Haiti Update

So finally Samaritan's Purse got back to me a week ago Friday, and they are only willing to let me go for 2 weeks. They said that the 2 week trips have been very difficult on the nurses due to the living conditions and the heat. They told me that if I wanted to go back in the future for longer then they would reevaluate at that time.

So far everything is going well with the planning. I found a super cheap plane ticket on a website called CheapOAir.com. The catch was a 15 hour overlay. I chose where I wanted my overlay to be, Miami or Puerto Rico? Tough decision, I chose Puerto Rico, and will spend the night in a hotel there a mile from the airport and sight see in my extra time.

My car prayer was answered. I will be keeping my car in the garage of one of my coworkers with all of my belongings. My final detail to work out is how I will be getting to the airport. I could take the shuttle, but it'll be something like $80 roundtrip. I don't think that is cost effective or good steward of my money if there is a better way. I have yet to check the train system from my friend's house, but from my apartment it would take 2 1/2 hours.

Finally if you are a traveler overseas and want to save money, you can take the antibiotic Doxycycline for malaria. It's cheaper, you'll have to take it everyday of the trip and a month afterwards, but a 60 count can be purchased for around $10 with insurance versus the $50 for Larium. I used to take Doxy for acne and it made me nauseous on an empty stomach so take it on a full stomach regardless of what the indications say on the bottle. I puked up my food when I took it before my meal. My doctor wanted to give me a different drug than Larium, because he said that no one uses Larium anymore, but the other drug is even more expensive. I also had to get the Typhoid vaccine again. That vaccine is good for up to 5 years, which it's been 6 years since I last had it. Things to keep in mind if you need overseas vaccinations. With it being rainy hurricane season, the Typhoid vacc was a must!

Thanks for all of the prayers, and I hope to be able to update this regularly on my trip. I bought a small little compact video cam for the trip yesterday, so I hope to get lots of footage.

Vista Del Lago

It's been awhile since I've updated my nursing blog, but back on June 7th I was moved into my new apartment. My first travel apartment has been equipped with a tennis, basketball, raquetball, and sand volleyball courts along with a pool and fitness center. The apartment is complete with a garage, walk in closet, food pantry, washer/dryer room, fireplace, and balcony. Someday I'll post the video of my place. It's right on White Rock Lake and in a gated community. Ammenities goes as far as to provide the carwash vacuum cleaner in the parking lot and grills on the patio. The courtyard is very beautiful, but the downfalls include newborn pidgeons and pidgeon poop covering my balcony and my garage door quit working for the 4th time this week. When I originally moved in there was a business center complete with computers, and a fax/copy/scanner machine that worked. Now it's burdensome to have the staff always faxing my paperwork, because that machine no longer works.

Here's Vista Del Lago's website:
http://vistadellagoapthomes.com

How to sleep during the day.

I have tried everything to help me sleep on the night shift......melatonin, eye mask, dark room, wearing sunglasses when getting off work, and the latest being L-Tryptophan from the health food store. In the end what works the best for me is Benadryl. Without the Benadryl I wake up after 4-5 hours and can't fall back to sleep although I'm still tired. My bedroom at this apartment is a room with white shades, which means that the room is well lit during the day. The only dark rooms in my apartment is the bathroom and the food pantry/laundry room. So I went to Wally World, bought myself an air matress, and put it in my food pantry then shut the door. The room is pitch black and with the help of Benadryl I get good quality sleep. This past week I've been able to sleep in my bedroom with the Benadryl alone, which is a plus since it's a nice comfortable bed. I tell everyone I sleep in a closet. Here's the picture of my sleeping quarters before the door is shut.

Riverboat Tour on the Riverwalk

A sample of the tours in San Antonio

Amy's IceCream

Here is some footage of the ice cream shop that makes your ice cream right in front of you.

Missions in Haiti

I have a lot of updating on my travel nurse excursion, but I am going to update on my current status as far as Haiti goes.

The earthquake in Haiti happened on January 12th. The fact that it happened on that exact date had great significance in my own life. Originally I didn't think of considering going. My heart has always been for Africa and I have felt God calling me that direction. I went into nursing to one day be a missionary nurse there, and to more specifically use the knowledge of the french language that I learned during my 4 years in high school. I don't want that education and valuable knowledge to go to waste. I went to Burkina Faso 6 years ago. Infact I think I left on this very day, July 14th. Since then I have been involved with an African fellowship, had an African roommate for 6 1/2 years, and have several close African friends. I have learned so much about that culture. So going to Haiti is not something I gave thought to when it originally happened, because it's not Africa.

Then 2 weeks after the earthquake I felt God nudging me, "You are a nurse. You want to be a missionary nurse. They speak french, you know some french. You have experience with the African culture, and that's where the Haitian ancestors are from. These 3 things alone are skills that the majority of people don't have, including the majority of nurses!" My former boyfriend is also Haitian, and I've always been curious and wanted to understand which parts of his personality were cultural.

So the search to go to Haiti began with disaster relief. Every website I found for disaster relief required previous experience or completion of a training program with the Red Cross. I then realized that because Haiti was currently on the television screen day and night everyone wanted to go, but in a few months when it was less in the media people would forget. There would be much more of a need and shortage. By delaying my trip it would give me time to review the french language, and be much more prepared and useful.

The hospital I was currently working at was sending doctors and nurses; however, as a Christian there is a much higher purpose for me doing this. I wanted to go with a Christian organization and not as a humanitarian effort. I didn't know where to begin. For some reason Samaritan's Purse popped in my head. The organization of Franklin Graham (son of Billie) and of which my church in Iowa City had gone to New Orleans with after Hurricaine Katrina. I decided to visit my old church's website and there I saw it again, them fundraising money for Samaritan's Purse. I then did a google search for missionary nurses to Haiti, and my very first return was Samaritan's Purse, so I filled out one of their applications and prayed.

Over the next several months the course of my life changed to put me in a better position to spend more time in Haiti. I became a travel nurse, which allows me to take weeks or months off to do missionary nursing without having to put in for vacation time.

In June my prayer began to be answered. I received an email from SP requesting me to fill out an application again. I emailed them, and received more information. They need nurses in their clinic in Cite du Soleil (City of Sun) through the summer and fall. Morgann said that if I emailed her my application personally that she would process it as quickly as possible. My computer crashed in the spring and I lost my application, so I had to start from scratch. I finally submitted my application yesterday after traveling and working for the past 3 weeks.

Last night more sure tail signs from God came about. I was talking to my neighbors, 2 brothers, in our pool. They were telling me how the very first missionary to die in Haiti was standing a year ago in the pool right where we standing. They told me that if I went to Haiti I could go for them in her memory and that they had been friends with the Grahams for years. Wow! If that's not God speaking than I don't know what is.

I extended my contract 8 weeks which will allow me to pay off my car, and have no bills. My plan is to go at the end of this contract, Sept 25th anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months. I'm praying that the Lord will reveal the amount of time he wants me to be there through the organization's response. I am all for eating beans and rice. As of this summer I have discovered that I have a gluten intolerance. Since cutting gluten from my diet I have had huge burst of energy. Rice is gluten free, but often is enriched by adding coating to it that has gluten. I am praying that this won't be the case, and my diet won't become an issue in visiting. Gluten now gives me huge headaches and makes me very lethargic when I go back to eating it.

I also at this point am unsure of how my finances will be at the end of September after paying off the car and buying the plane ticket. The plane ticket is the only cost I am responsible for on this trip. My room and food will be covered there. I want the car paid off, so there are no monthly bills to worry about while gone. The only two definate bills I will have left is my monthly storage bill for my furniture and phone bill. I plan on freezing my car insurance and storing it. My two prayers is for a place to store my car with all of my belongings if I don't get a chance to drive back to Iowa after finishing my assignment. My other prayer is my phone. I didn't buy a Blackberry that can be used internationally, and to have a job ready for when I return is very important. I need my local American phone number so future travel employers can call and interview me while overseas.

There are few details for God to work out yet, but I know that with God all things are possible.

Assessing Fall Risks Accurately

The last hospital I worked at had this huge emphasis on preventing falls, with a "NO Falls" tolerance. We had a safety officer walking up and down the hall at all times making sure call lights were within reach, bed wheels were locked, patients were toileted, etc. It still didn't prevent falls from happening. The tool we used to evaluate people didn't make sense. People that weren't fall risks could be a high fall risk according to the assessment. Now I'm at a hospital with a more exhaustive and accurate tool called the John Hopkin's Fall Risk Assessment. Here it is:

Complete the following and calculate fall risk score. If no box is checked, score for category is 0.

Points

Age (single-select)
o 60 – 69 years (1 point)
o 70 – 79 years (2 points)
o ³ 80 years (3 points)

Fall History (single-select)
o One fall within 6 months before admission (5 points)

Elimination, bowel and urine (single-select)
o Incontinence (2 points)
o Urgency or frequency (2 points)
o Urgency/frequency and incontinence (4 points)

Medications: includes pca/opiates, anti-convulsants, anti-hypertensives, diuretics, hypnotics, laxatives, sedatives, and psychotropics (single-select)
o On 1 high fall risk drug (3 point)
o On 2 or more high fall risk drugs (5 points)
o Sedated procedure within past 24 hours (7 points)

Patient care equipment: Any equipment that tethers patient, e.g., IV infusion, chest tube, indwelling catheters, SCDs, etc) (single-select)
o One present (1 point)
o Two present (2 points)
o 3 or more present (3 points)

Mobility (multi-select, choose all that apply and add points together)
o Requires assistance or supervision for mobility, transfer, or ambulation (2 points)
o Unsteady gait (2 points)
o Visual or auditory impairment affecting mobility (2 points)

Cognition (multi-select, choose all that apply and add points together)
o Altered awareness of immediate physical environment (1 point)
o Impulsive (2 points)
o Lack of understanding of one’s physical and cognitive limitations (4 points)



*Moderate risk = 6-13 Total Points, High risk > 13 Total Points Total Points