New Phrases, Stroke, and Proposals

October 13, 2010 (Wednesday)

I have started noticing my vocabulary changing. Now, instead of saying, ‘I’ll be back’ when I'm heading to the hospital or clinic, I'll say, ‘I’m coming!’ And while doing the patient assessment in the section where I'm supposed to ask, ‘Do you have any allergies?’ I say, ‘Are there any foods or drugs that worry you?'. Now, I’m starting to say ‘Ashea!’ instead of 'I'm sorry!'. The best part about all this is that it's starting to become normal! (Perhaps I'll have Pigin all learned by the time I am finished here!)

I’ve had my first stroke patient. It’s so weird actually seeing stroke and all the symptoms. It’s one thing hearing and learning about it in EMT class, but until you see it (at least for me) it doesn’t really mean anything! (Sorry Donna!) Anyways, it’s a very sad situation, she’s had 3 strokes and she’s only 45 years old. Oh! AND she’s a nurse! (Just so you know I officially do not like treating nurses!!) She had come to the clinic for a rendezvous, a follow-up visit, and since she, ‘just wasn’t feeling well’, Dr. Trixy recommended her to be admitted. About 3 hours later she finally returned to be admitted.

Once she got settled into her bed, I worked on getting a drip of lactated ringer started… and the best part was that after praying, I was successful! (God is faithful!). A couple minutes after getting that started and giving her another injection, she started panicking. She was trying to talk, but I could not understand her because her slurred speech. The other women who had come in with Effetti (the patient), was yelling at me to do something. I had thought she was reacting to the injection given earlier and I couldn’t tell what she was saying. Finally the other woman explained to me that Effetti felt like she was having another stroke. That is when the pills that the patient brought in were pulled out and dumped down her throat. I had no idea what she had just taken so, at that point I figured that it would be best to get Trixy before there was an overdosing. Later, I found out that aside from keeping her calm and giving her aspirin there wasn’t much we could do. That was probably the hardest/easiest part of the whole evening. Easy, knowing we had done all we could, but hard because of that same reason. Watching her struggling and freaking out and feeling helpless was not something I enjoyed.

Something I have come to enjoy is the way that the hymns are sung here. They are the songs I know, but with different tunes. (So, it’s a good thing that they sing them in English or I wouldn’t know that!) I will have to make a recording of some of the songs sometime, because I can’t bring justice to the songs in my writing. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, I LOVE THE KIDS HERE!!! There were too little ones at the hospital visiting the patient so I was talking with them. The little boy started singing a song and after he finished I asked what other ones knew. He started singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children”, except the part where it says, “red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight” these two little kids sang, “Black and yellow, black and white all are precious in Jesus’ sight. Jesus loves the children of the world”…. I loved it!

October 15, 2010 (Friday)

This last week I have been a little messenger for Cyril. Tuesday morning at staff worship, Cyril came up and asked me how to spell Moriah’s name. (Trixy had mentioned on Saturday night that Cyril was trying to choose which of Moriah and I, he would marry. So, his question made me quite relieved!) Moriah has enjoyed her chance of sleeping-in this week because of being off. Because of sleeping in, she didn’t make it to the morning worships. Which also meant that I was left with the job of carrying messages of love from Cyril to Moriah. (I didn’t mind too much, because it was very entertaining.) Anyways, Cyril ended up writing two letters of his undying love for Moriah of which she did not reply to.

On Thursday we have a Bible study up at the hospital and this week Cyril decided to show up. I felt a little bit bad for Moriah because Cyril was following her wherever she went and sat quite close to her the whole evening. Anyways, Moriah finally broke his heart after the study. And I (because I was working) unfortunately, was the one left to have to ‘comfort’ him. I told him that if God showed Moriah that he was the one then she would perhaps consider accepting his proposal. All he could do was pray. I thought that I would be finished with him, but nope.

Here is the conversation I had with him this morning:

Cyril: God has showed me that I must find a substitute!

Me: Really? (Great!!)

Cyril: Do you know who?

Me: Nope (I had an idea, but I wasn’t going to encourage him)

Cyril: You!!!!!

Me: (Oh goodie! I was afraid of that.) You move on quick! And my answer is no.

Cyril: No? You’re making me sad.

(At this point he proceeds to make crying sounds while laughing)

Me: I don’t believe you.

Cyril: Why?

Me: First thing you don’t look sad at all. Secondly you can’t switch that fast. You say you’re in love with Moriah on Tuesday. Now that she’s said no, you come to me saying you love me?? I’m not accepting your proposal.

Cyril: What about Isaac and Rebekah?

Me: What about them?

Cyril: Isaac sent his servant to find a wife. He asked for a sign, right?

Me: Yes.

Cyril: Isaac’s servant then asked if she would marry his master. If she said no, you don’t think he would keep looking?

Me: What does that have to do with right now?

Cyril: Moriah said no. She doesn’t love me so I find someone else... What causes stroke?

Me: What causes stroke??

Cyril: Yes. Disappointments, right?

Me: Umm...

Cyril: The doctors have told me not to be worried so I can not become attached and put all my emotions in a person.

Me: Well, then you’ve been told ‘No’ twice. Keep looking!

Cyril: How can you answer so quick? You should at least consider it. I am a football player and you are a nurse a perfect match!! (Hmm… tempting!)

(This conversation went on a bit longer and I explained that if he was planning on finding an American girl, he would have to change his technique.)

Me: You will have to build a friendship before saying that you want to marry them.

Cyril: That is not how they did it in the Bible.

At this point I was a bit frustrated with him, because for one thing I was trying to work and figure out which meds I was supposed to give at which time. The other reason was that I was realizing that it really didn’t matter what I said, he would still keep pestering me with questions. So, I finally told him that I needed to get back to work and that he should leave. That seemed to work and he left reminding me that I should still consider the request. I felt a bit mean for the way I went about all of this, but I wasn’t sure how to show him that I really was not interested!

October 6, 2010 (Wednesday)

Unlike I mention before, I am not on evening duty. The schedule has changed so I have this last week off. It’s kind of interesting ‘being off’. I need to figure out the balance of relaxing, site seeing and helping out around the hospital on my off days. I still want to be helping, but I know I need to have some be still/chill time!

October 10, 2010 (Sunday)

Happy 10-10-10!

It’s a day after my birthday and I must say it wasn’t too bad! I had been really dreading it. In fact I attempted to have it not posted on Facebook, but that didn’t work out too well as some of you realized. I’d have to say that I did appreciate all the birthday wishes. It was very sweet and it made me start missing friends and family.

With our new schedule I ended up working the Sabbath shift. God definitely blessed me with a quiet morning. (Yes, I would love more patients, just not when I’m by myself!) Later that afternoon Moriah gave me the gift that Ashley had made for me. I must say it was a pretty awesome gift, Ashley! She did an amazing job putting all the pictures, quotes, videos and music together. It gave me a lot of laughs seeing all the pictures of friends and family and it caused me to wish that you could all be here with me!

So, one of the many pleasures we’ve been able to have in the short time here is imitation Nutella. As I mentioned before Moriah and I have been craving sugar. When Moriah bought the ‘nutella’ I had made some chappatis (the other thing that we love!) and we spoiled ourselves with 3 WHOLE ‘chocolate burritos’! Yum! We’ve also made sugar cookies minus the baking powder and soda and added flakes chocolate kisses and cranberries. If I had made these in the States I would probably have thought they were pretty horrible, but they are oh so scrumptious here! The other treat is our honey- not only for the sugar, but also for the humor.

Yadikwa Natural Honey- The Best Choice, Best Quality Highly Medicinal Extra Pure Yadikwa Honey Helps for The Following:

1. Stomach ulcers

2. Weakness or General Fatigue

3. Poison

4. Fire or Boil water

5. Weak sexual power

6. Gastric

7. Cough

8. Malaria

Definitely a cure all! And what’s interesting about this honey is that it taste more like molasses then honey. So, since I love molasses, it’s basically amazing on our brick bread!

October 4, 2010 (Monday)

I had done a couple consultations on my own this last week (and I struggle through them), but none of those consults had admitted to the hospital (at least while not while on my own). That all changed this last weekend. I had the Day Shift on Sabbath and I was really nervous about it. Like most of our patients that we’ve admitted, this young lady had malaria. She came in complaining of a headache, fever and just being tired. With my little cheat sheet I went through the different questions of, ‘When did this start?’, ‘Have you taken any medicine?’, ‘Is there anything that has helped?’, and then going through the long list of symptoms. Once I got to the part of the physical exam to get her temp, I stuck the thermometer in her armpit and waited for the little beep. She had felt warm, but I wasn’t really prepared for the temp I saw. It read 41 Celsius (105 Fahrenheit) and at that point she started shivering, which made me more nervous! I took the rest of her information and headed down to Trixy’s house to show her what information I had received. Normally we need to start a drip on our malaria patients, but I wasn’t sure if there was more because of the high temp. I was right about getting the drip started as soon as possible, so that’s the next thing I did. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the needle into her veins without blowing it (3 times), so I finally had Moriah come do the IV drip and she did it wonderfully! At this point we had another patient come in needing attention. This little boy had been coming in since Tuesday for a malaria injection. So, I ended up doing that, meaning that I have made another little child hate white people. I honestly think that all the little children in Buea will be afraid of white people after they’ve seen me. I have made every kid cry that’s come into the clinic, even when I’m just checking their pulse.

I have come to a realization this last week. I LOVE BREAD… Moriah and I go through about two loaves a week and we could do a lot more if we really wanted to spend the money on it! Also I’ve made chappatis for just about every meal. Actually I think I just like food in general. I’m always starving, even after my meals, and I eat large amounts of food. As I was writing this down it hit me that it could be related to my stress... don’t like that idea… I was hoping to blame it on a growth spurt, though I think I’ve grown to my limit.

The idea of food has got me on a new life goal: I want to try as many different types of food here as possible. On Sabbath while on duty the 6 ½ month old girl’s mother, gave me a dish of food to try. Earlier she had bought me a bag of boiled granit (sp?)(peanuts) and had told me that I needed to eat it because I wasn’t fat enough. Anyways, I had been enjoying it alright, but there was something odd tasting in it, similar to formaldehyde mixed with fish oil (I thought it best not to ask just what was in it!) I was half way through eating it when the mother told me the ingredients: Corn, beans, maggie’s seasoning, ‘some other seasonings’, and a little shell fish… Gulp… that’s the weird taste I had been having. So, other then the taste of formaldehyde it was pretty good. I even shared some with Moriah, so that she wouldn’t feel too left out.

I have night duty again. Today I went up to the radio station and met Lady B and basically listened as Bill and Lady B discussed cholera on the air. I was introduced, but I didn’t say too much. Every Monday there’s a broadcasting of health issues, whether it has to do with epidemics, sanitation, or disease it’s always different. And something I’ve learned; speaking is not my forte, I get so tongue-tied it’s pretty bad!

Life Plan

Spend time with God. Learn French. Get sleep. Exercise. Learn to cook. Laugh. Meet more people. Sing. Take pictures. Listen to more classical music. Journal. Find little ways to brighten other's days. Love life. Don't stress/worry. Smile. Spend less time on the internet :) Read more books. Watch fewer movies. Research med terms. Love. Write letters. Try new foods. Be still. Get out of my comfort zone. Listen.