One of Those Days

Today began like any other day. 

I got up at 6 ish instead of 530 because the struggle was real. I had worship and lunch with the kids, my favorite parts of the day normally. I knew I would have to get in my relaxing time then and not later. Exam week was upon us and I hadn't written my exams yet. 

The plan was to write my exams and my test for the midwives. Mistake one was making a plan. 

One of the girls came by and asked for help with some math. I promised her I would help around 1030. I knew I could accomplish much before that. Mistake 2 was making that promise. While on the brink of complete productivity, Ms Leishimi called my cellphone, and I got the call in my dungeon basement room. Strange. No network there. 

It was an emergency of a boy I was told about by another garo man about 30 min earlier. I dropped everything, grabbed some emergency hospital money from the office and hopped on my motorcycle too fast and too furiously. Ha.

When I arrived on scene, the child looked so disheveled, I was surprised he was alive. Not only did he look extremely weak, he was yellow in the skin and was having difficultly breathing. This was probably due to the way his mother had him wrapped up and strapped to her back. We got report and did some assessments: 5 year old boy with high fever, jaundiced, high pulse, labored breathing, hadn't eaten in 4 days, dehydrated, barely drinking, had both malarias, everything. I was surprised he was still hanging on. We laid him down on the bed and kept close watch over him, making sure he was still breathing. 

I knew he would go to the hospital because he was just in too bad of shape. We dialed 108. As we waited, we learned more about the boy. Turns out he had a younger brother once who had the same sickness and died from it not too long ago. Strange. Why did the parents wait until now to call us? Why didn't they call when he hadn't eaten in 2 days? Why weren't they proactive? Did they want to lose another one? I was so upset... And yet, we waited, prayed, reassessed, prayed some more. We gave him little bits of water because he would have aspirated if given more. He was that weak. We would have given an IV but didn't come prepared. We would have given medicine but there was no food in his system. At a loss. So, we continued to wait. 

We prayed some more. The family did a group catholic prayer. I was lost. I prayed some more.

Then the ambulance finally came, and we loaded the boy and family into the back. They left swiftly, knowing the emergency. Moreover, the ambulance did not have oxygen or an IV on board -____- so upset. 

I kept praying.

Mrs. Leishimi and I went back to the compound and tried to get some other work done. As soon as we sat down to settle some bills, another lady called. She told us her husband was very sick and we needed to come fast. Thinking it was just as bad as the case from 1 hour ago, we dropped everything and went back out. 

We were surprised to find this man calmly sitting in a chair. He looked alright. He wasn't sprawled on the floor, barely moving, and disheveled like the other boy. He actually looked fine... "When it isn't an emergency," I said out loud. We did an assessment on him: a little jaundiced, had gone to the toilet 15 times that day, weak, low blood pressure, pain and weakness. Hadn't eaten well. Malaria. Yep. Case 2. 

So he was an emergency. But treatable at home. We gave him some antibiotics, the malaria medicine, and went on our way. Emergency 2 done

One of the blessings thus far was the ability to drive the wakers and not have to walk. Mmm

We got back the second time and I actually got to sit down for a couple of minutes and eat and breathe. I went back to the student I promised to help. I told her I would come back soon to help her.

And then that didn't happen. 

Around 3, right as Mrs. Leishimi was about to take class, another patient called in severe distress. I had to take this one. And so I rolled over and headed out with Likan, my translator, hoping and praying this would be a quick fix and I would be able to come back and be a teacher again.

Spoiler alert. It wasn't a quick fix.

This lady, probably around the age of 50, looked rough. She was lying in bed groaning with very irregular breathing, and fever. Word from the husband was that she also hadn't eaten in 4 days and was drinking water here and there. Her vitals were all but normal and she had both malarias when I checked her. She also wasn't responding well to stimuli: her name being called, touch, pain. She looked so serious, I thought hospital treatment was best. I consulted with Mrs. Leishimi on the phone. She came from class to assess herself. 

We decided to try and stabilize her with an IV and medicine and then give malaria meds. It's interesting how nervous I get when doing nursing skills that I have known for so long but in a different setting. Like in the jungle. Maybe my nervousness isn't out of the ordinary. After attaching fluid and giving IV meds, we then waited. And waited.

And waited.

And by some miracle, she actually started to get well. Alabanza to the Lord I thought. We gave her some food, kept assessing, talked to the family.

Then the rain came. This normally isn't a problem, except I didn't bring a jacket. And we had to somehow drive the bikes back because they couldn't be at this man's house the whole night. They would get stolen. We brainstormed our options: push them to a neighbor's, leave them in the road, drive them back on the treacherous, muddy, slippery, dark road.

As we pondered, we watched the IV slowly drip into her body. She came to. In fact, by prayer and the Lord alone, she was actually able to get up and use the restroom with some help. That was wild. To go from bedridden to walking. Miracles. I believe in the small ones.

When the IV finally finished, we hooked up a new one and packed up to leave. The father would take care of the rest he said. Thankfully, by this time the rain had stopped. Only slick wet road to overcome. So we prayed, got on our bikes and drove very slowly through the dark jungle, back to the compound. We didn't die, as you can see; I'm writing this. We got back around 9, which is late for us. Very. Bless the Lord others were praying for our safety, however. Moreover so thankful all is in the hands of Jesus. 

On my way back to my room someone asked me how the day went. "Oh, you know. Just one of those days." 

Hmm