We’re here! We arrived in Piura around 11:30 AM on Friday
morning after mostly uneventful flights. I was called to active duty on the
longest flight (Miami to Lima) when a passenger fainted on the plane. Around 3
AM I heard an overhead page asking if any “medicos o enfermeras” were aboard.
Luckily there was nothing seriously wrong, and I happened to have my
stethoscope and blood pressure cuff in my carry-on. While I seriously doubt I
was the only medical person on this huge plane I was the only one to show up
(nurse problems). The flight attendants gave me two bottles of free wine for my
trouble.
We unloaded, ate lunch, and got to work pretty quickly after
arriving. The group from St. John’s church includes 3 anesthesiologists, 3 OR
nurses, a general surgeon, derm and ortho physicians, and lots of non-medical
people. Lots of groups went out to do construction, food delivery, etc. A
couple of us nurses helped with the OR set up and med preparation. We plan on
doing surgeries Monday-Friday. After mass/dinner we went to bed very early
after being awake for 2 straight days.
Saturday was our first full work day. Some of our physicians
screened hernia patients in preparation for the week’s surgeries. I got to go
to the hospice and help out. I’ve written about some of the patients we cared
for in past blogs- unfortunately many have passed away since my last trip (this
“hospice” is really a mix of long-term care patients and end of life care). The
nurses who work there are amazing but their workload can be massive (often only
one nurse is working at a time). There were a few men who I remembered- it was
great to see them doing fairly well. One of my favorite amigos gave me some
huge smiles J
Roby is a young man (about 25 years old) who was born to and abandoned by a
woman who was addicted to drugs. He has since had (untreated) hydrocephalus and
is nonverbal/total cares. While his
story is sad, it is a huge blessing that he can be cared for by the loving
parish staff. After doing all the daily cares we had some extra time to paint
one sweet lady’s nails.
Saturday afternoon I went along to help with a vacation
Bible school for some village kids. This
consists of everything you would picture in the US (songs, games, etc.) except
in Spanish and outside in the desert. Sunday we took a rest day and watched the
Packer game (sadness).
Today (Monday) we began our surgery patients! 7 hernia
surgeries took place. Another MU nurse and I held down the post-op care. We got
a pretty good, efficient system down after the first couple patients came
through. It’s amazing how quickly these patients recover enough to walk out of
the recovery room! My little NICU nuggets come back from hernia surgeries much
sicker. In the US, these surgeries would likely be followed by days of rest and
narcotics, here we send them home with enough Ibuprofen for a few days. I was
only vomited on one time, so I would say today was a success! My Spanish
remains very poor, but I know just enough to ask about pain, nausea, and going
to the bano.
MU alumni RNs!
Tomorrow brings another day of surgeries, which start at
0730, so bedtime is in my near future. My body has officially accepted the day
shift schedule J Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, and emails!
Con amor,
Esperanza
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