Last Days

I am relaxing listening to the sound of rain and wind. Contemplating going for a surf in this weather. Its my last few days here. Savoring it. I worked with Lissie last night, I hate to pick favorites but she is my favorite. She has such a warm heart and makes me feel appreciated. She always gives a little clap and a smile when I walk in to her shift. She pulled me aside and gave me a little purse with that says Vanuatu. Made me cry, it was sooo sweet. I will miss her. Nothing of particular interest has happened on the maternity ward, I have just been developing my skills, gaining muscle memory and learning a few new things. I had one of the interns to teach me to put an IV catheter into an infant, I have done one short straight forward neonatal resuscitation and I have done enough suturing now that I feel like I can effectively use the instruments. I am a little worried about what it will be like to go back and do births in the US where women don’t just slide up onto a table when their fully dilated and push their babies out. I am used to looking at my watch and feeling like 30 minutes is a long time to push. Back in the states I think an hour is closer to average. My perception of certain things is skewed. I used to get squeamish at giving babies shots, I hate to hurt them when their brand new. But I have put so many needles into baby thighs here, I barely think twice. It will be interesting to go back and feel what it is like to do homebirths and practice as midwife in the US again. There are few things I wish I had the opportunity to experience… a breech birth, a shoulder dystocia, but all in all I have learned so much. Last weekend one of the chief pilot’s brother came into town. I was taken along for the ride of showing his brother a good time. Wined and dined, gambled, drank kava, stayed up late laughing and raiding the pool at their resort. Then I would wake up tired, and they would pick me up to go for a surf, I’d do several hours at the hospital and meet them for dinner to do it all over again. It felt like an episode of entourage or something. I ‘reckon’ I will never experience anything quite like this again. Loving my work, picking my schedule, learning, playing hard, enjoying the sun, honing my intuition as I am free from structure and schedule. There is a reason I haven’t been on the blog in a few weeks. I have been too busy living life to the fullest to spend time writing about it on the computer. I will miss the beautiful smiles on the mammas on the maternity ward, the sweet moments bathing the babies after the birth, the giggles of the midwives, the warm waves, the Australians that seem to speak a foreign language that makes me laugh with every conversation, the relaxed sense about life in island culture. To all who have followed my adventures: thanks for listening, this was an important part of my process here