"You should see the stars tonight"

"You should see the stars tonight/how they shimmer and shine so bright/against the black they look so white/coming down from such a height/to reach me now, reach me now..."
~David Crowder Band

That song is always in my head when I look at the stars. I spent the last two nights working nightshift and, although we still have some lights on at the ETC, the night sky is stunning to behold. So many stars, so much beauty. Brings to mind Psalm 8: "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" (‭Psalm‬ ‭8‬:‭3-4‬ ESV)

Nightshift is a completely different pace than Dayshift at the ETC. We do not take any admissions after 6 pm. We do not to blood draws as the decreased light increases the risk of an accidental needle stick. We operate with far fewer staff; 5-7 nurses, still two doctors, and a skeleton crew of WASH staff. (WASH stands for something but I currently can't recall what. The 'w' is water though;) And the 's' is sanitation.
Friday night I went inside high risk with the first round which is between 8:30-10:00 pm for meds and "TPR" (temperature, pulse, respiratory rate). I thought, "The sun is down, surely the PPE will be less toasty to be inside." Nope, wrong! As soon as I fully garbed I realized how wrong I was...we were inside about an hour/hour twenty with the IV fluids we had to give. We cannot leave any hanging unless the next medical team is following directly behind the med team because it is too risky of something happening to the iv site without supervision.

Oh, the husband came back positive for Ebola. He is currently our sickest patient:( He is extremely sweet and kind--and is so very sick. The staff tell me his wife was the sweetest patient. We lost her just a few days before I came. We encouraged him to drink some more but he did not want to eat anything.

After the first medical team, the doctors round, about 11 pm. Then no one goes inside high risk until 5-6 am when WASH changes the chlorine in the buckets. Another medical team goes in between 6-7. We had 8 nurses on Friday night and I only had to go inside once.
At six Sarah and I were the gopher nurses. Between 1 am-5 am most staff find a spot to take a nap. I was able to talk to my parents, sisters, and nieces via FaceTime while on nightshift! Such a tremendous blessing!!

Saturday we got results back that our last remaining woman from the four that attended the funeral is Ebola negative!! She will have one more test before we can say she is cured, and after that she will be released. Our other lady is steadily improving. The husband is a fighter but he is still extremely ill.
Saturday my assignment was the 6 am patient care round, and boy, does it sure get cold around 3 am!!! I was not prepared for that Friday night!! Saturday I planned better and brought a blanket! Putting on PPE at 6 am actually feels good because it is still chilly. 4 of the 5 patients are stable and can take care of themselves, so my partner and I spent time with the husband and came out of high risk after about 30 minutes. Then all we had left to do was wait for the on-coming shift!

"Cuz I've got nothing of my own to give to you/but this light that shines on me, shines on you/and makes everything beautiful again"

Lyrics from David Crowder Band's "Stars"