August 8, 2011 – 1 a.m.
Greetings to all from a CTC in the beautiful mountains of Haiti! All is quiet and peaceful here as I write this, at a few minutes past 1 a.m. The crickets are chirping a happy song, our one patient is sound asleep, and Thea (my shift partner) is dozing too. The CTC shifts currently are more relaxed than they were with a lot of patients (at least that’s what I hear). J It’s been a lot of fun getting to know Thea and the others down here…. The fellowship & companionship during long hours at the CTC are quite enjoyable. J Like someone said… “Who would have known cholera could be this fun?”. I suppose our patients don’t enjoy it quite as much, but it’s wonderful to see them get well and be ready to go home after coming here quite sick.
Just a few thoughts about my shift so far….
- Tonight there is just one patient, and he seems to be doing fairly well. All week things at the CTC have been a bit slow, with never more than 5 patients, and often just one or two. There were several shifts that we didn’t have to work, since no one was here. I was perfectly happy about that the first time we were supposed to work the “graveyard shift” and got to sleep all night. J
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-For anyone who might be coming down in the future or wondering what it’s like to dump buckets of diarrhea, etc…. it’s not as bad as I would have thought. J It takes a bit of humility and grace at times, but I would highly recommend it to anyone! J
-One really fun thing has been learning to do IVs. I got to practice for the first time here, and got a couple in successfully…. Poor Jesse was my pincushion! J I now also have a nice purple bruise on my arm from the one that was done on me… never knew a simple IV could make a person look so beat up!!
-5:30 p.m.
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~Sharon Swartzentruber
p.s. In the pictures you have me & Thea (after we survived our long night shift), the tarantula from last night, and laundry drying on the CTC roof in the sunshine this morning.... it was beautiful up there!!
Good job, Sharon! I am glad you could take this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteLove, Katie