Bumps, Blood, and Boogers

Many of my friends will attest to the fact that I had often stated that I would like to be a mother one day, but definitely not any time soon. I have always had these grand ideas of being a big career woman, and so motherhood would have to wait. Well I suppose that changed a little sooner than I had anticipated, as I now find myself with 12 beautiful, sweet and rambunctious children. Of course I am merely a substitute mom in this case, and much more of a caretaker as well as a maid, cook, and nurse.

I never wanted to go into the medical field. I can barely stand needles, and most certainly and not a fan of blood. I remember in college while one of my best friends Kendra would tell me stories of her nursing classes and the cadavers that they would slice apart and investigate. Just the mere thought of seeing the internal organs and bloody masses was enough to turn my stomach. So I’m not sure how I got assigned to site nurse, but that has become one of my various duties here at the orphanage. 

I have mentioned before that we have had an outbreak of fungus, and thanks to many suggestions from back home, the fungus that is no longer as rampant, however is quickly being replaced by yet another source of little itchy bumps. At least this time there are no sores, although one girl in particular has it all over her body and is constantly scratching. We have a few other ideas that we are going to try and hopefully we can get somewhere, because the village medical officer has been transferred so we have no one here to go to anymore. Not that “Dr. Richard” was much help, in fact whenever he came over to take a look at the kids with the fungus or someone with a tummy-ache, he would ask what we’re using already, and once we showed him the cream or pill, he would immediately prescribe that particular medication. He never even took a temperature or did any of the other basic check-up procedures.

So as medical care here is obviously lacking, I have had to step up and now spend every evening slathering on ointments and medicated powder to various ailments before tucking the kids into bed. At first, the oozing wounds and weeping scabs grossed me out, and a few times made me a little queasy. The other day after playing with the kids I looked down and saw a long line of bloody snot on the sleeve of my sweater. Instantly I froze with disgust, but after a second I just sighed, wiped it off and washed my hands. After the initial repulsive reaction, it just came to me; I’m going to always be surrounded and mostly likely covered in a various levels of nastiness, so I might as well get over it now. So that was it. No more revulsion to bumps, blood and boogers, but I’ve accepted that right now it’s my fate and my duty to take care of these issues as well as I can. Well at least until someone with real medical experience comes along…. Let me know if there are any takers : )