DISCHARGED!!!

“We just had all the kinks worked out and our system down (this took several weeks) when Mandy became very ill.  Her husband was out of town, so this added to our concern for her.  In less than 24 hours she was diagnosed with malaria, however, things began to look more despairing when Mandy did not improve even after finishing all the malaria medicine”. 

 

The town of Sentani has almost no street signs.  As long as the store or place you are going to are on the main street,or near major land marks……. it’s not to hard to find where you want to go.  We describe things by certain restaurants, by bridges and main intersecting roads.  However once you turn off the main road and especially if you need to find someone’s house, it can quickly become confusing and difficult.   What appears to be only a few houses from the main street can turn into mazes of homes, with narrow streets and deep ditches, that are not very nice to try and turn around in…..if you become lost.  Over the past two plus months, Mandy and I have been supervising the wound care for one of the National workers (at the International School) who had a large wound on his foot, awaiting a skin graft.  Mandy was part of the team who helped fetch him from a long stay in the hospital.  She had a brilliant idea of emailing me photos along with a great descriptions of how to get to our patient’s house.  Kindly she left out words like “North and South”.   This is what her email said,

“Pak J lives on Pasar Lama (stoplight at Holandia). Go down Pasar Lama and go past the turn off to the lake. Keep going it's quite a ways down. On the left you will pass a school that has cement soccer balls on their fence posts. Once you pass that start looking for "Apotic Doa Bunda" on your right. Turn right immediately after apotic. I took a picture of the green rukos that are on the left across from where you turn. So the first picture is on the left and the second is on the right where you need to turn. After you turn you will see a little field where there are two volley ball nets. Turn x on the x road then turn x on the x road. His house is about 2/3 down on the right. His fence is sang painted blue with a yellow strip at the top.”

This is better than GPS folks!!! : )  I was given pictures and visual prompts.  I decided to fill in the rest of Mandy’s description with the rest of her visual signs.

 

 

Pak J’s dressing had to be changed twice a day.  Early on Mandy and I trained not only the wife but also a new Papuan nurse to do the wound care. 

 

Our job then was simply to supervise, buy supplies and follow up to make sure the wound was healing well.  We just had all the kinks worked out and our system down (this took several weeks) when Mandy became very ill.  Her husband was out of town, so this added to our concern for her.  In less than 24 hours she was diagnosed with malaria, however, things began to look more despairing when Mandy did not improve even after finishing all the malaria medicine. 

Time for another Home Health visit!  This time to one of my team mates.  : (  Unfortunately, the labs I drew revealed the diagnosis:  Mandy had Dengue Fever.  Our whole team jumped on board, getting IV’s going and monitoring our very sick friend.  Mandy’s husband ended up returning home early to care for her. 

Meanwhile I needed to pick up the slack from Mandy not being able to help with Pak J.  Her gift of buying and arranging supplies to be ready, in a timely manner, managing workers and keeping her eye on this large wound have all been deeply missed. 

I have dearly loved getting to know Pak J and his wife.  Driving down their narrow street is always an adventure.  All the neighborhood children know me, because if there is another vehicle parked in the street, I ask the children to guide me so that I don’t steer into the ditches.  The laundry hanging on the fences.  The relationship built. Prayers uttered.  Language learned.  Priceless.

 

After many many weeks of twice a day dressing changes, Pak J was ready for a skin graft.  All went well and the graft took.

 

Which leads to thoughts on motivation for such “home health visits”.  It’s not the extra cash it will bring in.  Yep, there are no mileage sheets to fill out.  No overtime for the weekend visits.  The work time clock doesn’t keep ticking while you push through a long line of people to drop off the blood that you need to know the results of ASAP.  Yet somehow the personal clock keeps ticking.  The children understand that Mom just has to go, one more time……because that is what Mom does.  There is no reimbursement for all the phone calls made and gas spent.  OH WELL!!!!!

The satisfaction is HUGE. I have never been happier using my nursing skills. And the JOY of seeing Mandy get well and the thrill of seeing Pak J all the way through to his first day back on the job…..so so so incredibly rewarding. 

DISCHARDED from home health care.  YES!   Another Papua success story.  Puji Tuhan.  Praise the Lord.