What a couple of days! We have been in a village called Apigakwee for
the last three days. This village is
about a 2.5 hour drive from the town of Lira in Northern Uganda. It feels like the middle of nowhere! Alanhyi Health Center is located in Apigakwee
and is staffed by a few nurses and a local physician Dr. Martin Otine. Dr. Otine grew up nearby and spent time
training and practicing medicine in both Europe and the US. He has decided to come back to serve his
people for the remainder of his career.
Our first day was spent traveling to the village and having
a welcome ceremony. The people here are
very welcoming and grateful for our presence.
Some of the other work that has been done here has been to assist in
vocational training and the This was to be our first medical camp for
these people. We met with the local
staff and made determinations about the flow of work for the next few
days. 1500 people were registered to see
us over the next 2.5 days. To give some
perspective to that, we typically see around 400 patients per day so 1500 was
more than we were expecting! Day one was
challenging from a process flow standpoint, but eventually got moving. It is a great opportunity for me to practice
focusing on the patient in front of me and trying to let all of my frustrations
with the system go. Similar to the
practice of medicine in the US! I had a
man who had a horrible finger infection that needed debriding so I was able to
do a digital block and clean that up.
That was one of many moments when I wished I had Trent around to walk me
through it. There were a lot of women
with back pain which is very common here.
It only takes a drive around the village to realize why: they do a lot
of manual labor. They work in the fields
digging and stoop over to do all of their chores including cooking, cleaning,
and tending to children. My back would
hurt too if I did that all day!
On the second day I woke up not feeling too great, but went
to work anyway. By noon, I was out of
commission. I was sick for about 24
hours, but seem to be on the mend now. I
now fully appreciate the makers of sublingual zofran! We are staying at a convent which is next to
the clinic. The head Sister took care of
me through the night and this morning she told me how afraid she was to see me
sick. Apparently some time ago she had a
woman visiting from Germany. She fell
ill for an entire week with malaria and Sister was afraid she was going to die
here. Luckily she survived with IV
quinine. I don’t have malaria and am not
nearly as sick, but I appreciated Sister’s vigil and prayers on my behalf.
My original plan had been to stay here for a few more days
while the rest of the group goes on Safari, but after this illness and the
challenges of the last few days, I have decided to let myself rest and
recover. I will going along with the
group and am most looking forward to a hot shower!
Dr. Andy and Nurse Donna consulting.
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