Wow! And hasn't it been a long time since I've written here. So sorry folks! It's been a busy few months! I'm sitting now in the Dublin airport waiting for my plane up to Heathrow so I have some time to update this here.
June saw JR and Emma leave us for a tropical medicine conference in England, leaving Alison and I alone in hospital. Which wouldn't have been too bad... Well aside from the idea of leaving me in charge.... Except that somehow I missed the memo about two visiting surgeons coming... YIKES! Hello twelve hour days and weekend emergencies and good bye sleep. But you know, thru that all- God is good. We saw cases come in that if our visiting general surgeon and our visit gastrointestinal surgeon hadn't been there we either would have spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong or else would have lost the patient. Talk about timing!
Our paediatric consultant from England also came to visit us for 8 weeks- a bit like Mary Poppins she blew in to save the day for one of wee kiddos -
This little boy came to us from Dipalata mission as failure to improve on the feeding program. He was with us for about 2 weeks before any of us really realized how sick he was. Of course it didn't help that our usual feeding program lady was off sick and mom kept our little friend tied tight on her back so he didn't have a good assessment done on a regular basis. Tanis thankfully had joined us again in ward rounds and she took baby for an assessment and decided we were bringing him home for some intensive one on one care. He refused to eat anything except a bit of hot rod (yes, compliments of me, but at least he was eating right??) so ended up with a nasogastric tube insertion- thanks Alison :) and milk feeds every two hours. I had him that night- wow! Intense! Credit to moms who do this without thanks and without anyone thinking "so cool that you get to bring a kid home from the hospital and wake up every two hours to fix a bottle and feed him and change his diarrhea filled diaper. Oh and oops, he just had another one all over the sheet :( "
But from that day we all were a little more aware of him, the nurses, the missionary staff, even the blue ladies who help with patient care took him on, carrying him on their back during their shift to ensure he was brought to the busy ward nurse every two hours to get his feed. Our paediatric consultant from England - Dr. Ros, flew in just a few days before I left and took over the paeds ward and our little friend's care. And what a difference! This is our wee boy just before I left and then just before his discharge.
We also managed to do some pretty cool surgeries thanks to Dr. Paul from the States and Dr. Andre from Canada. We have a patient who developed esophageal varices (bleeding from the esophagus). This very often can lead to death as a patient will start to bleed into their stomach, then start to vomit blood and then exsanginate- pass enough blood so there isn't enough left in the body for normal functions. Dr. Paul did a very delicate surgery where he placed a shunt between the hepatic artery and the inferior vena cava to shunt blood from the liver to the IVC in order to decrease the pressure build up in the liver which causes the varices. Praise God! The surgery was successful and our patient was given a new lease on life.
I left Chitokoloki the 22nd of July for the Congo where I visited Genna for a week and took in another African country. Very different from Zambia: in Zambia the people are open and friendly and welcoming; in Congo they were reserved and cautious. Genna took me to the hospital where she works and I had a bit of a tour and saw some of the women's health projects Genna was working on.
I arrived home on the 31st of July. I was 2 wks with my family at home; two weeks with my friend Carolyn as we prepared for her wedding. Celebrated the big day on the 29th- still finding it hard to believe she is married! While visiting Toronto, I also stopped by the hospital to resign from my job. A tough decision. Very happy to have the chance to catch up with friends tho :) Then two weeks with the family again as I prepared to travel again, first to Dublin to visit family there and now finally back to Zambia.
Stopped in Northern Ireland to visit Alison just home from Zambia. Very exciting to hear the news and catch up. Will miss her greatly as she works at home, but looking forward to her next visit :)
Now to wait... Still an hour or so before I can board the plane. Sigh... But glad for the opportunity to finally be able to update this :)
Can't wait to get back
Have some pics but they'll have to wait til I get back :)
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