The Good Things

I was on night shift a couple of weeks ago and I wrote most of this blog on one of them but never posted it because life was busy and then I got sick.

I have been on night shift this last week. My housemates have graciously given up their beds for me to sleep in at various times because the house is far cooler and quieter than my little dependance. Other than the usual trials of sleep and feeling generally gross (retrospectively I actually had malaria) my 12 hour nights have been filled with the usual work. I have been feeding my premie babies every 3 hours, putting up IV antibiotics, giving malaria medications and checking IV drop rates. The calmer hours of the night give extra time for letting mamas sleep and sitting in the ward feeding the babies.

The paeds ward I have worked in almost every shift since I have been here is one large room and is ever changing with the number of beds, cots and baby isolette cribs. My first night shift I had the whole 10 patients. By the time the lights were dimmed I barely had space to walk between the relatives sleeping on the floor. Interestingly my three patients who had beds (not cots or isolettes) all slept on the floor next to their mamas so all their actual beds were empty.

I end up spending quite a bit of time on the floor, reaching for patients between their bed and mama or other sibling or sitting on a stool while a mama gravity feeds her baby breastmilk through the nasogastric tube.

Some of these nights I had spare time and was able to let the mama go back to sleep and I would sit on the stool and continue feeding the baby, looking over the ward and admiring the beautiful, tiny baby in my hands. The premie babies are such sweet little things. We have worked so hard trying to fatten them up. Our work is paying off because 2 out of 3 of the original babies have reached 1.5kg and have now discharged! They will come back for appointments to check their weight gain.

Tonight for the first time since I arrived I have no paeds patients. Instead I have a collection of adults- snake bite, gastric cancer, fractured femur who is very confused, pulling at her dressings and not sleeping, peritonsilar abscess and abdo pain. I feel like I’m back at home in a medical ward! Thankfully this is because in the last day we have discharged many kids who are now healthy because they got treatment in time. You have no idea how relieved I feel about that. We still have several severe malaria admissions into REA each shift but most of them arrive before it’s too late. I often see them laying on their backs with their eyes open but a vacant stare or even asleep but their eyes aren’t closed. I think every time of the girl with malaria who I came across who had already stopped breathing, her eyes half open but no one was staring out of them. I don’t think that’s something I’ll ever forget.

This place has certainly changed me. I don’t think I can sum it up quite yet, if ever. It has been an eye opening time in many ways. I have the utmost respect for the missionaries who came out here and pioneered the way and continue to work so tirelessly at serving God through their various jobs (Christian radio station, village bible studies, nursing school, running the hospital and more). I always wondered if I had what it takes to live in Africa.

Tonight the termites are out flying around the lights and crawling on the floor. They are big winged, big bodied bugs that are continually being zapped on the bug zappers, sometimes for so long that you can smell them cooking. They aren’t the only bugs walking these hospital hallways. There are these other big beetles that also fly and crawl around. I usually give them a light kick to the side if they’re in my way. The flies are insistent too, relentlessly sitting on my patients, crawling over their faces, dressings or somehow getting into the baby isolettes. I think Australia’s insects prepared me well for being here.

 Fast forward through one week of sickness and first ever diagnosis of malaria:

I now only have 5 days left of my two month stay here. I have learnt so much and continue to be amazed and warmed at the family units I have seen caring for each other and community around them. I have seen severely malnourished kids get chubby cheeks and tiny premature babies get bigger. I have seen a miracle and heard of more. I have been so impressed by the skills and willingness of the Togolese nurses and nurse aids to help me again and again. (I’m looking forward to the day I can speak English to my patients!)

Life on my days off has been fun too. I love my little home and can always find something to do, cook, create or learn. I have grown to love the character of my home, the peeling paint and dark concrete floors. There are happy memories made here, from movie nights to housemate dinners to the constant electric shocks I get from my computer keyboard when it’s plugged into the Togolese power supply. 

Behind that wall is my house

My little dependance

My friends here have already asked if I’ll come back (or just stay). I have been wondering the same thing myself. At this stage, let’s just say God will have the final say.