Bye bye Carrefour...

First leg of the journey is done. I left the Carrefour Mission yesterday morning. A week earlier than I had planned because an NGO in Jacmel got a hold of me and was asking if I could come ASAP. 
So I survived a total of 10 full work days in Carrefour. Splitting my time between home (tent) mother-baby visits, community health teachings in the tent cities and the Mission's home clinic during the day and working long nights at the Dikini maternity ward catching babies by the dozen. Amazing experience but exhausting at the same time. Stretched myself and my skills to the limit, having to provide primary care as well as dealing with complex obsterical complications I have never treated in my career before. Each day at the compound was different and I had to be flexible as things were constantly changing. The needs here are endless...
My last 24hrs in Carrefour were memorable. I was signed up for a day shift at the maternity ward which started at 7AM and was supposed to end a 7PM. Caught 4 babies in less than 8hrs, saw over 20 women with gynecological issues, monitored and medicated my 2 severe pre-eclamptics and helped a mom cope thru a spontaneous abortion at 16 weeks gestation... As my shift was ending, a new mom was wheeled in. She  had given birth to a very premature little boy. There was not enough staff available that night to cover all the patients that we had so I offered to stay the night. This baby was on the brink. Not sure if he would make  it thru the night as he was not able to breastfeed. I rigged him up with a gastric feeding tube and I offered to be the one to come feed him every 2 hrs. He just got to me. 1.5 kg, tiny little creature, hanging on to dear life. Mom was exhausted - had delivered by C-section and was still pretty out of it. The hospital does not have incubators and not enough staff to look after high need preemies. So I basically sat with him in my arms all night. Kagaroo care has been proven to help premature babies...Keeping them craddled helps them regulate their body temperature and vital signs. So I had him in my arms all night, feeding him every 2 hrs, slowly so he wouldn't regurgitate...a feeding could take up to an hour...The night turned out to be crazy with mom after mom coming in to birth and being short staffed, I had to help. I assisted the other midwife on-call during 2 deliveries with this little man still in my arms. By 3AM I was struggling to stay awake. Running to fetch labs, getting extra supplies, looking for meds we needed for our preeclamptics and taking new patients history as the midwife on-call didn't speak creole. All while having this little man strapped onto me. Not hard to do as his tiny body just fit perfectly only mine.
My ride was coming to pick me up at 8 AM but I was nowhere near being done my shift. I ran all over the hospital trying to find someone who could help me figure out where the baby could be transfered because our hospital was definitely not equipped to deal with such a premature baby. I couldn't bare to leave without knowing what was going to happen to this baby. Took me an hour, my ride waited patiently and at 9AM I got the final answer that this baby had found a new home in a feeding center closeby where he could stay with his mom and receive the TLC and medical care he would need to have a real chance.
Needless to say that I walked back into the compound and went straight to sleep in my tent. 2 hours later I wake up in a puddle of sweat, with my heart racing and feeling dizzy. Completely dehydrated, overheated (so tired, I fell asleep in a boiling hot tent with little ventilation) and too exhausted to understand what was going on with me. Thankfully Cheryl and Rodney acted quickly and I was put under a cold shower, clothes and all and fed bottle after bottle of gatorade. I slept for the rest of the early afternoon, indoors this time...I had to postpone my ride to Jacmel to the next day as I was definitely not in a state to travel.
Woke up the next morning, rested and rehydrated. Packed all my stuff, did a couple of last home visits to check up on my babies and said my goodbyes. Happy to go off on a new adventure but to say goodbye to everyone I had been living, working and sharing in this experience with...