Village Clinic

Jan 18, 2012

The morning began with our usual morning walks and we hustled to get back to get ready for the village health workers testing!! They did oral testing with each of us, some through interpreters and some spoke english. Then, all posed for pictures with their certificates! We are proud of them, they learned a lot and we hope they will take this with them to help their fellow villagers in time of need. We equipped them with a backpack of supplies. The backpacks came from those discarded in the maternity ward of St. V's by patients who did not want them. About 15 village health workers have backpacks from St. V's from over the years!! Also, they were equipped with the stethoscopes donated by Welch allyn, through Heart to Heart International. It was a beautiful sight! They all had assignments to help with during village clinic also. Triage, vital signs, crowd control, wound dressings etc. The afternoon came real quick and people were lined up for clinic since morning! Brenda, Suzan and I saw patients. Melissa and Jessie and Sam did pharmacy, wound care and anything else needed. It was hectic for sure, but much cooler and easier to do in the new clinic! A lot of painstaking work also went into setting up the clinic, painting the inside and then scraping the paint off the new floor! Melissa and Jessie and Brenda you rock!

The guys were still working on the solar..needed more wire and also needed to hook up the tank float switch as it was overflowing and also the lightening rods for the roof. Many kids have died because lightening strikes the metal roof and then goes to the kids who are grounded with their bare feet!! We have a huge roof! Therefore wanted to be sure all was safe!

It was clear as dark came we were not finishing anytime soon, so on went the lights!! Yipee! We saw patients until 9pm! Brenda saw a severe leg/ankle abscess which we suspect had a foriegn body and suspected osteomyelitis. I also have pt in severe abdominal pain we suspected had appendicitis and sent to the hospital. Our clinic bed brought over on the container was used for the first time...and the wheelchair!!

We all broke for dinner at 9pm, then the guys went back to work until 1am!! We all packed and sorted and packed and sorted for the next leg of the trip!

Good thing the team was going to get a break by going to Murchison Falls game park and hiking the falls! I was heading off to Kitgum to meet with the directors of the 3 orphanages we fund for medical care. The team will meet me there in 2 days.

6 am came mightly early!!

Next stop..Kitgum and the Northern Uganda Orphanages!!