Giving IVs and Writing Down Charts

(Written July, 31st)

   As my time here at the CTC comes to an end this week I've thought about the many nights I went through with no sleep, the decisions we made with the different patients, the difficult patients we worked with, the kind hearted patients also that came through the door, those that were thankful and that we deeply touched their lives, and those that were difficult that we wondered if we made any difference on the outside, but know that just having them here in the clinic did change something as they saw the testimony of our lives.  I also had to think of the many funny times (that we had to have to balance the stress).  As I look back, I can see the importance of us being here, of loving the unlovely, the messy, the weak, the frail, and giving them just a glimpse of Christianity.

Sometimes I caught myself getting caught up with the "work" of the day, but most of the time, I know as the Haitians saw us scrambling around the CTC compound, I believe they saw Christ in us and through us.  May the Lord add his increase to what they saw, that it would last into eternity.

  I guess maybe I'll just write a bit about my day yesterday...we had quite the morning as far as giving IV's to people...a little three year old boy and an older lady who were both severely dehydrated were brought in...thankfully the girls who had been on shift before Kirsche and I had already called Michael to come and give the IVs. He got the IV in the old lady on the first try, but sadly to say the little boy was a completely different story! For one thing, he hated "blas" (white people), and so whenever anyone white would try to touch him or his bed, he'd start up a high pitched wail...there were three of us holding him down as he tried to deliver a pinch here or a bite there while Michael tried in various different places to get the catheter in a good vein...which was pretty difficult considering how dehydrated the little boy was! After a couple tries and a few too many wiggles from the little boy at the wrong time, Michael got the catheter in and a few hours later there was a definite difference in the little guy and he seemed to be feeling a whole lot better. 

   Anyhow, it's pretty nice taking things a bit slower now for a change over at the CTC...for awhile things were kinda stressful. One time, a new man had just been washed down with bleach water by one of the guards, and then he was brought in and placed on a cot. Kirsche was busy somewhere and so I took it upon myself to try out the few creole words I knew to see how much of the chart for this patient I could get filled out before Kirsche came back...

"Kijan ou rele?"  I asked the man's name..."Aswemaenainiyee" is about what it sounded like back..."Kisa?" (what?)...I could not understand..."Aswemaenainiyee" was the mumbled reply. I decided I would ask once more, and see if I could get it right this time...it only sounded like a bunch of muffled mumbles coming out, but maybe this time it would be more clear..."Kijan ou rele?"  He replied "Aswemaenainiyee" or however it was he said that...anyways, I got my pen and thought I should at least LOOK like I was writing something down, after all I'd asked the guy three times what his name was and I had my chart and pen in hand all ready to mark stuff down...I looked for the easiest place on the chart to mark something down besides the name and wrote "F" for "Female"...I was feeling pretty down about not getting the name written in when Kirsche came back, but I gladly handed her the chart to fill out the "rest" of the information...she got the chart and looked at what I'd filled in so far, so looked down at the patient with a very perplexed expression on her face and then she looked up at me and asked, "THIS is a FEMALE?" I looked down at the chart to see what I had written and then looked back up at Kirsche dumbfounded...then I looked again at the man lying on the cot in his gown in front of us. I tried to find an excuse for my scatterbrained moment in writing that on the chart, but it was kind of hard to explain it all at the moment...and it didn't help that it struck us both funny right then...the poor guy probably wondered what was so funny on that sheet of paper and why we were having such problems filling out his information... then I just had to leave so I went to spend a bit of embarrassed time by myself in the nurses' station while faithful Kirsche "finished" the chart.

   The next time I tried filling out a chart (which took awhile for me to bring myself to do), I tried to make sure my mind was all there with it, while Kirsche just looked on with a funny little lopsided grin on her face as she watched me fill in the blanks. ;) 

   (The picture of all the charts, by the way, is from a week ago)

   Anyhow, I guess I should probably close now. The people just keep coming and going through the CTC...we continue to hand out the little "25 Bible Stories" booklets to each patient before they leave which they all seem delighted to receive! 

   Please keep praying for the people here. Not just for their needs physically, but also spiritually...we all need the Lord or else our work here is vain!  

Meredith Keller