Well, the visit with the surgeon went well. He basically just asked if there was any pain, then prescribed an ointment and told me to clean it twice a day and apply the ointment then walked out. Very breif that man. So, apparently things are healing well. Its neat, because when I change the dressings I can see where the tissues are reforming... you know, whatch things grow back together. Tis nice.
In other news, I shadowed Darby in the clinic today since I'll be filling in for her as much as someone who isn't a nurse can do once she leaves Tuesday. Basically I will be counting out pills and running errands and sitting around waiting for a patient to come in. Its not a very busy place. Good thing is, the nurses that work there are very willing to teach you and let you sit in on things they do. So there is definite potential for some learning. Also, they'll let me help deliver babies. So, it should be interesting anyway, even though I'd much prefer the bush. Also, I'll be a big part of the bush clinics we do three times a week. So that should be nice.
The guys here left this afternoon to go do a building project out at Lushomo... I considered stowing away on one of the vehicles. Mark even told me which one would be easiest to hide in but... didn't happen. So, they are supposed to say hi to Lushomo for me. Alan and Paulene are taking the SMs camping this weekend, I can't go though because of my leg. So, I've decided to treat myself to haystacks Friday night (and by haystacks I mean dorritos, beans, and tomatoes... those are the only toppings I can come by, but its still a treat!), and maybe cookies. Should be good.
Last night was "family night" up at Alan and Paulene's. Twas nice. We ate a mean carob cake with some banana ice cream, fri chik (yes, real fri chik... don't see that every day in africa), and popcorn. Then we played Thump thump. It was fun, nice to hang out with 'the fam.'
Not much else to talk about... I do a lot of sitting with my leg propped up these days... no exciting stories there. So, I ttfn... ta ta for now!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
crusade, demons, and hospitilization
Well, it has definetly been an interesting month. A little over three weeks ago Ernest, Chile, the new students from life (Alex, Raymond, Becca, and Camalin), Alex (yes there are two, this ones a girl, the other is a guy), and myself headed out to Changa, deep in the bush of Siavanga district. Chaanga is set a good 3-4 hours away from a paved road, so needless to say there was some off-roading involved to get there. We actually got stuck 3 times. And when I say stuck, I mean it is a miracle we got out! We had to cross a lot of really large mud puddles, so when we got stuck, it was burried up to the bottom of the truck in water. One time I was afraid the truck would tip. So, we all took a mud bath trying to push the truck. Fortunately, mud is great fly repellant (and there were a ton of flies).
So, we finally arrived at about 8 Friday night. We were greated by a huge group of kids who were standing by the road, they came running after us yelling “Mugua! Mugua!” That’s their word for white people. So, I climbed out of the truck bed and was met by a huge crowd of people who simply wanted to shake my hand and greet me. “Kwasia buti” To which you reply kabotu kwasia buti!
So we set up camp and spent the next two weeks visiting people during the day, inviting them to come to the meetings and holding bible studies with them. We also had a number of people go through VOP lessons (when you’ve completed them you get a free Bible - one guy completed all 26 in one day. He was serious!) Then, at night I would usually give the health talk, then Ernest gave the message for the evening. We had a pretty good attendance. Maybe at least 500 each night, but I’m not good at guessing numbers.
It was good times. We met a lot of interesting people, saw a lot of interesting things. I got to meet the chief. He gave us a chicken. A very pretty chicken at that, she was grey and specked. I also met and talked with the chief head man (biggest guy under the chief.) Someone else was the spokesperson when we met the chief, but I was the one talking meeting the chief headman (Ai!) I basically went into my typical spiel presenting God as a loving, personal creator who wants to be your friend. Then, my translator started in on Sabbath and baptism. It was a good visit. We also met a couple of apostolic priests. My translator argued with them for about 2 hrs. Craziness. But, they invited him to come back and chat again so hey, you never know where this may go. We may have 2 more church members soon.
Witchcraft was a big thing in that area. We saw a lot of demon possession. Sometimes at night we would hear the elders praying and casting demons out of people. Then, the second Sabbath we were there, Ernest preached and gave an appeal. Three of the women who responded to the appeal fell to the ground and started writhing and making strange grunting noises. They just picked them up, carried them inside the church building, and started praying for them while the service continued. Then one of the women came running out, arms flailing, running quite funny with the elders following close behind. She ran out into the middle of a field, fell, and they gathered around and were shouting at the demons to get out, and praying. The other two women took their turns doing the same thing. Now, I have to bragg about my translator. He’s this tiny little thing, maybe 5 ft, 26 years old, and he was always the first to the person who is possessed, then he stands over them, pointing away from the person and yelling the loudest at the demon to get out. Good job Emmanual, good job. We also had about 6 women who had to be carried out of the water at the baptisms because they had demons in them and collapsed when dunked under water.
I believe we had over 75 baptisms though. God definitely blessed. There were a number of people who were not baptized but who were still thinking and studying when we left. So, the numbers may grow yet.
Also, the last Friday that I was at Chaanga I woke up with a very red, swollen, left knee. Painful too. As the day went on it grew more and more painful, gave me a fever, made my stomach upset, at one point I even had trouble breathing. So, I applied charcoal poultices, and took a lot of charcoal by mouth. It was worse Saturday, but I managed to make it to the church service and baptisms before collapsing under a blanket in my tent. Sunday morning we got up early and left. You notice how horrible and bumpy a road is a lot more when your knee throbs with each jolt. Just an observation I made. I would have liked to have gone straight to the clinic then, but it wasn’t possible because we had to pick up Ernest’s daughter at the blacktop and take her with us to Lushomo and whatnot. So, Monday morning I finally got to Riverside, so I was able to see the clinic. By this point, my leg was huge! We are talking more than double its normal size.
The nurses here took one look at my leg and said I needed to go to the Dr in Lusaka for better antibiotics and arranged for transport for me the next day. So, Tuesday morning I went to the clinc and had an appt. with a Dr. Lynen who took one look at me and said I needed to be admitted to the hospital. Long story short, I spent the morning and afternoon in the treatment room on a drip waiting for everything to get worked out so far as finances go and was admitted around 16 hours under the diagnosis of infected knee with abscess and cellulitis. Translation: not good. It could have easily gone septic - and killed me, or resulted in osteomyelitis, or I could have wound up with arthritis for the rest of my life. Fun. So, the surgeon came to look at me and told me he was going to operate in two hours. He’s Russian, very short with words, and not the most cheerful/friendly person I’ve met but he’s a good surgeon so I make no complaints.
All that was easy, hobbling around with an infected knee (walking the long ways to the hole in the ground we call a toilet in the bush - then trying to figure out how to squat on one knee), getting admitted, the IV, news about surgery, etc… Now came the hard part. Calling the parents. Needles to say I met with some unhappy responses. Given the circumstances, they handled it pretty well. Actually, I had talked to them the day before and told them my knee was infected and I had to go for meds, so mom just said “I knew it! I knew your knee was worse than you were telling me!” Yes mom, you were right. Congrats.
Anywho, the surgery went well, the incisions looked pretty nasty. They are good sized cuts. He left it open so that they could drain some more if they needed to. He actually put drains in to keep it open and make sure any pus left in could get out (these were interesting drains, they didn’t have tubes small enough for my incisions, so he cut the fingers off of a latex glove and put those in). Weird. It was very interesting looking. Quite creative. The first few days of wound cleaning were not fun. Since the incisions are so big, the person cleaning would just shove the syringe down in there and blast the wound with saline, then again with iodine. Can you say ouch? Then when the surgeon cleaned it…. *shudders* He was… thorough… yeah…. Thorough. It was funny though, because I didn’t realize the two wounds were connected until he squirted the stuff in one wound, and it came shooting out the other. That was funny. I laughed. He also gave me a big squirt of hydrogen peroxide. Lots of bubbles came pouring out both sides. At first I didn’t realize what he had put, so I thought it was pus and was slightly concerned…. It was funny though. Alex was there Wed night (she freaked out more than my family and myself put together when she heard I was all alone in a hospital going into surgery etc… so she came to visit the next morning and got to stay the night). Anywho, Alex found it all quite amusing. I’m not a big crier, so naturally I didn’t cry when they messed with the wound, even though it hurt like nothing else. So, Alex was there laughing at me saying “Just cry already!” Thanks buddy. The nurse said the same thing… But there weren’t even tears in my eyes to be cried people… what’s your problem? Fortunately the only time I’ve had a lot of pain has been during wound cleaning time. So… I was able to refuse all painkillers with the exception of the night of the surgery. I was so groggy I didn’t even know what they were injecting me with. I just knew it was time for a shot and I was supposed to hold still. Okay.
So, I spent five days in the hospital. Good times. I was so happy to leave though! I’m too independent for all of that sitting around with nurses doing everything for you nonsense. My first night back here the Director and his wife wanted me to stay at their house (she’s a nurse). I’m doing quite well though, so I got to come back to my regular Riverside home today since it isn’t necessary for someone to watch me every second. I just have to take my drugs morning and evening and clean the wounds once a day and rebandage them. The wounds are gaping, so you’ve gotta watch it, but they are very clean. The surgeon wants to see me again on Tuesday. Not sure why. Maybe he just misses me. He probably wants me to be his American granddaughter… yeah that’s it he misses me.
Other than that the only other news is that I have been moved to Riverside now. Permanantly. Bummer. I really like it out in the bush, I would have liked to get to help out with the other two crusades they will hold. Also, I miss my Zambian family. Especially Chile. He’s like my cousin or something. We’d just sit up late at night talking at the crusade since the message was in Tonga and I couldn’t understand, and it was his dad talking so he’d heard the same sermons before. We had some good times. The student missionaries here will be leaving next week. So, then I will be working in the clinic here.
One of the girls here told me she wrote back home about my leg and so her whole town was praying for me. Haha. I guess a lot of people have been praying. I know it has been healing quickly. Even the doctors at the hospital were surprised at how quickly the swelling went down. And the gaping wounds are healing nicely. Its cool to watch how the tissues are reforming already. I think God and my guardian angel have definitely been working over time here lately.
Well, I think I’ve made this blog long enough. That’s all
So, we finally arrived at about 8 Friday night. We were greated by a huge group of kids who were standing by the road, they came running after us yelling “Mugua! Mugua!” That’s their word for white people. So, I climbed out of the truck bed and was met by a huge crowd of people who simply wanted to shake my hand and greet me. “Kwasia buti” To which you reply kabotu kwasia buti!
So we set up camp and spent the next two weeks visiting people during the day, inviting them to come to the meetings and holding bible studies with them. We also had a number of people go through VOP lessons (when you’ve completed them you get a free Bible - one guy completed all 26 in one day. He was serious!) Then, at night I would usually give the health talk, then Ernest gave the message for the evening. We had a pretty good attendance. Maybe at least 500 each night, but I’m not good at guessing numbers.
It was good times. We met a lot of interesting people, saw a lot of interesting things. I got to meet the chief. He gave us a chicken. A very pretty chicken at that, she was grey and specked. I also met and talked with the chief head man (biggest guy under the chief.) Someone else was the spokesperson when we met the chief, but I was the one talking meeting the chief headman (Ai!) I basically went into my typical spiel presenting God as a loving, personal creator who wants to be your friend. Then, my translator started in on Sabbath and baptism. It was a good visit. We also met a couple of apostolic priests. My translator argued with them for about 2 hrs. Craziness. But, they invited him to come back and chat again so hey, you never know where this may go. We may have 2 more church members soon.
Witchcraft was a big thing in that area. We saw a lot of demon possession. Sometimes at night we would hear the elders praying and casting demons out of people. Then, the second Sabbath we were there, Ernest preached and gave an appeal. Three of the women who responded to the appeal fell to the ground and started writhing and making strange grunting noises. They just picked them up, carried them inside the church building, and started praying for them while the service continued. Then one of the women came running out, arms flailing, running quite funny with the elders following close behind. She ran out into the middle of a field, fell, and they gathered around and were shouting at the demons to get out, and praying. The other two women took their turns doing the same thing. Now, I have to bragg about my translator. He’s this tiny little thing, maybe 5 ft, 26 years old, and he was always the first to the person who is possessed, then he stands over them, pointing away from the person and yelling the loudest at the demon to get out. Good job Emmanual, good job. We also had about 6 women who had to be carried out of the water at the baptisms because they had demons in them and collapsed when dunked under water.
I believe we had over 75 baptisms though. God definitely blessed. There were a number of people who were not baptized but who were still thinking and studying when we left. So, the numbers may grow yet.
Also, the last Friday that I was at Chaanga I woke up with a very red, swollen, left knee. Painful too. As the day went on it grew more and more painful, gave me a fever, made my stomach upset, at one point I even had trouble breathing. So, I applied charcoal poultices, and took a lot of charcoal by mouth. It was worse Saturday, but I managed to make it to the church service and baptisms before collapsing under a blanket in my tent. Sunday morning we got up early and left. You notice how horrible and bumpy a road is a lot more when your knee throbs with each jolt. Just an observation I made. I would have liked to have gone straight to the clinic then, but it wasn’t possible because we had to pick up Ernest’s daughter at the blacktop and take her with us to Lushomo and whatnot. So, Monday morning I finally got to Riverside, so I was able to see the clinic. By this point, my leg was huge! We are talking more than double its normal size.
The nurses here took one look at my leg and said I needed to go to the Dr in Lusaka for better antibiotics and arranged for transport for me the next day. So, Tuesday morning I went to the clinc and had an appt. with a Dr. Lynen who took one look at me and said I needed to be admitted to the hospital. Long story short, I spent the morning and afternoon in the treatment room on a drip waiting for everything to get worked out so far as finances go and was admitted around 16 hours under the diagnosis of infected knee with abscess and cellulitis. Translation: not good. It could have easily gone septic - and killed me, or resulted in osteomyelitis, or I could have wound up with arthritis for the rest of my life. Fun. So, the surgeon came to look at me and told me he was going to operate in two hours. He’s Russian, very short with words, and not the most cheerful/friendly person I’ve met but he’s a good surgeon so I make no complaints.
All that was easy, hobbling around with an infected knee (walking the long ways to the hole in the ground we call a toilet in the bush - then trying to figure out how to squat on one knee), getting admitted, the IV, news about surgery, etc… Now came the hard part. Calling the parents. Needles to say I met with some unhappy responses. Given the circumstances, they handled it pretty well. Actually, I had talked to them the day before and told them my knee was infected and I had to go for meds, so mom just said “I knew it! I knew your knee was worse than you were telling me!” Yes mom, you were right. Congrats.
Anywho, the surgery went well, the incisions looked pretty nasty. They are good sized cuts. He left it open so that they could drain some more if they needed to. He actually put drains in to keep it open and make sure any pus left in could get out (these were interesting drains, they didn’t have tubes small enough for my incisions, so he cut the fingers off of a latex glove and put those in). Weird. It was very interesting looking. Quite creative. The first few days of wound cleaning were not fun. Since the incisions are so big, the person cleaning would just shove the syringe down in there and blast the wound with saline, then again with iodine. Can you say ouch? Then when the surgeon cleaned it…. *shudders* He was… thorough… yeah…. Thorough. It was funny though, because I didn’t realize the two wounds were connected until he squirted the stuff in one wound, and it came shooting out the other. That was funny. I laughed. He also gave me a big squirt of hydrogen peroxide. Lots of bubbles came pouring out both sides. At first I didn’t realize what he had put, so I thought it was pus and was slightly concerned…. It was funny though. Alex was there Wed night (she freaked out more than my family and myself put together when she heard I was all alone in a hospital going into surgery etc… so she came to visit the next morning and got to stay the night). Anywho, Alex found it all quite amusing. I’m not a big crier, so naturally I didn’t cry when they messed with the wound, even though it hurt like nothing else. So, Alex was there laughing at me saying “Just cry already!” Thanks buddy. The nurse said the same thing… But there weren’t even tears in my eyes to be cried people… what’s your problem? Fortunately the only time I’ve had a lot of pain has been during wound cleaning time. So… I was able to refuse all painkillers with the exception of the night of the surgery. I was so groggy I didn’t even know what they were injecting me with. I just knew it was time for a shot and I was supposed to hold still. Okay.
So, I spent five days in the hospital. Good times. I was so happy to leave though! I’m too independent for all of that sitting around with nurses doing everything for you nonsense. My first night back here the Director and his wife wanted me to stay at their house (she’s a nurse). I’m doing quite well though, so I got to come back to my regular Riverside home today since it isn’t necessary for someone to watch me every second. I just have to take my drugs morning and evening and clean the wounds once a day and rebandage them. The wounds are gaping, so you’ve gotta watch it, but they are very clean. The surgeon wants to see me again on Tuesday. Not sure why. Maybe he just misses me. He probably wants me to be his American granddaughter… yeah that’s it he misses me.
Other than that the only other news is that I have been moved to Riverside now. Permanantly. Bummer. I really like it out in the bush, I would have liked to get to help out with the other two crusades they will hold. Also, I miss my Zambian family. Especially Chile. He’s like my cousin or something. We’d just sit up late at night talking at the crusade since the message was in Tonga and I couldn’t understand, and it was his dad talking so he’d heard the same sermons before. We had some good times. The student missionaries here will be leaving next week. So, then I will be working in the clinic here.
One of the girls here told me she wrote back home about my leg and so her whole town was praying for me. Haha. I guess a lot of people have been praying. I know it has been healing quickly. Even the doctors at the hospital were surprised at how quickly the swelling went down. And the gaping wounds are healing nicely. Its cool to watch how the tissues are reforming already. I think God and my guardian angel have definitely been working over time here lately.
Well, I think I’ve made this blog long enough. That’s all
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