A little anecdote of CTC life

     "Hey, Grace, shall we play a game of checkers since things are so slow right now?" Asked Deidra.
     "Sure," replied  Grace, "just let me empty this last bucket here."
     In a few minutes, Grace was back and the two set up their game and settled down to play. Just as they were setting the last pieces on the board and Deidra was getting ready to maker her first move, one of the patients' care-takers stuck her head in the door.
     "Mis, an IV bag ran out."

     "Here, I'll take care of it," said Deidra. Grace quickly handed her an IV bag.
     Walking into the first patient's room, they notice that there is no big hurry. There is still an inch of fluid left in the old IV bag dangling from the wire hanging on the wall above the cholera patient's bed.
     With the bag in their hand, Deidra and Grace stand watching, waiting, while the IV fluid trickles slowly into the chamber and runs dow the line into the vein of the patient's left arm.
     Glancing across the room they notice a lady perched on her bucket with her eyes closed.
     "Hey!" Grace yells, "She's fainting!"
     The two girls race over to help hoist her up off the floor.
     Wilman rushes in to assist, shouting, "Cold water! Get some water!"
     Forcefully slapping cups of water that the two girls had gotten for him, into the unconscious lady's face, she started coming to and responding.
     Seeing that everything was under control with the lady, the girls once again remembered the IV bag they were to change.
     "Oh no," sighed Deidra, "It ran out."
     "Oh man," exclaimed Grace, "I'll get the syringe."
     When the two finished putting the IV back into function, they headed back to their game of checkers.
     They were about to the middle of their game when once again...
     "Mis? Mis" The girls looked up to the see the mother of a 19 year old girl patient standing in the doorway.
     "Mis, my daughter has a big problem."
     "What problem does your daughter have?" Deidra asked.
     "Well, Mis, my daughter has a probmlem. She doesn't sneeze."
     "She what!?" Deidra exclaimed, thinking she mis-understood.
     "She doesn't sneeze." Repeated the concerned mother.
     "Do you want her to sneeze?" Deidra inquired, trying to keep a straight face.
     "Well I see the other patients sneezing, but my daughter just doesn't. Couldn't you give her some medicine to make her sneeze?"

     Later one of the patients in the fish tank was looking extremely sick, and was throwing up all her medication, along with her ORS.
     "She isn't doing good." Said Grace, "I think we should admit her."
     The poor young lady was too weak to walk, so Grace and Deidra half walked, and half carried her around behind the CTC to the little spray down room.
     They made a bed for her inside the CTC and Mis Anita was called to come put an IV in her.
     The IV went in on the first try, and everything was good! They could relax again.

     The next shift showed up about then, and Grace and Deidra got to go back to the house and get some much needed sleep.

--Written and experienced by Grace and Deidra.