Friday 23^rd October

This week has been a very full one. The hospital has remained full of very many challenging situations. One man in his early 40s presented with difficulty swallowing. He almost certainly has Cancer of the oesophagus with little prospect of being able to access any suitable intervention to help him.

Barium Swallow of man with Cancer of Oesophagus

Another lady of 36 was admitted unconscious with a Haemoglobin of 37 needing an urgent transfusion We had 3 drips up and blood going within half an hour which I thought was a very impressive response by the staff. Unfortunately it looks as if she may have a cancer of the vagina so her prognosis isn’t good.

Ann has been beavering away trying to help the pharmacy staff get to grips with the computer system to improve recording of drug movements between the pharmacy and the wards I think it has proved rather an uphill struggle!

Two "tins" of honey we purchased earlier in the week!

 

Today is World Nurses Day so this has been celebrated in fine style first with a church service including remembering Florence Nightingale’s lamp and a march through the village by the nursing students followed by much eating!

The lamp being passed round during the service

 

The march through the village complete with brass band!

One of the highlights of our week has been a daily puppet show we have done on the children’s ward at 4pm. Having seen so much malaria and so many burns we thought it would be good to try to do some health promotion amongst the Mums. We have covered sleeping under mosquito nets, importance of drinking clean water, preventing burns, worms(!) and finally today at the mothers request family planning which proved challenging as a puppet production!. It all seemed very much appreciated and prompted a lot of questions from the mothers. We will probably repeat the exercise next week by which time most of the children on the ward will be newly admitted

A very receptive audience on children's ward

The rainy season has begun and it is pretty hard at times but fortunately not continuous. It made for rather a wet transition from our accommodation to the hospital!

When it rains it rains!

Rather damp getting to the hospital!