First Week of Practice

At the hospital

So we started work practice this week at the District Hospital on Monday. I woke ups with a headache and felt nauseous. I decided to go to work even though I felt like crawling back to bed and pulling the covers over my head! It was the first day and I didn't want to miss out on anything important!

We got there long before we needed to and sat on the street waiting for the person from the university to come take us in. It was past long 8.30 and we were wondering where she was when someone came up from behind to greet us. She'd been waiting inside for us! We had no idea and apparently we were meant to call her when we got there. Nobody told us! Oh well. So we got going and stepped inside the gates.

Surgical ward

Inside the gates all we saw was run down buildings along a rocky road. This was in the middle of a city, mind you, so we were a bit stunned. nothing like I expected. I wasn't expecting anything near as fancy as in Finland but at least a building where everything was located. Instead we got ten or twelve smaller buildings connected by a pathway.

We were taken to the far corner where the reception/administration building was and were taken to a teaching room to wait for the head nurse of the hospital to come and greet us. We waited for quite a while, chatting.

When the nurse got there we introduced ourselves and she told us a little about the hospital. I don't remember anything about what she talked about! :D She had a fairly think accent, hard to understand at times. Plus a speech impediment. For example she said "hosiptal" instead of "hospital". A few of the girls looked confused! After introductions and some planning we were taken around the whole premises. The grounds are vast but everything is clearly marked, so it's not too hard to find your way around.

Surgical ward

After being taken around we went to our placement wards, two in maternity and four in the surgical ward, including me. The first day we just watched. We didn't get to do anything on our first day, but I didn't mind too much. I wouldn't have known what to do anyway!

We were all dead tired and hungry when we got back to the apartment! We barely did a thing in the evening :D Everyone went to bed early that night!

On Tuesday I felt a LOT better! We got to work practice at 7.30 am and saw a lot more than we did on the first day. nobody's in charge of us and no one person is assigned to us during work practice here, so on Tuesday I went along with a local student. He wasn't very talkative and didn't let me do very much, but I did assist him in wound cleaning a little. He took his time and seemed a little unsure about waht he was doing. In all honesty I could have done as god a job as he did, if not better! I have the aseptics down a bit better than he does but he's been there longer so I said nothing. He did a decent job but he didn't have all the appropriate stuff you'd need for wound cleaning, but that's not his fault! He can't help what tools he's given!

Before lunch I went to the operating theatre with a patient to see a toe amputation. He was a diabetic and his foot was rotten! Luckily it didn't smell or I'd have puked no doubt! The only problem I had with the theatre was, that people kept coming in and going out during surgery! And nobody used hand disinfectant even though there was a (Finnish!!!) bottle on the table! I don't thing it had ever been used! :D

Surgical ward

The rest of the day was spent looking and taking a few blood pressures. I didn't learn much but at least I had something to do!

On Wednesday I saw how they resuscitated a man. An all new experience for me! All I'm going to say about that is that here you can't expect the doctors to tell you what to do, you have to do everything yourself! Taking charge is almost unheard of here! In Finland I would've gotten direct orders from a more experienced nurse/a doctor, but here nothing. watch the video. I still (4 days later) don't know how I feel about the situation! I'll no doubt be seeing that again!

Power's out!

That night the thunder and lightning was AMAZING! I've never seen lightning hit within half a second of each other! Lightning after lightning after lightning! For a full hour! It was so beautiful! The electricity went out and kept going on and off for the rest of the night. I couldn't get a video up so I'm still a little behind on videos... Oops! :D

Because it rained on Wednesday no nurses came to work on Thursday. Apparently it's fairly normal here. The roads are blocked or flooded so people can't get to work on time or at all after a big storm like Wednesday's! So it was just 6 students and the matron of the ward. No big deal. We got on with it, but didn't get to do anything. We weren't taken along so for the most part we just sat an talked and drew with an orphaned boy.

In the afternoon a nurse came and she actually has a Finnish friend! She's eager to learn about new and better ways to treat patients and she's worked with Aussie nurses so she has the basics down very well! She said she's be our student for the day! So we taught her the Finnish way to do things. She was glad and took our teachings seriously. It felt good that at least ONE person listened and did the right thing!

Surgical ward

On Friday we were very frustrated with the whole system here! An old lady was brought in on Thursday (if I remember correctly) and she was clearly dying! She was laying in her own feces and urine and as soon as we changed the linen they were dirty again. There was nothing to do, no extra linen to change for her! I felt horrible! But at least we tried to clean her up a bit, which is more than you can say about the locals! They would've just let her lay there and barely wipe her clean. We got some wet wipes and cleaned her up with those.

maasai Market

There are things here that make my blood boil, things that could easily be fixed to better everyone's lives! Like the physiotherapy: it sounds like the physiotherapist's torturing the patients, especially the kids! I get that you have to keep everything moving so e.g. the skin of a burn victim stays elastic, but if it sounds like torture, it's not right! Especially if the patient in question is a FOUR YEAR OLD! And in pain! And he doesn't get medication BEFORE the physiotherapy! The pain relief is close to nonexistent here!  With everyone. Nobody gets pain relief.

Maasai Market

But onto happier things! :D We went to the Maasai Market on Friday after work practice and bought LOTS of stuff! I got about 50€ worth of things, mostly gifts, some stuff for myself. I loved it! There was everything you could imagine to do with Africa and Kenya! I got a few pictures in secret because they don't like it when pictures are taken.. :/ But I really want to remember what it was like here when I look back on this in 40 years! We have to go again one of these days! Before we possibly get sent back...

Speaking of getting sent back... The Marburg virus/fever: It's like the Eblola virus except deadlier. the death rate is about 80% while with Ebola it's 70% or so. Plus the symptoms develop in two weeks whereas it's three weeks with Ebola. So there have been a few cases in Uganda, right across the boarder and the students that went to Uganda aren't being sent back after the conference next week. They're either going to stay here or get sent back to Finland. Which would suck for them. But I have a sneaking suspicion that at least not all of them can stay because they barely have work placement places for us six here, so nine more would be a huge problem! But we'll see tomorrow, on Monday what happens..

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to the Kiboko Resort by Lake Victoria to the pool to get some sun because we heard it was a lot fancier than at the Kisumu Hotel where we've been going. And it didn't disappoint! The place was gorgeous! I think it's an all exclusive type of thing and wow was it amazing! We got some sun and then we decided to go on a boat ride. It lasted for an hour and I felt like I was in a wildlife documentary on the Discovery Channel or something! It was so beautiful! Lake Victoria's polluted and I'd never go swimming in there but we did see a local swimming in the lake! :O We asked out tour guide about it and he said yes, locals do swim in the lake! We were flabberghasted. Why would anyone swim in such murky waters. With crocodiles and hippos and the pollution! Speaking of hippos we saw two! A baby hippo and its' mummy! So cute! <3  no crocodiles, though.. Maybe next time!

We saw a hippo!!! :O

Day 15:

Day 16:

Day 17:

Day 18:

Day 19:

Day 20:

Day 21: