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

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

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

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