Today we started orientation for our quarterly Community Medical Clinic at Rafiki, which begins taking patients tomorrow, Tuesday March 13th. Tamara and I were approved to help, mostly because we begged, and because we both are considering nursing school. The orientation, led by former resident pediatrican Dr. Dan Pope, was to prepare the 15+ Kenyan volunteers, the two of us MiniMissionaries, plus the two additional pediatricians, one nurse, one lab tech, and one clinic organizer from the states. It was extremely well-organized today. Most participants were repeat volunteers. I was assigned to the nursing staff as one of the two triage nurses. Terry from Michigan, who arrived at midnight last night, is the other nurse, but she is a real RN.
To back up a bit, I was involved with a couple of medical crises with children here already. The first was the week before Dr. Pope arrived. Helen, about 6 years old and living with Mama Ruth, happened to break off the tip of a bright red crayola crayon in her left ear. Carolyn, the resident nurse, invited me to help her deal with this. Helen was a great patient, and put up with us and the otoscope, the tweezers which didn't work, and the 30ml syringe of lukewarm water trying to irrigate the ear canal and force the crayon piece out. Nothing worked. Later that night, full-time missionary Melissa went back to the clinic with Helen, Carolyn, and Ruth, and was able to find Dr. Dan's "ear scooper" tool to retrieve the red crayola tip. Apparently, she had assisted the good doctor with these incidents before and knew where to find the popular instrument. Whew! This saved an expensive trip to the city for a doctor visit.
Then last week, the very day that Dr. Dan arrived, Amos split his scalp somehow on the concrete gazebo en route home from the cafeteria. Full-time Missionary Julie came running to our cottage to seek help, hoping to find Dr. Dan there. We didn't know his whereabouts, nor Carolyn's, so Julie ran off. Meanwhile, I figured I should high-tail it over to Amos' cottage with some ice. I arrived there to find Amos sitting quite still on the floor with a bloody towel on his head, and a frightened Mama Beatrice standing over him. I took a look under the towel and found about a one inch gaping hole in the skin above Amos' right forehead, with a nice view of the white frontal skull bone exposed. I was amazed that there wasn't more blood from such a large tear in the scalp. I pressed my ice pack against the wound and softly spoke to Amos and Beatrice about the incident, trying to find out what happened. I never did get a real answer, but Carolyn the nurse finally arrived and helped me walk Amos to the clinic where Dr. Pope was waiting.
Poor Amos was awesome! He never uttered a sound, even when Dr. Pope warned him that the intradermal lidocaine shots were going to hurt. The look of sudden agony in his eyes, the tension in his face, and the flow of tears gave away his very real pain, which seemed to last about a minute. Once the local anesthetic took effect, Dr. Pope went to work vigorously scrubbing that forehead like he was trying to erase the wound. By then, Amos didn't feel any pain, the tears stopped, and the face muscles relaxed. Then, about 6 stitches later, Amos and Beatrice were walking home, good as new. I found out later that Mama B. was back at the clinic with a very sick Moses later that night, for severe croup and breathing difficulty. Poor woman. She has 7 kids, including a baby, and expects another one to arrive any day. The next day, Amos and I had our usual tutoring session, as if nothing at all had happened. Moses, however, stayed home from school to rest after coughing most of the night. You can bet I was thankful that Dr. Pope had arrived just in the nick of time!
To back up a bit, I was involved with a couple of medical crises with children here already. The first was the week before Dr. Pope arrived. Helen, about 6 years old and living with Mama Ruth, happened to break off the tip of a bright red crayola crayon in her left ear. Carolyn, the resident nurse, invited me to help her deal with this. Helen was a great patient, and put up with us and the otoscope, the tweezers which didn't work, and the 30ml syringe of lukewarm water trying to irrigate the ear canal and force the crayon piece out. Nothing worked. Later that night, full-time missionary Melissa went back to the clinic with Helen, Carolyn, and Ruth, and was able to find Dr. Dan's "ear scooper" tool to retrieve the red crayola tip. Apparently, she had assisted the good doctor with these incidents before and knew where to find the popular instrument. Whew! This saved an expensive trip to the city for a doctor visit.
Then last week, the very day that Dr. Dan arrived, Amos split his scalp somehow on the concrete gazebo en route home from the cafeteria. Full-time Missionary Julie came running to our cottage to seek help, hoping to find Dr. Dan there. We didn't know his whereabouts, nor Carolyn's, so Julie ran off. Meanwhile, I figured I should high-tail it over to Amos' cottage with some ice. I arrived there to find Amos sitting quite still on the floor with a bloody towel on his head, and a frightened Mama Beatrice standing over him. I took a look under the towel and found about a one inch gaping hole in the skin above Amos' right forehead, with a nice view of the white frontal skull bone exposed. I was amazed that there wasn't more blood from such a large tear in the scalp. I pressed my ice pack against the wound and softly spoke to Amos and Beatrice about the incident, trying to find out what happened. I never did get a real answer, but Carolyn the nurse finally arrived and helped me walk Amos to the clinic where Dr. Pope was waiting.
Poor Amos was awesome! He never uttered a sound, even when Dr. Pope warned him that the intradermal lidocaine shots were going to hurt. The look of sudden agony in his eyes, the tension in his face, and the flow of tears gave away his very real pain, which seemed to last about a minute. Once the local anesthetic took effect, Dr. Pope went to work vigorously scrubbing that forehead like he was trying to erase the wound. By then, Amos didn't feel any pain, the tears stopped, and the face muscles relaxed. Then, about 6 stitches later, Amos and Beatrice were walking home, good as new. I found out later that Mama B. was back at the clinic with a very sick Moses later that night, for severe croup and breathing difficulty. Poor woman. She has 7 kids, including a baby, and expects another one to arrive any day. The next day, Amos and I had our usual tutoring session, as if nothing at all had happened. Moses, however, stayed home from school to rest after coughing most of the night. You can bet I was thankful that Dr. Pope had arrived just in the nick of time!
In the left photo above, Amos is the boy on the left with the missing front teeth, smiling with his eyes closed, before stitches. Photo on the right is of my favorite twins, Belis and Brenda, who are classmates and housemates of Amos. You should have seen their eyes as they sat quietly on the porch watching me tend to Amos just inside the door of the cottage. Wide like saucers, smiles missing... I love these kids! For all they've been through, they are so loving back!
No comments:
Post a Comment