Work at the hospital cont.

I decided to post that because I was afraid the electricity was going to go out and I would lose everything.

Thursday cont.
In the morning  I watched part of a surgery that Dr. Kellert performed- a woman had a fistula between her vagina and bladder and Dr. Kellert fixed it. This is a big problem in Africa because of prolonged labors or labors that don't go well. It is fantastic for Chidamoyo to have an OB/GYN doc now to do these surgeries.

I was seeing patients with Dr. Kajese again when the other doctor (can't spell his name today lol) came in and said there was an interesting case in the Theatre. We both went. An old man had been working in the field and he bent over and one of his cow's horns had speared him in the bum! It seemed so painful and yet the man had walked into the hospital. The other doctor sewed him up and I got to watch. (There are lots of doctors and nurses in the Theatre here).

Then a woman needed a C-section inthe Theatre (operating room) and Dr. Kellert performed the section. It was the first time I had seen a c-section. It was so amazing to see (and interesting in comparison right after a vaginal delivery). When Dr. Kellert pulled the baby out it had the cord around it's neck and she quickly pulled it off. The nurse was then handed the baby. It was not crying and I looked over and my heart dropped because I honestly thought the baby was dead. It wasn;t moving and it looked blue. The nurse was trying to get it to breathe and again I panicked. Kathy walked into the OR and started giving the baby oxygen. She said "this kid should be crying because he was born in Zimbabwe, he's not because he thinks he was born in South Africa." After what seemed like eternity the baby started doing better and he ended up being just fine.

Thursday was quite busy and I was amazed by everything I got to do and see in one day (CD4 counts, injections, a vaginal delivery and 3 surgeries).

Today (Friday) was another very interesting and exciting day.
We started off in the Theatre where Dr. Kellert removed a benign ovarian tumor from a woman that was larger than a baby! It was so amazing to see the before and after- she looked 9 months pregnant when she entered and looked normal when she left.

I also sat in with Sister McCarty today when she was doing HIV/AIDS antiretroviral medication counseling (the treatment is called ART). This was fascinating because I got to learn all about the medications and also about peoples perceptions of AIDS here because she had to explain to them about taking their medications. Many people do not want to get tested so they wait until they are very sick to come here and then the medications don't work as well and they often have another disease such as TB by then because their immune system is not properly functioning.