Today I woke up extra happy because in the past two days not only did I get to talk to my parents, but I also got to talk to that boy I like. ☺ It rained all night, but it didn’t cool things down much, so I didn’t sleep that well. I had bread and cheese for breakfast, and saw that our little kitten that we still haven’t named had pooped again in the corner and had peed on the chair. I put some sun screen on quickly and went down to Morning Handover, which started late because it rained last night… When it rains all night and into the morning, people are late to start their day. Another one of those cultural things.
After Morning Handover I went to the lab and I was going to see if I could help or watch or anything, but they weren’t really doing anything even though they were pretty backed up. I then went and introduced myself to the woman who keeps all the records so that eventually I can ask her if I can borrow the records a bit at a time so that Tanis and I can do an analysis of the statistics of HIV versus Hepatitis. She was very busy and couldn’t really take the time to show me what she does, so I went to find Dr. ABD in the male ward. It was locked, which they do sometimes if it’s not visiting hours but people keep trying to come in and visit, but they let me in. Dr. ABD wasn’t feeling well today, he said he was sneezing and coughing and so he really was hurrying people through rounds, which was fine with me. He kept saying, “I don’t need to see them in the ward, I’m already going to see them in the theatre!” Yesterday while I was on rounds with Dr. Erdi, Dr. ABD discharged a lot of women in the female ward so that they can admit some of the people who have been waiting to be admitted.
They started surgeries on time today! It was crazy! And when we were in the male ward I asked Dr. ABD as a joke when he was going to let me assist him in surgery, and he said, “Today if you’d like!” and he was totally serious! So I thought he was just going to let me be just a little bit closer to the action, but when we went into the theatre, he told Becky, the scrub nurse, to help me scrub in! So got my OR scrubs on and my hair net and mask on and went to the official sink and she told me how to scrub up, and then I got to put on the long gown and the gloves. They told me to put my hands together like I was praying and to wait like that so I didn’t touch anything. Then I got to take the position of the assistant, and the legit assistant stood next to me and told me what to do. My name is even in the book now!
I assisted on a RIH, which is a hernia repair. It was a minor repair, and I got to hold skin and hold the clamps and the nylon thread that he uses for secures and it was SO COOL!!! I got some pictures of it, so there’s proof! I’m a natural at it, and I like surgery so much! That’s what I want to do.
Halfway through the surgery I assisted on, Elizabeth came in and her eyes got really big with surprise, and Dr. ABD said, “Are you going to scrub in next?” and Elizabeth said, “Heck yes!” [The surgery she got to scrub in on was a bowel resection where they removed a four-inch section of the large intestine and sewed the two cut ends back together. I was a little jealous at first, but the incision Dr. ABD made for the operation was HUGE and most of the guys intestines where in her hands. I think that would have been an intense procedure to be your first one.]
Afterward, I had to eat but they were still doing more surgeries so I hurried to the house to eat quickly, and when I was talking to Clem I completely fell asleep! I took an unintended forty-five minute nap. I went back though, and was able to see the most interesting one, which was a woman they admitted today with a back leg. She had initially tried traditional African medicine, and so it became infected. It also looked like they had gone to someone who knew western medicine, who must have took one look, bandaged it as best they could, and told them to come to MCH, because it was nicely bandaged and had a cleaning agent that the locals use to clean wounds that’s actually good, just not effective on injuries so severe.
]You can tell when infection has set in by the smell, it’s very distinct, and the moment this woman was wheeled into the OR I knew she had a terrible infection. When they unwrapped it, you could see one big hole and a small hole where puss was seeping out, and an ulcer looking soar as well. They decided to bring in their big bucket and soap and a scrub brush to clean in like crazy. It helped so that Dr. Erdi could actually see what she was working with, but it also exposed how bad it was. Dr. Erdi started by cutting away the skin near the large soar to see if the skin could be saved, but ended up throwing the chuck of skin and the half inch layer of pus and infection into the waste basin. She ended up cutting off quite a bit of skin around the soar and the large hole, and well as turning the small hole into an inch and a half slit so that she could clean it out. Then they just started squeezing pus out of the leg, from about the knee down. And the smell! I thought the smell had been bad when she first came in, but when the smell reached Tanis, Elizabeth and I we all immediately started fanning our faces (even though we had masks on) and moving to the other side of the room when the AC blows so that we could get the fresh air. Dr. Erdi said afterward that this job has taught her to breath through her mouth whenever she’s in the OR. They ended up just cleaning up the hole they had made, and they were going to bandage her back up, pump her with antibiotics, and do another cleaning tomorrow. When Dr. Erdi is satisfied with how clean the wound is, then she will operate and see what she can save of the muscle/skin and do the official operation then.]
After the OR, Tanis and I went down to the admissions office and asked if we could take some of the files to start our little research projects. Tanis wants to look at infant mortality rate and uterine ruptures during pregnancy, and I want to study the death rate of HIV versus Hepatitis. The secretary there gave us all the records from today, and so far we’re just trying to decide how to even get started.
The afternoon was pretty quiet, and dinner was as usual. All in all a very calm evening. One cool thing about the beds here is we all get mosquito nets, which makes me feel like I have one of those princess canopy beds. The nets are actually very functions, and when you tuck them in at the edges. Unless you press up against the edge of the net, you sleep virtually mosquito free, and the hospital has been trying very hard to get mothers and fathers to understand that they need to put the mosquito nets down on their children’s beds and make them understand that it’s the mosquitoes that have malaria and make them sick. Even though I don’t have to worry about the mosquitoes in Michigan having malaria, I’m almost considering getting one for my bed at home. The mosquitoes here are also very different. They don’t really swarm you like Michigan mosquitoes do, and they are much smaller and quicker than Michigan mosquitoes. They are also red, which is kind of scary but they are only out at about 7pm and they wont come near you if you’re wearing spray. Tanis and I also keep our nets down during the day, so they don’t really ever have a chance to get under them and attack up.
Today, a patient’s family drove from a neighboring country to MCH because it was the nearest hospital to get care for them. The patient died just as they arrived. This post is dedicated to them.
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