Update
March 6th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorizeddahsubah! (good morning)
Wow, I am so sorry there has been zero time for us to write but here it goes! We are loving it here. Its hardwork so far but so fulfilling. Its been an adventure! Im not feeling super creative so Im gonna just list days and say what we did and hopefully that will capture the gist of it. We flew out of Accra Monday at 5am and landed in Tamale which is about a 2 hr drive from where we are now.. Nalerigu. We are lucky enough to be travelling with Vince a doc who used to practice here full time for about 14 yrs I think and his friend who has been here many times and two family practice residents. Vince knows so many neat things about the region so he took us to a “natural healing” orthopedic place on the way here. It was so neat to see and definitely a good intro to the spirit of the people here. This one guy who had been there for 11 months because he fell and was paralyzed we asked him “so can you move your legs at all” and he says “not yet”. It is something that stuck with me. They have such hope and strength. It amazes me constantly. I have such admiration for what they go through and still have faith and so much strength to go on. We have some pictures of this ortho place so we can post some when our battery charges. (yes dad we have been using the camera.. kinda proud of us.. its annoying but i know we are seeing somethings I want to show people). We went to greet a chief as well which is a formal process.. the women and men do different actions and its kinda cool to know (we used that again this A.M. when some chief came to breakfast… I definitely am still learning all the rules.. it was funny, I came out with my cup of coffee and sat down and said goodmorning to him not knowing it was someone important.. oops… status is a big deal here, I love how rich the culture is that way) After the ride to Nalerigu we arrived at the hospital .. ate a quick lunch and started clinic. Darryl came to clinic to see how things worked.. he left after this girls leg had a chronic osteo with the bone just sticking out… he has seen a lot and been so good with it. Hes kinda amazing me : ) Clinic lasted till 8pm and we ate dinner then did rounds on the wards till about 1am. Long first day! The good news is all the other days have been only till 11pm.There is so much need here that the work doesn’t seem as tiresome. I am exhausted but its really not hard to motivate myself to work all day and night because the people come with such acute illnesses and they really need attention or they will not survive. I have seen a lot of death. The first night I was there this young girl died and that was hard because we actually coded her (did CPR)… which they never do here but we thought there was hope for her. So many patients have died but many have gotten or are getting better. Clinic is crazy. The first day I hung out with Vince and Sheila (pediatrician… and probably one of the coolest people I have ever met). The illnesses here are things I havent seen so it was good to get a clinical picture of what a “sick” patient looks like here. A LOT different than my previous experience. I am now doing clinic on my own and seeing my own patients because the volume is SO SO big.. we see around 400 patients on clinic day. The best part is that they are all interesting and I have seen so much pathology in clinic.We have clinic mon wed fri and tues thurs are just surgery. A typical day now is rounding at 730am and then either clinic or surgery all day and then rounding at night…. usually home by 11pm. We all eat meals together so Darryl and I get to see one another throughout the day.. its awesome. So Tuesday was a surgery day… anyone who knows me Im a thinker not a doer… surgery is boring but I went in on a few cases. I prefer to keep an eye on the wards and see what new patients come in. We always have things happening so always things to be done. Darryl went out with the dentist tuesday and learned how to pull teeth. Dr Robinson is this super old guy (80s) and he comes every year with his granddaughters and they go to these remote villages and do teeth cleaning and pull teeth. Ha, it was so funny that Darryl ended up doing that but he was a big help. Wednesday - the most exciting thing was that this girl had a placental abruption and needed a stat C-section .. I was in on the case and the girl ended up having a uterine perforation when we went in so she needed blood. I volunteered to find some blood. After some running around it turned out Darryl was the only universal donor I could find… he kindly volunteered and after giving his unit he passed out. It was kinda hillarious I must admit but we took care of him… he sat up to quickly. Hes ok now : ) and the girl lived so that was awesome… he saved a life after only 3 days here!!! Thursday - Darryl and I went out with the dentist… another resident arrived so they had enough help at the hospital. It was a fun day… very tiring but the kids in the villages we went to had so much energy it was amazing. It continually amazes me that despite all of the disease, hunger, heat and poverty there is so much life… and the life is so full too… definitely just reinforces that there is something bigger than all of us keeping this going. Darryl pulled teeth as did I… Darryl had a hard time making people have pain. I took pictures of him.. haha. Its crazy that people line up for this painful procedure. We do use some local anesthetic. It was fun to do that together. Thursday night D gave the devotional at this group they have every week. He was very good. Im glad hes getting a chance to share things… hes got a gift forsure. Friday - Clinic again… it was fun but I don’t remember a lot. I did some OMM (the manipulation I learned in med school) and people loved it. Its kinda hard to find time but I try to go it when I know it will be helpful.Today we had a field trip! We went to visit this hippie couple who just live here and plant trees… it was awesome. Hes been here since 1961 and shes been here since 1978 (D just told me that haa.. why he knows that I don’t know haha). They had pets .. antelope.. monkeys etc. Then we went to an escarpment.. very beautiful. ITs the dry season here so its not as lush as usual but still so cool.Anyways… I have tried to finish this post a few times today… I finally got up the motivation to come write after evening rounds. Hope its not too wordy… just somethings I don’t want to forget! The team I am working with is the best. Vince is a genius…. he knows everything I think… but hes so easy to work with at the same time. He practiced here for awhile so he knows the language. He also did surgery along with his FP residency so he does lots of surgery and its just amazing. Sheila is a pediatrician who is a fun amazing spirit who just makes everyday enjoyable. I am learning lots from her. Dorothy and John are FP residents who are so great. ITs nice to work well as a team.. it makes the long long hours go by fast and work seem really productive. The people here are so welcoming. Its been fun learning some of the language. They are always telling us we are welcome and constantly smiling and thankful. I think one of the things that makes caring for people so easy is that they trust you. They just want to be well. When one family member is sick many other family members sleep around the bed and care for the patient. They do all of the feeding and bathing and they nurses just do the clinic things. It works really well. Life here is so communal. We are learning a lot just observing that aspect of life here.Ok, time to sleep. Darryl might upload pictures soon.. he will do the next update I think. Sorry if its one big paragraph… I can’t figure out how to fix that.Until next time!!
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