The Spin Zone

Pardon the slue of anecdotes from earlier years, but this one must be told.

I spent a lot of time at the Whitlock house in middle school and high school. My best friend Austin and I had no trouble entertaining ourselves. We sang. We danced. We made forts. We cooked and failed (macaroni and cheese does not come in soup form). We had photo shoots, which have only becoming painful reminders of the pinnacle of our awkward stage. We talked about boys all the time, yet really, had nothing to talk about. We were skipped like flat rocks on a beach, yet we convinced ourselves that someday we would be proud owners of the Old Navy jean franchise, a representation of the “it” girl status we knew we were destined for… we hoped. She is now happily married and I am doing exactly what I want, so in our own ways, we are who we both wanted to be. OH could we make up stories! 99% of them were love stories of young, shameless dreamers with untamed imaginations. I know for a fact if Taylor Swift would have grown up along Road 8, she would have been our other best friend.

We were not always so painfully girlish, though my brothers would probably disagree. We rode our horses in the dry lake between our houses and drove her grandpa’s French imported 1977 Peugeot that had a chain you pulled to turn it off to the voice of Harry Conick Jr. We knew him so well that we just called him Harry. And Jim, too. We knew Jim Croce quite well. We can still tell you what street Big Jim Walker lived on and the names of both of Rapid Roy’s tattoos.

 One summer day while listening to a record of Jim, we decided to put some ants that were bothering us on the record to see how long it would take them to spin off. Jim was just about to explain why you don’t tug on Superman’s cape when ant #1 lost his grip and went flying off the record into the nearby wall. There is no use explaining how or why that was so funny. You just have to take my word for it. Again! Place ant on record, who instantly tries to scurry off the merri-go-round of death, and start the song over again. WHAM!! The burst of laughter started all over again. Slightly morbid? Yes, but so amusing.

I thought of those ants today while Kristi and I were in the middle of rounds. At what point where we going to lose our grip, spin off and hit the wall? It was absolutely crazy today. Dr. Jean, bless her heart, has so many responsibilities and must tend to administrative issues in addition to seeing patients and operating. I seriously do not know how this woman does this all by herself. Note: another doctor needed in Saboba! Kristi was left to do rounds along with Richy Rich. We would team up and do the female ward like we did yesterday and Richard would do the male and children ward. Easy enough right? We had done this yesterday and worked out a lot of the kinks in the system, so Round 2 should not be a problem.

Oh naivety. You can be so cruel.

We got to the hospital around 9 and did not finish rounds until mid afternoon. Things were going quite smoothly this morning until the doors flew open to make way for the gurney bringing a new patient. She was a school girl as she had a uniform on and she was seizing. We dropped what we were doing and immediately tended to her. Rounds would just have to wait. She had collapsed at school after running and was now seizing. Four of her friends had come with her. I am imagining one of my best friends in such a situation and I guarantee I would not be as stoic as they were. They are Africa strong like all the people here. It is not that they don’t feel, they just have an emotional fortitude that we simply do not have in the U.S. Once we got her somewhat managed, the doors flew open again. Another gurney bringing another unconscious girl from same high school into the ward. What is going on here?! Did someone put something in the water to make these girls drop like flies?! This was ridiculous, and thankfully there was not a third. We had to monitor them both closely but still try to work our way around to all patients. Seizure after seizure all day for the first girl. It was not fun, and I felt myself go into detachment mode because you can’t afford to look at things from the perspective you normally do and get things done. Yes, it is important to feel and let your patients see your heart, but when crisis mode kicks in, you have to detach, even just a little, to be objective and make sound judgments.

Typhoid… it is sweeping Saboba because there is no clean water. It’s really that simple. Clean water like from the sink you keep running when you are not paying attention. Our cows drink cleaner water than they do here. Life is so unfair… I cannot tell you how many times I have thought that being here. I grew up so privileged- healthy, educated and deeply loved. I want to feel bad sometimes that I have been so unbelievably blessed in my life, but I know that I was placed exactly where God wanted me. I did not choose my upbringing, but I can choose what to do with it. I am responsible now and I must be faithful with what God has given me and multiple it.

I have learned a wealth of information these last few days being so actively involved in rounds. Even though today was absolutely nuts, I loved it because I was right in the middle of it all. I could go through the ward in my head and tell you about every patient because I know them. Let me remind you, I have zero medical credibility or knowledge base for which to be of any medical help, but I do have common sense (no comment Dad). I can talk to people and I can get things done. Kristi and I have made a great team, and we have learned so much together. It is unfortunate that Dr. Jean has had to be so tied up with meetings, but it has given us a great opportunity to learn and work together. There are so many things I could say about how different things are in the U.S, but for one, the names of medication are different than they are in the U.S. if we even have them in the U.S! For Kristi it was like starting over again. This is where my inexperience really comes in handy- I don’t know it because I haven’t learned it yet, so it is not frustrating to me as I do not have the expectation of myself yet.

By the end of this, I will know exactly what do to for you if you have typhoid or malaria.

There was one woman with a threatened abortion, meaning baby might lose its life by natural causes, admitted last night for reasons that were not yet declared. Kristi, looking through her labs, realized she had not yet been tested for typhoid and wrote for blood work. Smart, smart move. Just the night before, Dr. Jean was telling us about how pregnant women can lose their babies if they have typhoid. As it turns out, the woman had typhoid, which we knew how to treat because of our random discussion last night.

It was such an exhausting day for us, and yet, I reiterate, this is what Dr. Jean does every day by herself.

We had to come back to the house to detox for a few and we sat in our room like mummies for an immeasurable amount of time. We were dazed. After dinner, we went over to Pastor Jidoh’s to visit. He is not well and has typhoid and malaria too. Not good, but he is still has funny and smiley as ever. These people are amazing.
Joe walked us home as he usually does for the sake of his own peace of mind. When we got outside the house, we noticed Bob’s two dogs doing lounging around as they usually do. I am not really sure how it came up, but for the next 15 minutes, we got from dear, sweet Joe a how to kill and eat a dog in detailed fashion. Kristi and I were dying, and he was not getting why this was so funny to us. He went into Teacher Joe mode and was being very thorough in his explanations. He was not joking around or trying to be funny, you just take a really heavy object and hit it hard on the head, skin it, cut it up and eat it. “It is very sweet” as they say here for things that are delicious. Dog really is somewhat of a delicacy here, which I knew, but Joe went so far as to say that you know it is going to be a good Christmas if you get dog for the big family dinner. It was just hilarious. Joe Joe and his Bow Wow Puppy Chow.

I must update you on Hannah’s Week 8 page of my book I love so much. I told you had to go back to Week 6 because she had the audacity to put Taco John’s pictures on Week 7!! I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw Bryce Doak’s face plastered to the page next to an embarrassingly sassy picture of me. SO FUNNY!! It is one of the best one’s yet because it reminds me of ridiculous things I get hung up on. Bryce was my crush of college... deep, wistful sigh. Tall, so very handsome, pre-med, wide receiver and guitar player with a great voice. I can’t help it. I am a sucker for a combo like this even now, so how could you blame a young, impressionable freshman girl? You couldn’t possibly. And though I tell you he was my crush of college, I am positive the grand total amount of time we spent in conversation is probably under 5 minutes. I don’t even know if he knows who I am. I window-shopped ok?

And now, here he is in Ghana, sitting on my desk. It is just too funny. The whole this is just ridiculous, and I am SO amused by such things. Imagine me trying to explain this one. What little credibility and dignity I have to begin with in this department is completely lost with an opening line like, “I am not usually like this…”

However, if he ever finds this out…. he should be flattered:)

See this right here is why I don’t like dumb girls chasing my brothers. I am not a dumb girl, but I can sure act like one, Bryce- case and point. So when girls are really actually dumb, there is no limit to the stupid things they will do to get attention from a handsome boy. Gav, I feel really good about your situation thanks to Sarah. As for Galen, Carroll girls, I know who you are and I am watching very closely from over here.

On that warm and fuzzy note, I will bid you all good night. It has been a great day in Saboba despite the craziness and I hope yours is a blessed day as well.

This evening’s midnight snack- powdered milk with chocolate syrup I made the dark so I couldn’t see it on purpose and toast with garlic powder.