Homeward Bound

Day 26. I survived the worst GI upset of my life over the last 36 hours....in the final day of work I was unable to even get out of bed. 4am Thursday morning I started to get sick and by 7am on Thursday morning I was completely listless. I was completely unable to eat, unable to garner enough energy to sit or stand-I felt as though someone was trying to beat the life out of me. Through out the day family members stopped by to see me, and someone said, "you know, I can't imagine you'll ever want to come back after what you're going through right now!" But honestly, that thought never crossed my mind. There have been many roadblocks before even coming on this trip and especially during. One bad stomach bug is not going to stop me from coming back and continuing the work I started on this trip.

Through out the day I constantly tracked my pulse rate, whether it was thready or bounding, I kept track of how dry my mucous membranes were and made sure I wasn't too lethargic...keeping in mind that if anything seemed to be deteriorating I would march myself over to the hospital for IV resuscitation. I kept in mind the patients I saw at the ICDDRB and at Dhaka Medical and how we would monitor them and decide if they were candidates for IV resuscitation. Luckily I started to come around at about 8-9 p.m. and was able to sleep soundly. Today I feel much better, eating solid foods and maintaining my volume status with a maintenance dose of oral saline.

I've learned quite a lot from this experience. The most important lesson I've learned is that by really seeing how things work here and understanding the basic needs of the people and the challenges they face I can now begin my lifelong journey of contribution. Everyone wants to help out in some way or another-and everyone can. No matter which profession or life path a person has chosen there is always an opportunity to give back, whether it is in our own country in the U.S., or anywhere else abroad.

There is no limitation to the helping hand.

Over and out.