Tracking Ed Monroe as he travels to Haiti and other exotic(?) places

Friday, February 09, 2007

Friday morning 5:30 AM

I feel better after a long night’s sleep. I am sitting outside on the third floor looking out at the ocean and waiting for the sun to come up. It is cooler outside than in the clinic and I want to enjoy it while I can. I admit to going to bed at 9PM. I was really tired and I’ll explain why. First, I need to revise the total patients seen on Wednesday to 125. It seems that 9 dossiers were found and accounted for. Golly, things do not change from team to team or year to year. Yesterday, I was overwhelmed at the pharmacy and had to call for help. We opened at 7:30 AM and I thought things were going well. About 11:30 AM my Haitian helpers began to talk about lunch plans so I took a look outside to see if there might be a line of people waiting for pharmacy. To my dismay, there were over 50 people outside waiting and 10 more inside. How could I close down for lunch and enjoy eating with all those folks waiting in line? Of course, how could I help them with out my interpreters? During lunch I discussed the situation with our team leader, Eric. We decided to get me some help. Sitting nearby was James Bender, an EMT- instructor at OSF St, Francis medical center in Peoria. He volunteered that he teaches Pharmacy math to the EMT’s and could assist with the dose calculations, that have been solely my responsibility. That was a great blessing as we got through the line and were done and cleaned up by 5 PM. Boy, was I relieved. We ended up seeing 264 patients yesterday, so it was not a record day after all.
Sitting out here on the balcony, I have noticed that there are no goats in the property next door, and I just realized that fact. Also this year, we see a flock of white birds around. That is more birds that I have seen in the past. I have not seen the birds up close so I can’t really identify them but I can tell you they are not gulls nor pigeons.
Another interesting thing was a doctor making house calls in Haiti. Dr Bill saw a very sick boy on Wednesday and we gave him an antibiotic laced IV. He was to return yesterday and when he had not, the decision was made to go and look for him. I prepared the antibiotic again for the IV for Bill to take with him. I stuck myself with my own needle in doing so. Thankfully it was a needle stick from my own needle and not someone else’s. It was a painful reminder and still hurts. Bill and Boyer, on of our Haitian main men, went to the boys home and found him. He was a little improved and was given the second IV. We hope he comes in to the clinic again today. Another problem I had yesterday was in fulfilling a promise made by the November team. Bob Hoy was the team leader and pharmacist for that team. He had promised to send some Lantus insulin for a patient. The problem is, he told me via email AFTER I got to Haiti of his promise. During the packing party for this team, I came across some Lantus insulin but chose not to bring it as there is little electricity in most home and no way to properly store it. The Haitian patient is reported to have a son who is a physician in the States. I recognized this man because he speaks English so well and we always visit a little about his medications on each visit. He also wanted some Neurontin. I know that I brought some samples of that, now all I need to do is find it. That will not be easy as there are boxes still stacked in the store room and the alphabetical sort of the meds has been lost in the crush.
I have to admit a mistake about the goats as the children are bring them out now that the sun is up. I must have not heard them the first few days and you can’t miss them now. Donna and I are staying in a bedroom on the third floor. We were reluctant to take that room as it is on the third floor and it could get noisy due to the proximity to the lounge and the TV. Luckily, the TV is broken again so that is a help and this year the young folk are partying on the roof. The ladder is outside our window but that is all the contact we have with it. I am watching two boats on the water. The men are alternately busy with their fish nets and bailing the water out of their leaky boat. It is comical. The weather here has been overnight rains and it was mostly cloudy yesterday. Today’s forecast is for 93 degrees F. How cold is it in Peoria? I really do not want to know.
It is time for breakfast, and what ever Chef Larry is baking is calling me to quit. I want to say a thank you to Jordan. It’s nice to be called cool by a teenager. Thanks! The team is waiting for this to be posted so they also know what is going on here. Ha!
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are safe and enjoying our time. I hope to have time today to tel you about the weekend plans. It sounds fun and exciting.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The weather is quite balmy now at 15 degrees as opposed to 3. On a sad note though, we here in the US are greiving the loss of Anna Nicole Smith.