Kristi Goes to Ghana

You’re Ghana Want to Read This…

Feb 9-12

This week has flown by!  Tuesday I spent at the hospital going on rounds and in the theatre with Dr. Jean.  Wednesday I checked up on some patients for Dr. Jean and then spent the day at the PHC (Primary Health Center) for antenatal day, where pregnant women from all over come to get their prenatal care.  Thursday I spent the morning on the wards and the afternoon in the laboratory and Friday I spent all day in the lab.  Here are a few interesting stories from the week:

Tuesday I went to the OR with Dr. Jean.  Our first surgery was for a woman with bilateral inguinal hernias.  When the patient was on the table, we noticed that she had un-healed horizontal incisions, symmetrically placed on either side of her abdomen medial to her iliac crests.  Wondering when and what these were from, we looked at her records and realized she had been operated on in October 2009, while Dr. Jean was back in the states, for bilateral inguinal hernias!  Dr. Jean was immediately upset; these incisions were in the wrong place and were not big enough to repair inguinal hernias, and the hernias were still present.  As we began the operation, it was unclear what the previous surgeon had done and obvious that he had no even visualized the hernias.  Dr. Jean was very upset that a Ghanian doctor operated on her patient, and didn’t seem to know what he was doing at all. 

After we finished with the first of the woman’s hernias, we moved to the second.  Halfway through the second hernia repair, I felt so hot!  I felt like my scrubs were soaked in sweat, I had sweat dripping down my face and it was difficult for me to breathe.  I was not too sure what was going on, because the OR has air-conditioning.  I tried to take some deep breaths and keep going, but I was a little worried I might faint!  I told doctor I wasn’t feeling well, and she had me sit and had one of the nurses give me some water.  I felt a little better sitting down, but still, something wasn’t right.  I remained sitting the rest of the surgery, and then doctor told me to just go back to the house, and even had Bob come pick me up, despite the hospital being a 5 minute walk back.  I guess I was just dehydrated, as I felt better later in the evening.  I am so glad that doctor was so kind about everything, and even told me how her first day working at another hospital in Ghana, she had to get IV fluids because she was so dehydrated!  …At least I was able to be rehydrated orally!

Most days on my walk to the hospital, there is a group of children walking to school.  They always stop and wave and we exchange hello’s.  I usually begin with “N doo pwaa” which means “Good morning.”  They respond by saying “Good morning,” in English and the girls usually give a little curtsy and the boys generally give a small bow.  They are so cute!  I think they are just starting to learn English, because they do not know much more than that.  I always offer to take their picture, which they all love!  When I show them the picture I have taken, I hear many giggles and see many smiles. :) It is a fun interaction.  After our exchanges yesterday morning, the group of about 10 children went along, skipping and running.  I tried to take a picture of them skipping away, but they saw me and all grouped together for another posed photo!  It was adorable!

The past day and a half I have spent most of my time in the laboratory.  I have learned how to do a Widal test for typhoid, blood grouping, Gimsea stains for malaria, testing for hemoglobins and clotting time, in addition to HIV screening, HCG (pregnancy), Hepatitis B and C.  All of these labs are preformed in a small room with 2 microscopes, a centrifuge and chemicals for tests.  They wash and re-use almost everything (not needles) and have very little waste.  In a room attached, they have 3 machines for other testing:  chemistries, blood counts (CBC) and CD4 counts. 

There is currently a 12 year old boy on the ward who tested positive for HIV.  For the past 2 days, the workers in the lab have been cleaning and trying to run labs to get his CD4 counts, but the CD4 machine is not working!  It is very frustrating for the workers, and me, as we are following manual instructions exactly and keep getting error messages.  We then look up the error codes in the manual and check everything it suggests, but it still isn’t working.  I am hopeful that the problem can be fixed.  It seems that the next nearest machine, in Tamale, is not working either.  The further away you send a sample, the more trouble it is because you have to drive it there on dirt roads full of pot-holes, goats, chickens, pedestrians and bicyclists! 

One final note, on the weather!  Saboba is very far north in Ghana, and is much warmer than the coastal town of Accra. Currently, daytime temperatures are over 100 daily, and most days over 110.  It is very dry here, so the heat isn’t usually too horrible, and it had been cooling down to the high 60’s/70’s at night.  With a temperature difference of over 40 degrees, the nights/early mornings had been seeming very cool- I even had goose bumps a few mornings!  Well, as it is getting later in February, the temperatures have not dropped as much in the evenings.  When I woke up this morning and checked the thermometer at 6:45am, it was already 84 degrees!  I can definitely tell that it is not cooling down as much, as I am no longer covering up at all to sleep and wake up warm/hot!