Week 3 already!

So today was the start of my third week! I can hardly believe it. Although I’ve certainly managed to fit a lot in since I got here, including whitewater rafting down the Nile and a wee bungee jump this last weekend! The rafting was such fun, and it was just beautiful between the falls when we got to swim for a bit and see all the birds and scenery about us. The bungee jump was pretty terrifying but I loved it all the same!! All 5 of us from the guesthouse headed to Jinja together for the weekend then 4 of us headed back to the hospital on the Sunday as Sarah is now staying there to work in an orphanage for two weeks.

Today was good, we had plenty patients to see so there certainly wasn’t a dull moment. The lady with burns that I saw on my first day is really coming on, her wounds are healing well with a lot of the skin growing back and she’s managing to bend and straighten her arms and legs herself now with just a little assistance from us to get full range. The next patient we saw was a lady who had fractured her femur, and we were trying to get her up to walk but her other leg is so weak after being in hospital for a while. We did some strengthening exercises in bed and got her standing with a walking frame. It was really frustrating though because I could easily have treated her myself if either I could speak fluent Luganda or if she could speak English! I have a few words I know for treatment, but if they speak back I have no idea what they mean!! I feel like I should be doing more by my third week but I have to have one of the other physios there to translate to do anything. I find they often speak with the patient for ages, then translate a few words for me which is also a wee bit frustating!! However, after that we headed back to the Nutrition group with three little ones and I was able to do an assessment of the new patient with Solomon translating for me which was good. One of the Mums is really nice and although she dosn’t know much English, she always talks with me and tries to teach me more Luganda! We also saw the daughter of the lady who was burnt badly. The baby is healing really well and if finding moving a lot easier than her Mum who saved her from the house fire. We then saw a few more patients on Male ward before lunch, including the boy who was burnt by his Father. He is still in a lot of pain, but he is now able to straighten his leg when he stands. And we’ve managed to get him to bend over to lean on the bed, our plan is to gradually lower that until he is able to bend right down to touch his toes.

The ladies, Rose and Skovia, who work at the guesthouse really look after us well, so we had a lovely lunch ready for us. (They also do our clothes washing all by hand, which is amazing! Although I have to say I am missing the luxury of a washing machine as we have to hand wash our underwear ourselves!!)

Just when I feel I’m getting used to the way things work here, I’ve just had an afternoon where the lack of resources seems to have be so noticeable in comparison to home. After lunch we had a mother bring in her baby who is 1 ½ with Cerebral Palsy. We assessed him and were able to give her advice about the condition and what she could do. It seemed to be down to the physios to tell her about the condition, all she seemed to have been told so far was that something was wrong with his back and head. We gave her advise on different ways to encourage his development and we recommended she got a seat made that would help him to sit up. It really made me think how different it is in our country where so much can be done and there would be all sorts of equipment provided, whereas here it felt like they were just left to get on with it really! They are going to come back to see the physios in 3 months though, so there is a follow up, and I think they seemed to be able to either buy or make a chair which should help him to at least sit up. Then the lady we saw earlier with the fracture was getting discharged. Our plan was to work with her for a few days so that she could then move around on crutches, but as she was getting discharged today the family requested that they could take home a frame with them. In the UK, that wouldn’t really be a problem, there is usually enough, but here we spent nearly an hour trying to find one that she could take home for a few weeks. There were only about 5 or so in the whole hospital with most being used and shared between patients already. And there was only one without wheels which had a stopper missing off the bottom. So eventually we got her sorted with a slightly rusty old frame to take home until she is able to stand and walk without it!

I don’t want to give a really negative impression, it’s only me comparing. The people here don’t think in comparison to the UK hospitals, they just get on with what they have here and are thankful for it! There really is so much good work that is done by this hospital for the patients and it’s great that the physios are able to see such a variety of patients. Many people from around Kiwoko are saved from travelling far on dusty, bumpy roads to get to a hospital.

It really is a beautiful place here, I far prefer it to the busy city of Kampala! After work today, once it had cooled down a bit, I was able to go for a lovely walk around Kiwoko. It can actually be quite busy with people travelling by on bikes (I'm still amazed at how much can be piled on an bicycle!), people working on their land and cattle being herded along the road! The people do so much physical work here that they think it is funny that we choose to go out for walks!! There is always lots of different plants and wildlife to see around and the large red sun was turning the sky most gorgeous orange colour before it started to set! I’m definitely realising there are some things you just can’t capture by camera!