June 28th (Thursday)

Fiona and I got up and went to Kariba at 7:15am to attend the devotional that Gordon does with the staff every Tuesday and Thursday. Nicole went out with Dorothy to administer praziquantel. We joined ward rounds and were finishing in the ICU (the first ward) when Alison said she would get the patient ready for the ventral hernia repair. Dr. Lipsi then asked Fiona, Kennedy, and I whether we knew the difference between an incarcerated and a strangulated hernia. An incarcerated can be reduced and there is still good blood flow. But a strangulated hernia is an emergent situation and the blood supply is being cut off and the bowel is dying.

So, Fiona scrubbed in and was the scrub nurse and was responsible for all of the instruments. She did quite well for her first time. I have not yet been the scrub nurse. however, the next case that I assisted with was a BTL. I was Dr. Lipsi’s first assistant. That means I was holding the retractors as he positioned them, cutting the suture string, providing counter traction when he was using the scalpel and diathermy.

We finished those 2 cases and had a quick MUA (move under anaesthesia) -the same boy we had done it for a few days ago. We had to give his arm more traction and try and set the bones better and then re-apply the collar and cuff. When he was under ketamine he was quiet unlike others and his eyes were open and sadly one little tear slid down his cheek. As we finished the MUA Kate came in to look for an eye guard as Phil got some metal in his eye somehow while working on the roof at the duplex. Dr. Mwansa was able to remove the metal splinter alright. He was then told to wear an eye patch. Fiona and I decided that before going home for lunch we would check on the labouring woman in maternity that Tiffany had told us about. The woman was just young (only 18 years old) and this was her first child. We were in maternity ready to help and learn what the protocols are for monitoring the progression of labour. Fiona did a VE (vaginal exam) and we checked the fetal heart rate. After about 2 hours passed and there didn’t seem to be any progression the nurse/midwife called Kate. She and Tiffany came shortly after to assess the patient. Kate decided that a change in scenery would help so we went along to the theatre as it was quieter and not as many people hovering around where Kate could coach her. She was slowly making progress so after a half hours Kate called Mwansa. They decided they should give some oxytocin and maybe help things along with a vacuum or something.

Just then a doctor from the government who was inspecting things at the hospital came and they thought it best that because we weren’t licensed and just students that we should make ourselves scare until the doctor left. So we went to the tea room and waited 30 minutes. Tiffany came in to get something and we asked how the patient was doing. She said that the baby was born and all was well. We said to ourselves “OH, we just knew it!” As soon as we were going to leave we knew she was going to have her baby. All we wanted to do was observe our first natural delivery of a baby and we were waiting so long for this one, even skipping our lunch and missed it. But we did have a good laugh and there will be more babies born while we are here. So we collected our things and went back to our house. We were just relaxing and we were very hungry, we had some sweet potatoes I had cooked the other day to last us until 7pm as Alison had invited us over for supper.

Nicole got back around 6pm and Fiona and I both had showers before so Nicole fit in hers and we went over to join Kate, Owen, Tiffany, and Mwansa at Alison’s for a very delicious dinner of chicken with a chickpea curry sauce and rice with granadilla (passionfruit) juice. After we had supper we played a few rounds of Jenga and it was very fun, especially with a hyperactive Owen to watch out for around the precarious Jenga tower. Mwansa went home then as she wasn’t felling too well. The rest of us pulled the couch and coffee table close to the nice cozy fire going in the fireplace. Joey came to get Owen to put him to bed and we played several quite hilarious rounds of Uno (that we played with Monster High version of the cards, haha). It was about 10:30pm when we called it a night and returned home to go to sleep.//