Today was amazing for more than one reason! First, it was the Fourth of July at home. True it's a day to celebrate our independence but for me it meant my family didn't have to work...which meant I got to talk to them. But first I had to make it through another day.
And trust me when I say I more than "made it through." We (all 5 of us) found Dr. Charles Waiswa as he was heading into the maternity ward for rounds. Amber and Rebekah had spent time in the OR with him previously, so he seemed more than happy to have us tag along. Each ward is broken up into three sections. The first houses post-operative patients, the second holds medical patients, and the third is for infectious cases. We saw lots of post operative C-section patients. Some of them presented with a fever, which he said was most likely malaria and not another serious infection. It seems that here, being sick with malaria on multiple occasions is almost expected.
We also saw him do a vaginal exam on a patient. In the US, we certainly have a different definition of privacy. Because all of the patients are held in the one large room, a thin screen was brought in and placed at the foot of the bed. Draping of the patient didn't happen either. This may be due partly to differing ideas and opinions regarding nudity and the female body but I was still a little caught off guard.
Another thing that caught my attention was after the exam, I saw Dr.Waiswa actually wash his hands! Maybe it was the germaphobe in me but I had noticed that hand washing was not a common practice, at least not to the extent I was used to.
Dr. Waiswa was very patient and a good teacher. He went through and explained many of the notes in the charts. We even saw him use a fetoscope. It's amazing how little technology there is available to help with patient care, and how the nurses and physicians work around it. He also informed us of the high rates of obstructed labor. He said it mostly was a problem because women tried to deliver in "lower health centers that don't practice traditional medicine and lack resources."
We stayed at the hospital a little longer, then made it home for a late lunch. After lunch, we met up with Rebekah and Amber and went to the Internet cafe. I was able to chat with my family which was amazing! Unfortunately FaceTime wasn't working...well that might have been a good thing because I might have cried if I would have actually seen them.
All of us girls also took a little time to plan our weekend trip. We decided to go to Murchision Falls (MF) National Park. Jordan and I had planned a safari for our last week to the same place. But Juliet was offering to take us. It was a little frustrating trying to work out the details and change our plans. We were originally planning a 3 day trip and Juliet was offering a 2 day trip. After a little back and forth, we decided to forgo our original plans and go with Juliet and hope for the best.
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