Hello everyone!
I forgot to share an interesting story that happened to me last night. This was my last encounter at the hospital before leaving. Since it was my last night, we decided that we would all go round at the hospital for night rounds and finish early so we can all go to chesterfields together to have a drink. We were 5 people rounding and it was pretty busy. We finally got everything done and on our way out when all of a sudden this guy game in from a moto accident and had some scrapes to clean up and give him a tetanus shot. Once I gave him the tetanus shot we were done and all heading out to leave the hospital but I needed to discard my needle somewhere because the rooms in procedure room were closed. I told the guys I would meet them at the front while I went to nearest ward, maternity, to discard the needle. As I walked into the delivery room...I saw a nurse with a baby that was pretty much blue. This baby had just delivered and wasn't really breathing much....I quickly got a bag valve mask and started to ventilate the baby. Listening to his chest...heart was beating but low and his lungs were full of junk/fluid secretions. Now I needed to get the other doctor but they were in front waiting for me....I quickly oxygenated the baby and ran out of the room to scream for the dr but they couldn't hear me....So i ran back to the kid and started bagging it some more...and trying to stimulate it...knowing that in this situation, there's not much more I can do. Finally the one of the doctors comes to find me and sees me with the baby....she came and we worked on the baby together. Eventually the baby started to breathe a little better but it didn't look good for him. At the same time....a woman ran into the room with a nurse and she was about to deliver...so within 3 minutes of her walking in...I delivered her! It was so fast. I was waiting now for her placenta to come out but the nurse there was telling me to hold the uterus up and pull it out...I was trying to explain to her that it wasn't coming out so quickly but she kept telling me to pull....I didn't want to rip the cord off or flip out her uterus...so I told her back at home this is how we do it...so she let me be...lol These midwives have so much experience though...they are really good....but I just wanted to do it how I knew...lol She stressed me out! So....finally after about 20 minutes we got out of there and headed for some drinks. It's amazing how I just went to get rid of a needle and in a matter of 5 minutes so much was going on there! I will miss this place!
So I am travelling back home now and just flew in this morning into Accra from Tamale. Man was I stressed this morning. First of all, driving at 4 am through the villages to get to the airport in Tamale was an adventure in itself. It's really interesting to see the villages at this time...during the day, they are swarmed with goats, pigs, dogs and donkeys....at night....the streets are empty. But every so often you see all the goats in a bunch together....they seem to all group up on the side of the road somewhere and chill. Around 5am, you see the women wake up and start the fires to get the water boiling for their food. The one scary part was that the roads are so bad....its almost as if we are driving on a crash course and trying to avoid all these pot holes, rocks, ditches, at some point the van was almost about to tip over. I got to say though....my driver had his game on....I trusted him so much that I even fell asleep! Don't ask me how I managed...guess I really trusted him and it was better I didn't see the road ahead. We finally got to the airport around 7am and the sky was pretty bad....i was stressing that the plane wouldn't be able to land because the harmattan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmattan) haze was in the air. Everything was good and I managed to get on the plane :)
So I was told that when I was here to go visit the slave castles in cape coast. Supposedly this is something outstanding to go see....this was a castle where they held the slaves before they were loaded up on to ships to be transported to america. The only problem was that its about a 3 hour bus ride, once you get there you need to rent a driver to show you around, then I would have to sleep there somewhere and come back tomorrow and make sure to make it in on time for my flight. I didn't want to risk it...just in case something happens to the bus on the way back and I miss my flight!! So instead...I decided to go for a walk to visit the markets. This was another adventure! The walk was probably a few km's and it was really hot and humid. Taxis just kept honking at me to see if I wanted a ride....I kinda felt like prostitute almost...weird! There was so much traffic out here, air was dirty and smelled polluted...its pretty modern here and theres lots of cars and buildings...when you compared it to where I was in the village. I finally got to this strip that was filled with people selling things, food, shoes, cd's, bracelets...you name it! There wasn't anything great really but I was being attacked by everyone....I literally was the only white person walking there and with my camera out...looked like your token tourist. People would shake my hand and not let go until I told them I didn't want to buy anything from them. Finally after looking around, I turned back and stopped to eat at KFC...yup! My first taste of friend food in a month...gotta say...i kinda missed it but a little guilty for eating it! I told some vendors I didn't have money to buy their stuff and they said lets make a deal and you give me your watch...uhmm no. It's your usual market environment...just hard to get away from it when you're alone! I eventually came back to the guesthouse and passed out till dinner.
Now I am just hanging out and waiting for tomorrow to get on that plane and head home...it's about time :)
Oh and I need to prepare my powerpoint presentation....yup that's right....when I get back on friday, my mom is picking me up and bringing me straight to Evie's school. She is doing a lesson plan on Africa and I will be talking to the grade 5 class about my experience in Ghana!!! When she asked me to do this...I agreed right away! I think this is so cool...share my experiences with a bunch of grade 5s...who knows...maybe one of them will go to med school and do the same one day! It's so funny because for some reason I always end up in Evie's lesson plan....during her stages, she would bring me to her classes and show the kids what a paramedic looks like and an ambulance...so much fun!! I am looking forward to this :)
That's all for now!
Gnight
Evs - Can't wait for friday :)
I forgot to share an interesting story that happened to me last night. This was my last encounter at the hospital before leaving. Since it was my last night, we decided that we would all go round at the hospital for night rounds and finish early so we can all go to chesterfields together to have a drink. We were 5 people rounding and it was pretty busy. We finally got everything done and on our way out when all of a sudden this guy game in from a moto accident and had some scrapes to clean up and give him a tetanus shot. Once I gave him the tetanus shot we were done and all heading out to leave the hospital but I needed to discard my needle somewhere because the rooms in procedure room were closed. I told the guys I would meet them at the front while I went to nearest ward, maternity, to discard the needle. As I walked into the delivery room...I saw a nurse with a baby that was pretty much blue. This baby had just delivered and wasn't really breathing much....I quickly got a bag valve mask and started to ventilate the baby. Listening to his chest...heart was beating but low and his lungs were full of junk/fluid secretions. Now I needed to get the other doctor but they were in front waiting for me....I quickly oxygenated the baby and ran out of the room to scream for the dr but they couldn't hear me....So i ran back to the kid and started bagging it some more...and trying to stimulate it...knowing that in this situation, there's not much more I can do. Finally the one of the doctors comes to find me and sees me with the baby....she came and we worked on the baby together. Eventually the baby started to breathe a little better but it didn't look good for him. At the same time....a woman ran into the room with a nurse and she was about to deliver...so within 3 minutes of her walking in...I delivered her! It was so fast. I was waiting now for her placenta to come out but the nurse there was telling me to hold the uterus up and pull it out...I was trying to explain to her that it wasn't coming out so quickly but she kept telling me to pull....I didn't want to rip the cord off or flip out her uterus...so I told her back at home this is how we do it...so she let me be...lol These midwives have so much experience though...they are really good....but I just wanted to do it how I knew...lol She stressed me out! So....finally after about 20 minutes we got out of there and headed for some drinks. It's amazing how I just went to get rid of a needle and in a matter of 5 minutes so much was going on there! I will miss this place!
So I am travelling back home now and just flew in this morning into Accra from Tamale. Man was I stressed this morning. First of all, driving at 4 am through the villages to get to the airport in Tamale was an adventure in itself. It's really interesting to see the villages at this time...during the day, they are swarmed with goats, pigs, dogs and donkeys....at night....the streets are empty. But every so often you see all the goats in a bunch together....they seem to all group up on the side of the road somewhere and chill. Around 5am, you see the women wake up and start the fires to get the water boiling for their food. The one scary part was that the roads are so bad....its almost as if we are driving on a crash course and trying to avoid all these pot holes, rocks, ditches, at some point the van was almost about to tip over. I got to say though....my driver had his game on....I trusted him so much that I even fell asleep! Don't ask me how I managed...guess I really trusted him and it was better I didn't see the road ahead. We finally got to the airport around 7am and the sky was pretty bad....i was stressing that the plane wouldn't be able to land because the harmattan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmattan) haze was in the air. Everything was good and I managed to get on the plane :)
So I was told that when I was here to go visit the slave castles in cape coast. Supposedly this is something outstanding to go see....this was a castle where they held the slaves before they were loaded up on to ships to be transported to america. The only problem was that its about a 3 hour bus ride, once you get there you need to rent a driver to show you around, then I would have to sleep there somewhere and come back tomorrow and make sure to make it in on time for my flight. I didn't want to risk it...just in case something happens to the bus on the way back and I miss my flight!! So instead...I decided to go for a walk to visit the markets. This was another adventure! The walk was probably a few km's and it was really hot and humid. Taxis just kept honking at me to see if I wanted a ride....I kinda felt like prostitute almost...weird! There was so much traffic out here, air was dirty and smelled polluted...its pretty modern here and theres lots of cars and buildings...when you compared it to where I was in the village. I finally got to this strip that was filled with people selling things, food, shoes, cd's, bracelets...you name it! There wasn't anything great really but I was being attacked by everyone....I literally was the only white person walking there and with my camera out...looked like your token tourist. People would shake my hand and not let go until I told them I didn't want to buy anything from them. Finally after looking around, I turned back and stopped to eat at KFC...yup! My first taste of friend food in a month...gotta say...i kinda missed it but a little guilty for eating it! I told some vendors I didn't have money to buy their stuff and they said lets make a deal and you give me your watch...uhmm no. It's your usual market environment...just hard to get away from it when you're alone! I eventually came back to the guesthouse and passed out till dinner.
Now I am just hanging out and waiting for tomorrow to get on that plane and head home...it's about time :)
Oh and I need to prepare my powerpoint presentation....yup that's right....when I get back on friday, my mom is picking me up and bringing me straight to Evie's school. She is doing a lesson plan on Africa and I will be talking to the grade 5 class about my experience in Ghana!!! When she asked me to do this...I agreed right away! I think this is so cool...share my experiences with a bunch of grade 5s...who knows...maybe one of them will go to med school and do the same one day! It's so funny because for some reason I always end up in Evie's lesson plan....during her stages, she would bring me to her classes and show the kids what a paramedic looks like and an ambulance...so much fun!! I am looking forward to this :)
That's all for now!
Gnight
Evs - Can't wait for friday :)
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