Bits and Pieces

I was so proud of one of my nurses today. She came to me and told me, calmly, that a patient had no urine output for two hours. I looked at her and said, do you realize this is an emergency. She said yes as I was getting irritated as I was almost running to the patient to see what was wrong. A blocked catheter, one that is not draining, can harm the patient and ruin an entire surgery if it is not fixed right away. I got to the patients bedside and I could tell she wasuncomfortable, another sign the catheter wasn't draining. I also noticed that on the end of the bed was a syringe with sterile water and a pair of gloves. I looked at Fatmata, the nurse and asked what that was. She said it was the sterile water and gloves so I could flush the catheter. For a second I felt like crying, then got over it, but I was so proud of her. Proud that she knew what needed to happen and had all the supplies there. I walked over to get another pair of gloves and she said she had some already for me. I told her those were hers since she was going to flush it. She looked surprised. I just don't get it. Fatmata knew what to do. She knew this was an emergency and to get help. I don't think her or the other nurses have been empowered to take the next step to follow through. She flushed the catheter just fine and the urine flowed and the problem was solved. Check. Now it's just taking her to the next level.

Massah, oh Massah. Massah is a patient who was here many months ago. She left dry but came

back after she had a small issue at home and her repair was reopened. Funny, funny woman. She speaks Mende, another language I have not and probably will not master. She likes to say words with funny sounds and I will copy her and we all laugh. Today I kept hearing a baby crying, no, screaming, so I went to see what was happening. Massah was sitting on a bench holding this screaming baby. The baby was just perched on her knee and the screams didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. I walked over to her with my fingers in my ears and said, "Massah, feed your baby!" I said this jokingly because I knew it wasn't her baby. She looked at me and smiled and said, "Not my baby. This my baby..." as she picked up the tube to her catheter and shook it a bit. Ok, fair enough.

Massah and Seibatu are friends. They both started their journey's out here together about three months ago. After Massah had her surgery, Seibatu would come and sit on the bed next to her and they would chat. Seibatu had her surgery yesterday. Things could be going better for her. Her catheter is bothering her quite a bit and today she started leaking. It's hard to tell at this point what it means but prayers for her would be great.