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Back Home

So here I am, sitting on my couch with a cup of coffee and a ‘stroopwafel’… Slept about 12 hours after my trip..which of course had some interesting moments so let me tell you about it.

First let me go back a couple of days. Everything for the trip back home was taken care of. A couple of my friends, Ellen, Riki and Thea were driving to Arusha on Tuesday to go climb Mount Meru, slightly lower than Kilimanjaro. So I could ride with them, and we would go shopping and eat and have a good time before I had to go to the airport. Unfortunately the car died. Completely. And being in the middle of nowhere, AAA or the Dutch equal ‘Wegenwacht’ do not really have a little post out there. Try to get a tow truck arranged… Poor Ellen. (that is the car owner and my Dutch friend who would cook for me and provide me with a hot shower every couple of days since I did not have a working shower the last week) So now other plans had to be made. The thought of having to sit in a Landcruiser for 7 hours with 20 or so other people was not too appealing for me but I had to be at the airport Tuesday evening, because I was really not going to miss that plane home!

So after everybody had given me advice on how to get to the airport, I ended up being able to get on a Flying Medical Services flight out of Haydom to Arusha Airport. Together with Ellen, Riki and Thea, who by now should have reached the top of Mount Meru. So after hanging out in the orphanage with my little skinny preemie that now had moved from the NICU to the orphanage, I was ready to fly on Tuesday afternoon. Until I saw the plane. Now I used to be a flight nurse… so should not have to think twice to go on a plane that looked about the same size as my my car. But I guess there is a reason I don’t do that anymore. About halfway through the flight I started to feel that unpleasant familiar feeling of AIRSICKNESS…. Yikes. Now what?? No windows to open like on the helicopter, no partner that was looking at my color changing from normal to grey-green and would ask the pilot for more air in the back. and 30 or more minutes to go before we would reach Arusha.. But I remembered to focus on the horizon, gave myself a mental lecture and stared at the mountains laying ahead of us. So I didn’t puke! Phew, what a relief since this was just the beginning of another 17 hours or so having to fly on a plane.

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Preemies in the Bush

Yesterday I worked in the Neonatal Unit again. I had 4 (!) student nurses with me, 2 from Haydom and 2 from Norway. Inmagine in a hot, small room, 5 adults…

Anyway, after a nice, quiet morning, all hell broke loose. First, one of the babies that was not supposed to survive due to birthweight but has been hanging on for 5 days now, developed severe sepsis. So here I was, again, after all this time, starting another IV on a baby less than a kilo… Antibiotics were started and maybe he will survive the night..

Then one after the other baby came in that needed resuscitation. One too small and too early. One of my students sat with him in her lap until he died. The mother did not want to see him, she was told last week the baby in her womb had died. So she already had started her mourning process and imagine having heard this and then your baby is born alive, and the died about an hour later. But he did die peacefully, no prodding or sticking, by a nursing student that held him and talked to him.

Another newbron came in, no respiration, low heart rate. And then you have to make decisions you never though you would: from which baby can I take the oxygen away to use it on this one? Because these are the options: either two babies on nasal cannula oxygen, or one baby is ventilated with a mask and bag. So this is what you do… The other two are on their own for now. If their saturations drop, we’ll switch. Because the baby that needed to be helped with her breathing also needed chest compression. Since I had no oxygen to start with.

So today I am going back. I feel I can handle it much better than the first week, I am adjusting to the environment and equipment (or lack there of) Who knows, maybe I am able to do this….