Even though I still have two whole weeks here, I'm feeling like it's not enough time these last two weeks are going to FLY by. I'm spending the day in "the theatre" (the OR) watching a crazy all day surgery, and then Friday is going to be my "tourist" day in the hospital. I'm going to hand out the clothes and goodies I was given to give to the kid here. It's going to be so much fun.
But those are my plans for the rest of the week... What did I do today?
Today I was working with Grace in the annex at Bethany Kids. The annex is where all the neuro patients stay... So lots of hydrocephalus kids. It was really interesting to see how all the mothers interacted with one another, the community they'd built together as they travel the same journey with their babies.
It was a wonderful day. Grace is so good at sticking to the nursing principles I am familiar with. Doing her medmath, one of the med packages had been cut in a way that had taken off all identifiers, and she made sure it was the right med before giving it, dressing changes were done extremely well. I loved working with her. I think I've liked everyone I've worked with here.
In the afternoon we were waiting for the time to give afternoon meds and a video team came in who are doing a film project about the hospital... and asked to interview me. Well - for those of you who know me... that is WAY out of my comfort zone. But I did it.
I think Embrace the Race prepared me for this trip in so many ways. The confidence I've gained, the courage I have to do things on my own, bring "ok" with being videoed and able to share my story. A couple years ago, or even a year ago I probably would have flat out refused to do it. But God is stretching and growing me... Like I said yesterday, it's part of being confident in who God has made me to be, and being content with where I've been planted (or transplanted for a season).
One of my favourite parts of the day was when this little girl was walking down the hall with her dad, and would turn around every few steps and look at me. I'd smile and wave, she'd scream and giggle with delight... take a few more steps and do it all over again. All the way down the hall. What joy that brought me. I can't wait to deliver goodies to all these lil cuties on Friday!!
I got to the store too late to buy a SIM card for my new phone, so it looks like I'll be out of touch for a few more days here. Oh well - it's not the worst thing in the world, just a little inconvenient.
Last night (hours after I'd posted the blog) I was at the Halestrap's for supper. What a blessing they are. I'm so thankful for their friendship and generosity. Libby and I had a good long talk about how my time here has been, and if I'd come back.
I can't say yes or no... But I can say I am open to what God has in store for me. I love home... so it's tough to picture myself doing long term missions work, but I'm pretty sure I have said that I would never be a nurse, that I'd never run a marathon, and probably a whole bunch of other things... So I totally believe that God changes the desires of our hearts, and the important thing is to be available and open to where and to what he calls you to do.
As for specifically coming back to Kijabe, I'm not sure how that would work - opportunities for missionary nurses here are slim to none. BUT, education/teaching opportunities, that is definitely somewhere I could see myself helping out. OR if I do my nurse practitioner, that would open up a lot of doors. So, there are some possibilities. I think seeds have been planted. They just might be in hibernation for a little bit.
Over all a great day. And I'm SO looking forward to tomorrow. I should make sure I get a good sleep tonight, and I'm already looking forward to the breakfast I plan on making tomorrow! I'm just going to finish my tea, make sure I have all my scrubs and whatnot ready for tomorrow... And then crawl into bed. Megs I'm SO thankful for my buff, it'll be my scrub cap for the OR tomorrow - they don't have disposables or any extras, but I need to have my head covered. It'll be perfect!!
Day 25 (Thursday June 4, 2015)
The best day yet in the hospital. Grampa would have been SO proud of me. I was up to my elbows in the OR helping with a surgery. There may have been a moment when I teared up thinking how Grampa would have loved to see me here... Carrying on his legacy in a way. Part of my likes to think that he sees and is bursting with pride. The whole time I was thinking "why am I not a surgeon?! This is the coolest thing ever!!" Honestly... I just want to be able to do everything.
I don't even know if I can explain the surgery with just words, it's so much cooler with hand gestures and my eyes a brighter, smiling blue than you may have ever seen. Even though I was in the or from 8:30-7:40... I don't feel tired. (I know I am, but I'm just pumped up on adrenaline)
Ok. I'll back track and take you through my day. Even though I didn't need to be at the hospital until an hour later than usual, I got up at the same time. Dr Davis said it would be a long surgery, so I knew I needed a good solid breaky. And it was HUGE. I wasn't feeling very hungry this morning but I'm SO thankful that I made and ate so much. Hashbrowns, 3 eggs, a banana and two pieces of toast. Oh, and a cup of that surprisingly delicious instant coffee. The second and last bag of it... Totally the right choice for today.
After breaky I got dressed in tights and tank, and packed my scrubs and OR shoes (a pair of my runners that I spent and hour cleaning last night) in my bag to change into at the hospital.
Since I still don't have my Kijabe phone situation sorted out I wasn't able to communicate with Dr Davis about when and where I was supposed to be exactly. So I just figured it out on my own. I'm getting good at that... walking confidently into an unknown area, telling them who I am and how they can help me. Haha. Such a foreign behaviour for me. But Man! Does it ever work! Haha.
I've "delivered" patients to the OR enough in the past few weeks that I have seen nurses go in and out of the change room. You don't even bring your outside shoes into the change room. There is a shelf outside the door to put your dirty shoes on. Good, the first step wasn't so unknown, but that's as much as I knew. But a change room is a change room, doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what to do there... But this is where I made my first mistake.
The OR at home is generally cold, like really cold. An since I'd been so cold working on the wards the past couple of weeks I figured it wasn't a bad idea to just through my scrubs on over my tights. In fact, I'd don't that the other day when working in paeds and it was great! (That would come back to bite me in the butt later)
When I was ready, with my scrubs on, OR shoes laced up, and scrub cap/buff successfully hiding all my hair... I looked for someone to help my with the next step, finding the right OR room. Found someone, told them what surgery I was there to watch (and who was doing it) and asked for her to show me where to go. Not a problem... She brought me to the right OR and introduced me to the other nurses working on the case.
I started by looking at the scans with David (Dr Nolan, Noland? Not totally sure on that one... He's that David of the Brittney and David I met on Sunday) and the scans are CRAZY!! I'd post them for you to see, but I have to edit them so that you can't see the patients name, and loading pics in a blog post on my phone is a bit of a nightmare - if you want the whole story with pictures, hand gestures and shining eyes... Just ask, I'd be more than happy to share it!
Then I helped the nurses get all the mop threads untangled from the wheels on the instrument tables. Then I stood back and let them do their thing. I know nothing about setting up instruments and all that. I fully expected to just be observing the surgery, so was looking around for the best place to stand where I'd have a good view.
I have so many favourite parts about today, and what happened next was one of them. Just before the anesthetist put the patient under, everyone in the room (the nurses, Drs, interns, anesthetists) stopped what they were doing, stood to face/ gathered around the patient, closed their eyes and prayed for her. For her, for the surgeons and nurses, for her recovery, for a successful procedure, for her recovery... Amazing. What an honour and privilege to be able to do that. I just love it.
After she was under Anne, one of the nurses on the case told me I'd be putting in her foley. Alright. I've done this a couple times before. But all their stuff is different! Haha. But I did it beautifully! Best one yet. Then Anne turned to me and told me to go scrub in. Hmmm, never done that before. But she told me James (the other nurse on the case) would show me how. So I followed him outside, and mimicked everything he did... I felt like a five year old! Haha. I carefully entered the OR again, and copied him as he dried his hands with a sterile towel and put on a sterile gown. THIS was the moment when I realized I'd made a big mistake with the double pants situation I had going on. I hadn't realized before how warm (actually hot) the OR was. But now, with my head covered, a thick/heavy sterile gown on, a mask on, and doubling up on the sterile gloves I realized I would quickly overheat. But didn't do anything about it.
I was scrubbed in, awesome... This meant I could stand as close to the table as I wanted to and get a good view. Oh no, that wasn't my job... I was also going to be passing things to the surgeons as the worked. I was positioned at the head of the bed between the instrument table and Chege (another surgeon working on the case).
The surgery was actually kinda two in one, a facial/neck dissection with the removal of half the mandible due to cancer that had eroded the bone. And the other part was separating the pectoralis major from between the chest wall and the beast tissue... And then flipping it up/tunnelling it up the neck and around the new metal jaw the woman was getting. Insane. Absolutely insane.
For the first but I was pretty much just watching David and Chege work on the face/jaw stuff. And helping with handing them stuff. "Scalpel" (I was the one handing it) I don't know what most of the instruments are called so I was kinda useless, but they were so patient with me as I fumbled my way through (and telling them that they needed to describe it to me - haha). David and Chege didn't believe that his was my first time IN the OR, but I've learned that I'm a fast learner... and I'm observant. I've learned things from the couple times I've gotten to watch procedures in the OR. Then when Dr Davis came in there as a comment something like "JJ, you're mine now" and I shuffled around to the side of the table and then the real work began. I help back and up breast tissue for hours as we worked to free the pectoralis major. I got my arm workout for the week for sure!
There were parts of the morning when incisions were being made where I stood there thinking "don't hold your breath, don't hold your breath. Wiggle your toes. Listen to Jane, she's in your pocket cheering you on!" I did alright until I was fight to hold back the breast tissue. It was heavy (she must have been like a J-cup), the room was so hot, and when you're not used to wearing a mask it can kinda feel like you're suffocating.
I know better than to try to fight through it. So I just told Dr Davis I needed to sit down. He didn't hesitate in making sure a stool was brought to me, then asked for the AC to be turned on when I told him I was super warm. I figured... I can still hold that up with sitting down! So did a lot of my work from that position. Dr Davis was great about checking in with me and making sure I knew I could step out if I needed to. As long as I'm sitting... I'm good. And once the room had cooled down I was good to go and was on my feet again.
David and Chege left to "take tea" (have lunch) at around 2. I can't even explain what an Amazon experience it was to work with these guys. At one point, as I reached to grab an instrument that I new he'd need he looked up and was like "what?! It's like you can read my mind" I realize that this might be a gift of mine - I can anticipate things, I learn quickly, I'm observant. I don't mean to brag about this... I just realize that it's a gift I have - I see things that other people might not... and can interpret them or anticipate the next step. Intuition maybe? I dunno what it is... But I like it, and it came in handy today.
There were many moments during the day where I had both hands/arms in the incision, holding up breast tissue with all my might, and Dr Davis would go "good thing you asked if you come come to a surgery, there's no way I could have done this alone!"
Dr Davis and I did take a little break once David and Chege got back from theirs, so I had a little something to eat and then got back in pretty much as fast as I could (and after I took off my extra pair of pants!)
At the end I was helping cut suture lines, secure drain lines and put dressings over incision sites. I left the OR around 7:40, just as they were about to take the patient off intubation.
There is so much more I could say about today - but I don't want to bore you... Or sound like I'm bragging - the whole experience was just so great and affirming and... just wonderful! I had hoped for pictures of this crazy surgery, but the experience was a MILLION times better. You'll just have to deal with the fact that my descriptions and animated retelling of my experience is all you're gonna get.
So often throughout today I thought, how I would NEVER have the opportunity for and experience like this at home, and there was no way I was going to excuse myself from my "scrubbed in" position to take photos.
If this was all just too confusing and you can picture it, then come find me when I get home... and I'll tell it to you in person.
I'm beat. Time to crawl into bed and sleep. I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow... Delivering presents to the kids in paeds. It's gonna be a good day!!
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