Kids, Craziness, and Coffee

The last couple days have been a bit crazy. Ali is gone to Ghana for a week with her husband which means I am playing assistant ward supervisor for the week...full well knowing this is in a small way a ploy to get me 'used to this role' in hopes of me doing it next year. This has been the basis of much thought and prayer lately.

As for this week, however, it means that I am the day charge nurse in A and B ward Monday-Friday. In other words, I am more or less in charge of 8 nurses (many of which are new) and 40 patients. Now that the wards are full, it is a bit chaotic, especially when you are trying to do a bajillion things at once with 4 kids hanging off you, tickling you, poking you, mimicking what you are saying in English (quite hilarious actually), and trying to sit on your lap. Playing the chicken dance song does keep the kids quite entertained, however, and they have it fully memorized.

Today was just crazy. Everything that could possibly happen, happened. Or so it seemed. I really do enjoy charge nursing but today I could not think straight...between missing labs, caregivers needing to be tested for typhoid, surgeries added and cancelled, discharges, figuring out who we can possibly send home to find space for the 7 patients coming in tonight, questions from nurses, missing patients (luckily we found them), chasing escaped kids down the hall, trying to find an IV or deciding to put an NG down a little baby who isn't eating well, and dealing with the wrong amount of food trays...to name a few....I could barely catch my breath.

All this to say, I really do love my job and I really do have amazing friends. Two of my closest friends-Julle and Jenn- came down to help me out. They know how busy it can get and thought they would check on me. Jenn came down first...not knowing what she was getting herself into. She came with a fresh cup of coffee and helped me out SO much. Julle came later and also did a bunch of work for me. Even with the two of them helping, and no lunch break....I was still finishing the nurse allocations when the next shift was coming on. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and work with such helpful and amazing coworkers!

Please pray that God directs me this week as I do this job and gives me wisdom about the future. We also have several really big cases this week while a neuro surgeon is here to help Dr. Gary. This means several post op ICU patients. Please pray for wisdom for the MDs and nurses caring for these patients and the decisions that need to be made. For example...a woman with several large facial tumors went to surgery today at 2pm and at 9pm there was a page overhead for B+ donors to come to the lab. The woman had 8 units of blood already and they were only about half done with surgery. We are praying that we find enough donors for them to finish the surgery. Thankfully not every week is this crazy.

Sorry for the crazy long blog. This is just a little bit on my life at the moment. I am so behind on blogs...partially because of lack of motivation, partially cause I find it will be so hard to catch up, and partially cause so much is happened -many personal patient and friend stories that I do not know where to begin sharing, so I haven't. Not only is there a lot happening on the ward, but so much with crew as well. Two families have had to leave within weeks of each other very unexpectedly due to family health emergencies. It has taken a toll...but the devil ain't gonna win! In the meantime, we all keep keepin on....and to God be the glory!!!