I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t rejoice when I see
that stretch of four night shifts on my schedule. I am NOT a night
person and I’m sure most (if not all) of my friends would know this to
be true. But I’ve come to appreciate the differences that come with
working at night and have counted them as blessings.
Blessings come with a slower pace of patient care and being able to take the time to read through your patient’s chart to get a better idea of their story. Blessings come with conversations with your one co-worker who is enduring the long night with you. Blessings come as snores of the pre-op patient who doesn’t sleep well because of his tumor, but knowing that in the morning the tumor will be removed.
Blessings come in caring for Haingo.
Haingo was born just 7 months ago weighing a healthy 8lbs to a wonderful mother who would give the world to care for her daughter. However, Haingo was also born with a bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate. The deformity in her face and the hole in the roof of her mouth made it very difficult for her to eat. Her mother would try to breastfeed her but with the inability to obtain a strong latch, Haingo could not get the nutrients that she needed. Her mother knew that she was struggling and did her best to care for her. She tried to supplement her diet by giving her sweetened condensed milk (a very common practice here) since the breastmilk was very minimal and formula almost impossible to come by. As you can imagine, this has led to a very malnourished, very sick baby.
Haingo was first met by our screening team last week in Manakara, a small town more than 500 miles from the ship in Tamatave. She weighed just 4.8lbs. That’s the size of a premature baby at birth..Not of a 7 month old. Knowing Haingo was in desperate need of medical care and did not have time to waste, the screening team flew her and her mother to the ship. She was admitted to our ward and is being followed closely by our infant feeding program to ensure she is safely “re-fed”, a very slow process in order to prevent metabolic disturbances that can be caused from reintroducing nutrients to a severely malnourished body. Once she has gained enough weight to have a safe surgery, she will have her cleft lip repaired, followed by her cleft palate.
Haingo’s feeding regiment involves a feeding by syringe every 2 hours that is often accompanied by weak cries in between feeds. I found myself at 3am walking the ward hallways with a bundled up Haingo pressed closley against my heart. I thought of her little life and the struggle that every moment has been. That she is a fighter, a survivor, a life that has been spared for a SPECIFIC purpose! I thought of her mother sleeping soundly for the first time in months as another person cared for her irritable baby. Of how strong of a woman she must be to love her child so deeply, yet bear the unimaginable heartache to see her baby slowly dying before her eyes and having no way to help her. I thought of the miracle that it is that our screening team found this little life and were able to bring her to our ship.
And in these thoughts, I prayed.
That He would protect Haingo. That she would gain weight. That she would sleep inbetween feeds in order to not burn calories crying. That He would give her exhausted mother rest. And in those prayers, I realized the blessing that it is to care. The blessing that it is to be awake, when no one else is, to have this moment, in the quiet night-time hallways rocking this crying baby in my arms and speaking life over her.
Blessings come in caring for Haingo. Blessings come in night shifts . . .
Blessings come with a slower pace of patient care and being able to take the time to read through your patient’s chart to get a better idea of their story. Blessings come with conversations with your one co-worker who is enduring the long night with you. Blessings come as snores of the pre-op patient who doesn’t sleep well because of his tumor, but knowing that in the morning the tumor will be removed.
Blessings come in caring for Haingo.
Haingo was born just 7 months ago weighing a healthy 8lbs to a wonderful mother who would give the world to care for her daughter. However, Haingo was also born with a bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate. The deformity in her face and the hole in the roof of her mouth made it very difficult for her to eat. Her mother would try to breastfeed her but with the inability to obtain a strong latch, Haingo could not get the nutrients that she needed. Her mother knew that she was struggling and did her best to care for her. She tried to supplement her diet by giving her sweetened condensed milk (a very common practice here) since the breastmilk was very minimal and formula almost impossible to come by. As you can imagine, this has led to a very malnourished, very sick baby.
Haingo was first met by our screening team last week in Manakara, a small town more than 500 miles from the ship in Tamatave. She weighed just 4.8lbs. That’s the size of a premature baby at birth..Not of a 7 month old. Knowing Haingo was in desperate need of medical care and did not have time to waste, the screening team flew her and her mother to the ship. She was admitted to our ward and is being followed closely by our infant feeding program to ensure she is safely “re-fed”, a very slow process in order to prevent metabolic disturbances that can be caused from reintroducing nutrients to a severely malnourished body. Once she has gained enough weight to have a safe surgery, she will have her cleft lip repaired, followed by her cleft palate.
Haingo’s feeding regiment involves a feeding by syringe every 2 hours that is often accompanied by weak cries in between feeds. I found myself at 3am walking the ward hallways with a bundled up Haingo pressed closley against my heart. I thought of her little life and the struggle that every moment has been. That she is a fighter, a survivor, a life that has been spared for a SPECIFIC purpose! I thought of her mother sleeping soundly for the first time in months as another person cared for her irritable baby. Of how strong of a woman she must be to love her child so deeply, yet bear the unimaginable heartache to see her baby slowly dying before her eyes and having no way to help her. I thought of the miracle that it is that our screening team found this little life and were able to bring her to our ship.
And in these thoughts, I prayed.
That He would protect Haingo. That she would gain weight. That she would sleep inbetween feeds in order to not burn calories crying. That He would give her exhausted mother rest. And in those prayers, I realized the blessing that it is to care. The blessing that it is to be awake, when no one else is, to have this moment, in the quiet night-time hallways rocking this crying baby in my arms and speaking life over her.
Blessings come in caring for Haingo. Blessings come in night shifts . . .
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