post from Taylor

I survived another few days with no internet! Haha I am getting used to spotty or no internet at all. I wont know what to do with my self when I get home to high speed internet! Anyways, the past few days have been packed full of learning. Here is the play-by-play.
Tuesday:
Today we had class in the morning and then did some mock interviews in the afternoon. I rocked that interview and was told that I would have been hired if it was a real position! Yay! (Thanks dad for the help with all the prep work!)
We then headed to Zimba for the week. The house here is really nice. It feels very homey and is super clean! Tomorrow we start clinicals bright and early! I am excited to get going.
The past few days have been so hot. The heat has not bugged me up to this point, but as of lately, I am starting to be tired of dripping sweat 24 hours a day! Ugh! I am getting dehydrated sitting in one place! Haha I am so ready for snow!
Wednesday:
Well today was an exciting and fun day! I was on the peds ward and I loved it. Zimba hospital is such a great hospital. I am impressed with the cleanliness and organization of the hospital. In the morning we were given a tour of the hospital and then sent to the ward of our choice. Liz and I went to the peds ward because we wanted to work on profession development project. I had the chance to work with a lot of kids with pretty diverse diagnosis. There was Malaria, Jaundice, Anemia, Protein Malnutrition, pre/post op, and nephritic syndrome. I enjoyed assessing the kids and learning about each case. During the med pass I found an IV that was not good, so I took it out and restarted it. It was a great IV restart, I had a little trouble at first but I trouble shooted and got it in to the vain with minimal digging! That was my first IV start on a child. I think this has been my favorite peds ward, so far, on this trip.
Thursday:
Not even sure where to start! I chose to go to the out patient clinic and loved every minute of it. In the beginning we were taking vitals on everyone and practicing blood pressures on the kids. I loved being able to just sit and talk to everyone. A few of them laughed at my Tonga but I am getting better at it everyday! All the excitement started when a women was wheeled up to us in a wheel chair. She was lethargic and slumped over. Someone went to find the nurse while I started to take her vitals. Her BP and temp was with in normal limits and her pulse was about 120. The nurse told us to take her right to the female ward. As we were getting ready to take her to female ward she took a quick turn for the worse. She twitched/seized for a sec and we all jumped up. (Katana, Emily and I were the 3 students in out patient at the time.) We immediately moved to protect her head, but shortly someone (some things are a blur) said “I don’t think she is breathing. She is not breathing.” Katana jumped right into checking her pulse. After one try and not finding it we decided to move her to the ground. On the way down Katana and I both tried again to find a pulse, still nothing by the time we got her down. So I jumped right into chest compressions! Emily went running to find a bag mask and Katana did the head tilt chin lift. I made it to 52 compressions (since I didn’t have a bag mask, I just did compressions) and she started to have eye movements and breath on her own! The nurse came running in with a pediatric mask and attempted to give her rescue breathing. I calmly explain that the breaths he was given we not going in and that I was pretty sure (I was actually really sure) that she was breathing on her own. By that time someone had brought a gurney and we got her on that and they whisked her away to the female ward. I learned later that she had had a spontaneous abortion 2 weeks ago and had been bleeding since then. Later in the day she was taken for emergency surgery to clean out the uterus of the tissue left from the failed pregnancy. It was a crazy experience that I am still trying to figure out. I do not totally understand that physiology of what happened.
It was a little challenging recovering from that, but I was able to pull my self together after a few seconds! I finished the day in outpatient and then floated to peds to check on some of the patients. After we left the hospital we went to the market and, of course, I bought a new chitenge. Class got canceled so the rest of the night was left for homework.
Friday:
In the morning I rounded with the doctor. It was an awesome learning experience. It really helped me piece together the diagnosis with the symptoms, and the medications. As we rounded with the doctor we also filled the orders. So I did multiple blood draws, hung an IV bag, and watched a paracentesis. After rounds I spent sometime in Out Patient and then bounced back and forth between pediatrics and OB.
After lunch I stayed back to work on some homework while the house was quiet. Then before dinner, the power went out, leaving us a candle light dinner! We did not get any homework done because laptops were dying. So we all played games and watched a movie. I went to bed early but got up around 4 to find that we had no water. By the time everyone else woke up and discovered this, the leaders decided to evacuate. So we packed up and were out with in 30 minutes.
We are now back in Choma till we make our way home. I cant believe it is only 23 days! It is weird to be thinking about the end. I am definitely ready to go home, but I don’t know if I am ready to leave!

Taylor