Patients and Patience

Scrub-in area and the door to Operation Room 1

     In the last week, nine people have left Migori to return home. Apparently this means more surgeries for the few of us who are left! We have no problem with that either. :) On Monday alone I got to assist with three surgeries. The first was a "surgical toilet." Basically some guy's foot was clipped by a car and our job was to scrape out all the dead skin and then stitch it up as best we could. When I first saw the foot, I was sure chunks were missing and the guy was going to have gaping holes. Somehow Dr. Agullo was able to work some magic and sew the foot back together again. The surgery wasn't a full scrub because it wasn't too invasive, and I wasn't too happy about blood that sprayed out at one point, but it was quite interesting to see the foot with all the muscles and tendons. 

Dr. Agullo trying to drain a boy's lung

     Later that day I came back to hospital like usual, but unlike most days, I decided to drop by the wards. The next thing I knew, Dr. Agullo popped out of no where, pointed to a wheelchair and told me to wheel an older man down to the surgical theater. I did and soon I was in the operating room helping Dr. Agullo insert a catheter directly into this man's bladder. Not exactly the most glamorous surgery, but they're all interesting, and any experience helps. Plus, while we finishing up with the catheter, the nurses were preparing another surgery in the other operating room. This one was a girl with an umbilical hernia and was quite interesting. At first it just looked like her belly button was huge, but it moved whenever her intestines did, which was kind of freaky. It was cool to actually see her intestines moving around though when we opened her up. The surgery went when and soon she was closed up, good as new. 

     In other news, I'm making progress with "my" patient. Her wound is slowly, ever so slowly, getting smaller. The biggest problem really has been the language barrier. I usually greet my patient in Swahili, and for the first couple days she was convinced that I spoke Swahili fluently, despite all the times I had to bring nurses in to translate. She understands now, but since she doesn't speak English, she and her mother still keep trying to speak to me in Swahili. It's interesting. It's certainly been a lesson in patience and humility. At least now though my patient seems to understand that I'm not trying to hurt her when I clean out her wound, and she and her mother greet me with smiles. 

Swahili Words of the Post:

Mgonjwa -patient

Daktari -doctor