My World is Rocking

My world is rocking; mentally, spiritually, physically, and literally. As I sit here in my new cabin, the Mercy Ship, which I call my home, is gently swaying back and forth; left, then right, left, and then right. My stomach threatens to revolt against the ever so gentle, but constant movement. The ship did not move this much in Liberia, I am certain of it! The rocking ship is only one of the differences I am encountering as I have returned to my “home” and in far too many ways; I reminded I am “home,” but my home has changed. The biggest difference, I am not in Liberia anymore. The ship has moved to Benin, West Africa, a country boarded by Togo, to the west, and Nigeria to the east. I will be honest with you; I miss Liberia. But, for the next 10 months, Benin is my home. My arrival to Benin has given me the chance for new adventures and new challenges. Challenge number one, my new role and job on the ship. While I was in Texas, the Ward Supervisor from the ship emailed me and offered me the position of co-coordinating the care of our Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (VVF) patients. VVF patients are women who have experienced tragic pregnancies causing intense damage of their internal anatomy and plumbing causing them to constantly leak and drip urine. As you can imagine, these women smell horrific and they are often oppressed and considered “dead” to society. Because of limited education and access to healthcare, there are many young women suffering from this horrible condition. The good news, we can help, and that is what we are doing. I am sharing the role of coordinating the care for these precious broken women. When I arrived on the ship, two nurses were sharing the coordinator role, but one of them is leaving this week. So, in my jetlagged state, I am assuming the position of a sponge; soaking up all the knowledge I can before my trainer leaves. It has proven to be interesting. I am starting to get the hang of things, but there is still so much to learn. I am basically sharing the role of tracking the surgical process and care of our VVF patients from admission to discharge from the hospital. I make rounds with the physician every morning, we discuss the plan of care for the day, I write doctor’s orders, I monitor the progress of our patients, and I do everything else in between. I share a pager with my Norwegian colleague and one of us is on call 24-hours a day. I answer questions from the ward nurses about the care of our patients, run back and forth from the pharmacy, track statistics, and come up with outrageous, creative ways to solve problems without modern supplies. The title to my job would imply that I know something about what I am doing. I am not so certain that is the truth at this point, but I have had experience in urology and gynecology surgical nursing and I cared for the VVF patients for almost 1.5 months straight in Liberia. Hopefully, the rest will come. Challenge number two; language. The official language in Benin is French. I don’t speak French and if I did, I am not so sure it would help considering some sources report there are around 51 languages in Benin and possibly 162 dialects. It is an incredible challenge to communicate with my patients. We have translators on the ward, but there are so many languages in Benin, it is impossible to always have a translator that can communicate with every patient we currently have admitted. It is time consuming and often comical trying to get answers to simple questions that nurses love, such as, “did you poop today?” Picture this process. I speak English to a French translator. She speaks to a translator who speaks French and a tribal language. The translator that speaks the tribal language talks to a patient who speaks the same tribal language and the tribal dialect of the patient I am trying to communicate with. My question is finally asked to the patient I am caring for and then the answer attempts to get back to me in one piece. It is worse than a 6th grade game of “telephone tag.” Worse yet, every time I try to speak to someone, Spanish words come out, because my only foreign language is Spanish and any time I hear a foreign language, my brain automatically spits out Spanish! Yikes! Oh, you will never hear me say my life is boring! Are there more challenges in my life? You better believe it… Maybe I should say “adventures” instead of “challenges.” Yes, let’s put a positive twist on the matter… Adventure number three; we are terribly short of ward nurses and other medical staff. Therefore, I will not be able to dedicate my time solely to the VVF co-coordinator role. I am needed on the ward and I am needed as a charge nurse. Umm… I am going to fit in my VVF co-coordinator role, do two or three refresher shifts as a ward nurse, and then three training shifts to learn the role of charge nurse for the ward. At that point I will balance VVF co-coordinator, ward nurse, and charge nurse. I think at this moment in time a good word to describe my feelings would be…. FREAKED OUT! Oh, but on a positive note… I am still a licensed nurse in New Hampshire! The details don’t matter, I have a nursing license! As I write, the ship continues to rock back and forth and my eyelids are getting heavy and beckoning me to surrender to sweet sleep. Well, we hope the sleep is sweet; the air conditioner has been under repair since my return to the ship… It hasn’t been as cool as I would wish for. But if I can only have one of my recent 27th birthday wishes, I will endure the heat and continue to wish (pray) for strength, passion, and energy to carry on and trust in my powerful God as my life is rocking back and forth in so many ways.