Saturday 17th August 2013

Am breaking with tradition and posting a little update ahead of time, for no reason other than I can. On the left there is my old boss, Patsy, and me, before her leaving party - only a month ago, but feels like years - we miss you Patsy!

I am writing this in a bit of a haze, as we had another very sick patient in overnight, whom we had to evacuate this morning. On paper, evacuating in the morning should be easier, as you have 12 hours to organise things, what with the airport being shut overnight and all.  In reality, no-one seems to get the fact that we are not really a 24 hour facility, and I have a clinic to run in the morning, so being called throughout the night is a bit tricky
. The three of us that live on the compound (all nurses) cared for this very sick man for 20 hours, Rosemary being the main nurse, Andrew "sleeping" in the clinic for backup , and me , on the phone to AMREF all night. I managed to get to bed about 0230 hrs, only to be woken at 0400hrs with more things to organise. I have to say, we did a brilliant job. By 11am this morning, he was strapped to a stretcher on his way to Nairobi.

For the nurses amongst you, you will appreciate how running an insulin sliding scale manually, without the aid of a syringe driver , was a challenge, to say the least. I'm proud of my team, and their clinical skills, which doubtless saved this man's life last night. And that is not an exaggeration. And no offence to any Drs out there, but we did the whole 20 hours without a Dr in sight - because we only have one (the other is sick), and he had gone home for the night.Scary, but satisfying nonetheless.

I was briefing the Country Manager for this patient, in the clinic, about midnight, being very professional, when Jones, our cat, decided that he would come into the clinic in search of Andrew (whose tent he sleeps in), and play hide and seek. I tried very hard to remain authoritative, and try and pretend that there wasn't really a cat stalking through the clinic, (he knows he is not allowed), but it did rather ruin my professional stance. That, and the fact that I was in my pyjamas at the time......

Between us, we have staggered through today seeing patients, and I have finally closed the clinic, and am off for a lie down - all those years as a CSM with no breaks or sleep stood me in good stead, though, as I'm just a bit "starey".

The other thing I have noticed, after reading through a few old posts, is that I am mentioning "cabin fever" very regularly . It's not as bad as it sounds - actually it can be quite entertaining, so never fear, friends and relatives, I am holding up, and still almost speaking in full sentences.

Except when there's a cat about.