Que Hubole?

Starting at Cruz Roja

After a nice relaxing weekend,we will begin our time working at Cruz Roja today. The group will be split between two clinics, I'll be at Zona Norte which is in a poorer neighborhood. The plan is to rotate the students between the two sites so they can see a little of everything. The students are excited, we'll see how they feel tonight. So far so good.
We're having some great times of fellowship with our host families. It looks like our social calander is booked up for the weekend with dinners in people's houses and parties with pinatas. Good times, God times...

In Mexico City

Hello to anybody who still reads this blog. I'm currently in Mexico City with 8 nursing students. We have been out in the mountains in Oaxaca for the last few days doing free medical clinics. We've finally made it back into Mexico City tonight and are hoping to get some sleep before we hit the ground running tomorrow.
I'm hoping to be able to post some pictures soon and to share more specifics about the trip but I have very limited internet at the moment. More to come...

Lorazepam

During the first few nights in Rwanda I was suffering from jet lag and was unable to sleep. Lisa so kindly offered me her ipad so I could listen to her "sleepy time" play list to see if some soothing music might help. As I scrolled through the playlists on her ipad I cam across one title "Lorazepam." For all you non medical folks, lorazepam is a sedative and is also used to treat anxiety. Of course I found the very idea of a lorazepam playlist quite amusing so I took a listen. It didn't take long before I was hooked, it really worked! The power of music is pretty amazing. When I got home I made my own "alprazolam" playlist.
I love this idea and I think I might suggest it for some of the new grad nurses I'm mentoring when they work their first year in practice. Here is one of my songs from Lisa's lorazepam list: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXywFuTf65I&feature=related

The Finished Product

One of the main reasons for my most recent trip to Rwanda (although, who needs an excuse)was to deliver the complete and final version of the trauma curriculum. It only took me four years to do it, but I finally finished the entirety of basic trauma curriculum that I wrote specifically for the resources available at Kibogora Hospital. The lectures are all recorded on video complete with skills demonstrations. Each module has a case study, assignments and a unit exam. It felt pretty good to hand the whole thing over to Sheila. I even took a photo as proof!
Now maybe I can start concentrating on that dissertation...

To Hell and Back

It was the weekend before Easter Sunday and I was scheduled to work at the hospital for a 12 hour shift. The assignment I got was a single patient, a woman with stage four cancer and aspiration pneumonia on a ventilator. She didn't sound too terribly complex in comparison to some patients I have had, but I would soon find out why she was singled.
As I walked into her room that morning the first thing I noticed was the number 666 tattooed on her forehead. Though she was on a fair dose of IV sedatives, she was still quite agitated and thrashing about in the bed. As I proceeded with my routine assessment I noticed two other satanic tattoos on each of her arms, additionally I found one that said "Property of ______" (fill in the blank with a name).
Upon the neurological assessment I found her to be able to respond to yes and no questions by nodding her head, she was also able to follow basic commands.
As I was charting I felt God prompt me to approach her and ask "Do you know there is a God who loves you?" When I asked her this, she began to cry. I spoke with her about it a little more and asked if I could pray for her. She nodded (or maybe she was just getting restless) so I did.
Because she was so restless and thrashed about, I couldn't leave the room as she ran the risk of extubating herself and pulling out all of her IVs. In between medications, dressings and charting I did my best to find out the story behind this woman's tattoos.
Long story short, her mother had died shortly after she was born. She was hospitalized with a head injury at age 4 which resulted in her being labeled as developmentally delayed and having almost weekly seizures. She was molested as a school aged girl and homeless by high school. She showed up in a different state several years later as homeless with a drug and alcohol problem. She had a history of multiple suicide attempts.
Later I looked up the name written on her arm and found that he was a convicted sex offender who had been imprisoned for kidnapping young girls and prostituting them at truck stops around the country. I saw a photo of the man who was also, ironically, covered with satanic tattoos.
When I got home from work, I continued to think about this women and the interaction that we had. What was it like for her to find herself restrained to a hospital bed with people hovering around her giving her interventions that she likely didn't want and probably couldn't understand? My stuggles can't even begin to compare with many of the things she has gone though. Did anything I had to say to her mean anything?
As I prayed and pondered these questions that evening this scripture came to mind: Isaiah 55:11 "So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."
If the words I said truly came from God, then they are His words and He gives them meaning and purpose. He then reminded that aside from being God, He had been to hell and back for her and for me. What a wonderful reminder of the redeeming power of God, I am humbled.

Muzungu Moments '11-4

Sorry I've been a little slow with my updates. It's been a busy week with a lot of things to do so I'll just give a short recap.
Yesterday Dorothy and Melba went to visit the Batwah Pygmie village with the hospital chaplian. Apparently it was quite the amazing experience but I have yet to see their pictures as yesterday afternoon and last night were so full.
Lisa and I finally got the 12 lead EKG machine working properly. The radiology tech is the one who does the EKGs here so we spent some time with Xavier showing him how to use the new machine. It will be interesting to do some follow up and see how often it is used and what kinds of patients are getting EKGs ordered.
I also had the opportunity to go out with the ambulance. We went to a nearby health center to pick a woman in labor with possible fetal distress. I don't really know much about OB so I couldn't really offer much in that department, but I was able to learn more about the actual ambulance, it's equipment and the transport system.
In the afternoon, my class did some ambulance drills. I think it's safe to say that everyone had a lot of fun. Our assigned pretent patients did a great job acting sick or injured and there was a lot of laughter involved. We drew quite the crowd!
It's now time to start heading out to Kigali where we will visit the Bourbon (Rwanda's Starbucks with the most wonderful Rwandan coffee ever!) and perhaps visit the genocide museum. We fly out to Kenya tomorrow afternoon. It's hard to believe that the trip is almost over.