26 December 2007

The break that wasn't

Here's the thing...
Winter break between semester is supposed to be a time to recharge. I know this, but this break has been anything but restful. First there was the "ICE STORM OF THE CENTURY". My parents and sisters (who have moved back to the city) lost power on Monday and were forced to spend the night in my little apartment. My finals were cancelled, but my sisters still had to study for and take theirs. Imagine trying to do that in a crowded one bedroom apartment. Having my family over wasn't bad at all. It was kinda fun. When I was very young I remember living in a tiny one bedroom apartment. It didn't seem tiny then, but looking back it couldn't have been much bigger than my apartment now.

No, having my family over was no big deal. On Friday I received an emergency call, " All available personnel were needed at the shelter." Huh? Then it hit me. I had signed up for the medical reserve corps months ago, and then forgot about it. I had never attended any of the meetings, and had put MRC out of my mind. So the call was kinda out of the blue. Anyway they needed volunteers at the shelter so I showed up.

I was not prepared. Everyone from the homeless to middle class families who ran out of money for hotels were camped out next to each other. All races, all classes, all temperaments. People were checking in and checking out. Everybody anxious about when they could get home.

The convention center was turned into a makeshift shelter for four hundred people. Cots were lined up in rows. Families in the center, single men on along one wall, and single women along the opposite wall. Another huge hall was set up as the common room/ cafeteria. Four flat screen tv's were on at all times. There was a child care center set up by the Baptist Convention. They also provided all of the food. There was a police command center with computer banks and squawking radios. The Red Cross had set up the actual shelter and were checking people in and out. MRC and EMSA shared another room there curtained exam rooms, a makeshift dispensary, paramedics, nurses, mental health workers, doctors, medical students, and general volunteers (like me) taking turns responding to any challenges. Rounds were made. Minor and major emergencies were taken care of. A lot of people getting breathing treatments, needing things for minor aches and pains. There were diabetics who hadn't taken their medications for days, and who had blood sugar levels over three hundred. Broken arms and fractured legs. Elevated blood pressures. A stroke. A heart attack. A girl went into premature labor. A woman hadn't moved for a day and a half ( she was fine). Bipolar boy who was definitely in the manic phase. Infections for which we did not have and could not get antibiotics because the infections weren't considered life threatening (yet). A few people who needed new clothes, because of incontinence. (Guess who had to clean all of that up.) All of that in the first two hours I was there. The shelter was in it's fourth day.

There were many people who had run out of their medication, and the shuttle service that was set up took some home or to a pharmacy if they had their rx and money. There were a lot of people that didn't have the money and they went without. Went without necessary but not really necessary medications. I mean how much harm can going without your blood pressure medication for a few days do? There were some that went to the ER.

There were doctors volunteering part of the time, but there were only nurses and paramedics when I was there....well there was that first year medical student. Yeah.
The volunteers were awesome and many of them knew one another. I was very impressed by the way things were being run.

Everybody was surprisingly calm and gracious. People were nice to each other. Friendships were made. Apparently romance was also in the air I know of two couples that met at the shelter and subsequently left together. There was one lady who tried to guilt me into running errands for her talking about mysterious illnesses and what not....I'm so past being gullible.

I was exhausted by the end, but it was a good kind of tired. The tired you get when you feel like you actually did something to make a difference.

But.....that was just the first week of break.

Friday in my haste to get to the hospital to see a client I did something stupid, but she died right there holding my hand. So my stupidity doesn't matter.

Malls opened early and stayed open late the weeks leading up to Christmas. I had promised to help my mother at her store. Compared to what she does day in and day out, open to close my little contribution was paltry. I was falling asleep on my feet by the end of all of it.

Christmas day was spent in meetings for Golden Voyage. Today I went to work and did work for this Sunday. I can't wait for school to start.

Oh yeah I finished my Thesis survey.

But i feel useful for the first time in a long time.

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