Jessica’s Blog

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Quote from Isaac from yesterday: “I can’t wait to go back to America. The first thing I’m going to do is open all the windows in my house and crank the air conditioning up all the way. Then, I’ll go to Wal-Mart and buy a bunch of crap that I don’t need and throw it all away. And, I’ll stop for fast food and buy a bunch of burgers, take a bite of each, then throw the rest out.” He had us doubling over with the absurdity and truth of it.

We rounded on the inpatients. There were quite a few this morning. I saw the infant girl with multiple abscesses that were drained yesterday. She had three new ones today that I I&D’ed after rounds. She is one of the chubbier babies that I’ve seen, and is interactive and lovely. I wonder if she has an underlying immune problem predisposing her to so many skin infections. There is no testing that can be done here.

A man came in with an opened fracture on his lower leg. He had been in a van about two weeks ago with 13 other passengers. The van was in a crash and he was the only survivor. He had pins placed in his leg for stabilization at on outside hospital. The care seemed unsatisfactory to him and he transferred to the BMC. On arrival, his dressings were old, dirty, and saturated with pus, four pins were protruding from his leg without any external fixation device. Under the dressing, we found maggots in the wound. It was cleaned and redressed. His fracture had not healed and his lower leg could bend in the middle. When his leg was still, he was cheerful and talkative, but in obvious pain when the leg was moved.

During lunch, Jill and I presented our “Mini Grand Rounds” talks. No one fell asleep. After lunch, Steph, Hollynn, and I had one last drumming jam session. (The West Virginia crew leaves early tomorrow morning.) The boys were out on the front porch, so Steph took her drum out to see what they could do. They were quite impressive musicians. I hung out with them for a while, letting them take pictures on my camera of each other.

I returned to the procedure room to do a D&C. While we waited for the autoclaved instruments to cool, a man came in with feet lacerations from dropping a chain saw on himself while cutting down a tree. He was successful in bringing the tree down. Terry started working on the left foot which looked like the top layer had been through a shredder. I gloved to help get him stitched together quicker, and the lady arrived for her D&C while we were working, so I didn’t get to do it. There will be more opportunities for D&Cs in the next week. The foot came together nicely.

We met back at the house for an afternoon of socializing with some of the Ghanaian translators who are interested in going o medical school. We compared stories and ate mango cobbler. Jill got the recipe and promised to share it with me. I intent to hold her to it.

Supper was fufu with ground nut soup and chicken. Fufu is a sticky ball made of boiled, pounded yams. We watched them make it at the house with a big stick four pounding, and the cooks wife turning the dough in the bowl between thuds. The cooks made sure we ate it as soon as it was ready, and we were only allowed to eat with our hands (the right in particular). It was delicious!

Angela hosted station meeting tonight. We sang and John accompanied with his guitar. It was beautiful to hear voices raised in worship. Angela led the kids in a Bible drill and had Jill and I judge their speed. I was overwhelmed by the preparation they put into learning verses and references. We prayed as a group then shared snacks. A storm came up during the meeting. On the way home, I stood in the back of the pickup and enjoyed the cool breeze, gentle rain drops, and distant lightning as we drove through the night.

We exchanged pictures with the West Virginia group and said our good byes. Jill and I helped Steph pack her big drum into a plastic garbage can and tie down the lid. It will be nearly boring without them for the next week.