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.