Still one patient left to come out of the OR. I am taking a dinner break and will go back up to the unit to help admit the next patient.
Today was a good day. I got in to work at noon to find all three of our patients out of bed in wheelchairs with Hope for Hearts tshirts on. Caroline was decked out in her mardi gras beads playing a recorder. Kipkoech (the second case from yesterday) was out of bed with a Michigan hat on just grinning away. And ole Beauty was up out of bed but she is just still very tired. I think these older patients just have a harder time bouncing back. But she is doing better. Things are a lot more like normal.
As always it is so fun to work with the Kenyan staff. The nurses are picking up on things really easily and we are working with many different nurses than in previous years. The other ones have all graduated to be head nurses or work as first assists in the OR. They were really quiet when we did education Monday but now they are asking questions and picking up on stuff left and right. They are all so dear. Eva is one of the dayshift nurses and she is great...jumps right in with things. And has a great sense of humor. We spent a lot of today laughing.
Went to visit Duncan (or big D) today and we couldn't find him in the surgical ward. We then saw hand shoot up in the air waving us towards him. He had spotted us first. He looked better and had a sparkle back in his eyes. He told me I was a good woman! I think he misses all the attention we gave him.
Caroline has become my new favorite in the unit. She is 28 and lives 20 km from Tenwek. She told me today that she has been unable to pick tea leaves for her family and she is looking forward to working when she leaves the hospital. She has 4 children and wants to have another boy. She started singing spontaneously today a song blessing us. She also kept playing her recorder spontaneously. She is feisty!
Oh yea, our first case from today is Eunice and she had work done on three valves. So far okay but got some work to do on her.
I feel very humbled to be part of this trip and a part of all these experiences. I am reminded so much of how I am not in control and it is amazing to look around me and see what is possible if I am willing to get out of the way.