Today the medical team went back to Chuchepati camp to talk with the housewives! We wanted to let them know what we had planned for August 1st! We wanted them to be the active volunteers in the hygiene education part! They were all very receptive to the idea of learning more medical skills in keeping their families healthy and in turn, keeping the whole community healthy!
I had also came to ask for their help in writing the number cards for the August 1st Free Clinic. The number cards will help us keep track how many patient we have seen and also make it easier for the pharmacy area to call out numbers when getting each of their medicines. The numbers needed to be in both English and Nepali! Our goal was to see 1,000 patients for the large scaled free clinic, but we needed to prepare more than that! So I had already precut 2,000 + pieces of recyclable paper for them to write on! After the initial instructions were given, it was time to write!!!! Here we go!!!
Making sure everyone knew which number sets they were writing: 1-100, 101-200, 201-300, 301-400 and so on.
After about 15 minutes into the writing session, more and more people came to help. Even the school children all came to help write the numbers! It was a great exercise for them to practice writing their numbers, both in English and Nepali. It was really a great teamwork between the housewives and the community children. What a great sight to see!!! So touching!
Even the driver jumped in and helped me out with the division of cards! Thank you Prakash!
Look how great they are doing!! How organized and systematic they are writing each card! What amazes me is the fact that most of the housewives that we have been interacting with are in fact illiterate, so this is a really hard task for them to participate in. Not only did they not shy away, but was open to the idea that I had suggested of teaming up in groups, where the ones who are not writing can help sort the numbers. Which I had shared, is just equally important as writing the numbers. This gave me a great opportunity to share with them that each task is only successful if all actors within it does their part. So everyone had to put in some effort in order for today's number card activity to be a big success! I am so happy that they were all on board!
Uh oh!!!! We got off track with some numbers!!! haha...no worries....everyone came together to find the numbers that were needed and put it back in order again! It was actually quite fun to be looking for the numbers! It felt like a giant family game night! Lots of shouting, lots of laughter, and tons of fun! I am so grateful for each and everyone of them!
Today's number card activity = HUGE SUCCESS! THANKS TO EVERYONE'S DEDICATED EFFORTS!
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So after a long day of different activities and report writing, the night was coming to a close.....OH WAIT....JUST KIDDING! Someone got heat stroke!!!!! Not good.....not good at all. So we all hurried over to stabilize the patient......he needed to be cooled down immediately, since his core body temp was WAYYYY too high for comfort. He has been screaming of a splitting headache....yes...heat headache! Not fun. So with no real ice and no way of getting ice cubes in the middle of the night, the best bet was borrowing the hotel's cold beverage stock!!! Sprite??? Coke??? Fanta Anyone???
Best fast cooling areas: forehead, behind the neck, all neck regions, underneath the armpits, wrists and inner thighs. Essentially all pulse points are a good point for quick cooling.
After about three hours of continuous bottles of cold sodas, instant combustible ice packs (the ones where you can just punch for the chemical reaction to take place and it instantly becomes an ice pack for a little bit, thanks to Kevin for finding those), and the little ice cube and ice water (that I put into the gloves for comfort), the patient's core body temperature was finally coming down. He was finally feeling much better and able to take in some meds and fluids. It is about 3 am now, time for the last round of ice water treatment! Let's hope he hangs on for a couple more hours before we can get an IV into him!
7am: Got the IV gear ready now....just waiting on the solutions.....any minute now!
Hang on buddy, we are going to get you well again.........
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