June 21^st (Thursday)

           Another theatre day is upon us. We did ward rounds first. After we got done in the ICU Nicole and I took an elderly lady to the minor theatre to remove her old dressing on her leg stump so that Dr. Lipsi could redress it. The nursing staff had taped it too tight all the way around which could cut off circulation if you aren’t careful.

During this time the girl in the emergency room -Patricia, started to crash, thankfully JR and Tiffany were in the room and someone apparently went to the ICU and simply shouted “Dr. Mwansa, COME!” So they performed a resuscitation and used the defibrillator and shocked her as well as used the last of the adenosine. She was successfully brought back. Throughout the rest of the time during ward rounds Fiona was bagging the patient while I provided periods of relief. It was then tea time and we passed the ambu-bag to the assigned nurse.

After tea I scrubbed in as the fourth assist during the debulking of a tumour that a woman had on her neck. I didn’t do too much but I had a good view of everything that was happening during surgery. We went back to the Annex for our lunch.

After lunch we returned to the hospital for a few more procedures. Nicole scrubbed in for a BTL and then there were two cervical biopsies performed by Dr. Mwansa. The BTL patient’s reaction on ketamine was entertaining. We used ketamine quite often as the medication of choice for conscious sedation. The patient’s reaction to the ketamine was to sing and sing loudly! It was amusing, however, she had a nice voice.

I then went to relieve Fiona in the emergency room to continue bagging the girl. The first lady who had a cervical biopsy was being wheeled on a bed to recover in one of the wards. As she was passing by the emergency room I could hear her shouting “HALLELUJAH! And PRAISE THE LORD!” I was told later that the second woman was calling the nurses, Fiona, and Nicole “little children” and laughing.

After the procedures were finished we returned to our house and went for a walk by the river to take pictures of the sunset on the shortest day of the year, (it is their winter months).

We then began supper preparations when we returned. We made omelettes and potato wedges. I also cooked up some beef for the next day. Tiffany sent us a message asking if we had eaten supper or not. We answered saying that we were making some and she was welcome to join us. She replied saying that wasn’t her meaning, she was thinking she could make nshima (but apparently we eat too early). She did accept the invite and had supper with us and joined in playing some games, of which, Fiona and Tiffany were quite competitive when it came to Dutch Blitz in particular. Tiffany also regaled us with crazy missionary medical and non-medical stories. It was a really fun night!//