So, last Monday I spent the day hanging out at the house I was staying at because Dr. Fam was gone for a workshop in town, and Dr. Christie had gone to town as well and I didn't feel like I knew anyone else there well enough to bug them the whole day long. It was a pretty good day. I spent most of the day reading books to Chrisalyne's kids. Chysa had me read the the same three books over and over and over.. I could almost quote "If You Give a Pig a Pancake," "The Little Puppy's Bad Day," etc... now. She's a little mess.
Tuesday I went on rounds with Dr. Fam again, then we went to Theater to remove a guy's prostate. We were supposed to have surgery on a hernia as well, but that didn't happen because the Prostate surgery took too long. Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong with this surgery. To start things off, when the man got on the table, he told the anesthesiologist that last time he had surgery he reacted to something they gave him, so they had to try to get a hold of his last surgeon. That took some time, they finally got a hold of him and were told it was okay to go ahead and give it. So, the anesthesiologist went to try to give him the injection. They just wanted him numb from waist down, so he just had to insert a needle between the guy's vertebrae. Problem: the man was rather hefty and the spot couldn't be found. So... he did general anesthesia instead. Once he was under, the man had to be intibated... then it was quite a bit of work to wade through all the fat tissue. Not only that, but Dr. Fam was just using the incision the other surgeon had used, and it wasn't large enough to work in, and the man was bleeding a lot. When he finally got down in there, he had trouble getting the prostate out. I mean it took a long time, meanwhile he was bleeding and I had to suction all this blood up. Finally, he got part of the prostate, couldn't find the other two lobes, but he had to turn his attention to stopping the bleeding and started tying off blood vessels, but had trouble finding where the bleeders were because the fat was in the way, the hole was too small, etc. Then, one of the guys assisting had to go, so there were just two of us assisting, not enough hands. At one point I was trying to retract with my left hand, hold a couple of clamps with my right hand, and suction at the same time. Well, finally the other two lobes were located and we were able to close... took a long time though. We were in Theater about six hours that day.
Wed Chrisalyn, Cam, and the kids and myself all hiked for two hours to go see where Yanjinani, Chrisalyne's hired help, lives. It was quite the trip. With two little kids, plus a backpack full of supplies to keep those kids cared for ad happy... we were loaded down with stuff. We hauled the kids in Chitenges (2 yard piece of cloth, just throw the kid on your back, then tie them on with the chitenge... quite effective). It was a nice hike, and we drew quite the crowd once we started climbing the mountain she lives on. White people don't pass through there very often. It was funny, we had this big group of people following us for some time. A drunk lady even latched onto Cam, holding her hand for a ways. The family was all dressed up for us, grandpa had his suit on and everything. It was cute. So, we visited them for some time, had lunch there, then headed back.
Thursday was more surgery. Two med students from Loma Linda were there too. One of them scrubbed in. We had two hernia's, I closed the first one. It was kinda funny, I'm in there with med students, they stand back and watch and I have my hands right in there. Surgery isn't really their thing... one had to ask me to take over when he was helping at one point. Then, we closed the lady with the peritinites that we had had in there a week before (they didn't close all the way in case of reinfection). After that, they were taking care of a guy who has rectal cancer. He couldn't pass stool because of it. So, they had to give an enema, then insert a tube and allow things to drain. Quite messy, not for the weak of stomach. Apparently they had another surgery that night, obstructed bowel, went from 8:00 PM to 3:00 AM... didn't know about it until the next day.
Friday I just hung out with the family, did some cleaning, helped make lunch, went for a walk, went to the market, etc... It was a nice day. While in town, I met some members of this big group from Loma Linda there on a mission trip. Saw them again on Saturday. It turns out the leader of the trip is Claudio, who was the leader of the trip I went on to Ecuador a couple of years ago. So that was pretty cool... of all the places and times. Looks like we'll just keep randomly bumping into each other in different countries... haha. Anywho, this guy is Argentinian, his parents have connections to La Universidad Adventista del Plata in Argentina. So, he is going to have them put in a good word for me. So, now I've got connections. :)
Sunday we left at about 6:15 AM on a bus that passes through Malamulo. From there we went to Blantyre, caught another bus to Lilongwe, then a minibus from Lilongwe to Mchinje, taxied with a couple of catholic priests from there to the border. Exited one country, entered the next, found myself exchanging on the black market again for lack of a better alternative (the lady at the immigration office hooked me up with a "reliable" guy and had us change money in front of her so she could make sure I didn't get ripped off... haha). Then we taxied from the border to Chipata. As soon as we came into the bus stop, the car was surrounded by about 10 guys telling us to use their bus service, trying to convince us they would give us the best deal and their bus was better than everyone elses... They actually got into fights with each other about this... a couple started punching and shoving at each other... quite amusing. We finally purchased our tickets then waited. We spent the night there. Cam and Ray spread out on a bench, I took the concrete floor, covered up with a couple of chitenges. At about midnight our bus arrived and we all piled on and spent the rest of the night sleeping in there. The bus left at 5:00 AM and should have arrived at 13 hrs, but.... we broke down in the middle of nowhere and had to wait for a mechanic to come repair the gear shift. Yeah... so, I think we got in around 16 hrs.
Once we finally arrived at the bus station, Cam and Ray had to call their ride to come pick them up (they spent the night in Lusaka because they flew out the next day), and I had to call my ride (someone from RFI was in town running errands). Then we spent some time telling people that no, we do not need a taxi, bus, or mini bus. Cam lost her wallet, Ray stressed over whether or not his package had arrived at RFI, he needs stuff in it... chaos broke loose for a while. Finally got things worked out, rides arrived and we were off again. So yeah... it was a good trip all in all, and I was very happy to see my pillow last night.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Malawi
So, right now I am in Malawi at the Malamulo Mission Hospital. Last Tuesday at 4 AM the LIFE students and myself started off our morning by pushing the truck at Riverside until the driver could get it started. Then we hopped in the back and we were off! We reached the bus station around 5:30, just in time to buy our tickets, store our luggage, say our goodbye’s to those who were not coming with, and head out. When we bought our tickets we were told that the bus went all the way to Lilongwe, Malawi. So, we were planning to go straight there and then bus down to Blantyre from there. So, imagine our surprise when we found ourselves getting off the bus several miles from the border. Turns out we were misinformed. So, we took a taxi to the border, went through immigration on the Zambia side (basically getting an exit stamp on our passports), then we took a taxi to the other side of the border and got an entry visa there.
Now, the man on the Malawi side of the border was quite friendly, gave me his phone number and everything. (He’s planning on me taking him with me to see Riverside Farms… silly). So, I had a little chat with him trying to figure some things out. We wanted to exchange some money for Malawi kwacha (thought the taxi driver would probably be expecting some money at the end of the trip), but didn’t want to exchange on the black market. So, we were asking if there was somewhere we could exchange money. The immigration officer said no, there isn’t anywhere until you get to Lilongwe, you’ll have to trade on the black market. So I got info from him telling me what kind of exchange rate would be good, how much it would cost to get to Blantyre, etc. Now, at the border and several of the bus stations, as soon as you open the car door you are surrounded by men shoving money in your face trying to get you to change your money with them. So, it wasn’t hard to find them. They all carry calculators around in their hands, so when I asked them what kind of rate they would give me and told them how much I was exchanging, they started calculating. I asked the man I was dealing with to let me see the calculator so I could add it up, I took it from his hands and started punching numbers in only to find it was dead. Finally someone produced a working calculator, so we used that to figure how much they owed us. Sneaky sneaky people.
Wednesday was a rather easy day. Not a whole lot going on. Got a brief tour of the hospital, met the director, things like that. Then Thursday I spent the day with Dr. Fam, the surgeon. He let me come on rounds with him. We visited a man who had had a couple toes amputated, a lady who had all of hers amputated, men recovering from prostate surgery, a man who would have his prostate out later that day, a girl ready for her skin graft, etc… Then he let me come watch him perform surgery, and not only that, but he let me scrub in.
The first surgery was the removal of a man’s prostate. Its great, before each surgery Dr. Fam sits and has his own quiet prayer time, then there is a group prayer, then the surgery begins. I like how they work. I got to help with retraction and suctioning. The surgery probably took about 4 hours in all. As soon as that surgery was over, it was time to take care of an emergency. A boy had been cutting sugar cane, swung the blade, missed the knife, but nearly amputated his thumb. It had a huge gash in it, fractured bone, and the thumb was dangling. So, Dr. Fam cauterized the blood vessels, then stitched the ligaments and a tendon back together. So far it seems to be doing fine. They were worried the blood supply would be lost and they wouldn’t be able to save it. After that, it was a lady who had had an incomplete abortion. The baby was out but the placenta and umbilical cord were still inside. So, an intern took this long metal thing and scraped the rest out and into a trash can.
Next was a skin graft on a little girl’s foot. Hot porridge had spilled and burned her foot. It was interesting. They removed skin from her upper thigh to use for the graft. To remove the skin, they used this thing that kind of reminded me of the side of the cheese grater that you use for slicing the cheese, only it had a motor. My job was to grab the skin with tweezers as it came through. They then put slits in the skin, stretched it, then put it in place with Vaseline gauze over it, after removing all the tissue that had grown since the burn happened. Finally, there was a lady with peritonitis. Her whole abdominal cavity was infected, filled with pus. As soon as the Doctor got into the cavity I had to start suctioning, and if he moved his finger the slightest bit, pus went spurting everywhere, like a drinking fountain that has just been turned on. And it smelled beautiful! It turns out the appendix had ruptured, causing the infection. So, he removed the appendix, cleaned her insides up with saline and iodine, then closed her up.
Friday I went on rounds with Dr. Fam again. It was just a quick trip around the hospital as it was preparation day and they try not to do any more work than they have to on Friday. There was a little baby boy with a herniated belly button. Dr. Fam pushed the hernia in with his finger. As soon as the baby started crying the hernia popped back out. So Dr. Fam had me push it in. It was fun to play with. Push it in, baby cries, it pops out, push it in again. I think Dr. Fam operated on him Sunday morning.
Saturday we went to church, of course. It was nice. The children had the program which means lots of special musical numbers. After church was potluck, then we went for a walk through the tea plantation. By the way, Malawi is beautiful! I need to get out and take more pictures.
Sunday I went on rounds with Dr. Christie. She is a family practitioner. Since the hospital here is a teaching hospital, she had a herd of students with her as she made her rounds. It was interesting, not quite as fascinating as surgery though. She did an ultra sound on one of her patients to see why she was having such severe abdominal pain (she wasn’t pregnant). In the ultra sound it looked like there was fluid around the uterus, and maybe an abscess in there somewhere. Every time you touched this woman’s belly she started crying, and I mean really crying. So, the only way to tell what was really going on was to perform surgery since they don’t have a lot of fancy advanced medical equipment here.
I got to scrub in for the surgery and assist. I was able to help more this time because there weren’t as many people in the Theater as there had been before. They weren’t especially happy to be opening her up because she is HIV positive and when you get opened up your immune system is affected, so they wanted to do this as fast as possible. Dr. Fam opened her up, I helped hold her skin so he could use the scissors, soak up blood, things like that. When he got into the cavity there, we were met with all the fluid that showed up on ultra sound. So, we soaked that up. Then you could see the culprit. Tiny little tumors coated her intestines, the lining of her abdominal cavity, we stuck our hands up and felt around the liver and there were tumors all over that too, same for the uterus, bladder, you name it. Dr. Fam just shook his head and said, “Only Jesus can saver her now.” Sad thing is, in opening her up, we decreased the amount of time she has left. After that, he started stitching the inner layers of her skin back together, then he left the rest of us to close up the outer layer of skin. So, I’m thinking I’ll be assisting the man to my left as he stitches her back together, but no, as Dr. Fam left he said Chaalie, teach Megan how to suture. So, I stitched her back together. Kinda freaky, especially when they told me she was starting to wake up. Yikes! I felt really clumsy because when you suture you don’t just use needle, thread, and fingers. You have to hold the needle with this special needle holder, and use another tool to pull the skin tight as you stitch. Twas interesting.
After that surgery, the man with the amputated toes came in, he has diabetes and the feet problems are the result of ulcers. He had some pus down in there somewhere, so Dr. Fam was trying to find the culprit. It was a simple, yet time consuming surgery as his foot kept bleeding and we had to keep waiting for it to stop bleeding to continue. Hopefully he got everything. To end with, he poured honey into all of the holes in the mans foot. He says that the sugar concentration in honey doesn’t allow for bacterial growth, or something like that. Quite interesting.
Anywho… I think this blog has gone long enough… more to come.
Now, the man on the Malawi side of the border was quite friendly, gave me his phone number and everything. (He’s planning on me taking him with me to see Riverside Farms… silly). So, I had a little chat with him trying to figure some things out. We wanted to exchange some money for Malawi kwacha (thought the taxi driver would probably be expecting some money at the end of the trip), but didn’t want to exchange on the black market. So, we were asking if there was somewhere we could exchange money. The immigration officer said no, there isn’t anywhere until you get to Lilongwe, you’ll have to trade on the black market. So I got info from him telling me what kind of exchange rate would be good, how much it would cost to get to Blantyre, etc. Now, at the border and several of the bus stations, as soon as you open the car door you are surrounded by men shoving money in your face trying to get you to change your money with them. So, it wasn’t hard to find them. They all carry calculators around in their hands, so when I asked them what kind of rate they would give me and told them how much I was exchanging, they started calculating. I asked the man I was dealing with to let me see the calculator so I could add it up, I took it from his hands and started punching numbers in only to find it was dead. Finally someone produced a working calculator, so we used that to figure how much they owed us. Sneaky sneaky people.
Wednesday was a rather easy day. Not a whole lot going on. Got a brief tour of the hospital, met the director, things like that. Then Thursday I spent the day with Dr. Fam, the surgeon. He let me come on rounds with him. We visited a man who had had a couple toes amputated, a lady who had all of hers amputated, men recovering from prostate surgery, a man who would have his prostate out later that day, a girl ready for her skin graft, etc… Then he let me come watch him perform surgery, and not only that, but he let me scrub in.
The first surgery was the removal of a man’s prostate. Its great, before each surgery Dr. Fam sits and has his own quiet prayer time, then there is a group prayer, then the surgery begins. I like how they work. I got to help with retraction and suctioning. The surgery probably took about 4 hours in all. As soon as that surgery was over, it was time to take care of an emergency. A boy had been cutting sugar cane, swung the blade, missed the knife, but nearly amputated his thumb. It had a huge gash in it, fractured bone, and the thumb was dangling. So, Dr. Fam cauterized the blood vessels, then stitched the ligaments and a tendon back together. So far it seems to be doing fine. They were worried the blood supply would be lost and they wouldn’t be able to save it. After that, it was a lady who had had an incomplete abortion. The baby was out but the placenta and umbilical cord were still inside. So, an intern took this long metal thing and scraped the rest out and into a trash can.
Next was a skin graft on a little girl’s foot. Hot porridge had spilled and burned her foot. It was interesting. They removed skin from her upper thigh to use for the graft. To remove the skin, they used this thing that kind of reminded me of the side of the cheese grater that you use for slicing the cheese, only it had a motor. My job was to grab the skin with tweezers as it came through. They then put slits in the skin, stretched it, then put it in place with Vaseline gauze over it, after removing all the tissue that had grown since the burn happened. Finally, there was a lady with peritonitis. Her whole abdominal cavity was infected, filled with pus. As soon as the Doctor got into the cavity I had to start suctioning, and if he moved his finger the slightest bit, pus went spurting everywhere, like a drinking fountain that has just been turned on. And it smelled beautiful! It turns out the appendix had ruptured, causing the infection. So, he removed the appendix, cleaned her insides up with saline and iodine, then closed her up.
Friday I went on rounds with Dr. Fam again. It was just a quick trip around the hospital as it was preparation day and they try not to do any more work than they have to on Friday. There was a little baby boy with a herniated belly button. Dr. Fam pushed the hernia in with his finger. As soon as the baby started crying the hernia popped back out. So Dr. Fam had me push it in. It was fun to play with. Push it in, baby cries, it pops out, push it in again. I think Dr. Fam operated on him Sunday morning.
Saturday we went to church, of course. It was nice. The children had the program which means lots of special musical numbers. After church was potluck, then we went for a walk through the tea plantation. By the way, Malawi is beautiful! I need to get out and take more pictures.
Sunday I went on rounds with Dr. Christie. She is a family practitioner. Since the hospital here is a teaching hospital, she had a herd of students with her as she made her rounds. It was interesting, not quite as fascinating as surgery though. She did an ultra sound on one of her patients to see why she was having such severe abdominal pain (she wasn’t pregnant). In the ultra sound it looked like there was fluid around the uterus, and maybe an abscess in there somewhere. Every time you touched this woman’s belly she started crying, and I mean really crying. So, the only way to tell what was really going on was to perform surgery since they don’t have a lot of fancy advanced medical equipment here.
I got to scrub in for the surgery and assist. I was able to help more this time because there weren’t as many people in the Theater as there had been before. They weren’t especially happy to be opening her up because she is HIV positive and when you get opened up your immune system is affected, so they wanted to do this as fast as possible. Dr. Fam opened her up, I helped hold her skin so he could use the scissors, soak up blood, things like that. When he got into the cavity there, we were met with all the fluid that showed up on ultra sound. So, we soaked that up. Then you could see the culprit. Tiny little tumors coated her intestines, the lining of her abdominal cavity, we stuck our hands up and felt around the liver and there were tumors all over that too, same for the uterus, bladder, you name it. Dr. Fam just shook his head and said, “Only Jesus can saver her now.” Sad thing is, in opening her up, we decreased the amount of time she has left. After that, he started stitching the inner layers of her skin back together, then he left the rest of us to close up the outer layer of skin. So, I’m thinking I’ll be assisting the man to my left as he stitches her back together, but no, as Dr. Fam left he said Chaalie, teach Megan how to suture. So, I stitched her back together. Kinda freaky, especially when they told me she was starting to wake up. Yikes! I felt really clumsy because when you suture you don’t just use needle, thread, and fingers. You have to hold the needle with this special needle holder, and use another tool to pull the skin tight as you stitch. Twas interesting.
After that surgery, the man with the amputated toes came in, he has diabetes and the feet problems are the result of ulcers. He had some pus down in there somewhere, so Dr. Fam was trying to find the culprit. It was a simple, yet time consuming surgery as his foot kept bleeding and we had to keep waiting for it to stop bleeding to continue. Hopefully he got everything. To end with, he poured honey into all of the holes in the mans foot. He says that the sugar concentration in honey doesn’t allow for bacterial growth, or something like that. Quite interesting.
Anywho… I think this blog has gone long enough… more to come.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Latest
Well, there hasn't been a whole lot going on to talk about lately. I'm still working at the clinic. Mostly counting pills, doing paper work, picking up whatever useful information I can. Three Wedesdays of the month we have bush clinics. Those are always nice. I especially liked going out to Lushomo, just because its home. Miss it. Tomorrow we head out to Shamilonga for a clinic.
I had thought I might get to go out on the next crusade and was actually planning on it, but then infection started to slowly creep back into my leg. So, I had to stay here because it is hard to keep things from getting infected in the bush, and the location for the crusade is even deeper in the bush than before (which actually made it even more appealing).
Last week there were some Malasian people here visiting from the Malamulo Mission Hospital in Malawi. I spent a few minutes talking to them. Three of them were students from a medical missionary training program and are doing health evangelism there at Malamulo. The fourth is in charge of the program, and he is surgeon at the hospital. He's a funny, energetic little guy with a huge smile constantly spread accross his face. Anyway, he invited me and the LIFE students to come visit. So, I talked to him and he said it would be perfectly alright if I just came and shadowed him. I could go on rounds with him visiting patients and watch him as he performs surgeries, etc... It's perfect!
Several months ago I had said that I would like to spend some time at a hospital before leaving Zambia. So, as I was lying in my hospital bed I remembered that and was like "Wait, this isn't what I meant!" haha... anywho looks like I may get to see both sides. So, it looks like its going to happen, just trying to work out some details. Then, when I get back Liz will be arriving, so we will visit Lushomo for a few days, then shortly after that I have to head back to the states.
In other news, as of yesterday I have started spending my afternoons at the Wellness Center. Its nice. The nurses at the clinic don't want me gone much, but I've managed to convince them to let me go under the condition that if they get swamped they'll call me back over. There are currently two guests up there. One lady is a stroke patient named Abigail, who's right arm is limp and leg isn't funcioning very well. She also has trouble speaking and has to learn how to read all over again. The other lady is a woman named Mercy. As far as I know her only reason for being there is she has a flu and a stressful job. She may have high BP or hypertension or something. I should ask.
So, I get to observe and help where possible. Yesterday was a Russian steam bath and enema (decided I won't be signing up for one of those any time soon). Today I helped give Abigail a whirlpool bath and helped her do some exercises on her right arm and leg. Its really nice to do hands on work with people rather than just count pills all day. And these ladies are so sweet! I'm especially fond of Abigail. Poor lady has trouble walking, dressing, can't tie her shoe laces, has difficulty communicating with us because she's still learning to talk (things we all take for granted) etc... but she is always so sweet and happy. She just smiles or laughs when she has trouble doing something. So yeah, I'm enjoying the Wellness Center, just wish I had started there sooner. Trying to soak up as much info as possible while there
Well thats all for now!
I had thought I might get to go out on the next crusade and was actually planning on it, but then infection started to slowly creep back into my leg. So, I had to stay here because it is hard to keep things from getting infected in the bush, and the location for the crusade is even deeper in the bush than before (which actually made it even more appealing).
Last week there were some Malasian people here visiting from the Malamulo Mission Hospital in Malawi. I spent a few minutes talking to them. Three of them were students from a medical missionary training program and are doing health evangelism there at Malamulo. The fourth is in charge of the program, and he is surgeon at the hospital. He's a funny, energetic little guy with a huge smile constantly spread accross his face. Anyway, he invited me and the LIFE students to come visit. So, I talked to him and he said it would be perfectly alright if I just came and shadowed him. I could go on rounds with him visiting patients and watch him as he performs surgeries, etc... It's perfect!
Several months ago I had said that I would like to spend some time at a hospital before leaving Zambia. So, as I was lying in my hospital bed I remembered that and was like "Wait, this isn't what I meant!" haha... anywho looks like I may get to see both sides. So, it looks like its going to happen, just trying to work out some details. Then, when I get back Liz will be arriving, so we will visit Lushomo for a few days, then shortly after that I have to head back to the states.
In other news, as of yesterday I have started spending my afternoons at the Wellness Center. Its nice. The nurses at the clinic don't want me gone much, but I've managed to convince them to let me go under the condition that if they get swamped they'll call me back over. There are currently two guests up there. One lady is a stroke patient named Abigail, who's right arm is limp and leg isn't funcioning very well. She also has trouble speaking and has to learn how to read all over again. The other lady is a woman named Mercy. As far as I know her only reason for being there is she has a flu and a stressful job. She may have high BP or hypertension or something. I should ask.
So, I get to observe and help where possible. Yesterday was a Russian steam bath and enema (decided I won't be signing up for one of those any time soon). Today I helped give Abigail a whirlpool bath and helped her do some exercises on her right arm and leg. Its really nice to do hands on work with people rather than just count pills all day. And these ladies are so sweet! I'm especially fond of Abigail. Poor lady has trouble walking, dressing, can't tie her shoe laces, has difficulty communicating with us because she's still learning to talk (things we all take for granted) etc... but she is always so sweet and happy. She just smiles or laughs when she has trouble doing something. So yeah, I'm enjoying the Wellness Center, just wish I had started there sooner. Trying to soak up as much info as possible while there
Well thats all for now!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Victoria Falls
I felt like a penguin as I slowly shuffled toward the edge. Everything within me screamed "no!" as I looked down. Then came those fateful words. "5-4-3-2-1 bungee!" That's right. I jumped off a perfectly good bridge. Pushing all rational thoughts aside, I dove off the platform and began my 4 second, 111 meter plumet towards the rapids below, only to bounce back and free fall again. According to Alan you fall at about 50 mph, then on the bounce back its about 80 mph. Don't know about all that, but it felt pretty fast to me. It was really cool though, and definitely something I would reccomend.
Well, this weekend I went to Victoria Falls with some short time Volunteers that arrived a little more than a week ago. Two of them fly back to Europe next week. Apparently tourism is down a bit. That worked great for me. They put together this nice little package deal over at the bridge. With that package deal I was able to bungee jump, zipline, and go on the gorge swing for just $20 more than it costs to bungee jump. So, I did all three. The zipline was a nice and easy slide accross the rapids, you could probably sip tea as while crossing if you really wanted to. The bungee was amazing, pretty much pure adrenaline. But I would have to say the gorge swing was the most intense.
Basically with the swing you have a harness on and you just step off the bridge into thin air. Kinda freaky. You see, with the bungee at least you have something strapped around your ancles, and that heavy cord almost seems to hold you as you fall. I can't explain it, you just feel more secure. Wheras with the swing you are just free falling and the rope doesn't catch until you reach it's end. Pretty crazy.
The falls are amazing! Apart from flying over the ocean, I've never seen so much water at once! Since rainy season just ended, there is a lot of water shooting over the falls. You can see the mist rising from the falls a good five minutes before you enter the city of Livingstone! Its craziness! There is a bridge you can walk accross to view the falls, but if you walk accross it this time of year, you get soaked! Enrico and I went accross, Ingi and Tommy opted to stay dry. We were thoroughly drenched though!
In other news, I got to go on a Safari on Saturday. We saw a lot of elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocadiles, water monitors, impala and other members of the deer family, warthogs, some beautiful birds, etc... No kitties though. This actually isn't the best time of year for game viewing, so it was pretty amazing that we saw what we did. We saw over 50 elephants at once, all down at the water's edge. I got some pretty amazing pictures as we got pretty close to them. One elephant came prancing right by the vehicle, a roudy teenager, got within about 6 ft of me. We also got to watch this huge bull elephant swim accross the river a ways, then munch on some greens. The morning part of the safari was in a little boat, then the afternoon part was in a vehicle. So, we were right in the water with him. It was cool.
Things have been pretty slow here at the clinic, hence my failure to write as of late. I've been climbing the mountain here after work every day, getting my leg muscles back. One of the incisions on my leg is just a huge scar now, I'm waiting for the scab to drop off the other incision, should be any day now.
There are three new people here doing mission work for just a short time. Ingi from Norway, Tommy from Germany, and Enrico from Switzerland. They've been here about two weeks now I think? Ingi and Tommy leave next week, Enrico leaves sometime next month. They all speak German so that makes life interesting. Anywho, they are all in their 20's as well and they've been helping Alan put up an electric fence around the property.
I get to go out on the next crusade! Sometime at the end of this month. I don't know when or where it is, but Ernest has assured me that it is in the middle of nowhere, which is exactly what I like to hear. So, it should be good. I've gotta brush up on the health talks and VOP (Voice of Prophecy) Bible studies a bit. Fortunately, since things are so slow at the clinic I have plenty of time for things like that.
I had my first bush clinic without Darby this past Wed. It went pretty well, I think we saw 95 kids. This week it will be busier. Luyando. I guess it is farther out in the Bush, so we will be staying the night Tuesday night and hold the clinic Wed. I hear there are a lot of people that come to this one. That's kind of intimidating, gotta work fast and know what you are doing.
Well, it was a long day, what with plummeting to the earth and the long bus ride back and everything... so I'm going to bed.
Well, this weekend I went to Victoria Falls with some short time Volunteers that arrived a little more than a week ago. Two of them fly back to Europe next week. Apparently tourism is down a bit. That worked great for me. They put together this nice little package deal over at the bridge. With that package deal I was able to bungee jump, zipline, and go on the gorge swing for just $20 more than it costs to bungee jump. So, I did all three. The zipline was a nice and easy slide accross the rapids, you could probably sip tea as while crossing if you really wanted to. The bungee was amazing, pretty much pure adrenaline. But I would have to say the gorge swing was the most intense.
Basically with the swing you have a harness on and you just step off the bridge into thin air. Kinda freaky. You see, with the bungee at least you have something strapped around your ancles, and that heavy cord almost seems to hold you as you fall. I can't explain it, you just feel more secure. Wheras with the swing you are just free falling and the rope doesn't catch until you reach it's end. Pretty crazy.
The falls are amazing! Apart from flying over the ocean, I've never seen so much water at once! Since rainy season just ended, there is a lot of water shooting over the falls. You can see the mist rising from the falls a good five minutes before you enter the city of Livingstone! Its craziness! There is a bridge you can walk accross to view the falls, but if you walk accross it this time of year, you get soaked! Enrico and I went accross, Ingi and Tommy opted to stay dry. We were thoroughly drenched though!
In other news, I got to go on a Safari on Saturday. We saw a lot of elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocadiles, water monitors, impala and other members of the deer family, warthogs, some beautiful birds, etc... No kitties though. This actually isn't the best time of year for game viewing, so it was pretty amazing that we saw what we did. We saw over 50 elephants at once, all down at the water's edge. I got some pretty amazing pictures as we got pretty close to them. One elephant came prancing right by the vehicle, a roudy teenager, got within about 6 ft of me. We also got to watch this huge bull elephant swim accross the river a ways, then munch on some greens. The morning part of the safari was in a little boat, then the afternoon part was in a vehicle. So, we were right in the water with him. It was cool.
Things have been pretty slow here at the clinic, hence my failure to write as of late. I've been climbing the mountain here after work every day, getting my leg muscles back. One of the incisions on my leg is just a huge scar now, I'm waiting for the scab to drop off the other incision, should be any day now.
There are three new people here doing mission work for just a short time. Ingi from Norway, Tommy from Germany, and Enrico from Switzerland. They've been here about two weeks now I think? Ingi and Tommy leave next week, Enrico leaves sometime next month. They all speak German so that makes life interesting. Anywho, they are all in their 20's as well and they've been helping Alan put up an electric fence around the property.
I get to go out on the next crusade! Sometime at the end of this month. I don't know when or where it is, but Ernest has assured me that it is in the middle of nowhere, which is exactly what I like to hear. So, it should be good. I've gotta brush up on the health talks and VOP (Voice of Prophecy) Bible studies a bit. Fortunately, since things are so slow at the clinic I have plenty of time for things like that.
I had my first bush clinic without Darby this past Wed. It went pretty well, I think we saw 95 kids. This week it will be busier. Luyando. I guess it is farther out in the Bush, so we will be staying the night Tuesday night and hold the clinic Wed. I hear there are a lot of people that come to this one. That's kind of intimidating, gotta work fast and know what you are doing.
Well, it was a long day, what with plummeting to the earth and the long bus ride back and everything... so I'm going to bed.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
RFI Clinic
Well, I sat around all weekend. Litterally. Darby wanted me to keep my leg elevated so I did. Didn't even venture out for church since it was a bit of a commute to get to church this Sabbath (it wasn't here at RFI). It was good though because I have some sermons on my laptop and listened to a couple. They were really good. The swelling went way down, almost to the same size as my other leg. Then I started working in the clinic on Monday. Swelling is going back up now... Gr.
Anywho, working in the clinic is pretty interesting. It is usually very slow, but it has been pretty busy the past couple of days. So, I've been counting a lot of pills, giving tetanus shots to pregnant women, doing paper work to close out the end of April, and yesterday I helped hold a baby's mouth open while the nurse excised its tongue. Poor thing couldn't stick its tongue out, which would cause speaking problems later. So, they just snip a bit under the tongue. It was interesting. I didn't realize babies had such strong jaws!
Paulene told me today that once my leg is healed Alan will let me go back out to the bush to help with the next crusade. I'm excited! Riverside is nice and all, but there's just something about the bush. The people are great, and freaky as it is to me, health talks and bible studies are really needed out there and its nice to be filling a need like that and see how your work is impacting people. Its also just nice to live simply. Sleeping in a tent, cooking over a charcoal fire, talking and reading for entertainment, surrounded by cows and goats and chickens and pigs and kids that are just dying to be played with. People think they have it made sitting in their big mansions with their big screen TVs and piles of money but hey, I'd take the African bush any day.
Darby, Alex, and Mark all left this morning. It was sad. They are all probably in the air or stuck in an airport somewhere right now. Tomorrow there are a couple of people coming from SAU, a guy and a girl. The girl will be staying in the house with me so I won't be alone for long. Anywho, not much else to tell so I'll say bye for now.
Anywho, working in the clinic is pretty interesting. It is usually very slow, but it has been pretty busy the past couple of days. So, I've been counting a lot of pills, giving tetanus shots to pregnant women, doing paper work to close out the end of April, and yesterday I helped hold a baby's mouth open while the nurse excised its tongue. Poor thing couldn't stick its tongue out, which would cause speaking problems later. So, they just snip a bit under the tongue. It was interesting. I didn't realize babies had such strong jaws!
Paulene told me today that once my leg is healed Alan will let me go back out to the bush to help with the next crusade. I'm excited! Riverside is nice and all, but there's just something about the bush. The people are great, and freaky as it is to me, health talks and bible studies are really needed out there and its nice to be filling a need like that and see how your work is impacting people. Its also just nice to live simply. Sleeping in a tent, cooking over a charcoal fire, talking and reading for entertainment, surrounded by cows and goats and chickens and pigs and kids that are just dying to be played with. People think they have it made sitting in their big mansions with their big screen TVs and piles of money but hey, I'd take the African bush any day.
Darby, Alex, and Mark all left this morning. It was sad. They are all probably in the air or stuck in an airport somewhere right now. Tomorrow there are a couple of people coming from SAU, a guy and a girl. The girl will be staying in the house with me so I won't be alone for long. Anywho, not much else to tell so I'll say bye for now.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
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!
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!
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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