Day 27-29

Christ has no body on Earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ''s compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now!

Majua finally HAPPY :)

Update on three year old Majua: We have been taking her to the outpatient pediatric department three times a week to get proper dressing changes on her legs, antibiotics, and a blood test. The results came back that she is negative for sickle cell, has mild anemia, minor kidney problems, and severe malaria. The problem is she is practically asymptomatic for the common associations of malaria because she has had it chronically and began to develop an immunity to the disease. According to the results, she is stage III which would put me straight to bed for at least a week. Instead, she goes about her day like nothing is wrong. They don't have ways to prevent malaria at the leprosy camp i.e. bed nets or proper evening wear. We are all trained to think what a horrible disease but most adults take it as a joke and relate it to the common flu for us. It's normal to have malaria a few times per year. All of our trips to the hospital are voluntary and paid for by whoever chooses to do outreach for the day. They don't have medical insurance which I found out is only GHc 20 for one year (around maybe $12!) After my trip with her on Wednesday, I got a round of antibiotics, antimalarial medicine, and dressing change which came to a total of GHc 13 not including transportation. That's only around $8 which is clearly really cheap but to them unaffordable. I carried her for the walk back and right after setting her down, she lifted her dress, squatted in the middle of the street and went pee! Better there than on me though. I can already see improvement in Majua after just one week of treatment at the hospital and on medication. There is healthy skin growing in, it's oozing less pus and blood, and she tolerates the treatments way better as there is less pain. It almost made me feel like a proud mother as she was behaving so well. Today she was actually smiling with our visit and playing with the other children. She even came to me for a cuddle! I can honestly see my work beginning to make the slightest difference in this small girl's life which makes this entire trip worthwhile...

Another volunteer named Adriana was notified that an elderly woman we visit during outreach doesn't have a towel. She bought a very cheap one in town and delivered it during the dressing change. This woman was so happy and was praising God for delivering! It was so awesome to see that someone could be so grateful for something as simple as a towel to dry with after a bath.

We had a fun day at camp today with the children. Adriana brought face paint and I supplied a few balloons. I was really unsure how the children would handle their faces being painted just because it's something new to them but turns out they absolutely loved it! Kids would gather around waiting for their turn and giving us suggestions for what color to use and where to draw the lines. They got a kick out of looking at themselves in the mirror too! 

Yesterday in the NICU as I was doing vitals, a volunteer from pediatrics came running in asking for an ambu bag and mask that would fit a 1 1/2 year old. Obviously a code was occurring but the staff just took their sweet time trying to find the proper equipment. Shortly after the doctor came darting through the double swinging doors needing adrenaline off the code cart. It was nowhere to be found. Not on the cart. Not in the medication drawers. Not in the pediatric unit. Not in the NICU. It had run completely out. You could see the stress, sadness, anger in his eyes. A child would die today because there wasn't the correct medicine available. I got the complete story later on. Turns out they at least tried to resuscitate longer than with my previous experience in the pediatrics ward. Partly I think because the volunteer had been a nurse for four years and was practically leading the code. She told me no Ghanaian nurses stepped in to rotate with bagging or compressions. She lead it for over an hour before the doctor finally said nothing more was to be done. Unfortunately, death seems far to common here. It is a tragedy all parents fear around the world but the probability of it happening here is far greater. I wouldn't be surprised if I have to come across it again as well. I have spent less time on the ward this week just because I have been filling in at outreach for volunteers who have gone traveling. The only new thing I learned was for a baby who has cerebral irritation and a hyperextended neck. They were actually able to complete a head CT which showed hydrocephalus with intraventricular hemorrhage abscesses. The staff seemed unsure on what the treatment plan would be for now. I just had the pleasure of feeding him which is actually difficult using a cup and keeping his head held in an extended position so he doesn't experience pain. The nurses all said I've done well! 

My "oburoni" moment of the week was while walking home. A young boy came running down the dirt trail at least 30 yards shouting, "broni, broni!" I stopped and waited for him. He instantly grabbed my hand and just stood there smiling, not understanding anything I asked him in English. Just smiling!