Carina’s Blog

3rd Week

Started the week with some souvenir shopping with Els who is leaving in 2 days.  We went to the Bugand crafts market.  The things there are beautiful and not necessarily cheap but Ugandan standard but to us it’s priced very good.  I found some stuff for family and a few friends that are uniquely Ugandan if not African.  Had lunch at 1000 Cups Cafe, very good coffee.  Uganda has good coffee but very hard to find a place that knows how to make them properly.  Definitely have to come back to get some before leaving.

Spent a couple days at Hope Clinic, what Dr Stockley calls the slum clinic.  The patient population here is very poor and most services offered are free.  On Monday, children immunizations and weight check.  The schedule they follow is much quicker than the US one.  At birth, oral polio and BCG.  At 6, 10 and 14 weeks, polio and DPT.  At 9 months, measles.  Vitamin A every 6 months until 5 years old.  I can only say sorry to the babies after I give them the shots as they and their mothers only speak Luganda, not much English.  The babies I see look smaller than what their age are, very likely due to malnutrition.  This happens once a week and on average the clinic see about 100 babies for shots.

On Tuesdays, it’s antenatal clinic at Hope.  It includes basic check up, weight, BP, fundal height and fetal heart by fetal stethoscope.  It was the first time for me seeing the fetal stethoscope.  It’s a metal cup turned upside down with a ear piece at the end.  Also includes tetanus shot at the 1st visit.  Mothers come in for the first time at 30 weeks or so.  It’s very different than home where by 30 weeks, ultrasound is done, amnio if needed, deformities and genetics were checked.  Very different atmosphere.

The clinic is very well runned for lower socioeconomic population.  It is filled with simple posters on the wall about malaria, STDs, HIVE, family planning.  There’s a basic pharmacy available and basic lab.  It is very well organized and serves the local community well for the basic medical care that we’ve taken for granted at home.  For the community this is pretty much the only medical care that they will ever receive.

During one of my days at the Surgery, I stitched someone’s scalp.  I have stitched other parts of body before but not scalp since it tends to be a bleeder that the attendings tend to not let the students do it at home.  The wound was a star shape and Dr Stockley did 2 stitches to start and I threw 3 more to finish up.

Els left earlier this week.  I felt like I have known her for much longer than the 2 weeks.  It’s going to be weird leaving next weeks. It feels like I have known everyone at the hose for a lot longer than 4 weeks. 3rd week is over.  Time really does fly when you are having fun.  I’m not quite ready to leave next week.  Really wish I had allotted an extra week of time to travel and explore.  Next time will definitely plan better.

Just heard about the volcanic eruption in Iceland and now no flights in and out of UK and much of northern Europe.  This is going to be interesting as I’m schedule to fly through London in a week’s time.  Gotta find out what is going on and play the lovely waiting game with the natural disaster.