Saying goodbye to Rugazi and a welcome back to Mbarara

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This week was a sad one. I had to say goodbye to my lovely community in Rugazi and embrace the new/old home of Mbarara.

The clinic this week was CRAZY. The shop finally released all of the drugs this week and it seems like everyone and their family came with ailments of all sorts. I was in IPD (In-Patient Department) for this week and we had a very full ward! Some of the cases we saw were malaria again, we had a TB case with stage 4 HIV, some dehydration, and some that we had no clue what was going on. The saddest patient we had this week was a 6 year old boy who had severe malaria that developed into cerebral malaria with a possibility of bacterial meningitis. He came in at the beginning of the week in a really bad state and progressively got worse. He ended up entering a state of psychosis that pushed us to think he may die overnight and to try and give him sedatives. He was so high fever and terrified of the things he saw that he quite literally screamed for almost 2 days straight. He was seeing lions in the corner of the room trying to eat him and his deceased grandparents and father. I got to sit in on his psy evaluation which was interesting but so sad. I have no clue what happened to him but I saw him improve a little bit, and enough for me to think that he lived through the weekend. It is amazing the type of people that the health centre in Rugazi would get and live. The people here are so resilient and innovative in how the care for their sick and how they survive their sicknesses. It will be a huge shock going back to Canada where running out of drugs, and various supplies is not a thing. And to a place where we have machines that do all of the work and monitoring for us. Our patients sometimes came in and puzzled us so much but we did not have the capacity and they did not have the money for us to figure out exactly what was wrong with them. It really encourages the doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers to know their stuff and be at the top of their game. I am so proud to have worked beside them for the past four weeks.

Another case that was interesting this week was a pica case! It was a lady who emigrated from Sudan 5 years ago and in the past year started eating ash to stop the nausea she felt after every meal. She was not pregnant and not breastfeeding. She also thought she was allergic to meat and beans. Super cool case and she walked away happy and excited to have talked openly about her issues.

This weekend I moved with two others from Canada back to Mbarara to start working in the hospital. I am so excited to begin there tomorrow! We met with the doctor in charge in the Nutrition Centre here at MUST today and got the lay of the land. I think the next 5-6 weeks will be incredibly tough and eye-opening. The centre we are working at is a referral site for most of the health centres in the region and as such we see the worst of the worst, especially malnourishment in children. We have been warned that mortality rates are very high where we are working. I am happy that the two women I am living with are good enough friends that I feel I can talk to them about what is bothering me and help be avoid the possible emotional burn out that can happen.

Leaving Rugazi was incredibly sad. I love the MUST students I got to know quite well and enjoyed learning more about them and their culture. I definitely cried as our van pulled away from the health centre and we waved bye to them. These people have helped me experience things I never thought I would at my age, they helped me overcome some challenges I was having, and showed me how beautiful this country is. I will always try to stay in touch with them, and really hope to see some in a few weeks when they pass through Mbarara on their way home. You definitely have the chance to make lifelong friends here if you are open to it!





Sending love from Africa!

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