Feeling pretty tired. Kept reminding myself to keep drinking water! Good thing there was an abundance of bottled water! Toilets in the hospital were getting full and filthy. The hospital custodians who worked diligently around the clock to keep them clean seem to be losing the battle. The number of people just outnumbered the toilets!
I went back to the house to hopefully get some sleep. I still haven't showered. Takes some getting used to using baby wipes in lieu of a nice, hot, shower. People kept going in and out of the house. Very noisy! Uggggghhhhhhh! I laid down and just closed my eyes.
I woke up 3 hours later. I actually felt a little rested. Did my usual stuff again and headed to the hospital for a meal. I bet it's another round of Chef Boyardee! YUM! Or perhaps a nice helping of rice and beans with some left over sauce of some kind.
I was on-call for anesthesia once again. I actually didn't mind it. That's what I was here for, I thought to myself. Can't complain about things when you're here. I kept telling myself how lucky I am to be able to help these poor victims. Truly very HUMBLING.
I walked over to the orphanage and saw Vicki. Still in the same scrubs she's been wearing since the first day I met her. She didn't seem like she slept at all. What a ball of energy she is. She's an amazing person! She asked me to stay there for "Pain Management" once again. I was more than happy to oblige. My friends, Denise, Angelo, & Linda were already there, hard at work! These guys are amazing! The best crew to work with! Never complaining...just kept on going, like the energizer bunny!
The Red Cross didn't come with the tents they had promised. Fortunately, someone had remembered that several bedsheets which were donated by the City of Hope , was stored somewhere in the warehouse. So, they got a couple hundred of them and gave them out to the families. In a few hours, a small "tent" city emerged! It shielded them from the hot sun! THINGS SURELY HAPPEN FOR A REASON!
I went back to the hospital to check on some of the patients whom I had given pain medication to the night before. On the way to one of the rooms, I passed by the operating room wherein one of my COTN members, Mark (CRNA) was about to put a little girl to sleep so that, her left badly injured leg could be amputated. I went inside to see if he needed assistance. After we put her off to sleep, our COTN orthopedic surgeon and my friend, Walter who assisted in the operation proceeded to remove her badly injured leg.
Words cannot describe the feeling that I felt for this poor little girl. Six years old, and already disabled...for life. It is truly sad how many of these children have been badly injured, scarred and traumatized for life. I can't imagine how many more children there are like her who are in Port-au-Prince, waiting for urgent medical care. I just can't imagine! Truly heart-breaking.
I went back to the orphanage after making sure that some of the patients in the hospital who needed some pain medication (particularly intravenous morphine, dilaudid, fentanyl) were taken cared of. I did my usual walking around the whole grounds, checking on patients with my headlamp, asking to see if they needed something for pain. Many of them needed just a little. Enough to let them sleep through the night. SLEEP is so precious! I've learned not to take it for granted!
No comments:
Post a Comment