Audrey
Chad 2022 #9
Chad 2022 #9
Happy Woman’s Day everyone! (Journée Internationale des Femmes). March 8 is celebrated all over the world (except the US) to empower women, have conversations about women’s rights, encourage girls to become educated etc. Here in West/Central Africa, it is a day of singing, and speeches. The female nurses all take the day off to be able to go to the festivities, then cook a large meal together and sing and dance, and hang out together.
This morning we went to the stadium at around 8 am. We had 12 people crammed into a 4Runner. Slowly, young females from schools all over this district began to arrive, marching, and singing and dancing. Then the “officials” arrived, including the Sous Prefet (like a government appointed representative/sub-governor). Several people made speeches. Several special groups did skits. The hospital nurses did a skit about giving birth outside the hospital and how important the woman is. We all marched across the stadium together. Then we escaped the cacophony. I am told that the speeches etc go on all day, but as it was about 103 in the shade, and much hotter standing in the sun of the stadium, I was happy to escape to a bottle of ice water.
Several of us walked back to the hospital compound. The walk was hot, but felt good to stretch my legs. Each of us female docs made rounds on our respective wards and saw patients.
After rounding, I came back to my “1 day church/house” to relax in front of the fan. My phone stopped working because of the heat. I decided I could put it in the freezer, or lay my ice water bottle on top. I chose the second option to avoid having to retrieve it from the freezer which is next door.
Around 4:30, a bunch of the women all got together to eat a meal together. There was rice, pasta, roast lamb, cabbage and potatoes, and something like hibiscus leaves in a peanut butter sauce. It was all delicious. After dinner, about 20 women all went to the river for a swim and to cool off. I decided to stay behind and relax a bit. I played a little badminton with one of the missionary kids that I knew from Cameroon when he was 6 months old. We both worked up a sweat so again the ice water was terribly welcome.
As I write this it is 8:20pm and Greg is still doing surgery. I think he has one more planned for tonight. He has been at it since 8 this morning. Greg has been trying very hard to lighten the load for the surgeon that is here, so is trying to get through as much of the waiting list as possible during our month here.
Chad 2022 #8
Chad 2022 #8
What brings you to the hospital today? I have this sore on my leg. How long has it been there? Yes it hurts. How LONG has it been there? It drains fluid too. How looong has it been there? Since April. Last year? Yes. Please take off the dressing. The cloth is removed revealing a bone sticking out of his lower leg. It appears like it’s been there a long time. What happened. I was in a motorcycle accident. Can you walk on it? Yes, I get around.
All of this happens right before he is taken back to the OR for me to do a sequestrectomy. That is to remove the dead piece of bone sticking out. I go over to the ER where the X-ray machine is. I start the computer and look up the X-rays. A few of you helped me get that X-ray machine a number of years ago. What a blessing it has been here. Thank you! The X-rays show a healed fracture. With the bones somewhat aligned. And a piece sticking out from the rest of the bone- the sequestrum.
Back in the OR his leg is prepped with betadine and I make an incision above the bone fragment. It doesn’t seem to move. Then below it. Not moving. he has grown around it enough that its stuck in the tissues. I have to open up a few inches to release it and pull it out of the hole the body has been pushing it out through. He is happy when I tell him it’s out.
Yesterday Lazar tried to fix the AC units the OR. It’s been 85-95 degrees in the OR each day. With all the atire on for operating that is extremely hot. ORs in the US are usually around 65 degrees. Anyway it’s getting hotter and none of the four units were working. Finally a technician came from Kelo with freon to charge them. He charged 3 units and got them working. Lazar also fix the electrical lines coming into them. He started them both up in the OR i was working in and the temperature slowly started to go down to about 82. He was concerned about the two in the OR I was in as the cords were getting warm. Also when the second one was turned on the lights dimmed and the fan and suction machine slowed down. But he left them on. Then all of a sudden there was sparking and an electrical fire in a box near ceiling. Phillipe and David (anestatist and my assistant) BOLTED from the room. As they ran their foot caught on the cords of the cautery machine which went crashing to the floor. Lazar flipped off the breaker to the room and everything went dark and the fire stopped. Fortunately I had my headlamp on, as I always do. So I could still see. The patient had a spinal so was awake and afraid. I could see it in their eyes. So the rest of the day Lazar and the technician got them working again and we will run one at a time. The cord still gets warm so it isn’t good. One in the other OR works now without getting a hot cord. So I want to be in that room preferably. Later during the surgery, when the lights were back on and tension had subsided. I had a disussion with Phillipe and David about our need to care for the patient in front of us under anesthesia and that if we are afraid we need to take the patient out of the room with us, not just bolt for the door.
