Nalerigu Day 20

Good Evening!

For some reason I'm exceptionally tired today, so have just created a picture blog today. Overall, the day was wonderful as usual. We had rounds in the morning and clinic all day. Below you'll find pictures of some of the interesting patients I saw in clinic today. After clinic, I went on a run with Lisa which was very nice (and much cooler at 530pm than high noon). Regardless, exercise here really feels like 4 times as much work than at home. We felt like we were trying to run in the high mountains. :) I didn't have time for much else today since I spent most of the evening working on our presentation that we have to complete for INMED before we leave. I'm talking to the volunteers tomorrow about Neonatal Resuscitation including resuscitation in developing areas. I was able to do a small amount of research tonight which was VERY interesting. I'll tell more at a later time! I hope that you are all well as usual. Today I am thankful for the slowness of the day here. It gives me time to reflect on the truly awesome experience I have been blessed with. I won't discuss any of my thoughts for the day since this would be too long. Instead, I'll leave you with a passage for you to reflect with on your own from Philippians 2: 3-4

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Have a wonderful day and please keep the people of Nalerigu in your thoughts!

The mom told me that this child would not wake up. I grabbed the child, held it upright and it immediately awoke and started smiling playfully with me. This was not a sick child. PS I can do a near complete pediatric history all in Mampule! It's so funny. The mothers all laugh when they hear me because they think it's strange for a sulaminga to know their language. In fact, if I ask if the child has vomiting by saying uteera, sometimes the mother looks at the interpreter for help until she realizes that it wasn't an English word I was saying. They just expect that it will be. Funny!

Neck abscess that I did an incision and drainage on.

These are all of the baskets that we bought during our trips to Bolga. Only 5 of these are mine. Mom's is hiding.

Drew and Rachel's little girl Emma holding an African drum. Emma always finds a way to entertain all of us. She is a great dancer!

John and Lisa's adorable little boy Jude. He's a fan favorite! He was placed in a Boga basket for pictures tonight.

Young girl with fabric on that was similar to my new skirt made by Joyce. This young lady had been in the procedure room just a minute before getting an incision and drainage of a buttocks abscess by Jessie. Jessie expressed nearly 2-3 cups of pus from the abscess. She was in significant pain during the procedure, but in normal Ghanian fashion stands beside me smiling immediately afterward. Love it! If only I could be 1/4 as tough.

Child sent to me for a check of his umbilicus. Notice the hyperpigmentation in a whorl shaped pattern on the abdomen. When the internet is a little faster, I need to do some research since I believe there are some genetic syndromes associated with hyperpigmented whorls. You just never know what you're going to see here. Another possibility is that this was ink from some home remedy although the mother insists the child had this pattern from birth. Incidentally, the child was only two weeks old and had a fever, so was admitted for possible sepsis.

Child who was dropped into a fire and suffered third degree burns. I was seeing this child on follow-up.

As you can tell, his new skin has almost no pigmentation and he has severe contractures of his lower extremities (legs) which will need to be reduced as he gets older. His skin has healed very nicely and didn't have any evidence of infection. The fact that a young infant could survive such terrible burns here is an absolute miracle.

African child with Albinism (disease of the day). We didn't believe them at first since all of the books we see of albinism show very white African children. The people here assured us that the children can have very dark skin. Aside from the orange hair and eyebrows, he did have some areas of skin hypopigmentation (loss of color).

Just a really cute baby I saw in clinic today. I'm getting compliments on my language skills and I think it is also helping with how scared the children are of me. :) Of course this child doesn't know if I'm speaking Mampule or English. He's just happy!
I am trying to figure out if he would fit in my suitcase (or one of the baskets).

Child with extremely bulging fontanelle (soft spot) in the isolation ward. This child has presumed meningitis, although we don't do CSF cultures here.

PS Sarah and David: Thanks for all of the wonderful comments. I can't believe you have also have Bolga baskets! I will continue to send my warmest greetings to the wonderful Ghanian people! Best wishes!