Our little girl that Sheila and I stayed up with died yesterday. We knew she was getting pretty bad and there wasn’t much we could do for her, so I was glad that we had said our goodbyes to her the night before. We were pretty busy yesterday, with rounds in the morning and then clinic in the afternoon. I did a couple of paracentesis (draining fluid of a patients abdomen) which was a little different from what I’ve seen done in the States. Usually we numb the patient up, use this fancy apparatus to put a catheter into the abdomen and then hook it up to vacuum containers to assist with the whole process… Well here there is no such thing. So I grabbed an IV catheter, a used tubing, and a blue tub… that was it! No numbing meds, so I just stuck the needle through as the patient gritted his teeth and then just taped the tubing to the tub which was on the floor to use gravity to assist with the draining process. It took about 2 hours to drain completely but it worked.
After work yesterday, Isaah (the cook) came and picked Sheila and I up on his motorbike. All three of us rode over to his house where his wife had prepared dinner for us. We had Fufu, which is made from ground up yams so that it becomes a white ball of somewhat gummy like stuff. Pretty interesting texture but it was good. This was served with a spicy pine oil sauce and meat from a pig’s head. Isaah has a little bar that he wanted to show us so he and Kaleb (another chef) drove us over there and we had a couple of drinks. His place was much nicer than the first one we went to, with a fenced of area and music.
Since today was Saturday, we slept in a little bit and then rounded in the hospital this morning. After lunch we went over to Greg and Wendy’s house for a magic show held by their son Aiden and a movie. Greg is a missionary here, and his wife Wendy is here with him along with their thee children, Carter 9, Aiden 7 and Sukonya 7. Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish the movie since we had to go back to the hospital and round again. I did and I&D (draining pus and cleaning and infection) of a ladie’s jaw. Her infection was so bad that the whole right side of her face was swollen up, from her forehead to her neck and behind her nose. She could hardly open up her mouth to eat of speak. I might have to do it again a couple of times but she looked a lot better after the procedure.
I’m on call tonight so hopefully I won’t have a crazy night like the other day. I have a phone that they call if they need me so I don’t have to sleep at the hospital or stay up all night if nothing happens. Tomorrow should be a fairly light day so I am thinking about exploring the town a little bit although I do have to catch up on some laundry and e-mails.