Back to Work

Well it didn’t even take a week before the questions while I was out and about began and the phone started ringing with questions. The news has spread quickly (not that I was trying to keep it a secret) that I am nurse and midwife. It started with simple things like a rash -- of course it had to be a dermatology question, definitely not my specialty :) I have to admit though after a year "off" from nursing, it is good to be using those skills again! 

This afternoon it was a missionary’s kid who had gotten hit in the head with a swing and had a head laceration. I told them I would be happy to go to the clinic/hospital with them but didn’t have the supplies here to do any suturing. Their response – oh don’t worry we have all of that. So in they walk to the house with this huge bag packed with all sorts of medical equipment including suturing kits and IV fluids. I guess it pays to be prepared when you are serving overseas! Thankfully the laceration wasn’t long or too deep and had mostly stopped bleeding on its own. So we found some superglue and sealed it up.

It pays to be prepared! 

Serving in Indonesia, you would expect that most of my patients would be Indonesians and they are but providing care to expats and missionaries also takes up some of my time. Being sick is never fun and can be a bit scary, especially in a foreign country where you don’t know the system or the doctors. There are some great doctors in Indonesia and there are also some not so great ones. The problem is in knowing whom you can trust.

Thankfully one of my friends, a nurse I worked with at Bethesda Hospital several years ago, anticipated this need. She is currently in the US for a couple of months on home assignment but she is normally one of those who gets these problems and questions. When I arrived there was a present in my room from her. I opened it up to discover these…

They are Indonesian drug books. In the back they list all the medications by their brand name (the name they are in the US) along with a list of the generic names (not the same as the US) they are called in Indonesia, with page numbers. It allows you to look medications up and get dosage information and warnings specific to Indonesia. There is also an online version and I have already bookmarked it on my phone.

Hopefully, most of the needs I will encounter here away from the hospital will be few and not too serious. Thankfully, I am also living with my teammate who is a doctor, although he is frequently at the hospital or doing other traveling, like he was today.