5NE and Gloria

For those of you who don't know, I LOVE receiving comments on my blog. Recently I have received some comments from my old co-workers at the University of Washington. Seeing their comments made me very excited because it means that they are reading my blog (most likely on the night shift when things are tranquilo)and keeping up with the work here in Honduras. And though, I have been a bum and really bad at keeping in contact with them, it makes me happy to know that we still have a connection.

As I was remembering my friends from 5NE (my old unit at UW) I started thinking about how funny life is... When I graduated from nursing school, all I knew was that I wanted to work in Seattle. I had no plans what so ever of going into cardiac nursing. I mean it interested me, but so did a lot of other specialties. I applied at UW, got an interview on 5NE and all of a sudden I had a job.

Working on 5NE was the best education I could have ever received. I learned wonderful, technical nursing skills. I learned time management and the importance of prioritization. And most importantly, I learned how to critically think. It seems strange and yet devinely arranged, looking back, that I worked as a cardiac nurse before becoming a missionary nurse. I know with out a doubt that it has prepared me for the work that I do here and has given me the skills to accurately assess the health situations placed before me. Which brings me to the second reason for this post... Gloria.




Gloria is a 35 year old widow, with 7 children, that we came across up near the mission's coffee plantation. Her husband died a few years ago of a poisonous snake bite and now Gloria is dying too. When Gloria was a little girl she lived in an adobe brick house. In the adobe brick lived a bug called the Chinche. The Chinche bug, also known as the kissing bug, comes out at night and bites the sleeping inhabitants of the adobe homes. Not only does the Chinche leave their victims with small bite wounds but it also transmits a parasite into their blood streams. This parasite causes a small reaction at first, but then goes dormant for 10-15 years. After a long period of dormancy the victim starts to present with signs of heart failure. This is what happened to Gloria, and helps explains why such a young woman with so much life should now be suffering from heart failure.


Unfortunately, Gloria did not know that the Chinche had bitten her. She also did not know what was going on when she started experiencing shortness of breath and palpitations. The symptoms finally got so bad that she saved and saved up what little income she could so that she could trek down the mountain to go to the doctor... only to find out that she has Chagas Disease and subsequently, heart failure.



We became aware of Gloria's circumstances after she was diagnosed with Chagas Disease. She and her 7 children where living in what you could barely refer to as a house, and were only surviving by the grace of God. Gloria was caught in a vicious cycle. She was too sick to work, but since she couldn't work she didn't have the money to buy her heart meds... or food for her family. She was deteriorating rapidly and severely decompensated.



Her medical management is now under my care. We have moved her family into a new, safe house with 4 walls and various bedrooms. There is a women who lives with the family. She cooks, cleans and helps take care of the children... and Gloria when she is sick (which is often these days). All of Gloria's children now go to school and they all have US sponsorships that help make all of this possible. Essentially we are providing hospice care. Someday, and only God knows when, Gloria will die. When she does, she has made it clear that she wants us to take care of her children.



It seems undeniable to me that maybe, just maybe I received this wonderful education at 5NE so that I could help take care of Gloria in her dying days, and in doing so help facilitate a smoother, less painful transition... not only for Gloria from life to death to heaven, but for her children as well. It makes me happy that these children can spend this time with her, in what certainly are her last months or maybe even years of life, without worrying about where they will get food or water or clothing... They can be children, and she can be their mother without all the added stresses of life...and that, my friends, is how it should be!