Friday, April 30, 2010

day 6; Reflections on the day

Throughout the day, I come up with great things I'd like to share, but by the time I collapse into my cot, I've forgotten most of it.

I talked with Charlie (the opthamologist) earlier today. She'd taken Harrison to a different facility to run some tests on his eye, and it looks like not only will he be keeping it, but will have some vision in it. I cried when I heard the news - I still tear up just thinking about it.

Many amazing, inspiring things have happened this week - too many to write them all down.

I've been working with a group of rock star providers - all of whom I'd be honored to work with again in the future. I've especially been impressed with the peds team. I was surprised to walk into the NICU/PICU and see someone in OHSU scrubs - turns out 18 people came down from the hospital in Oregon, most of whom work at Dornbecher. I've been joking that since I never did a residency, this has been my one-week-intensive peds residency. Before this week, my rule on guestimating patient weight was "under 10 years old, under 100 pounds" (which is why I always ALWAYS ask a dosing weight)... I've learned so much, working 18 hour days, pulling meds to treat, sedate, and comfort our smallest and most vulnerable patients. Hearts of gold, nerves of steele - it takes a special kind of person to help so many babies thrive, and others to their final resting place.

A few weeks before I left Oregon, my friend Cathi put together a Facebook page called "PJ Saves the World". It has journal entries, photos, and chronicles my previous and current trips to Haiti. One of the cool things that has come out of it is the people who found me on facebook, then found me here in Haiti! Before my last trip, I scoured the internet looking for stories from people who'd been in Haiti doing relief work since the earthquake - and didn't find much. It's been so neat to have people contact me and ask questions, be able to ask for things to be brought down on the next flight, and even better, to get to meet these people in person here at camp.

Life here can be a roller coaster - as I was heading to bed, one of the nurses had an exposure with HIV blood. *sighing* I've got prophy kits, and drugs to help with the side effects, but really nothing to help with the overwhelming fear that comes with that kind of exposure. All I can do is hold her while she cries, and be there the best that I can. Sadly, there is not always "a drug for that"...

~PJ

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Haiti: The Long Road Back

More than 50 hospitals and health centers were destroyed in the earthquake but now a world-class facility has risen from the wreckage. Katie Couric reports from Haiti.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

tears of joy

Just found out tonight that Harrison (the intra-oocula antibiotic kid) is going to keep the eye! I have been crying tears of joy all night!

~PJ

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

update on my "eyeball boy"

I started writing an entry last night, then fell asleep on my phone... I promise to finish it, but wanted to share that Harrison, the boy I made the intra-occular medications for, is doing well. The opthamologist is still pretty sure that he's gonna lose the eye - says the point of the meds was really more to keep it from abscessing into his brain and killing him. Who knows, there's a small chance he may still keep the eye.

I had a few minutes of down time, so snuck over to see him in the main peds ward. We shared a pair of "dum dums", and I used my 5 phrases of creole to have a little conversation with him. He says he feels very well, and is thankful that we are taking care of him.


~PJ

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

an ice cold Coca-Cola

It seems so foreign to be celebrating that I produced urine today, but whoo hoo! This simple bodily function may be the deciding factor as to whether or not I end up on IV fluids (IVFs) today. We're averaging 5-8 volunteers on IVFs per day. It's the first time I've ever seen nurses hooking themselves up to bags of lactated ringers as a prophylactic measure, to get through the night shifts.

It's hot, and the generator for the peds tent/OR is on the fritz. Brian (one of our logistics guys) went to the store to buy bags of ice to place in the beds with the babies in the NICU/PICU, and we opened up most of the walls to allow ventilation in the tent-wards. I suppose that's one of the good things about having a hospital in tents - removable walls. I'm typing this from the logistics tent, and can overhear one of our guys on the phone with the Air Force camp next door - we figure, if their engineers can fix a black hawk helicopter, they can fix up a generator.

Conditions here are harsh, which makes it all the more amazing and inspiring to see people pulling together to take care of each other. Two of the night nurses surprised me with an ice cold coca cola - the best damn soda I've EVER had. They wanted to thank me - the past two nights I've gone in to make IVs for the nurses around midnight, when they were scrambling to get meds out.

~PJ

shipping Address for Boxes to Haiti

OK - here's the address via Project Medishare where boxes of items can be shipped to. It is a Miami address but Project Medishare adds the received boxes on their flights to Haiti, when there is room for the added weight after the volunteers and their baggage are loaded on the plane.

Attn: Joaquin Cobo
Project Medishare
3200 NW 119 street
Miami, FL 33167

786-246-9321

(I don't know if you need the phone #, but some services require a # for delivery)

If you want, you could write "attn: Dr. PJ (Pharmacy)" on the side, and the chances are PJ might see the stuff if you ship it during her scheduled stay. Either way, it will also alert the current Pharmacy volunteer(s) who receives the box that it came via PJ and her "Posse!"

~Cathi

needed items in Haiti

From PJ: If you are coming down to Haiti soon, here's a list of items the clinic needs:

XL gloves (like nitrile gloves)
Sharps containers
IV/Admix needles (big bore - like 16 or 18 gauge, and long), also some that are longer than an inch (for getting into ampules)
Syringes bigger than 10ml
PO and IV H2RAs
IV PPIs
Albuterol inhalers
Miralax and Docusate and Senna
Cuppler spikes (to use to draw out of bags with luerlock syringes)
Pediatric nasal cannulas
Packages of non-sterile 4x4s
Small IV bags - 50ml and 100ml of D5W and NS
Hair nets and masks for the OR (at this point we're re-using them, and unless you're actively operating, not using them)
empty IV bags (in 50, 100, 250 ml sizes)... I've got some IV fluids in big (1000-3000 ml) bags and if someone brought empties, we could fill them here...
IV hydralazine
nitroprusside
Another pyrex mortar and pestle
Ora-sweet
gallipot cherry syrup, for suspensions
Kaletra
truvada (needle stick prophy)
Pediatric LTV circuits
Albuterol nebs
14 Fr suction catheters and inline suction
Procrit
Vecuroniun
Propafol
IV benzos (lorazepam, diazepam)
Oral vitamin and iron drops (for kids)
Oral anti-virals (valcyclovir, acyclovir)
Oral nystatin suspension
Glass stir rods
graduated cylander
empty sterile vials for injection
pediatric nasal canulas (all sizes, but especially peds)
Sticky-tabs (for books, like you used in school to mark text books)
IV fluids (lactated ringers, D5NS, D5-1/2NS, 1/2NS, NS, D5W)

(Note: list is copied and pasted from a text from PJ by a non-medical person so if I have mistakenly separated items that should be together, please post a comment with a correction and I'll edit the Note! - Cathi)

~PJ

Monday, April 26, 2010

"...it's a helluva job, there's a lot of crap to do, and tag, you're it"


9am:
Yesterday I was officially "commissioned" as the Chief Pharmacy Officer (CPO). It was a very somber ceremony in the NICU/PICU satellite pharmacy- I wore a fuzzy headband with tiger-fur ears and my headlamp, and Seth (CMO) tapped each shoulder and dubbed me "CPO - it's a helluva job, there's a lot of crap to do, and tag, you're it".

There's a lot to do - lots to organize, accomplish, and the daunting task of trying to figure out where everything's been moved to. But I'm impressed with how many things are not that different from a month ago. I was in bed by midnight, and actually slept until the morning meeting at 7:30.

Noon:
The hair stood up on the back of my neck when the surgeon sent for me - she'd heard there was a compounding pharmacist, and needed me to make some antibiotics to shoot into a badly infected eyeball, to keep it from abscessing into the brain. As Mike put it, "if anyone here can make it, it's you".

I'm praying my aseptic technique is good enough for the intra-occular vanco and ancef I'm about to make in my "hood" (plywood table, covered in a ripped apart surgical gown). I wish Keri (total rockstar sterile room pharmacy tech) was here - she could do this in her sleep...

We called a specialist back home to talk about a recipe - not exactly PCCA, but hey, this is a third world MASH unit. We can't really touch too much in the OR, so Dave and I did the "chest bump hand off" as I delivered "the goods"...


~PJ

Goals for today...

Goals for today: take a nap, figure out (human) dosing for metamizole - a drug taken off the market in the US but still made in the Czech Republic, drink enough water to pee more than once, make it to "Repatriate our Haitian Heritage" at Café des Arts, and find a popsicle...

~PJ

Saturday, April 24, 2010

First shower

We arrived safely in Port au Prince, and the transition to camp was much smoother than the last time.

It may come as quite a shock to some of you to hear I was the first one "naked" in camp... Hey, all the "newbies" need to listen to orientation, I needed a shower!


~PJ

another adventure to start...

I'm at the Miami airport, after an amazing day of "reunions"... Through a twist of fate, I was able to see my best friend for coffee in Denver yesterday, and had drinks last night with one of the nurses I met on the first trip to Haiti. It's time to make new friends, and start another adventure!

~PJ

Friday, April 23, 2010

An amazing surprise in Denver!

On my way to Miami I had this layover in Denver. Before I left Portland, I got this text from my oldest (he's WAY older, years older) friend, saying he's on his way to Denver for a meeting. Jason lives in Manhattan, I live in Oregon, and as fate would have it, we were both in the Denver airport on the same day, at the same time, for 45 minutes.

What a great surprise!


~PJ

Heading back to Haiti...

(written on the way to PDX headed to Haiti via Miami)

Sorry it's been so long. Far too long - I'm itching to get back "in country". And yes, my fellow medical geeks, there IS a drug for that.

Many people have said they expected me to write a "wrap up blog" after my last trip - to reflect on my journey, and the impact it's had on so many lives (most notably my own). And I must admit, the thought has crossed my mind... Especially when Laura (one of my new nurse friends) and I were giggling profusely at the idea of an actual BATH, and again when the drunk cruise ship passenger asked "why are you still going to Haiti? Isn't everything fixed yet?". Apparently, in her mind, since Geraldo had pulled out the problems must be over....

Well, I can tell you from personal experience, the problems are far from over. Over 220,000 people died, and sadly, many more will die from disease and infection related to the devastation caused by the earthquake that happened in January. Things like this don't wrap up easily like a sitcom.

As many of you know, I returned from my first trip to have unexpected surgery (not at all related to anything that happened in Haiti), and I've gotta say, there's nothing like laying on the couch watching daytime TV for a month to motivate me to return to Haiti. Although this time I'll "take it easy"... Ha ha ha...

It is an honor and a privilege to serve, and I am so grateful for the love and support I've received from my community, and to be going to touch so many lives. I suspect if it wasn't for those "pesky student loans" and the fact that I am almost equally inspired by what I'm doing down at Broadway Apothecary, I might make the move a more permanent one. But unless any of you have a direct line to President Obama or Bill Gates...

Oh, and before I forget - on my last trip, there was some confusion about how to contact me. I CAN receive email messages, just not as a "reply" to this address. The address associated with this "email blog" is for a user group - replies go nowhere. You can, however, email me at

pitt5297 (at) pacificu (dot) edu

Emails sent to this address get to me quite well, as long as the satellites are in the right configuration...

Okay, off to solve problems and save lives...

~PJ

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Clinica Esperanza

I've been pretty focused on Haiti lately, but this site isn't called "PJ Saves Haiti," so I thought I ought to post something about the next adventure... Check out the clinic I'll be at in Honduras!

Clinica Esperanza

 

 

They also have their own Facebook Fan Page.

 

 ~PJ

Monday, April 19, 2010

More thank yous...

I also want to thank my family and friends for their continued support, and the over 1500 volunteers who have traveled to Haiti with Project Medishare since the earthquake for their service. Together we are making a difference on a global scale - our efforts are touching thousands of lives!

~PJ

Thank You to Broadway Apothecary

I want to send a big "thank you" to Broadway Apothecary in Eugene for donating supplies for "portable compounding kits"! I've been in contact with several medical personnel who just returned from the mobile hospital, and these supplies are HIGH on the list of needed items.

These supplies are much-needed and will greatly help with my "MacGuyver medicine."


Broadway Apothecary has their own Facebook Fan Page and has put up a status update about their donation to my work in Haiti:



~PJ

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

we have a Facebook Page now!

PJ Saves the World has it's own Facebook Fan Page now in addition to this blog.  We will continue to post her stories and pictures both here and to the FB Page.

The direct address for the Fan Page is:  www.facebook.com/pjsavestheworld


Become one of our "fans" by clicking the "Like" button at the top of the page!