Day 16

Friday, October 21, 2011

Sorry I am so behind! Well today was again quite slow in the clinic, so we had a lot of down time. I don’t remember all of the cases that we saw today, but I do remember one. Today we had a lady that came in who had passed out and appeared in the clinic at the school she attends, we did some lab work on her and found out what was going on. She was pregnant, anemic and severely dehydrated. We admitted her to the hospital. We then all decided to go up to the conference room in order to work on recording the physical, but instead I got called down to help put the IV in the lady who was dehydrated. She was so dehydrated that her veins were tiny and it was really hard to get the IV in. We tried quite a few times; we finally ended up using a butterfly, which made it a little easier. After we got it in, we started the fluids. The other nurse was in there, and the patient was not responding very well, so I ran and got the doctor. Once the doctor came the patient was responding and everything was alright, she just needed to get some sugar in her system. After we got the IV in I headed back to the hospital.

Trixy then told us to get on the table so we could do ultrasounds on each other! Haha it was so much fun! Mary went first and we got a good laugh out of it because we could see her bladder filling with water. We then watched Trixy find the spleen and the liver along with a few other things. I then eventually hopped up on the table. This time we were the ones to point out where everything was and what it was. Trixy then said that she could probably see my heart beating so she looked for it and found it! This was so cool, I didn’t know you could see your heart using the ultrasound; I was pretty amazed by it so I had Mary jump back on the table so I could find it in her. It was a fun day with all of the ultrasounds we did on each other!

After work we hung and went to the tofu demonstration. We learned how to make tofu and soy milk. We even go to taste it….even though I’m not a huge fan of tofu, it wasn’t too bad.

After the demonstration I went and hung out and got comfy, only to find out I was going to be taking care of the patient in the hospital this evening. I changed her fluids while Mary and Tabby went to the evening program at the church. When they all got back we hung out in the hospital until the next bag had to be changed. Mary and I slept in the hospital; it wasn’t too bad, minus only getting 6 hours of sleep.

 This is all of us at the tofu demonstration, along with people from the community that came to learn how to make it. It was a success, everyone liked it...I think haha!

Day 15

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Wow I can’t believe it has been two weeks since I left home, the time has seemingly gone quite fast. Today was quite slow in the clinic; we did quite a few pelvic echoes however. I find them extremely interesting, in one of the patients we found what seemed to be an abscess on the ovary and another one we found a cyst on the ovary, so we sent both of them to another clinic. One of my favorites today was we got to see a baby that was 20 weeks along, we heard the heart beat, we determined the gender and Trixy explained what was being shown on the ultrasound, it was quite interesting.

Since it was slow today, we did ultrasounds on each other, that was very entertaining! We determined where the spleen was, where the bladder was, where the uterus was, where the liver was and we could even see our hearts beating, it was way cool! It was super hard for me not to laugh because it was tickling my stomach like crazy, but I just tried not to think about it so they could find what they were looking for, it was really neat. My favorite was seeing the heart beat!

Today we had another young boy with pneumonia; we listened to his lungs and as he would inhale, his lungs crackled, so Trixy asked us what should be done, so we used our knowledge and told her what we thought should be done. We were very close to what she actually wrote. It was a relaxing day, but I learned a lot!

After work all of us girls made some sweet potatoes together, we also fried some plantains, and made some popcorn. We at the popcorn while we watched the NG movie “In the Womb – Multiples”, it was really interesting. We had bible study together. Then went and finished the movie while eating more popcorn and some frozen bananas…let me tell you, AMAZING!  We then saw another patient who was just a little stressed and was having a panic attack, but she was fine, we calmed her down.

As I went to take a shower tonight, thinking I was going to get a warm shower…well I actually got no shower at all…bummer. There was not enough water pressure to take my shower, so I guess I’ll have to wake up early and take one tomorrow morning. Oh the joys of living in a foreign country…no water when you want it and usually nice and cold or some may say refreshing. For me, I still haven’t gotten used to the cold showers.

Oh and by the way, pray for Cameroon, the results from the election are being released tomorrow at 11:00 am!

 

A crab that we saw on a walk a while back, it was a big one...how did it get all the way over here? PC: Mary

This is the hospital, we are living on the top floor which consists of offices, but it still feels like a hospital inside and looks like it as well PC: Tabby

 And one of the banana trees, its a pretty cool picture I thought! PC: Tabby

 

Day 14

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Well today was a new day. All there of us got to work with Trixy today. This morning she quizzed us on pneumonia and asked several questions about how to treat it. It was quite interesting and I learned a whole lot from her.

Today we saw a few people who were returning for their follow up appointments and most of them were feeling much better, so we must have done something right.

And guess what we even got a chest x-ray back that was abnormal and the patient had pneumonia, I would if Trixy planned that one? I don’t know.  We saw someone with Pelvic inflammatory disease and H. pylori, which is basically a bacterium that causes ulcers who also had “piles” which are hemorrhoids.  It was an interesting day.

It gets me every time when we are doing the history, I ask “do you have diarrhea?”, the patients response, “no, I shits fine”. Again excuse the French, but I find it quite humorous especially because I wasn’t quite sure if I understood them right with that kind of response the doctor’s office. I got a chuckle out of it today. Anyways we saw quite a few interesting cases today, each day we see similar things, however each patient is different, like I’ve said before health care is much different here, but interesting.

 Here I am trying to flip my tortillas the "real" way haha! It almost landed on the ground!

For lunch we went and enjoyed a spaghetti omelet again with Bill, Andrea and Sarah and of course myself. Then, tonight we made tortillas and had “Mexican” food; they were actually super good! We put beans and rice, sautéed onions and some avocado! Yum yum! Trixy cam up, we had a nice visit with her. Then got back to working on my homework for the night of studying ANGINA. It is quite interesting and very broad. Then after studying I wrote in my blog and now its time to hit the sack. Goodnight world! Oh and I hope you all love my new addition to the room, if you are not on it, it doesn’t mean I miss you any less! ;) Miss you all very much!

The process of making the tortillas and rolling them out!

This is our supper when it was all said and done, wow it was soooo good!

And the new addition to my wall, it definitely makes if feel more like home with all of those pictures up, I love them!

Day 13

 October 18, 2011

So I’m not sure how to begin…last night as I was lying in bed it started to rain extremely hard, so hard that it was blowing in through our windows. It softened up so it was much more peaceful until I was startled by this huge blast of thunder, it was so loud and close that I could feel it in my chest, I just about wet my pants (I definitely jumped). Anyways that’s only part of what happen. So my phone died yesterday which I am using for an alarm clock. I woke up and saw that it was 9:00 pm and I knew that couldn’t be true, so I fixed it, or I thought so. My alarm went off at 7:10 just like every day. Sarah and I got ready to go and just as I was putting on my watch with the time here, it said it was 6:50. Great we woke up an hour early! Way to start off the day!

 So we relaxed until it was time for worship. Again we spent the day with Dr. Trixy in the exam room. Today I was feeling a little bit better about myself. I got to do the history, basically did the whole thing by myself and I also got to do some physicals; listening to their heart, lungs, feeling their stomach, checking ears, nose, mouth and throat.  Today was definitely better than yesterday. I learned so much today, it was amazing, we also saw some interesting cases of things I have never heard of before. Some of the patients we saw today had malaria, which is typical, but we also saw a keloid, angina, fungal rashes, women trying to get pregnant and the other nurses got to see a case of scabies. Each day so far I have seen something a little different however there are always those cases that occur time and time again, still each person it different.

After work Trixy had a chat with all of us volunteers on how to diagnose certain illnesses and she even gave us homework! Then Sarah and I went to market in Great Soppo, which is basically across the street in order to get some food for this week. We also stopped and got another ice cream…ooops. After market we came back and made some gnocchi, it was alright, but I’m kinda getting tired of it now. I put some laundry in and now I am writing in my blog, but as soon as I am done with that I will work on learning more about pneumonia because that is our homework for the night. Then I think it will be time to go to bed seeing that I woke up an hour early.

This was part of the process in making gnocchi, and boy does it take a lot of time!

This is our final product, it was pretty good, fried gnocchi with tomato sauce and fried onions!

And yes of course, TIA (this is Africa) and this is how we do laundry in Africa, what a joyous occasion let me tell you!

But wait one last thing…

Quick story from yesterday!

Just yesterday we had a man that came back for his check up because he had a back case of herpes zoster that infected his eye. He was so grateful for us, he said that we treated him much nicer than any other doctor that he had seen and that he felt as if we cared for him. He didn’t know how to thank us enough. This was really rewarding for me to see this because this man was obviously able to see Christ through each one of the employees or volunteers that work here at the clinic in Buea. And that is my prayer, that God will not only shine through us but that He will also lay His healing hand on each one of the patients that comes to our clinic. He did both of these things for the man with herpes zoster, it was amazing; God is amazing.

This is my desk, mother do you approve? or is it too messy? Who would have thought I would be studying here!? This is a learning experience after all so I best take advantage of it and learn something from it right!

Day 12

Monday, October 17, 2011

Woke up, got ready to head to the clinic. Today we got to work with Trixy. We worked on History and Physical, lets just say I still have lots of learning to do and lots of practice in order to get it down perfectly. It was kind of a rough day, because right now I’m not so good at the history and physical, but I guess everything takes time and after all this is a learning experience. Besides not being very good at the History and Physical, I did learn a lot about different illnesses. We see everything from back aches, ear aches, gout, fungal infections, chronic eczema, asthma, lots and lots of malaria, neonatal care, and other various infections. This is just part of what we saw today. Monday is a very busy day for us in the clinic.

For lunch today we went across the street at ate beans and rice, we asked for the beans to be “empty”, which means vegetarian, but guess what…TIA (this is Africa), we still got meat. What kind of meat…who knows. J So after lunch we went back to the clinic and kept working.

After work we stopped by Bill and Trixy’s where we met Nate who is one of the U.S. Peace Corp. volunteers, he invited all of us girls out to dinner, so we decided we’d go. Before we went, Sarah and I went and got some soft serve ice cream for 100 francs. We then came back relaxed and headed to dinner around 5. I had an “empty” fajita, and cherry pop; it was quite good. The only thing that wasn’t good is it took about 2 hours to get our food, but then again, TIA. After dinner we went and got some more ice cream, this was real ice cream. We then came back and relaxed, however it is now time for me to call it a night. So goodnight world. And to everyone reading this, I miss you all very much! Love you Mom, Dad, Brandon and Lizzy 

Me in my scrubs after work with ice cream number one!

Mary and I at Jim's Grill where we ate supper on the "patio" with all of the ants!

The beautiful view from the patio, it had an amazing view of the mountain as well!

My mexican fajita that I ordered...it was good, just different than the states.

 And ice cream number two after we ate some dinner, this was good, but doesn't even compare to the ice cream that we had in Douala.

Day 11

Sunday, October 16, 2011

It has been a little over a week that we have been here now! Crazy to think, it kinda feels as if I have been here longer than that now that I am getting familiar with everything. Today is my day to sleep in so I was sure to do so, I slept in until about 9 then decided it was time to get out of bed and get ready for the day, even though there is really nothing to do here. We “cleaned” our room and then decided to go to the market down in Muea.

We left for the market around 12:30, on our way down we stopped at Beno’s Bakery and got smoothies and chocolate filled croissants. It was delicious! We then kept on our long walk to the market; I would say it was about 3 to 4 miles, and it was hot! We walked around the market got some vegetables. We then met this girl who showed us around and took us to the “bakery” to get some bread. We explored the market some more then got a taxi to take us back to the clinic. 

 So i discovered Red Bull over here is actually called Run Bull, haha!

 This is Beno's bakery that had the chocolate filled croissants, so good!

 This is the view from the street on our long walk to Muea (moonya) market, so beautiful!

We bought some “sweet potatoes” at the market so we decided to cook those for supper, they actually turned out really well, but they are nothing like sweet potatoes in the states. After supper I again skyped my best friend, then headed to bed nice and early! It was a good weekend.

 And these would be our sweet potatoes, not orange, but a yellowish green tint to them, they weren't too bad.

Day 10

Sabbath, October 15, 2011

Well, didn’t sleep too well last night because the rain was coming down so hard. It poured down rain almost all night long and with these tin roofs it sounds 20 times louder than it really is. We finally woke up and got ready to head to church. We were planning on walking to church, but decided that wasn’t the best idea because of how hard it was raining so we chose to drive, so we rode with Bill and Trixy. It was super hard to hear in the church because of the rain, but it eventually cut back a bit. The little kids did the church service today and it was so cute, they did a great job!

After church, we were all invited to Bill and Trixys, so we had leftovers along with some spaghetti; it all turned our really good. We then took personality tests visited with them, and decided it was time to take a nap. After my nap I skyped my best friend Lizzy for forever and then decided to call it a night. It was a great Sabbath besides being cold all day long, other than that it was restful! Happy Sabbath everyone!

 Well today was market day in Great Soppo, but it still went on even with the rain pouring down!