Dammit...

Sat AM,
11 October

It’s been a week (I think I keep saying that). Things had smoothed out on the ward as the nurses gave me wide berth and were quite attentive to the needs of the patients of our team and the male medical ward in general. Everyone said I should bring chocolates. Nope, not to reinforce what had happened and make nice, that has been tried and since the ambivalence about the episode was deafening, better to keep ‘em guessing for a while. The head nurse won’t meet my eyes but is very attentive to our patients. It’s not something about which I’m proud and it won’t happen again, soon. Hopefully my frustration meter never gets past yellow and I can handle it better. Hopefully accountability and initiative will creep into the culture of the ward. Hopefully.

I had the privilege of hearing about a death witnessed for the first time by my student. We had a young man who had multi-system failure from the usual suspects and died as she was preparing to do a procedure. She counselled the family and proceeded from there without any input from me and with great skill and compassion. Many of us have this happen in training, indeed if we are fortunate, and I had not anticipated how much a privilege it would be to see it through some one else’s eyes for the first time.

Then early this morning…..
We had heard some rumors about break-ins in the neighbourhood here. This is supposedly a secure development as it is an enclosed neighbourhood with just one entrance guarded by a watch man. Bottom line is that at 0330 Lynne awoke to a man at her side of the bed in the process of stealing her laptop and phone. He had to have known where to look as it was quite a distance from where he entered the house and without that info would never have risked entering our room. The school marm in Lynne came out in force as she yelled at him to get out and chased him down the hall with me trying to get passed her to kill the guy. He ran back down the hall and dove back through the window and vaulted the wall. I went to the entrance of the neighbourhood and awoke the guard (not a good thing) and reported it to him and called the cops who took a report.

All the homes here are walled in. The walls have either razor wire on top or spikes or broken glass or any combination of the above and most place have obnoxious dogs. We have none of the above. Having said that, the home has been secure since it has been occupied by the Rev. Jones. That or there really is honor among thieves.

Other than feeling hugely violated we’re safe and Lynne is processing this as best as can be expected. She’s scarred, scared, pissed, righteously indignant (our lives were on that laptop), and fearful all at once. And she is amazingly brave and courageous. Not sure how this will develop. She may want to head back across the pond and return when we are moved into our new, and more secure, digs at the end of this month. For right now, just too much stuff flying around to be able to easily sort it out.