quieted down from the injection of ketamine that Lea gave her. It was taking longer than usual to have her pass out and that’s when Trixy realized that they needed to give more anesthesias. After the second injections that’s when things got really interesting. The woman started accused us of wanting to kill her and yelling other unknown things. Lea attempted to soothe her, but then the woman’s anger focused all on Lea. She got up off the bed, skirt falling down around her, and pushed Lea up into the corner of the room. At this moment Trixy stepped in to help and got Lea away safely. We convinced the woman to sit on the bed again and she kind of calmed down. She yelled a couple more words and then the anesthesia kicked in.… phew! We could finally operate and remove the abscess.


I had thought that I would get kinda queezy at the sight of all the puss and gunk coming out, but it was pretty interesting! Once the wound was packed with gauze we cleaned the bed up and waited for the anesthesia to wear off… just a bit scary with all the suspense! Trixy had given us something to read on what to expect of a patient coming out of ketamine. All the warning signs mentioned were the ones we had seen before the surgery so it made me a bit nervous. Were we going to be in the Cameroonian newspaper, “Two Volunteer Nurses in Cameroon, Killed by Patient”??


She started coming around 30 minutes later, yelling just like before. And that’s when I tried convincing Moriah that, this really was a good experience for her, and that she should go take care of the patient!! She wasn’t convinced and needless to say, we both ended up going into the room and just standing there. Neither of us knew what to do with this lady.


I actually was VERY glad that she had acted up beforehand because it prepared us for afterwards. The bandage that we had put on her, was now starting to get soaked with the draining blood. This made it look like she was wounded (which she was) so, each time she looked down at the bandage, she would make this sound of disappointment/anger/frustration and clap her hands, telling us that she was dead and we had killed her. She didn’t fully have the whole balance thing in order either. So, this caused her to fall off the bed onto the floor. Moriah and I attempted to help her back up, but she wouldn’t let us touch her. (We figured she’d probably be safer on the ground to prevent her from falling again) After some time, Lea came in to check on Mo and I. Once the woman saw Lea, that started another wave of emotion. Apparently she was convinced that Lea had something against the ‘woman’s people’. After yelling all this she stood and came towards Lea again. I tried to refrain her, but instead of calming her she grabbed me, and my shirt, and attempted ripping it off. The only thing that I could think of at this point was to grab her hands and try to keep her from actually more damage. After a couple of words from Lea and I, she ‘calmed down’ (or at least just let go of me) and went back to the floor. She hadn’t gained her balance so, between her yelling spells, she would fall over and lay on the ground for a bit and then sit back up and repeat it again. She did eventually get peaceful and accepted the fact that she really was alive. And I was a bit drained and also starving, so Moriah and I headed back down to our room and had our supper. (This is also when we were able to laugh about the whole procedure, and my near death experience! J)


Now I get to go sleep for a bit… woot woot!


Saturday, September 18, 2010

September 11, 2010 (Sabbath)

My first Sabbath in Buea, was wonderful. As the speaker said at church, ‘The lazy man cannot enjoy Sabbath”, I may not have done much in skills, but I felt as if my brain had been worked overtime with all the acclimating this past week.

Another thing I learned from the speaker was that it doesn’t help speaking louder to try to be understood. Each time the translator was stuck on a word/idea the preacher would yell even louder. (Most of the time he was yelling, so it became louder to clarify the word!) I tried not to laugh, but it was great seeing this issue in another culture.

I really enjoy the church services here. For one thing I can understand them and they also have a lot of music/singing. (The Cameroonians sing so loud it’s like listening to the radio on blast, which means I can sing and no one hears me, it’s great!) Even though I do enjoy the service, I can’t say I particularly enjoy the pews since they kind of make my behind go numb. (I probably look like one of those little kids that can’t sit still, because of all the moving around I do) Okay, I really shouldn’t complain that much because the pews do have backs to them so I don’t have to scrunch over or work on my posture too much!

For everyone that said I couldn’t come back married… there may be an issue. We were told in church by the pastor that on one Sabbath he is going to have all the bachelor guys and all the spinster (single) ladies line up on either side of the church and be matched up. He even said that he would officiate the weddings right there in church for us to make it easier… How convenient, right?! Well, now I’m not sure if I can promise to not get married, there’s a lot to think about J

Later in the evening Moriah and I ended up heading over to Bill and Trixy’s for supper and games. Trixy had made some plantain chips that were perticularily yummy and I’m sure I ate half of them. Heather (one of the many Peace Corps workers in Buea) came over to join us and we got to listen to the horror stories of her time in another part of Cameroon. Apparently, her ‘mother’ there was a horrible cook, so between the cooking and the worms and amoebas she lost about 35 lbs. (For anyone looking for a diet plan, come to Cameroon!) Perhaps I should let Moriah do the cooking so I don’t starve us!

September 15, 2010 (Wednesday)

This evening I got to play the most entertaining game of Snakes N’ Ladders while visiting Moriah in the hospital. She had been on duty so I decided to go keep her company (There isn’t much happening in the hospital at night, at least not right now). This Snakes n’ Ladders was an HIV version, (makes it sound like some version of the Bible, doesn’t it??). So, in order to move spaces you would have to answer a true or false question relating to HIV/AIDS. It kept us pretty entertained for most of the evening and we took out some of the best questions. Here they are…

Doctors and nurses cannot get HIV.

To abstain from sex will cause physical harm.

If you are infected with HIV, excess intake of alcohol kills the HIV virus in the body.

People who don’t drink beer cannot get HIV.

You can get HIV from hugging.

AIDS is a disease for white not blacks.

AIDS does not exist.

Pastors cannot get HIV or AIDS.

Fat women cannot get HIV so it is safe to have unprotected sex with them.

HIV can be spread standing close to someone.

Rich people do not get HIV.

Churchgoers do not get HIV.

If you have sex with a virgin you can be cured from HIV.

It is safe to have sex with a mentally disturbed person, as they do not get sick.

If you touch a sweating person you will get the HIV disease.

You can get HIV from wearing the clothes of someone with HIV/AIDS.

Only sinners get HIV and AIDS.

Handsome men cannot have AIDS so they will not give anyone HIV.

Some people who are infected with HIV continue to have sex with other people

You cannot get HIV if you sex standing up.

IF you know you have HIV you should have as many sexual partners as possible.

Condoms are not for Namibians.

AIDS means American Idea to Discourage Sex.

If you there’s any clarification needed on these True or False questions. Let me know, I can check the cards out and give you the right answers.

September 17, 2010 (Friday)

Sunday was Moriah’s and my laundry day. With all the humidity the clothes didn’t dry till Wednesday and were also moldy! We put some of the clothes out on the line, which helped a little, but with the sudden rain showers we thought we’d better bring the clothes in to our room. The problem is that our room now reeks of mildew… ugg! I can say that we’ll have some pretty serious muscles from all the washing clothes by hand.

Since the message of our hospital opening has been mainly through word of mouth we only had one patient. The mother of the patient came in saying that her ‘baby’ boy was sick- He was by no means a baby, unless you consider a 20 year old a baby. Since we had no other patients it was fine that we had him in a women and children’s hospital J The mother was also trying to get Moriah and I married off to her son. (I’ll let Moriah have that one, I’ll find mine at church!) On one of the evenings I was sitting on the breezeway of the hospital singing and the mother came out to join me. It took a bit to figure out a song that we both knew, but finally we figured out What a Friend We Have in Jesus and How Great Thou Art. That was probably one of my favorite memories of this week so far!

All this last week I have been on the day shift with Christiane. That means I work from 8-6. With the lack of in-patients we’ve ended up working at the clinic most of the time. I was able to work at the front desk with Helen admitting patients. So instead of sitting in the nursing lounge twiddling my thumbs, I got to have more patient contact. Yay! One of the many nursing duties that I was able to do this week included cleaning out ears. The first time I saw it done, I was quite grossed out because of the gunk that came out of the ear. The second time when I got to do it, it wasn’t so bad. After cleaning the ear out for one gentleman he stated, “I can hear the rain now!” (It had been pouring all that morning apparently his ears had been really clogged!) Baby Grace came in again to get her burn cleaned. (About a month ago she had pulled a pot of boiling water off the stove and burned the side of her face and shoulder.) This time it wasn’t quite as traumatic cleaning her wound, mostly because I wasn’t the one torturing her I think. There was another guy that came in with a pinky that had been smashed in a van door. It was quite a gruesome sight yet very fascinating also. Another fun thing I got to do in the clinic was explain to a couple of young ladies their menstrual cycles. Calculating when they were more likely to get pregnant and when they weren’t. You have no idea how hard that is when you don’t speak French! Christiane was there helping me out, so if I didn’t make sense she would translate.

There are a couple things that I haven’t completely gotten used to in the hospital. First off would be the HIV testing. It’s really sad seeing just how many of the patients turn out positive. There was a couple that came in this week for premarital testing. The test only takes about 5 minutes and so we saw pretty quickly the results; one was positive and the other was negative. I can’t imagine being at that point in a relationship and having to make a decision that serious! The second thing I haven’t completely gotten used to is the lack of aseptic technique. The nurses don’t wear gloves to do any (or VERY few) injections and if they do use the gloves and they ‘don’t get them dirty’ with blood, they hang them up to be used again. Whenever that happens I think of Donna Kopf (my EMT instructor) and how she would kill me if I did that in her class!J Hopefully I don’t become too used to not switching gloves that I end up failing my clinicals once I get back to the states!

One thing I’ve learned about the Cameroonian culture is that they don’t eat. No, seriously they eat like 2 (at the most) meals a day and they’re like 12 hours apart. Most of the food they eat is meat and whatever else they eat has copious amounts of palm oil in it. Not very healthy, but scrumptious nonetheless. Which brings me to my next thought. Meals. This week are meals have included: spagetti with palm oil and salt; brick bread with eggs and some kind of fruit; mushy mixture of nasty cereal; guava, oranges and rice. Then I also attempted making a gravy and we put that on spagetti and sweet potatoes… all I can say is, ‘interesting’ and we will definitely lose that 35 pounds I mentioned earlier. (Moriah will need to start cooking soon!)

September 18, 2010 (Sabbath)

Last night I had a sleep over in the hospital with Lea and Moriah. I ended up reading to Moriah till 11 and then fell asleep to the very off key singing of the evangelical church across the street. They normally go quite late into the night, but they don’t bother me.

Moriah, Trixy and I hung out here at the hospital while the rest went to the district get-together in Dbuntja. (Once a quarter the churches in the area get together.) We had Trixy over for lunch in our little room and both Moriah and I cooked so I think it was fairly decent. It’s been nice just relaxing even though Moriah is technically on duty. There hasn’t been any patients needing to be admitted so we’ve hung out blogging and chilling.

In summary…

Realized that Americans are not the only ones who raise their voice to be ‘understood better’.

Has the mold smell permeating my room

I love my scrubs!

I feel like there are tons of bugs crawling all over me…which could be true

Our bread tastes like wood varnish because of our new cupboards.

The bathroom door won’t stay closed and you can see right out to the front of the house while you’re on the toilet!

My blanket smells like a wet dog

Our salt is wet

I will be married by the time I come back… ??

Friday, September 10, 2010

First week... almost

September 6, 2010 - Monday

Originally, the whole idea that I was leaving for Cameroon hadn’t hit me, but that changed once I got to Brussels waiting in line for the flight out. Once I started hearing French being spoken and realizing just how lost I would be for (hopefully) the first couple months it kinda started scaring me.

We were stopped twice on the way from the airport by the police. I guess they can sometimes give you a hard time, but luckily for us there wasn’t too much trouble! On arriving at the hospital we met Trixy, the doctor, and their two pets Jordan and Milo. Milo had a litter of kittens so we got to play with them for a bit… which made my evening so much better!

Moriah and I have a 9X13 room with a bathroom attached. We’ve got a closet/wardrobe with three shelves, one drawer, and a small hang up space. We also have a bunk bed and a little table. It is definitely small, but it works which makes me happy with it! Actually the size of the room kinda makes it more homey! At the moment we have a bunch of cloths piled on our table which are needing to be put away.

So, I am still really super nervous about the job. I will try my best, but I’m afraid of the expectations of the doctor and her husband. I have to realize that this is only the first couple hours of being here.

September 7, 2010 - Tuesday

Our toilet has been named… Lightning McQueen… The reason for the name: It’s a ‘throne’ and the bathroom light flashes on and off. We find the simple things to laugh at.

We were given today to just settle in and get to know the place. Bill Colwell, the doctor’s husband, gave us a tour of the hospital and some of the places around Buea (the post office, some health department place, and Reach) Don’t ask me how to get to the places that we went… I could get lost and find my way back… maybe but it would take awhile!

So, today we had our first market trip. Aaaah!!! It was a bit stressful deciding how much we needed, understanding what they were saying, where to go to find what we needed, and what we needed. I attempted to learn some French in the middle of all of this, but was not too successful. J Luckily we had two of the other nurses, Christian and Lea, go to show us around and get good prices. But of course all the vendors raised their prices because we were a ‘white man’... apparently we’re all referred to as white man. (Where’s the feminist movement when you need one?? J)

We ended up getting oranges, salt, pasta, tomato paste, sweet potatoes, pot (as in the thing you cook in!), silverware and plates, scrubbies, multi-use soap (woot woot!), toilet paper, garlic, oil, eggs, hangers, bleach, a bar of hand/dish soap which we have chopped up into smaller pieces, and a knife all for about $22 dollars which isn’t too bad I guess.

Later in the evening we were invited over to the Colwells for supper. It was wonderful having some real food since Moriah and I had been living off the snack/goodie bags that our moms had packed for us before left home. and we got to go through a cookbook to get ideas of what to make for the rest of our time here. Now, I should be off to bed so that I can wake up in the morning!

September 10, 2010 – Friday

Since Tuesday, Moriah and I have been trying to learn the ropes at the clinic. We’ve been informed that the hospital will be opening this next Monday and that we will be expected to care for patients overnight. That is so scary, yet thankfully Lea or Christian will be working with me till I get the hang of it, so it shouldn’t be as bad. There is so much to learn still, but I suppose I am having to put into practice the advice given in SM class, “Be flexible!”.

So, aside from being so overwhelmed by all I have to know, I’ve gone through all the different drugs in the clinic- of which I know about three of them. Had a lesson in French and now can say, “Bonjour!”. I’ve learned to give IM (Intramuscular) and IV (Intravenous) shots, cleaned a 1yr old girl’s burn wounds, watched HIV tests being done and stood in on two consultations. But most of the time I have sat in the nurse’s ‘lounge’ reading nursing diagnosis books.

I will have to say the people are so amazing here. I love them! They all seem to have a smile on their faces and they are fairly courteous! The kids are probably the best part though. When I see them all running around town in their school uniforms or just playing in their ‘yards’, they will yell out hello’s and I wish I could take them all home with me. I will definitely have to get to know some of them!

Today we went to Limbe, which is right on the coast about 20 miles from Buea, and looked for a gas can for our new stove. We stopped at a couple different gas stations to see if they would sell us a yellow can of fuel, but were unsuccessful. Since we were in Limbe, Bill took Moriah and I to the Limbe Wildlife Centre to see the monkeys and to also eat at Chella’s restaurant for their vegetarian pizza. It was pretty scrumptious! (I think I’ve eaten out more here then I have ever before J)

(Later)

Just finished wiping mold off the hospital walls, so that it will be more ready for the opening on Monday. We also got our yellow can for the stove…Yeah!!! It’s so pretty and we can use the stove while the power’s out!!!

In summary the things that have happened in this last week…

My alarm clock has broken

My watch has broken

My feet have wet about 90% of the time

I now have an afro from all the humidity

I’ve been eating snacks that my mom sent me for the 24hr trip for the past week.

The closet door has broken off

The adaptors that we brought don’t fit the plugs

I have no clue what I’m doing

Our sink drains into the shower

We have lights that act like lightning and they choose when they want to work

I’m getting sick

Our door can double lock and you have to pick it up to open it.

The shower is iffy whether it wants to be hot, cold or warm

Our bread looks like it was made in a brick factory

It's rained all but one day

We have SUPER memory foam mattresses- they remember everything that has ever been on them!

Through all of these experiences it has given Moriah and I SOOO many laughs it’s been amazing and I am so glad to be here!


(If you want to hear a different side of what we did and our adventures you can checkout Moriah's blog at moriahsmeanderings.blogspot.com)