Emergencia.

Greetings!

Today marked a momentous occasion in my Peruvian experience: I had my first ER experience both as a provider and a patient! I spent the morning with my fellow classmate Michelle in the ER giving vaccinations and nebulizer treatments. Peru’s hospitals are not of the same caliber as US hospitals due to their lack of resources. It was a very humbling experience to watch local nurses insert IVs and give injections without using gloves, or having access to Band-Aids or alcohol prep pads. Again, it is not that their care is “incorrect”, it is just more basic/simplistic than what I, as a fortunate nursing student, am used to. 

Michelle and I were given a lot of free rain at the clinic; our responsibilities involved filling the syringes and administering the medications. Here in Peru there are no pre-drawn syringes. Instead, the medications come in an ampule, or a glass vial that requires you to snap the top off (you can check out the images on google) and from the vial you draw up the exact dose. ANYWAYS… I was taught to cover the ampule with some sort of protective lining (often the alcohol prep wipe sheath) before breaking it to ensure that the glass shards wouldn’t break on you. Well, in the process of breaking one of my ampules – using a makeshift sheath out of a plastic wrapper – I shattered the ampule. I not only broke the top of the ampule, but the entire thing shattered into pieces in my hands and I immediately began to bleed – one cut more profusely than others.  I’m trained to handle such events (one would hope), so Michelle and I immediately sprung into action washing out the cuts, etc. There were no Band-Aids or Neosporin, so improvisation was used – a handy skill – and my cuts were dressed.

Fast forward to lunch when our entire group was reunited at the parish and I undressed my finger to apply Neosporin and such… I came to an unfortunate realization that my left pointer finger (with the most significant cut) was not bending… [Visualization: the topmost joint in my finger is just rigid, and I cannot will it to flex]. So of course I enlisted my professor and Veronica on the staff and we determined that I should see a medical professional later that evening. My immediate reaction: call my mom, or she will FREAK OUT. Heaven forbid Marquette call her before I have a chance to get in touch with her.

In the interim, Michelle and I went to the hospice facility. We took noon vitals of all of the clients and I had the opportunity to feed two of them dinner. I. loved. the. hospice. experience. I would spend everyday there if I could and one of the contributing factors to that was Quiche.  Quiche is a 33 year-old man who just recently moved to the hospice center within the past 4 months. He is wheelchair bound due to an assault that took place six years ago, after which he woke up in a hospital after being in a coma. He had blunt force trauma to his spinal cord. He told me that he used to drive a car, but now, he can’t even push his own wheelchair. I had the most wonderful conversation with him through my broken Spanish and his broken English. I cannot wait to go back again (Surprise! My assignment tomorrow is at the hospice again). I’m making it my project to look into donation programs for electric wheelchairs because I would love to be able to help him gain access to one (his operations depleted his finances).

To conclude my finger saga: I went to see a doctor and am taking antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine with the hopes that some of my range of motion will come back after the swelling goes down. I am also going to have an x-ray tomorrow (at Veronica’s request) to ensure that I definitely do not have any remaining glass in the cut. I also went to see a local reflexologist/chiropractor who played around with my arm (PAINFUL) and said that I do not have nerve or tendon damage, but likely nicked a ligament… I’ll be going to see him tomorrow again as well. He also gave me a free spinal cord adjustment (hilarious experience not being able to communicate with someone because of a language barrier and your head is in the hole of a massage table). I’m really not all that concerned at this point - it has come to be expected that there is never a dull moment with us Fantozzis!