Patience Patients

Friday, September 13

I obviously am not one to be superstitious but after what has occurred this week, I am not loving the Friday the 13th thing.  I choose to be positive and I also chose to start antibiotics today as my cough is not better. Do what you can and keep a positive attitude, right?

At morning report, I learned that my resident is still too sick to come into work and the clinical officer has been reassigned to outpatient clinic. Just makes me chuckle at this point. Time will go by faster then.

I do enjoy that many of the patients are comfortable enough with me now that they will smile and wave.  I come from morning report through the family area where the moms are washing clothes and cleaning dishes. When I come by, kids are called and piles of stuff are tied up and then they follow me inside. I took a pause at the odd little morning routine I have.

The puffy kids are still puffy. One got 3 times the steroids he should have- joint fault- my QD was read as QID. They write OD here. No one checked. So he may need to run some laps later today.  He is less puffy today and able to fully open his eyes. The girl still struggles to breathe. Quite frankly her chest X-ray took my breath away. Her heart almost fills her chest it is so big. She is getting rid of some of her fluid. I only hope it happens fast enough that she doesn’t tire out. I do not believe there is a good ending for her.

The patients with TB and HIV are so wanting to go home. One mother teases me daily. When I ask if they have any complaints, meaning physical and she knows that, she responds with “we are still here”. I laugh and apologize.  Patience patients! The mom of a three month old with meningitis is also begging to go home. Treatment is 14 days and they are in day 5. She is worried about the bills. There is a charge for each night. I told her I will help her but the baby must stay. 

One of the funny sights is our purple polka dot kid.  He was admitted with impetigo and cellulitis. He has oozy sores all over. Here, they use gentian violet which is an antiseptic similar to old school mecurochrome but it is purple instead of red. They cover all of his sores every day.  It is a dangerous task for the nurse in her white uniform. She puts on a food service type plastic apron before she begins. He screams but holds perfectly still. It is actually a funny site. I wonder what the other patients think he has.  

The NICU is having an unusually calm day. No one is on CPAP. The baby made the transfer to the NICU in Lilongwe just fine last night.  He was escorted by Bridget, the nurse that picked me up from the airport when I arrived.

I felt really not good this afternoon.  I even contemplated not going back but I did.  That was good because the heart failure medicines needed to be adjusted for the weekend and we had another admission with malaria needing a blood transfusion.  I was happy to head back at the end of the day.  

I took a long shower, took medicine, made a cup of tea and talked to Amelia while Elise cooked.  I wasn’t able to make it through dinner but have enjoyed an evening of laying in bed and doing computer work that had piled up.

I have not taken a single picture today except of a digoxin dosing chart.  So, I will include one of my bed so you can see my posh digs and one of me so my sweet mama will not worry about me being sick.