Wednesday, April 20, 2011

I fear that this trip may not be as interesting to read about as the last one…


Which is actually kind of nice from my end, I must admit.  I will  not miss recounting tales of clinical horror and equipment malfunction like the ones I had for Iraq. 

Nope. 

Tonight I am working with two excellent Russian nurses whom I worked with during the last trip: Yulia and Irina.  Lovely women who are incredibly skilled and knowledgeable but are still happy to ask questions and take any information I have to offer.  So mostly, I am here tonight to stay out of their way and answer questions if they need me too.  Plus, I have an ICU full of stable patients and I am hoping it stays that way since I am flying solo.  We have brought a very bare bones team on this mission: one other nurse, a respiratory therapist, a perfusionist, a surgeon, a cardiologist, my darling intensivist friend, Pavel and myself.  ICHF teams are typically closer to 14 people. 

SO, during the day everyone but me is at the hospital…and I hang out in the ICU with the locals and my interpreter during the night just in case with Pavel a phone call away. 

This arrangement suits me fine so far, though six months ago it would have had me wanting to pee my pants.  Funny how much can change with a little more experience. 


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