"Normal"

A “normal” work day here is never normal as I would think of it in the US. On a “normal” shift in the US I may see 2-3 patients an hour, admit a few and discharge most. 

Here when I am “on shift” I round on all of the patients and then take care of any urgent medical patients that may come in. That includes NICU, peds, peds ICU, medical and medical ICU. It is definitely nothing like my days at work in the states. 

Our hospital is so very heavy towards Peds that on any given day 90% of the patients I see in the hospital will be pediatric. 

With that and it being malaria season, the hospital has been pretty full lately.  Malaria is one of those things that I think we take for granted living in the US. We don’t have it so it probably just doesn’t register in our minds. Malaria is contracted by mosquitos. You get bitten and then the malaria parasite attacks your red blood cells. The malaria parasites lyse the red blood cells that they attack causing, at times, dramatic anemia. It can also get into the brain causing cerebral malaria which is severe. Many kids with malaria develop seizures so one thing I know very well is dosing of all the seizure medications that we have. 

I think the best description I can think of is malaria is a thief of life. A healthy 2 year old playing one day, has cerebral malaria 3 days later and is either dead or now has cerebral palsy because he seized for so long and for so hard that his brain just cannot recover. I have seen kids come is so pale with anemia that they need multiple transfusions just to get their blood counts up to a number that doesn’t make my US medical mind cringe because it is so low. 

How do I walk in there every day and know that today I may have a child arrive at reception without a heartbeat but still so warm that she had to have just died on the way. 

I do because there are also so many stories of cases where God intervened though me or the rest of the medical team and they turned around. Kids with Hct of 5 that went home the next day after a transfusion and are fine. A woman in her 30s with a new baby that when she came was so swollen that when starting an IV, water came out. After beating our heads against a wall for a few days we starting down a plan of antibiotics and steroids and she was discharged with a smile and back to normal. 

The only way I can do it is knowing that whatever part I play, in restoring life or watching it leave, the Lord is also painting a story in the life of that family. A testimony that I will most likely never know of hopefully how they saw their loved one cared for with excellence and dignity regardless of the outcome. The Lord has used cases here of death and restoration of life to impact many. We have many village Bible studies that have been established solely as a link to a patient or family member of a patient at this hospital. Those are the truths that keep me going. Please pray that the Lord continues to use me and everyone on the medical team to impact the lives of our patients and families. 

I love music. I don’t sing well but I love it anyway.
I will leave you with the lyrics to a song that has become a go to song for me lately. Such good words. I encourage you to listen to it. https://youtu.be/FP003C5dP3k

Defender by Rita Springer
You go before I know
That You've gone to win my war
You come back with the head of my enemy
You come back and You call it my victory
You go before I know
That You've gone to win my war
Your love becomes my greatest defense
It leads me from the dry wilderness

All I did was praise
All I did was worship
All I did was bow down
All I did was stay still

Hallelujah, you have saved me
So much better Your way
Hallelujah, great Defender
So much better Your way

When I thought I lost me
You knew where I left me
You reintroduced me to your love
You picked up all my pieces
Put me back together
You are the defender of my heart
When I thought I lost me
You knew where I left me
You reintroduced me to your love
You picked up all my pieces
Put me back together
You are the defender of my heart