Oh What a Weekend...

So...I have worked for the past 4 days and had the on call phone over night for the past 5 nights.  I'm not complaining...I did it to myself.  Other people offered to switch days with me but since I love a consistent schedule I declined the offers and each time I work the weekend (once a month for Jan-Feb and then every 3rd weekend after that) I'll work Thursday night through Tuesday morning.
Anyway the point of this is to tell you about some of the CRAZY things that happened over this weekend.  It certainly wasn't a simple, straight-forward, you can work 4 days in a row kind of weekend...instead...
#1- I spent Friday morning attempting to diagnose 2 little babies with HIGH fevers...turns out one had a urine infection and the other had a cough/cold/sinus infection.  Let me just say, trying to get urine from 2 little babies can prove WAY more difficult than you would ever think!
#2- A little girl in the girl's area fell in the shower Friday afternoon and split her head open.  Praise God for our Mozambican nurses who wrapped up her head and were calling for a driver to bring her to hospital before I got to the clinic.  She now has about 8 stitches in the back of her head, but all is well!
#3- I was summoned to the clinic again about 7:00pm (when trying to finish up giving out meds in the baby house and nursery and controlling all the fevers before leaving them for the night).  One of the boys had split his nose open...I'm pretty sure a sling shot and rocks were involved because Rebecca (another nurse) pulled a piece of rock out of the wound.  Anyway, I ended up bringing him for stitches.  Thank you Tracey for driving us since ALL the other center cars were being used.  It took 5 of us to hold him down...5...including the guard from outside the clinic.  Seriously out of control!  Before we left he wouldn't even walk properly and wouldn't open his eye...when we pulled back into the center he wanted to go watch the movie that is always on Friday nights.  And...when asked who did that to his nose he answered...the hospital!  Gotta love the jokesters!
#4- Saturday ran relatively smoothly...saw too many kids to count and checked in on all those who had been sick on Friday...plus covered the Baby House where crazy kids were choosing not the eat and having random fevers and things of that sort.  And by the end of the day was called to the girl's area because one little girl had injured her foot...it was swollen, tender, and she wouldn't walk on it...but she could wiggle her toes and honestly I couldn't face sending her to hospital.  So a little ice and ibuprofen was all she got from me...I'll be back in the morning I said and I'll check on it then.
#5- Sunday morning was again OUT OF CONTROL...before 10am I had seen at least 5 center kids...one with a high fever and groin pain...one who had sliced his hand open and could really have used stitches but I steri stripped it together instead...one with strep throat...and I couldn't even tell you what else.  Oh my friend with the foot injury was a bit better...no hospital was a good choice!
#6- Sunday afternoon brought a gross abscess under someone's arm, a community woman with extreme abdominal pain (I have no idea what is causing your abdominal pain I wanted to say!), one girl with a strange rash on her face, a girl in the girl's area with a serious chest infection (she had already been on antibiotics for 4 days but was still having fevers...fever treated...will check again later), fever and groin pain from the morning is better, dressing changed on our friend with the stitches in the back of her head, and the discovery that our friend with the stitch in his nose has pulled it out...yep that's right...he told me it dried up and fell out...biggest load of you know what I've ever heard...oh well I told him...if it opens up again and your nose falls off don't come crying to me!  And our director called me about another kid with a terrible wound under his arm...changed that dressing, changed his medication, and am praying it improves.  I'm sure there were 14 other things I dealt with that I couldn't even begin to remember...
#7- Back to the baby house...one of our little friends has vomited twice...I pick him up and discover he is breathing 56 times a minute, retracting to his back bone, and nasal flaring (for all you non-medical people out there...that means he wasn't breathing well at all!).  After 4 puffs of salbutamol he was a bit more under control.  I put him down to give out meds...was back an hour and half later and he looked about as bad again...more puffs of salbutamol.  Came back again at 10pm...after puffs he didn't improve...nebulizer with salbutamol...finally sounding better.  Came back at midnight...another nebulizer and I decided he'd be ok until 6am.  6am Monday morning rolled around VERY quickly...more salbutamol puffs...back to sleep for an hour before the day starts.
#8- In the midst of breathing issues I received a text from one of our pastors about a lady who lives at the Bocaria (city garbage dump) that was very ill and needed to get to the hospital.  After several phone calls and attempting to figure out what was going on, where they were, and who to send...I handed our ambulance keys to a driver and sent him to pick her up and drop her off.  An hour or so later I find out they didn't have the money for her to be seen and now our driver is stuck in the middle of all the decision making...nothing is ever simple.  I call him and say...you are not to stay with them for the night...if they want to be brought home, bring them, but you come back to the center.  If he has to be out all night for a good reason that is one thing...but seriously it's not safe...I feel like a mom...but seriously!  Come to find out he didn't get home until 11:30 even after my instructions.
#9- Monday brought about more problems of it's own...the girl's tias came to me about the girl with a chest infection (she wasn't looking good at all...I said if she spikes another fever she's going to the hospital).  One of the girls in the baby house had an allergic reaction to who knows what...eyes and mouth swelled up.  Our friend with the terrible breathing was finally looking better and controllable Monday night.  The babies in the Bercario were actually quite well minus a terrible diaper rash...yuck!  Oh and needing to start one of them on antifungal treatment for her thrush that won't disappear!  Plans were made for all the consults of the week...Sheri brought me coffee...Praise the Lord!  Rebecca helped me prepare meds...I would have never made it to our weekly staff business meeting if she didn't.  Then it was found out that one of our newest little boys might have chicken pox...you've got to be kidding me.  He got isolated into the clinic, a substitute tia was called in, he had a high temperature by the end of the night.  I still had notes to write, charts to update...and finally got to the birthday party of one of our missionaries as the tables were being put away.
Oh what a weekend it was...today was much better...just a trip to the grocery store...a long nap...administration work for the milk program...and now I'm off to dinner and movie watching with a few of the girls here at the center!

I'll just add in the 2 funniest non-medical things that happened as well...
#1 has to be the stunt that Adilson (one of our oldest baby house kids) pulled Sunday before dinner time.  Before every meal the babies wash their hands.  They do this by the tias pouring soapy water over their hands into a bucket.  Well, while most of the babies were getting their hands washed little Adilson needed to go potty.  So instead of waiting 2.5 seconds for someone to be able to take him he pulled his pants down and weed all over the place...in the clean hand washing water, on the other babies...I know you're probably laughing...and I've had a few good laughs about it too...but seriously his behavior is out of control...please be praying for us and the tias!
#2 would be the experience I had with a HUGE centipede in the bercario (nursery).  It appeared out of the laundry room and was going straight for all the babies.  One of the tias leaped for the insect spray while the other stood frozen.  The spray was not even beginning to stop it, so I started kicking it toward the door as the tia continued with the spraying.  Finally the other tia springs to action...thinking the broom was the best choice.  By this time I have already attempted to step on it but it didn't die...it was a resilient little thing.  Finally it was swept outside then they wanted me to call for a boy to come kill it...instead I took the broom and started whacking it...it still didn't die.  Finally in desperation I stomped on it, twisted my foot a few times, and then had to wipe it's guts off my shoe...GROSS!  But at least everyone was safe from the HUGE centipede with large pinchers on the front that had attempted to attack our precious babies!