Sunday Evening
Dear Mom + Dad,
Well here it is the day of rest again that is for all normal people. I managed to get a little rest but when night rolls around my work starts again. Just an endless treadmill one day after another. They all seem more or less the same except for minor incidents.
I am rather sleepy this evening. It is now about 10:30 and I’m beginning to wonder if I will be able to stay awake or not. At 12 oclock we eat our supper and that helps pep you up a little. However, things are very quiet here and promise to be for the rest of the night. We have no patients in now who will cause us any trouble. Of course if an emergency should arise and we get some new ones in then it will be a different story.
The ward I work on is the only air conditioned ward in the whole hospital set up. In fact it is the only ward that is not in a tent. We get all the seriously ill patients and those that come in, in cases of emergency. You can never tell from one minute to the next just what will arise. There are four of us here in charge. We do all the work of a regular nurse. When it is quiet, as tonight promises to be we can catch a few hours sleep on one of the beds. It is not a good idea to catch a little sleep before supper is served. Usually we work in pairs on the sleeping detail. There always has to be someone awake just in case anything should happen. Then to we have charge of medications and every so often different patients have to have different drugs and you have to see that they are given.
I understand there are supposed to be nurses coming in tomorrow to relieve us of some of our responsibilities. Perhaps I may get transferred to a different ward, for if we have a night nurse on we won’t need as many men working here.
Last night when it was just about quitting time, that is six o’clock in the morning we had an emergency come in. An automobile accident happened about 8 miles from here. As this was the nearest place for the help the army took care of him. It is not a usual practice to take care of civilian cases except in an extreme emergency. The fellow, a middle aged Mexican, was pretty well cut up. They fixed him up in the operating room and then sent him down to us. Later on in the day he was transferred to a civilian hospital. But it is just such cases that keep us busy and on our toes. Then too we have all the patients to care for right after operations. That is when they are most difficult as they have to be watched very carefully. Persons coming out of ether often cause a great deal of trouble.
Add to this one more worry and you should have a fairly clear picture of my work. That additional fact is the keep of records. We have to have complete records, including history, treatment, narcotics, behavior and recovery, charts and all the stuff that goes with it. It is quite a job here as the hospital is run completely by enlisted men. In most army hospitals you have nurses, bookkeepers etc. to do a lot of the work but here we have to do it all. It really isn’t hard though after you get onto the routine but nevertheless it is quite an undertaking.
The main objection to the whole job is the hours you have to put in. It is very hard to get sleep during the day as the rest of my outfit is still doing the regular work. There is always someone running in and out of the tent. You get up for your meals. You get enough sleep but it is always interrupted one way or another. You should have seen me trying to sleep during a tent inspection Saturday morning. After getting 15 minutes sleep I gave it up as a bad job.
Tomorrow should be a payday but I’m not sure we will get it then. We may have to wait on the maneuvers, which take a break on Wednesday. It doesn’t make much difference to me one way or the other as I have plenty of money. I’m going to try and send home another $25 this payday. I need next to nothing now that I can’t get out of camp on a weekend. Five dollars a week takes care of my needs very plentifully. Cigarettes are of course the major item but sodas, cookies candies and petty incidentals mount up. As I told you before I’m really proud of that bank account. If I ever move out of this place it will come in handy to have that reserve.
I have now broken my army record of staying in any one place. Today is the 9th week I’ve been here. I’m going into my 10th week. The longest I stayed previous to this was Barkeley where I remained 9 weeks. I’m very liable to stay here another nine weeks too. I wish I didn’t have to but I have no say in the matter.
I haven’t heard anything further on my application for the air corps. I suppose it will take months as it has to go through military channels. Oh well, perhaps it is all for the best.
This has been quite a long letter but it has helped pass the time away. I can guarantee to keep up this pace as there is really not much happening except the usual dull routine. I’ll have to ration my wordage. Well that’s about all. I’ll write again tomorrow night.
Love
Bob
Bob
No comments:
Post a Comment