Yesterday we returned to Mulago Hospital, and this time I was with physiotherapist William on the burn ward, where Allyssia was during the first week. Having essentially no experience in hospital settings or burn wards or anything that is stereotypically unsettling (other than the cancer and fracture wards I saw during my first week), I was a bit nervous about how I'd handle it. But I didn't pass out, never felt light-headed, and got at least one kid there to return my smile, so I consider it a success. We did rounds, meaning I got to learn a little bit about all of the patients (as long as I could hear what the plastic surgeon leading the rounds was saying, which was not often), but work with none of them. Next I was able to do some brief range of motion and resistive exercises with a few fracture patients and an infant with sickle cell anemia. In the afternoon my PT was nowhere to be found, so I was relegated to the outpatient gym. I saw 3 patients, each with the blanket diagnosis of low back pain. Since starting at Mulago I have "treated" 4 patients in the outpatient gym, and 3 of these 4 have been wearing nothing on top except a bra. There are some interesting standards here.
So now back to basics. Since moving to Nufu House, my 4 PT classmates and I have had a string of house-mates, primarily from the USA but currently there is a professor from Norway as well as a first year medical student who believe it or not graduated from WashU. Small world. Every morning our housekeeper Margaret makes us breakfast, which consists of two pieces of toast, some sort of fruit juice, some type of fruit (usually pineapple now that she knows we love it), and a "main course" of either 2 hard boiled eggs, muffins, omelet, banana bread, and samosas, which are a triangular breaded contraption filled with either meat and cheese or veggies or beans. Several days into the trip we implemented the practice of using the song "The Sign" by Ace of Base to remind us to take our anti-malarial pill, so if you hear anyone sing that song then you know what to do. Speaking of malaria, it appears that virtually everybody here gets it at some point. My first therapist Sam has had it 3 times, and our rafting guide Josh has had it 5. Also a great majority of the peds cases are attributed to it. However a fierce combination of mosquito nets and bug spray have left me relatively unbitten so far.
More about the PTs. Within a day or two after arriving, I finished a respectable 2nd in the "who can avoid their first Ugandan #2 GI contest", losing to Allyssia by a day or so. But the real GI contest was won by Anna, though you might say she was really the first loser. Aside from a few early stomach issues for Anna and Allyssia, a minor cold for me, and Brett's persistent allergies, no one has gotten really sick, though Anna as well as Shweta, our new house-mate from WashU, both fainted on their first day at Mulago Hospital. Ryan and Brett have been putting up a fierce competition with each other in the fart department, and I demolished Ryan in the no-shave contest. He was complaining of itchiness before I had even reached playoff-beard length.
Over the past few weeks, we've tried about a dozen pineapples, papaya, avocados, and a few nights ago one of our Ugandan friends showed us how to make passion-fruit juice. I've eaten goat, matooke (some sort of mashed banana food that is pretty much a staple of the Ugandan diet), posho (a bland starch item), and chappatis, basically a rolled flour tortilla. I want to talk more about driving and traffic in Uganda, but that probably deserves its own separate blog entry. So for now I'll say thanks to everyone who has read my blog, I hope you're all doing well, and I look forward to seeing everyone when I get home in about 11 days!
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