Back to the Hospital

Tuesday was back to our normal routine.  We woke up after a great night sleep and made our way to the hospital.  A couple of us headed to maternity to see if we could catch a live birth but there were already too many students and interns there.  I found myself back in minor theatre which was pretty steadily busy the entire morning.  I redressed wounds at first including some of the regulars who we see every couple days.  A man came in who had been in a knife fight and had multiple slashes across his back and he needed his stitches removed.  Allison and I removed at least 20-30 stitches off the backside of the man.  I watched a couple abscesses being cut and drained which is something I hadn’t observed yet.  One of the abscesses was on a man’s leg and the other was on a poor toddler’s forehead.  One of the saddest things I saw today was a lady who came in and had huge tumors on her lymphnoids under her armpits.  She had previously had a mastectomy but had never been treated for chemotherapy.  She was clearly sick and unfortunately there was nothing we could do except send her to get a biopsy of the lumps.  Cancer is something that is always hard for me to see and it was obvious it was so far advanced. 

                                            removing sutures from the man's backside

One positive of the day was that we have some really appreciative patients.  People are constantly telling us “God Bless You” or “Thank you so much” which is something I appreciated even though I feel like I can’t help them enough or I am doing too little.

                                                       what a room in minor theatre looks like

After the hospital we went to the beach for our last trip before we leave Africa.  Angie and I rode a camel on the beach! It was such a cool experience and we loved every second of it.  The camels name was Susuki.  The African people stared at us as we rode down the beach but we didn’t know if it was because we were mzungus or because we were riding a camel, maybe a little of both?  After getting off the camel we layed out, played volleyball, and swam in the ocean.  It was a perfect last memory of the beach and a beautiful warm day.  We just finished dinner at Cafeserrie and I’m finally feeling caught up on my blog.  I’m sad we only have three more full days here; the trip has flown by.  See you all soon, that’s all for now!

                                          Angie and I- "we're on a camel"