Amelia Wiggins’ Blog

no water

the down pour has stopped…but we woke up this morning with no water! the water is pumped up from the lake and when we lost electricity we lost the water. what little was left in the pipes kept us going yesterday but about midafternoon the hospital and all the houses slowly began to dry up. ours was the last to run out around 11pm. so this morning i took a bucket, filled it with the emgergency water they have stored, brought it into the shower and had a little sponge bath. it was definitely an experience! (i thought for a second that i was amish! hehe) as of this afternoon both electricity and the water are back…thank God! they’ve lost water for up to 3 days before…aahhh.

today i went on some home visits with the physical therapist. we went to 3 different homes and worked with 3 elderly women. the first one apparently was so weak she couldn’t walk a few months ago so they had taught her to use a walker. she met us at the door today…walking with only a cane!! the next lady was unable to stand so she scoots around. our job was to fit her for knee pads! as we were leaving her place we noticed a marijuana plant in her yard…we laughed as she explained it was ‘medicine’ for her high blood pressure!! the third woman also scoots around due to a chronic ruptured patella tendon and severe contractions of her hips and knees. we taught her a few stretches and tried to get her standing with a walker…

each of these elderly women are called Gogos. it translates roughly to ’grandmother’ but everyone uses it when referring to an elderly woman. it’s a term of respect and my goodness these ladies deserve it, they are tough as nails.

yesterday we were going to do a hip replacement but realized at the last minute that the hospital used the last of it’s blood on an emergency c-section that morning. can you imagine running a hospital with no blood? they do it all the time here. it’s actually unusual if they have blood. in the states we transfuse people at a hemoglobin of about 10 (normal is 12-15)…here they wait until it’s like 4..then maybe you’ll get some blood. last week i saw a patient here with a hemoglobin of 2, we transferred her out to a bigger hospital with blood. seeing this blood shortage has motivated me to donate blood once i’m back in the states. i know it won’t help them here at mseleni but i still feel like i need to do something.

well i’m off for one last run on the beach and a nice dinner at sodwana bay with the docs. i’ll write more once i’m in durban!