I missed a baby by THAT MUCH!

Any of you who are following this blog know that I came down here expecting to catch babies. Well it just has not happened. I blogged on our first one, at least I watched. The second one was last night. The third was 5:45 this morning--I go on duty at 7. I popped in OB several times today while a woman was in labor, but not very active. I took a half hour lunch__I SWEAR--A HALF HOUR--I got back and not only had she delivered --SHE LEFT! Man I was ticked. They came for me, but did not have time to get me in the house. Know one is currently waiting in OB. But I am sure we will have more babies here.

 

I did wound care in our outdoor clinic today. With an interpreter, we sit in a tent and people who come to the hospital for follow-up care but don't need a doctor, get seen by us. Injury re-check, wound cleaning and re-dressing, whatever it might be. I had two that I referred into the ER--a two year old boy with a cut by his right eye--a friend threw a rock, and a man with bad toes. The little boy was going to be a handful, so I sent him inside. The man needed some soaking to get his toe rot stopped. He had skin erosion between all of his toes due to an injury that was draining. When I went inside, they were both sitting there waiting. The boy's mom and the man were all smiles when they saw me--that's why I came down here.

 

We referred a woman to the TB sanitarium. Her chest x-ray was nasty. We had a volunteer with appedicitis who we transferred to PAP for an appendectomy. We transferred a second one with Giardia.

 

We were busy, but not terribly so. I got lunch at noon and supper at 7:30, so it wasn't too bad. The team is really good, and the volunteers are extremely helpful. The frstration lies in not knowing where everything is. We go to do a new procedure, and we have to llok 10 minutes for supplies. We have inpatient, OB and ER, and we have two oxygen concentrators. We have two pulse oximeters to measure oxygen in the blood, but one had dead batteries. I had two new batteries with me, and took one out of my flashlight. We get a different type of syringe, or catheter, or tubing almost every time we grab for supplies.

 

Well, tomorrow is another day. I will close now and wish you well. Kiss your babies and enjoy your hot water.

 

Oh, BTW, eat chicken---cock-a-doodle-doo!

 

LaMar