So far this week has been very successful! As of this afternoon we have enrolled 20 participants in our study and we are hoping to have 25 total by tomorrow afternoon.

 

IMG_0944 Two families waiting for RHD screening this morning

It is always rewarding when we find a family member who has RHD in the early stages by doing this simple screening, knowing the outcome will be that much better. Today we found RHD in a 7-year-old boy, which means now that it has been detected it can be treated and he hopefully wont suffer the long lasting repercussions that may have occurred if his family had not been screened. Because we are operating out of the cardiac unit in the hospital, this also means that I witness some cases that aren’t as hopeful. Although my main role is to help conduct this study, Dr. Twalib also has his regularly scheduled patients as well. Today one of them was a 5-year-old girl with a huge hole in her heart that will require an extensive surgery. For someone from Gulu to be able to get a surgery like this it requires one of his or her parents to make a trip to the Heart Institute in Kampala. Usually once they make it there, their child can be sponsored for this type of operation. Unfortunately, this is a long trip, which requires an overnight stay as well as roughly $30-60 in other fees once they arrive. You could see the complete anguish on the fathers face when he was informed of his daughter’s situation as he explained his family simply could not afford it. Its times like this when my heart aches knowing that this is the harsh reality here and there is nothing more to do, wishing I could give $60 to every girl in the world who needs an operation like this.

Now that you are probably as depressed as I was this afternoon, I’ll switch the mood a little. Along this journey of mine I have come to the conclusion that sometimes the stereotype that Americans are ignorant…just fits. Yesterday, an older American woman came into the hospital and immediately walked up to me and goes “ oh thank god. I need your help.” Thinking that she actually had a problem, I gladly walked with her. She then began to tell me that she was helping increase standards of medical practices here (which doesn’t make her completely evil) and that she needed me to help her go around and remind doctors and nurses that they must roll their sleeves up when performing procedures. I happily accepted and then watched as she went up to every doctor/ nurse in the building and, in the slowest possible English say “ HELLLO MY NAME IS KATE. YOU ROLL UP SLEEVE.” She would then grab their sleeves and shout, “ SEE. YOU. LIKE THIS.” I know you can all picture this happening. Let me remind you that every doctor/nurse here is well educated and fluent in English. After working here for only a little more than a week, I can already say that I am blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people at work and it is so frustrating when I see or hear people like Kate that automatically assume they are better off or more educated than someone from an impoverished area.

Keeping with the theme of Americans- what kind of lawsuit do you think would occur in the US if you asked your nurse where she put the coffee sugar you brought and she whips out this container? (which is exactly what happened to me yesterday)

IMG_0911If you can’t quite see it, its an old Amoxicillin container. Not washed out, no bag inside, just poured right in there

PS- Happy Birthday to my favorite, most dysfunctional set of twins, Haley and Anne!