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Published: April 9th 2007
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Joel and G'ma Mai
This photo was taken 3 days after we started to fatten him, by providing the g'ma with bananas, eggs, milk, ground nuts, porridge, and tomatoes! Geofry
The 14yr old boy with ‘the leg’….
Two weeks ago, Luke and I picked him up from his village with mai (mother) and Uncle Fred in toe. Uncle Fred was chosen to go to Kumi Hospital as well because of his English - even though this is quite a struggle at the best of times! During the hour drive to Kumi was the most we had ever heard Geofry talk. I think this was partly excitement and also nerves. Unfortunately his surgery was delayed by 1wk, meaning that the family had to stay 3wks in total instead of 2. This was so frustrating, as it was beyond our control, and the distance making it difficult to coordinate. However, the family were patient and so, so grateful for our assistance. So last Tuesday, Geofry had his dead femur removed in theatre. This was the only option to rid of the infection, and the only chance of being without constant pain, and hopefully being able to walk again.
Today Luke and I picked up Papa (father) and Kim a neighbour for the visit to Kumi Hospital for Easter Sunday. Geofry has since been transferred to the children’s ward, and
The Visit to Kumi...
Luke and Geofry sharing a box of chocolate biscuits and apple juice in the fresh Ugandan air! is doing very well. He is receiving daily dressings to his BIG wound, oral antibiotics and now some pain relief…this is still poorly managed in Uganda, so a quiet and polite word to the sister on duty has this sorted now. When we first got there, the mood was somewhat depressing; The sister on duty was in charge of doing all the dressings in the childrens ortho ward...maybe 12 dressings in total. Geofry's had just been done before we arrived. So I thought some fresh air was needed as sitting in the ward listening to children wail in absolute pain and watch the nurse rush through her work, slapping a bit of gauze here and wrapping a bandage there, was not the greatest environment!! So a large shady tree was found and Geofry was transported out in a wheel chair, and we all sat together eating chocolate biscuits and apple juice. We are hoping to fatten him up! (No Easter eggs to be found in Mbale!) We left him with a pack of cards to pass the time and with hope that he will probably be discharged this week, with nurse Celeste in charge of the dressings, pain relief, locating
Looking Hot!
Juliet and I standing infront of our full drug cupboard in uniform! some crutches, stitch removal and antibiotics administration. He thanked us for coming to visit and for all what we are doing for him! Ohh, these moments are what makes it all worthwhile!
He will require another operation once this wound has healed to straighten his leg, which has been permanently fixated for at least 3 years. The process is long, but we are hopeful that the result will be miraculous!
Joel
At least 4 weeks ago, a little boy presented to the clinic with his grandmother. He is just 1yr, 2mths and severely malnourished. They call it ‘wet malnutrition’, and it is when the body is made of skin, bones and fluid. His face is swollen, with colour loss of his skin and hair, thinning of his hair, swollen feet and hands and muscle wasting of his upper arms. Poor little guy. So we wrote a referral to the nutrition ward of Mbale Hospital and ordered the g’ma to go immediately. Apparently he had 1.5L of IV fluid and 2units of blood! (This is a lot for a baby.)
So last week when Juliet and I went on our promotional walk around Natondome, we found Joel, who is still looking shabby. So we made a deal with the g’ma that she is to bring him to the clinic every weekday at 12noon for a weigh-in and to collect some food just to be given to the baby, not herself or the other children.
So Joel is beginning to recognize Mzungu Molly more and more each day. I even get smiles from him now! Over the Easter break I gave mai (g’ma) a big box of soy porridge, which supposedly has a lot of nutrients inside! She will return at 12pm Tuesday for our shopping expedition. I spend about 500sh each day = 35c and it is so great when you can visibly see the improvement. I have taken a before photo, and of course hope to get a beautiful 'after' photo too! When I leave, I will trust Juliet to keep doing the same with him, maybe until he is 2 and is strong enough to fight off infections and disease.
Promotional Walk
Last Wednesday I organized for Beatrice (who is the FDNC Community Health Worker for Natondome) to take Juliet and myself on a tour of our village. It was great to meet the locals and to just walk through this beautiful village. We went from mud house to brick and handed out leaflets of what our services are, with Juliet explaining in Lugisu. We found that the villagers weren’t frequenting our clinic due to fear of money, as the nurses a couple of years ago were charging a lot for just the consultation and medicine, in comparison to the average wage here. So after reassuring them that the consultation is free, our clinic has become a hive of activity lately! Beatrice has fed-back to me, that the villagers are very happy with our service, and some of the patients have approached me personally to say, “thank you!” This is such an awesome feeling!
Self-Medicating!
My concern is growing after a number of patients I have seen have been diagnosing, prescribing themselves, and occasionally overdosing themselves. In Uganda there is no prescription required to purchase medicine. So people will often attempt to “fix” themselves with medication from the pharmacist before attending a health center to avoid paying the often heavy consultation fee. I have seen mothers diagnose their babies with malaria, buying chloroquine (the right drug), panadol and co-trimoxazole (the wrong drug) and giving the wrong dose and frequency. This leads to antibiotic and malaria drug resistance and is outright dangerous; especially for the little ones…Ggrrr!! As the pharmacist is trying to make as much money as possible, he would rather sell 5 antibiotic tablets than none, even though the course maybe 14 tablets! And there is the general belief amongst the villagers that 5 tablets has surely got to be better that none! So much education is needed, and by having free consultation at our clinic should prevent this happening too much in Natondome.
So you may be wondering how the health clinic can be sustainable…… The payment of the medicine by the villagers covers the cost of purchase from the pharmacist from month to month, and Juliet’s wage comes from grant funding and individual donors. Wholah!
I think I have written quite enough hey! So hope this blog of mine finds you well and enjoying the Easter break. Am thinking of you all eating chocolate eggs and hot-X-buns with lashings of melted butter…mmmmm! I know you are all craving more photos, but we are doing our best as each one takes about 20mins to load!
Kind regards,
Celeste and Luke xxx
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Rachel
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Donations
Hey Celeste and Luke, It's Rach; Ana and Chas' friend. Good work over there! Wow! There is so much need, isn't there? Just wondering whether you're still taking donations, and how we can do this? Love Rach