It’s A Free Country

We needed a consultation so I was asked to go down to the out patient clinic and inform them. I knocked on the door a couple of time & waited. There was no answer. Decided to ask the lady at the reception to get information on the “guys we need.”

(translation)

Me: Hi. I wanted to ask you about the “guys we need” 

Person: Did you knock on their door?

Me: Yes, I did. There was no answer.

Person: They’ll be back.

Me: Where would I find them at this time?

Person: A relative of someone in their department passed away so they all went to the funeral.

Me: So, when do I comeback?

Person: Check again at 12:30 or comeback tomorrow. 

Me: Question! Are they suppose to be in their clinic today?

Person: Yes, but like I told you. Someone’s relative passed away and they all went to the funeral.

Me: So they’re suppose to be here?

Person: How many times do I have to tell you for you to understand. They have a funeral….

Me: I am just making sure that they are suppose to be here and it’s not their day off.

Person: We Libyans are like that…..don’t you know that Libya is a free country?

Follow The Leader

Today, I was stopped by a red light as I was driving through traffic. The policeman behind me was not too pleased so he honked his horn away. I thought he wanted me to move up, but I realized if I moved up any further up I would not see the traffic light. He basically DROVE AROUND ME and made his turn while it was a RED LIGHT!!….and the rest of the cars followed.

As you can see in the picture, the police car was the first in making that turn during the red light and the 3 other cars followed.

Getting Your Tubes.

The other day we needed tubes to send some blood samples to the lab, obviously. It wasn’t for 1 or 2 patients, but many! So, we started with the first patient and things went smoothly. With the second patient we noticed there was no more tubes left.

Me: We need more tubes, please.

Nurse: What do you need them for?

Me: To send blood to the lab?

Nurse: Which patient?

Me: It’s not one patient. It’s 6.

Nurse: I am not responsible. Don’t ask me.

Me: Who do I ask?

Nurse: I don’t know. Not me.

Me: Ok, thank you.

So, I walked down the hallway to find someone else who can help me.

Me: We need more tubes.

Nurse2: What do you need them for?

Me: What does a person do with tubes other then send them to the lab to know someone’s complete blood count?

Nurse2: Where are you from?

Me: Are you going to give me those tubes?

Nurse2: w ras omik etgoleeli enti mneen? (untranslatable)

Me: I am from Libya. That is all you need to know. Now, are you going to give me those tubes?

Nurse2: bet tal3nee men 3glee inti wala shini? Tara e7lfee 

Me: I am not kidding. Now, are you going to give me those tubes?

Nurse2: khairek tedwi heki?

Me: *rolls eyes*  Are you going to give me those tubes?

Nurse2: akeeda omik mish Libeeya.

Me: This is not the time for this discussion. Are you going to give me those tubes?

Nurse2: *looks at me from head to toe & pauses*
There are some in the treatment room.

Me: No, I was just there.

Nurse2: Last room on your right, you’ll find them under the desk.

I cheerfully walked down the hall to that room. Looked under the desk she mentioned and NOTHING. Nurse #3 walked into the room, finds me inside, and asks, “What are you doing?”

Me: I am looking for CBC tubes?

Nurse #3: Why didn’t you ask me?

Me: I’m sorry I didn’t know you where you were.

Nurse: What patients do you need them for?

Me: We need them for 6 patients ….

Nurse #3: I mean are those patients on our floor?

Me: Yes.

Nurse #3: Are all 6 patients on our floor?

Me: Yes.

Nurse #3: Show me those patients. 
*walks out of the room and  into the hallway*

Nurse #3: There are some in the treatment room.

Me: No, I was just there. We used the last tube.

Me: They’re right there sitting & waiting.
  

Nurse looked at all the patients carefully to make sure they’re all on her floor. 

Nurse #3: Open your hand.

Me: *confused* ok?

She finally handed me over 6 tubes I’ve been asking for.

Time taken to get tubes: 38 minutes

Leftover Energy: 0.00

The Sink II

This is the sink I talked about a couple of days ago. This exactly a week after the first picture. The bar of soap is now in that nice looking collection of water.

Will keep you updated on any changes.

We’re Sinking!

Picture: (1) the sink (2) the sink while the water is running

A friend of mine put it this way, “we get a fountain in the middle of the hospital.” Oh, what a luxury!

**Note: Although not all the sinks in hospitals are like that, a lot resemble the above pictures. They often remain like that for days to weeks. Usually until someone volunteers to fix it or they actually get around to getting a person to fix it.

Fashion Police

Debbie Downer: I need to tell you something.

Me: Yes. (panicking because ‘I need to tell you something’ is never good stuff)

Debbie Downer: Your scrubs are too revealing.

Me: *looking at her with a raised eyebrow trying to comprehend*

Debbie Downer: the pants are too tight and the shirt is too short.

Me: *continues to look at Debbie Downer*

Debbie Downer: I just wanted to tell you that. The blue ones are better on you. So wear those ones.

Me: *paused for a minute and decides it’s time to walk away*

The Difficult Task of Measuring Blood Pressure In Libya

Day started with me needing to measure a patient’s blood pressure. This might seem like a simple task to normal people, however, where I live it is heavy duty stuff:

1. You have to find the ‘bb machine’ (blood pressure meter). This involves going to different floors and asking if they have one.

Warning: Some floors might tell you they don’t have one even thought you can see it right before your eyes. 

2. You have to beg the nurses to let you use it. By the way, you can dream about them letting you borrow it if it’s anywhere under 60 minutes before they get to go home. Noway. You just will not be allowed to. You won’t be allowed to take it until the next shift’s set of nurses come in.

3. Promise that you’ll bring it back to these same exact nurses

4. Find the proper cuff. This involves looking at various floors again. You have to take the 4-5 flights of stairs. Elevators carry only 4 people at a time and since no one takes the stairs, they elevators are always full.

5. Beg these nurses that you want to borrow the cuff from to allow you to burrow that cuff.

6. Promise that you will return it and thank them once they give you the green light on borrowing that cuff.

7. Find your own stethoscope. Yes, find your own stethoscope because some idiot you work with believes he/she is too ‘cool’ to bring a stethoscope so he/she took yours off your shoulder to do his job properly.

Warning: the person might have went home…with your stethoscope.

8. Open the patient’s room and turn on the lights.

Warning: You will be making the mothers angry at this stage for waking the baby up by turning on the lights, and you’re making the baby sick by opening the door because you just let all the ‘rey7′(wind) in.

9. Put on the cuff on the kid. At this stage you might have figured out that you got the wrong cuff (because the kid is overweight or the cuff is not functioning) so you might have to go back to step #4.

10. You might not be able to do it all because the kid has started crying and you’re officially in a room with a crying orchestra.

11. You might be interrupted by an angry nurse asking you where the cuff or ‘bb machine’ that you borrowed is.

12. After you do end up measuring the patient’s blood pressure, return everything borrowed to the nurses. Thank them for everything. Yes, even if they were really rude with you.

**you might need to sit down for a couple of minutes right now. Take a deep breath. Remind yourself that you’ve just completed a very difficult task. Reward yourself for doing it and making it out alive.

Shabee7a II

Once upon a time, Shabee7a was asked to do a procedure. This was after he spent all day annoyingly asking if he could do it. of coarse. We were excited as we watched closely for any mistakes because he was that kind of person. The kind that would look for your mistakes so you have to look at his just to point them out to show him how annoying he is to you.

5 minutes later and he got nothing. He was asked to give someone else a chance because he obviously failed. He took off his gloves as if he was just performing brain surgery, looked at me from the sides of his eyes, and said, “Wear gloves. We’ll see if you can do it.”

Grabbed my gloves, and started because I was told to by someone else. Shabee7a just stood a couple of centimeters away from me for the entire procedure. He whispered “that’s not the proper way to put on gloves” ….”we’ll see if you can do it” …with a smirk on his face. And when I actually started he whispered, “failed! failed! failed! failed!”

Who ruined our air?

I was sitting next to a patient when a mother asked, “I have a question. Why are kids these past 2 years having more breathing problems then they were before?”

Me: I  don’t know. Where did you read this?

Mother: “Heki en7s fihom”

Another mother answered with, “maho men awal madreb elnato elhaowa g3d mish safeey. It7sa abser keef…mish ndeef. Howa elnato s3dna w darna fi nafes elwaget.”

Third mother joined the conversation and added that, ”ehy sa7. Darbat elnato zado elghobra fil blad laken zay ma golti…sa3dna w darna fi nafes elwaget”

Behind Every Successful Woman Is…

They say, “Behind every successful man there’s a woman”. It may be very true indeed, but what about successful women??