A whole lot of chaos...

• Earlier this week I posted a blog about a little bit of chaos...Well, as the week went on I think I fully upgraded to a whole lot of chaos...

• Okay, so the chaos that I caused trying to get home from the clinic on Monday was only the beginning. I had some requests to clarify that story...I think the shortest version is that it took Sheree's sister in Teguc., her mom, her pastor's wife, 2 nurses, and another guy at the clinic to get me home. I can explain when I get home...

• Tuesday and Wednesday were both busy in their own rights because Sheree's mom came with a group of highschoolers to help at the clinic. Sheree was sick all week, so I was busy looking out for the group, Sheree, and the patients.

• But really, chaos completely ensued on Thursday and Friday. The group did a complete overhaul (organizing, cleaning, painting) the emergencia both days. Thursday, after seeing a stack of patients, we started the project in the emergencia...and while people were starting around us in the emergencia I stopped to stick an IV in our dear doctor. I got her situated on a bed in the consult area, and then alternated between helping the group and giving her medications and fluids.

• But Friday really took the cake. The emergencia was completely inaccessible for patients on Friday, which turned out to be a major bummer. We had 4 patients come through ER that day. The first one was a young guy with swelling in his brain that we had to send off to the capital, but the other 3 patients were in my charge, scattered throughout the consultation area on every available bed. The first one was a 1 year old that was very dehydrated that I had to put an IV in (I hate poking the little ones). And the next one was a hypertensive uncontrolled diabetic (220/98), that I had to manage with IV labetalol. And the last one had me praying...she was a 28 year old gal, one week post-op with malaria, with a blood pressure in the 60s (that's bad). I literally stood at her bedside squeezing fluid into her and holding her hand for 2 hours before we could get her sent to the hospital. There's so much more that I could add but I know that this is a novel already...

• Last week had some truly amazing moments, but was definitely a whole lot of chaos...