The Chernobyl excursion was cancelled as far as we knew (they reported they had found a Ukrainian doctor) and everyone had left the tent except for K, B, Me and two different nurses from the same town outside of Nice, France (Anne Laure a motorcycle enthusiast and Julie). I immediately regretted my neglect of my French and recent focus on Spanish. D was out helping around the border.
As it got darker, it also got quieter except for one sound that live in my mind possibly forever, definitely for a very long time. It is the sound of roller bags on the pavers. This was a constant noise and even during the day the most prominent.
This first day had been chilly with a high in the 40s and the night was going to drop into the low 30s/ high 20s. The mood was somber beyond the temperature, for good reason, and that in many ways led to silence. There was very little joy noise (an attempt was made by those proselytizing, but this somehow added to the gloom). The thing audible we heard from the tent was the rhythmic clunking of suitcase wheels on the uneven surface occasionally only slightly dimmed by the sound of a border alarm (this is apparently when they open the gate to let a truck through and that my friends happens all the time).
The first patient that had been seen as we were arriving was a woman who had fallen over her suitcase as she was making her way back to Ukraine. Yes you read that right. Over the week we saw thousands return. It makes sense. They were being told that things were safe in some parts and being a refugee (something none of the Ukrainians wanted to be called) is nothing short of terrible despite the volunteers and organizations that are doing everything in their power to help. Her wrist appeared broken and one of her bones was jutting out in a funny angle. Fortunately a German orthopedic surgeon was volunteering at another tent and he appeared to place a makeshift split and then attempted to talk her into going to the hospital for an X-ray. She was not to be dissuaded or delayed. She told us she would find a doctor in Ukraine to deal with it. She also told us she was returning to Ukraine to find her children. We did not inquire beyond that. It was clear she wouldn’t stay.
She was followed by a steady stream of people with the exception of about an hour and a half until morning. There was a mix of allergies, eye irritations, headaches, cold, flu, cough, covid, high blood pressure and requests for the cure all I should likely market in the US, valerian root. Holy moly do they love that stuff. It is supposed to calm you down and Ukrainians of all ages strolled in at all hours asking for it by name. I had been told this will be likely and probably encouraged more customers by giving away whole packages until I realized at the rate it was being requested we would possibly run out.
Having B there was amazing and made us as efficient as we could be without ourselves speaking Russian and/or Ukrainian. He was incredibly useful until they said they had a “female problem” then he looked around, said he knew nothing about such things and appeared that he would be happier if he could tap out for those type of maladies. Overnight we had several requests for medications for yeast infections, one who wanted to be tested for a female virus without any admitted symptoms or reasons (I didn’t want to push bc the stories of rape that I had heard prior to my arrival loomed large in my head and this particular woman said she was ok in a definitive way.).
Many people would come to the tent and simply want their blood pressure taken. It was almost always high (in the 200s/100s) they had just traveled through war. Many of those same people had their blood pressure medication with them and had been afraid to take it, I encouraged each of them to do so.
That night we also saw kids: a baby with a full body allergic rash from an unknown substance. Mom said it had happened before, some children with motion sickness from all the travel, and 2 children who were vomiting. These 2 had come with their mother from the Donbas region. They described moving 4 times bc they continued to get bombed.
One man with a large burn from a stove on his leg was the last person to leave his building in Kharkiv. There was also a woman with a cat, who didn’t need us but wept as she told us she was thankful we were here.
In between patients we played with stickers and drawings with the kids in the women and children’s tent, perused the border tents for snacks and food. K found chai (real chai not just plain tea). B found chocolate covered shaped things. I found gummies (Gummy bear and chocolate shapes tent) and delicious magical crackers (from the world kitchen). I drew flowers and symbols in chalk and J joined in the end and helped. We also chopped and burned a lot of wood, but that is what happens when you let a bunch of people from Southern California and the south of France regulate temperature. D was outside helping people all night.
The night would end with an 83 year old woman, her daughter, her granddaughter and her extremely faithful dachshund. They asked us to help. She was extremely stressed and had a very high blood pressure. First and foremost I had her take her medication. On recheck she was still high so we added medicine. We checked again and she was still in bad place so we convinced her to come to the medical tent and sit by the fire. Previously her daughter had told us that she hadn’t eaten or had much to drink the past several days. We decided to start an IV as she sat by the fire and she began to feel better after a little bit of fluid. However, this did not last. She again became very anxious so I gave her something to ease her nerves and help her sleep. She did not want and said she couldn’t take valerian root. I checked with a new doctor friend who had volunteered with SSF in Medyka to make sure I was doing the right thing. He agreed with my plan. I admitted her to the tent to sleep. I would end my shift giving sign out to the next doctor.
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