Tuesday, July 10, 2007

shyira internet cafe!

hi again,

because the generator is on for a couple hours tonight, the shyira 'internet cafe' is running, which means that a small room off the back of the hospital with two computers is on. Also, big man running the cafe is playing shania twain's 'the woman in me' on repeat and humming it. which reminds me, apparently the most popular ringtone in kigali is enrique iglesias' song hero. So when peoples phone rings, enrique whispers 'let me be your hero'. funny.

so, today i woke up at around 5 because my apt mate, erika, was rustling around. I got up and realized that she was really sick and had been trying to yell to me to wake me up. She thinks she got ghiardia from kigali because the water there isnt as clean as the water from the mountain springs up here. Regardless, she was really weak and pale, so she called the german missionaries and I ran up to the Kings to get some flagel which is supposed to cure it. I brought her the medicine and she took it and an emergen-C and went back to bed. Then I went to the hospital to do rounds with the OBGYN again and then with Louise as she went through the male and female wards. When I met up with Louise, erika was with her! She is pretty resilient and was already feeling better. Then we did rounds altogether and saw some interesting patients...one guy with two heart valve problems, so his heartbeat was like four beats instead of two guh gungs. This one girl with AIDS was having heart failure, louise thought, and kept moaning really loudly and couldnt lie down. Then her mom or sister came up and started thumping her face and she quieted down a little. Louise said she might also have TB or pneumonia. The HIV rate in Shyira is only 4%...malawi was like 14 or 16%, but in malawi almost every AIDS patient have PCP pneumonia or had had it in the past. Lousie said she could have that, also but that its name is now PCJ pneuomia. She said PCJ or PCP a kind of parasite that only lives in the lungs of people with compromised immune systems.

Then I watched yet another c section with erika. It was a pretty bad one. The rwandan doctor cut into the womans uterus and blood started absolutely gushing out everywhere. I didnt have surgical boots on because they were all used by doctors, so i got blood all over my feet and toes thru my socks and sandals. Erika helped deliver the placenta then had to leave because she was still feeling sick. I watched as the obstetrician stitched up her uterus, which took like 45 minutes because so many big blood vessels popped open...and then tied her tubes so she wouldnt get pregnant again. The woman will get a blood transfusion hopefully later tonight or tomorrow and i think is ok and erika is fine now, i cant believe she even came to the surgery to begin with after her morning!

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