Quarantined

Quarantined  I had an experience of late where I learned true empathy for my patients. I became an admitted patient of the usns mercy. I was super nauseated on Friday night and could not sleep at all which was frustrating because I was so tired from switching from nights to days. I finally decided to go up to sick hall so I could get zofran or something and go back to bed. Well I got medicine but never made it back down to my berthing instead I was quarantined. Which was ok while I was still really sick and tired. But then they kept us there for 48 hours after our last symptoms. There were about forty others that trickled down during the day to ward two the isolation ward! We were all stuck down there with nothing to do, females and males (most of them very smelly). Luckily my friend britt also got sick and was my bunk buddy.

How we felt

Admitted patient to the USNS Mercy ward 5

Seriously we weren't allowed to touch anything!

Playing card games to win crackers, the only appetizing thing there was to eat for our sensitive stomachs.

A lot of them treated us like we had leprosy or something when it was probably just the food or some other gastroenteritis virus, which you just need to wash your hands to prevent from getting. ( guess I wasn't doing a good job of that) While stuck down there I learned even greater humility and gratitude for the little things in the ship. Like being able to have some selection of my food, seeing sunshine (it had been five days since I had seen the sun), being able to walk around, basic hygiene, working out, flip flops, non creepy boys, etc! Although I was able to sustain myself on delicious girl scout cookies, which I was sooooo grateful for!  When I finally was discharged and felt like I had been risen from the dead I saw the sun and that we had arrived in the philippines! Unfortunately I got kicked off my med cap for it :(  So won't be getting off the ship for a rewarding experience but hopefully have one on it. Thankfully i am stuck on this ship with some great people and some cute boys, although some of them become less and less attractive as their sailor expressions get old. Seriously I probably hear the f word maybe a hundred times a day, it doesn't really have an effect anymore. Someday I will look back and only remember the good parts of all this because in the end the bad doesn't really count for anything. I am being challenged in ways I hadn't expected and will be more grateful in life for many things after this. I still have a lot to learn because I still complain all the time but trying to remain positive. This scripture gave me some hope last night too D&C 127:1-2. Back to taking care of some patients hopefully! K in the Philippines now and things are going much better still challenging but I've had some cool patients and feel like I'm helping slightly.

Lice slayer

Sandoval and I on the lice duty that never seemed to end 

The sign Shaun and I made for Krystal who had to be on lice duty far too often!

Today we finally admitted over a hundred patients and their escorts. I was on lice checking duty and treatment for over nine hours or so. It was chaotic but we got a system down and made it through the day. Still not a fan of lice or ranks either! I basically checked every patient and escort that came through today for lice (250) and we had to treat a lot of them with shampoo, then comb out all the nits out of their beautiful long black hair. I also got unduly yelled at in front of lots of people who didn't stand up for me at all. I had to defend my ground on the most illogical argument I have ever been in but whatever. This lady chose to be rude but really she just sounded completely ignorant about her supposed position oh leadership. I will be working nights now too, which means il be turned around again oh well. I had two bowls of ice cream today to get me through it. Please send uplifting emails I could use one, thanks.


Being ridiculously good looking in the isolation gowns

Fire, water, and finally blood

The past twenty fours have been a little more exciting. We were off shore of an island in Indonesia where there is an active volcano!

Siau volcano

We were able to watch a bit of lava spew from it at night before we sailed away. It was very surreal! As we were watching an announcement came over head as it usually does frequently through out the day but this time it wasn't a drill. Man overboard! We quickly mustered and thankfully the people were retrieved and were fine. That was not the last muster for the night though. We heard an announcement about 12:30 am telling us to report to our emergency post because there was flooding. I was so confused and way out of it but I quickly got dressed to run up to my department. A pipe just burst so also no big deal , unfortunately it had damaged my departments equipment so I had to clean it up the next morning. Today we admitted patients again which meant I was able to do blood draws, and EKGs! Still only saw a few patients though :( not sure why but hopefully it will be busy tomorrow. Politics! It was fun at lunch yesterday sitting with some french, Canadian and Australians so fun getting to meet so many people from All over the world. All for now. Oh and for the familytjey have AFN on the tvs all the time with their great safety commercials just like they did on AFKN love it!

Working in the scullery

Two still really great things about the navy the uniforms and the band are both still classically amazing

Eating snake fruit