TIA Nurse

Nursing in Africa is unlike anywhere else. Although this has been said many times, I was quickly reminded again last night when at work on B Ward. I had a patient that was going to be having her VVF repair surgery in the morning, so about 5:45 am, I woke her up so she could get washed up and have a sitz bath. For those of you in the medical field you know what a sitz bath is, but for those of those of you who aren't, it's a setup to wash the........well,.......nether regions. I had never actually dealt with sitz bath contraptions at home, but the procedure here is: 2.5 L warm tap water with 60ml of 20% chlorhexidine. Chlorhexidine is an "antiseptic and antimicrobial disinfectant." It has many quality features: effective against lots of bacteria and fungi; good for use on floors, walls, and tables; but, the most important it is "gentle and soothing to the skin". Anyway, getting side tracked here. So after mixing this concoction up, we give the pan and a 60ml syringe to the patient and instruct her to cleanse 'down there'.

So I go into the bathroom with my patient to give her instructions on how to use the stuff. That is when I realize how drastically different our worlds are, as I have to start at the beginning, the very beginning - how to operate a syringe. It had never occurred to me before now that there are people in the world that have never seen, much less used, a syringe, which is something I consider very basic and simple. Anyway, that was my "wow! we really do come from different worlds!" moment for the day.

The best part of the shift though, was my other lady's little baby. So when Mama comes to the hospital, baby comes with her. Since mama had just had surgery, she was still on bed rest and wasn't allowed to get up. Well, little cutie pie, started crying and crying. Just couldn't be calmed. Normally he is such a happy baby. Tried feeding him, changing his diaper, rocking him, nothing was working. It sounded like an "I'm in pain" cry, so started thinking, and remembered that earlier in the morning, he had been burping and pooting a LOT - poor little feller had a belly full of gas! After walking him in the hall and patting his little back, I handed him to one of our Day volunteers who thought he might be able to quiet him. Well, it worked, baby burped a really big burp and then spit up all over poor Jean!

Baby was now very happy, but still didn't want to lay down. Jean said he needed to get back to work, so I thought quickly and said "ok, I'll carry him on my back, African style," Jean looked at me in disbelief and said "do you even know how to?" I had watched many African mothers put their children on their backs, and so was prepared for this moment. I confidently said "yep", I bent over to make my back parallel to the floor, took baby by one arm and flipped him around to be lying face down on my back, grabbed a bed sheet and tossed it across baby, brought the top edge under my arms and twisted it on itself, pulled the bottom edge snugly under his little bum and twisted and tucked it in on itself, and stood up. Tada!! Jean was staring open-mouthed and then just started laughing and shaking his head. He said I did it like a pro, and then walked off to get back to work, still laughing.

I don't have any pics of the process, but here is the finished product.

I have discovered that there are two ways to have the baby - arms out, or arms in. If you want the baby to stay awake, put the top edge of the cloth under his arms and he is less likely to sleep; if you're ready for him to take a nap, tuck his little arms into the sling and nap-time has begun!