while I'm saddened to wrap up my first month in Cape
Town, I have truly enjoyed every moment here. on Saturday, I got to experience
all epic behind the scenes of the aquarium with Sydney. on Sunday, we had
planned to hike table for Eric's birthday. thankfully, the howling wind lead us
to hike lions instead. while crawling up on my hands and knees, I became aware
of the challenges of hiking. as I sweat my soul off, I found myself questioning
my limits. i struggled to differentiate between my physical ability and my
mental capacity. after pushing through, I was rewarded immensely by how proud I
found myself at the top! on Monday, I found myself sitting through an in
service with the nursing students at maitland! while we're both in our third
year of school, it was interesting to see what questions we were able to
answer. after all my science courses and emt training, I knew possibly a little
more than the nursing students led on. sitting there, happily answering the
matrons questions, I was proud of my education. during rounds on Tuesday, I
struggled to watch my favorite tiny humans sit through rounds. as the majority
of attention is placed upon the medicine, I try to make the tiny humans smile
while everyone is staring at them. sometimes, they just look terrified to have
so many pupils glaring at them. I couldn't imagine how I'd feel to listen to
such large medical words clearly describing me! any mention of tuberculosis
breaks my heart after watching the tiny humans struggle through limb
lengthening to help mend tb's aftermath. unfortunately, an adorable three year
old dislocated her hips and found herself in traction for two weeks at
Maitland. every day i find my fingers being held by her tiny hands while she
cried in Afrikaans for her mommy. every time she cried, all the kids in the
ward would exclaim, "aunty, your baby is crying". on Wednesday, she
cried any time I wasn't by her side after a nurse changed her position. by
spending my day with her, I realized she was having neck pain so I did every
thing in my power to advocate for her. every time a nurse passed, I explained
how I could see christells neck twitching and how much pain she was in. at
first, the nurses tried to help but eventually they just brushed her tears off
as a cry for her mommy. therefore I sat with her all day, particularly when I
helped the teacher sew Valentine's Day crafts and all the other kids were
playing outside. eventually, the physiotherapist examined her, helping adjust
her neck to work through her neck spasms. while I was sad to watch her in pain,
I was excited to correctly diagnose her problem! after I left, I began to
reflect. as a nurse, my mother is exceptionally attentive. like my mom, I pay
attention to very minute details like how christell's disposition immediately
changed when she was moved. while I watched her cry for her mom in pain, I was
reminded that her mother wasn't there. there was no one there to advocate
on her behalf. if I was in the hospital, my mother would fuss over everything
and scold the nurses for doing their job even the slightest bit wrong. my heart
broke each time christell cried because if i was broken in the hospital, all
I'd want would be my mom. whenever I'm sad, my immediate instinct is to call my
mom. I also felt frustrated that I couldn't understand christells cries in
Afrikaans. communication always baffles my mind as not everyone can
communicate. if you cannot communicate with someone, how do you know what they
want or need. I hate to think that there are people in this world that never
get to share their wants or needs for some one reason or another.
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