DONATIONS

Mombo from TZ!

Today was my last full day here in Arusha. As a fantastic closing to this wonderful adventure, Heather, Ben and I completed our final round of donations.
1st: four mattresses to the Fruitful Orphanage
2nd: our first round of medicine, and medical instruments to Mt. Meru Regional Hospital. (total of 757,000 TZS spent)
3rd: our second round of even MORE medicine, and medical instruments for our beloved Mt. Meru Regional Hospital.  (Quotation pictured with a tally of 2,465,000, I later added 465,000 TZS to this total-by adding more pain meds and sutures)
*save the picture and zoom in to see what fantastic things we got!*
The donation process this morning didn’t go as smoothly as planned. The Tanzanian “pole, pole” attitude proved to be prevalent even in a business setting. HOWEVER, after some time, we left with enough supplies to fill the storage room in causality (ER); so much so that it was difficult to walk around after the boxes were in the room!
Did you know that you helped to provide 16,000 doses of Diclokant, and 3,000 doses of Tramadol? You will help keep 19,000 people in the ER pain free. Those people thank you, and so do I. We were able to get much more than pain meds, so please take the time to see what else we were able to provide the hospital. Thank you to all of you who made this donation possible. You all me so much to me, and the town of Arusha thanks you.
Asante Suna. Lala Salama!

1st Donation Total: 650,000 TZS was missing the day we picked up the order. We transferred what we couldn't get to the next order. This next order if shown below!

TZS … Lots of shillings y'all

The men behind the meds after we made the final transaction

BEN and pain meds! 

More meds guys!

This is the head nurse, Ben and I as we make the final donation

TOTAL DONATION! We added 429,000 TZS in supplies (sutures and pain meds).

HUGE thank you to all of you who supported this cause. XO
See you soon America.

Always Growing

Hi!

And happy Saturday! I am enjoying afternoon tea. Thanks to all the international volunteers who come from counties colonized by Britain and have influenced my afternoons this way. It’s 4:45p, which is just about the time that we enjoy a couple hours of down time. Usually I take this time to workout/circ-out, but today my tum is bothering me, so I’ll just write to all of you!

Yesterday was my last day actively volunteering in the hospital. It was definitely bitter-sweet. We observed a little boy have his elbow joint reconstructed due to a deformity in the humorus resulting from osteomyelitis.

*Quick sidenote: there is a wedding van passing our apartments in the streets. How do I know, you ask? Here in Tanzania the car carrying the newlyweds, decorated with pink bows and ribbons, leads a line of cars going away from the church to the reception. The car also includes a band of trumpets, making the new marriage known to all those in the town. I remember when I first arrived in Tanzania I saw this event for the first time on the way home from the airport and shouted, “oh look, someone got a new car!” This is when everyone in the car laughed and explained the above tradition.*

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah. So this little boy had a portion of his humorus cut and removed and two pins screwed in with a drill you’d see in your father's garage at home. They slapped on a cast and he was good to go.

OH MY GOSH. How could I forget? I saw a leg amputation on Thursday y’all. Mind you Wednesday night was karaoke night at Empire Sports Bar. This is a sports bar that hands you an entire 1/5 of Konyagi when you ask for a Konyagi and Sprite.

This fact alone should give you an idea of how our stomachs were feeling the morning after. HOWEVER, nothing has ever stopped us from going into the hospital. We arrived promptly at 9 a.m. excited to see what was on the roster for surgery (below).

 P.s. Look @ the second procedure on the list… 

We began the morning with a seven year old girl diagnosed with recurrent patellar dislocations. The surgeon used a portion of a hamstring tendon to keep the patella from dislocating laterally (he thread the tendon through a hole he had drilled through in the patella). He then slapped on some plaster and we walked in O.R. 2.

We weren’t entirely sure what this case was, so we checked the list. I ran my finger down the roster… and there it was, “above the knee amputation.” I am not sure I will ever again see someone lose a leg, but, WOW, was it interesting to see the surgeon cut STRAIGHT through arteries, veins, nerves, tendons and muscles in about 120 seconds.

Next?

Saw the bone. Six minutes later… It was gone. The whole leg was carried away, and put into a red bag for disposal. The time consuming part was the following steps of suturing each vessel… femoral artery and vein, great and small saphenous vein, deep femoral artery among a few others. I sat front row for this. I was nearly 4 feet from the mans bloody nub. I couldn’t believe it! Not once did I feel overwhelmed or lightheaded. Even the fact that the patient was awake didn’t terrorize me. 

Leaving surgery that Thursday I felt on top of the world. I realized I had overcome ANY fear I once had with blood.

As I sit here and think about it I realize I have become so strong on this venture. I have seen things I never thought I could handle. Emotional battles of babies who have lost their mothers, young children suffering heart failure, and the most recent event of a middle aged diabetic who lost his leg to a gangrene infection.

It may be true that body stops growing, physically, by the end of puberty, but emotionally, we never stop growing.

The best and the best best

The days are getting longer on this side of the world!

I just got back from a short “circ-out” on the roof (see earlier post to understand what in the world it means to circ-out). After tiring myself out, I lay on the roof and peered at the clear blue sky above me.

Not one cloud.

I realized, right then, that the sky exactly explained my mind. At that moment my mind was completely unclouded. I had no worries. I only thought about how there were no clouds. I couldn’t think about anything. I was completely at peace; flat on my back, on the dirty roof, in my workout clothes that hadn’t been washed in a week. And when I finally snapped back to reality… I realized the sun had set and the roof light was dimly lit.

A trip like this will make you feel a lot of things. So many emotions run through my mind each day. If I tried to explain I’m sure my post would end as one gooey mess.

Today was a fantastic day… filled with the BEST snack, followed by the BEST, BEST snack. I promise to get back to these items later. Apart from the food today, the hospital also shared some cool moments with us. Those of you who follow me on Snapchat know that I have been volunteering in surgical ward or “theater” as Mt. Meru Regional Hospital calls it.

Monday: fracture clinic

           This is where patients come when they have suffered broken bones (DUH). But, at Mt. Meru this doesn’t normally consist of hairline fractures. For example, the first patient we saw suffered a spiral fracture of the fibula, and displaced tibial fracture with butterfly segment (floating bone). 

He couldn’t afford to pay for the surgery to undergo open reduction internal fixation (ORIF). But, the motto at Mt. Meru is: do what you can with what you have. The boy had to make due with a simple plaster cast.

Tuesday: theater

            We came to the hospital dressed in normal clothes, and changed into our sterile scrubs upon arrival. We were required to wear a face mask, and hair protector. This time we weren’t given a ripped piece of cloth, although we were told to re-use the sterile hair cap. We then stood in on two surgeries.

O.R. one 10:00a: Appendectomy, peritoneal lavage (Latin for wash-out)

O.R. two 10:45a: relocation of dislocated hip including a drilled in metal rod through the femoral head into the acetabulum.

Do you see the broken bone in the pelvis? 

Wednesday: theater

            We started the morning the same, but today the surgeries came from the OBS and GYN ward.

O.R. one 10:30a: Hysterectomy (removal of the uterus)

O.R. two 11:30a: Hysterectomy “     “

After the uterus was removed from the second woman Heather and I were allowed to hold the scared uterus. We even noticed scar tissue from where the woman had a cesarean section!

It is also interesting to note that prior these procedures we were able to witness the different anesthetics these patients underwent. We looked on as few went completely under via propofol or ketamine, and others underwent spinal injections. It was extremely interesting to watch as the anesthesiologist monitored the vitals, making sure the values stayed within acceptable range.

After the hospital today, we went to the pharmacy to place another donation order. I will have more information about this later. I CAN’T WAIT TO TELL YOU GUYS ALL ABOUT WHAT WE ORDERED… for now, I will keep you guys on your toes.  XO

After the pharmacy I attempted to take Heather and Ben to a fabulous, local store where Masai blankets are bought dirt cheap. Along the way we stumbled into a shop know as, “Arusha Fancy Store.” Here (hapa) we found Masai blankets for cheap, at an even better quality. They also lead me to a place where I could purchase Kangas, which I have been looking for. We found the shop and I purchased a couple. After being overwhelmed by the mass amount of people swarming the market where I found the Kangas, we left and headed for Muzugu territory: Afrcicafe. We sipped on our routine coffees before heading home.

OH MY GOD. I forgot to mention the snacks…

BEST snack: Half cake

            This is a snack made from rice flour. It is a bit oily but just the right amount of sweet. The best way I can describe it is as a flaky pastry on the outside and a thick, full, yummy bun on the inside. I love bread, and I love plain… so basically this treat came right from heaven and into my hands for the small fee of 10 American cents.

BEST BEST snack: Fruit Salad

            This isn’t your normal fruit salad. This is a salad made by a local juice shop. The contents include bits of pineapple, watermelon, and banana. Heather and I scooped up this winning treat on the way to the pharmacy today. We fell so deep in love, that we nearly missed our destination. I did snap a photo… although this was near the end of the cup… Can you blame us? It was nearly impossible not to keep dipping into the cup for more. 

To say today was a good day would be more than an understatement. Miss you all, XO!

Sweet Dreams

I ought to start my blog today with a photo:

Today we delivered our first donation of four 3 by 6m mattresses to Fruitful Orphanage. The process of obtaining them was a bit lengthy. It took some time to cram them on top of and in the van. And figuring out exactly how to get them to the orphanage safely and securely took a few more neurons than expected. HOWEVER, we did end up getting all four mattresses to our destination safely. Big thanks to Ben for keeping a hand and eye on the mattresses on the roof.

 Once we arrived we were greeted by the beautiful kiddos.  As predicted, the energy put out by the kids when we arrived was overwhelming. The second we pulled the van next to their small three room cement home the kids ran to follow. They screamed and hollered with excitement, waiting for us to emerge.

The complete chaos that surrounded us during the thirty minutes we spent dropping the mattresses off and hugging the kids, clouded reality. We had just provided the kids with a soft, foam bed to sleep on. Something that is taken for granted in the United States and most other western countries of the world.

As I drift to dream world tonight, I will be a bit more at ease knowing that 34 kids down the road are sleeping on top of a soft mattresses.

XO miss you and big thanks to all of your for making the smiles above possible!

Crocs, camels, and snakes… OH MY

 The sun is setting here in Arusha, and I’m relaxing on the roof, excited to share today’s story.

Ben, Heather, Jonathan and I went to the Snake Park. We weren’t completely keen on traveling 40 km out of Arusha to see a bunch of caged snakes, but since our time is winding down, we figured we ought to spend our Sunday out of the house.

At 12p I ran out of the apartment with my habitual toast with PB, to meet our taxi driver and the others (I am always the last one to leave).

We traveled out of town, and once we were arrived we found that the price to enter was much more expensive than we anticipated it to be. I have been budgeting to a T, so this unexpected price ticked me off (we were told volunteers get a hefty discount).

I paid the fee anyway.

Upon walking in we were matched to a guide who would be the one to tell us about the scale-ly lil creatures surrounding us in glass cages. He knew so much about snakes and had been a guide for nine years. I was impressed.

We saw a variety of cobras, pythons (2), and a few garden snakes. We even got to hold a brown, tamed garden snake!

We then proceeded to view other reptiles that were maintained in the park. 

We held a Nile crocodile, too!

As we were walking back to where we had started our guide explained he had to be on his way… It was feeding time for the snakes. They are only fed ONCE A WEEK. We all got very excited, in a twisted way. “What do you feed them?!” “The python, which eats once a month, will get a few rabbits or a chicken… depending on the menu.” Yes, He honestly told me that they hold true to a menu when feeding these animals.

We later found that rabbit was on the menu. If you are reading this Marie, I am so sorry! 

Oh, I ought to tell y’all the snakes are fed live animals because they have very poor vision and use sonar via their tongues to locate food.

What we didn’t realize is that this process is lengthy… We waited an hour for the rabbit to become dinner, without any luck. I don’t know if I’d call it luck… but you know what I mean. We got to see some other events of the “circle of life.” We witnessed many small snakes poison baby chicks with their venom. Wow, this sounds so sick.

On a happy note; Heather and I rode a camel! We had too much fun, especially on the way down. As the camel kneeled on all fours we nearly slid right off  his hump! This calls for a little Black Eyed Peas: My Humps.

Have a good night y’all!

XO

A hyena killed your Betsy...

Happy Happy Happy Saturday! (Just realized it is Sunday!)

As I have stated before the weather is consistently cloudy, and rainy in the morning and progressively gets sunny, and hot as the day ticks by. This morning proves to be no different. As I sit in our living room, on our animal print couch (Possibly donated by Snooki herself), I look out the windows at the grey sky thinking about how fast time had flown by.

In nine days I will begin my forty-five-hour journey home. It is hard to believe.

On one hand, I feel like I have been here only a short time. On the other hand, judging by what I’ve learned, and my experiences I feel like I have been here for months and months. Time is very different here. Some hours drag on, and some days fly by. I feel like I’m stuck in an obscure African time machine. I kinda like it.

Our time in P-block (pediatrics) ended yesterday morning. The pediatrician from Oregon completed rounds for the last time of his duration here yesterday, and he invited us to join. Because we are here to learn we gave up our Saturday morning sleep to come in to Mt. Meru.

My favorite moment yesterday was a conversation between the Dr. Jaclyn and a seven-year-old diabetic patient who had sliced his thumb open with a machete. He was stuck in the ward because his thumb had become infected, and diabetes + infection = out-of-whack blood sugar levels. This statement held true for him as his RBG levels in four days ranged 2.6 mmol/L – 30 mmol/L. We undressed his bandages yesterday to see how the wound was doing. You could sense the little boys frustration, native Swahili speaker or not. The frustration was that the little boy was ready to go home. He already had to come to Mt. Meru each Friday in order to manage is diabetes. He was part of the Masai tribe. These tribes are located far from the hospital near game parks. This little boy owns chickens (kuku) and cattle of his own. During his conversation with Dr. Jacyln explaining his desire to go home, he mentioned that the stressful hospital environment causes his spikes in blood sugar. He goes further to tell the Tanzanian pediatrician, “At home few things cause my blood sugar to rise.” Dr. Jaclyn translated for us. At home he only gets these spikes when his family kills his chickens, or when wild animals like hyenas kill his cows. “Traditional Maasai lifestyle centers around their cattle which constitute their primary source of food. The measure of a man's wealth is in terms of cattle and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better.”

I COULD NOT, believe I heard this. Back in America blood sugar would rise if a diabetic kid’s Xbox 360 broke, or if Netflix crashed. So by now you can imagine this little boy’s home life: carrying around a machete, feeding his chickens and herding his cows. The cultural differences are very evident, and can be seen so clearly in the hospital setting.

                                                   Masai member (in red) and his cattle. 

                                       This photo was taken on our safari journey 4 weeks ago!

If a patient is Masai we expect worms, brucellosis, and salmonella due to their eating habits of rare meat and unpasteurized milk. Neural tube defects in kids are common due to African mother’s lack of vegetable ingestion (main source of Folic acid). It is amazing what you can learn about a culture through the diseases they contract.

Read more about Masai culture here 

Lucky

I am beginning to write more often as I realize that I will be gone in a short 12 days. It is so hard for me to believe that I have been here in Arusha for over a month.

I have met some very influential friends on this trip. The people I have lived with during my time here are all unique. We all share our own individual passions, goals, and opinions. It’s the differences between us, though, has enabled me to view certain aspects of life on a different level. Last night Ben pulled up a video of a famous Australian comedian, Tim Minchin. In this clip Tim talks about “9 life lessons”. As I sat on the couch last night, frozen in silence in attempt to hear the video through dull phone speakers, I was moved by what Tim was saying. I agree with all 9. But, the most moving lesson in my opinion was number 3; “It’s all luck, you are all lucky to be here.”

Since I have been here in Arusha I have seen evidence of this first hand. In America it would be hard for me to believe that I am luckier than the bum I pass each morning on my bike ride to school. But, after seeing a slew of unfortunate people for the past month, I can’t help but to feel lucky for the things I looked past before. I am lucky to be healthy. I am lucky to have two parents who love me dearly. I am lucky to have shoes.
Do you believe in luck? Or, do you believe you simply worked harder than the 19 year-old that lost his battle to AIDs this morning. 

I don’t mean to change your opinion, or make you feel sympathy. I'm not worried about why you feel you are living the life you live. Instead, I ask that you make an effort to become more aware of how lucky you are.
Be thankful. 

For the big, the small, and even what you don’t think about… like the musical beat of your heart in your chest.

XO miss you all

I hope you all know, I am thankful for you. The most sincere card on this side of Africa.

Credit: pediatric ward.

Healthy kids and sick kids

Good Morning!

I have a cup of coffee at my side and my light blue scrubs on. I am preparing for another day at Mt. Meru Regional Hospital. This week Heather, Ben and I are in pediatrics. But before I go on to explain the wide arrange of complications we have witnessed in kids 6 weeks to 8 years of age, I want to catch you up on my weekend.

As I stated in my previous post, most of the volunteers have left. Because our house is a lot quieter, so was this past weekend. However, Heather and I did take an adventure Saturday night.

During our Eid encounter with our neighbors I mentioned how much I loved the henna tattoos drawn on their 4 and 6 year old children. They were beautiful. Immediately after seeing our faces in awe they offered to take Heather and I for henna one night after he arrived home from work. Heather and I knew we were working in causality Friday night, so we told him we’d love to go Saturday night! He readily assured us he’d make an appointment with a family friend.

After a fun Friday night in causality on full of baby deliveries, a few facial lacerations, a split toe, and a psychotic patient we were excited for a relaxing night of henna. All Saturday morning we worked on various tasks at FiFi’s, which is a popular tourist coffee shop. After one cup of coffee too many, we walked home and completed a roof workout. I was feeling particularly lazy and decided to only kick the soccer ball around on the roof. A powerful kick resulted in the ball flying off the roof and into the street. I ran as fast as possible down eight flights of stairs to retrieve the ball. Upon bringing the ball back into the gated complex, six neighborhood kids surrounded me. I willingly kicked the ball to the kids and we began playing a little keep away.

Apart from the times we got the ball stuck under cars and in gutters, I had a great time playing with the little guys.

A honk at the gate interrupted our game and I was pleased to see it was our neighbor! After his two young girls ran to him screaming “papa!” with joy, he turned to me and told me he was ready to take us into town. I ran upstairs with the soccer ball to grab Heather. We piled in his company truck with his wife, and three children. First stop was to drop mom off with a friend, and papa went to purchase henna ink, all the while Heather and I were left in the car alone with the two kiddos. The time was 7p, which is dusk in Arusha… this is also the time that the town becomes very skeptical. As we sat in the truck with the windows down we were grabbed one another’s hand. We gave each other a look of shear fear. We had never been outside of the apartment alone at night. As we sat frightened, the girls were jumping around us telling us their favorite shows, and favorite foods.

“Spongebob is a girl when he wants, and a boy when he wants.”

As I tried to interact with the children I stuffed my debit card, 12$, and phone in my bra. That way I could easily hand over my bag in the event of a bad situation.

I must’ve nearly broke my neck I turned around so many times to peer out of the back window, hoping to see our neighbors face. A century later (more like 5 minutes) we caught sight of him, and we were instantly put at ease. He jumped in the car, and we drove to a new location not far from the parking lot we were just in. It was now pitch black outside. Our neighbor mentioned that he was going to go shopping at a near by grocery store while we got our henna. We began to bombard him with questions: “when will you be back?” “Is it safe?” “Where exactly will you be?” He assured us it wouldn’t take him long, and that the woman doing our henna was a family friend that he and his family had known very well. We stiffly walked into the building and up to the 5^th floor. We entered an apartment and were greeted by a family from India. I immediately picked up on this once I noticed the Bindi and Sorry worn the mother of the household.

The younger daughter greeting us and then preceded to get us chairs to sit on while she did our tattoos (the only furniture in the house were four plastic chairs, surely meant for outdoor use). The artwork she gently, and meticulously drew on my arm was breath taking. Each design draw was different but the designs together spread down my arm with great harmony.

The paint was thick. Because of the language barrier, once she completed the tattoo Heather and I were unsure how to make sure we treated the henna with the proper aftercare. We were told different things by three others and finally decided to use our American instincts and Google search.  Papa arrived back just in time for us to be on our way (the tattoos only took 90 minutes!). We left the home, thanked our artist, picked up mom and traveled back to our apartments as a group. I felt so welcome in their family. Although there was a small language barrier, and apart from different skin color I felt like we were family.

Heather and I have been enjoying our Henna… taking artsy photos of our arms where ever we go.

As for Mt. Meru, we have had an AMAZING week in pediatrics. Being in a foreign country, we are used to the language barriers. Most of the time the language barrier hinders our learning and our ability to understand diseases, but this week we have been blessed. We have been completing rounds in peds with a doctor and three medical students from Oregon Health and Science University, two English speaking doctors from Mount Meru, and many English speaking medical students. Because of the large number of English speaking doctors and students we are able to better understand conditions and talk through the pathophysiology of the diseases seen in the ward.

The diseases seen at Mount Meru are diseases not seen commonly in the western part of the world, as one might assume.

Some examples of the diseases we have seen this week in peds are: Viral Meningitis, Patent Ductus Arteriosus, extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB), rheumatic heart disease, interception of the bowls, brucellosis, suspected anthrax, suspected Friedreich’s ataxia (congenital genetic disorder found on the 9^th chromosome), suspected diabetes insipidus, suspected pituitary tumor,

It’s been a gift to expand my knowledge in the field of medicine by seeing so many rare conditions.

As you guys know, I have been raising money for the hospital. Each day I witness a new obstacle that could be solved by a simple resource. Please help my fellow volunteers and me by donating even a small amount.  Five dollars can help someone stuck in causality suffering immense pain because we ran out of Diclofenac or Tramadol. If you can’t donate please send a prayer over to Mount Meru and twins like these two below will thank you, among many other patients! Xo

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/fpqrb/ab/a3poZ3