February 6, 2012
By: Kaitlin Broadhurst
Today was a very productive day for the entire group. In the
morning, Julianne, Emily, and Matt finished up preparing a lecture on aseptic
techniques that they will be presenting to the hospital the following week. Rachel
went to outpatient to check-in the new patient arrivals. Grace was in medical
records and pediatrics. Bethany went to the lab and labor and delivery. Julianne
and Emily went to lying in so they could visit with some of the newer moms.
Emily has developed a strong bond with one of the mothers; the two have become
very close friends. Matt was able to go to the men’s ward and sit in with the
doctors in the consultation room. Matt said that the patient he had previously
cared for at the men’s ward is improving. He is now able to sit up and eat his
meals. The morning started out slow for me, Nian, and Hays because we stayed
home t o study for our next exam.
At around 2 PM, the Eye Clinic opened, so the three of us
went there to learn about optometry and different eye injuries. Joyce, the head
ophthalmologic nurse, was very receptive and showed us around the entire
clinic. We were able to examine each other’s eyes through the various
instruments that were located in the exam room. We were also given the
opportunity to sit in with the optometrist as he examined each of his patients.
We saw common eye disorders as well as a few eye injuries. One man came in with
a foreign body in his eye. He was a carpenter who had been outside working on
the new nursing school for Manna Mission. Joyce stained his eye and let us see
the ulceration that had formed. I had never seen anything like it.
I was excited when we were told we would be allowed to sit
in on three surgeries in the theater (operating room). We went with one of the
nurses to scrub in and began setting up the sterile field. We saw two pterygiums
and one cataract surgery. I loved watching the cataract surgery. It was so
fascinating! They took out the woman’s old, cloudy lens and replaced it with a
brand new artificial lens. Joyce explained every step of the surgeries so that
we knew what the doctor was doing. We found it humorous that the doctor listens
to music while he performs his surgeries. Joyce would even dance a little while
she talked to us. The Eye Clinic closed at 7PM, but we ended up staying there
until about 8:30PM. It was an amazing experience!
February 7, 2012
Today was a day of rest for all of us. We all slept until
about 9AM, which is pretty late for us. I woke up to the wonderful smell of
French toast being made by Vida. Once breakfast was over, it was time to hit
the books. We were scheduled to have an exam at 1PM. We sat around the living
room reviewing our study guides and discussing topics.
At around noon, we were informed that Jeremiah was coming
over to take us out to lunch. He arrived at our house with two of his good
friends, Eugene and Felix. He drove us all to a restaurant called Papaye. When
we walked in the door, our first thought was “hey, this looks like McDonalds”.
The whole restaurant was bright red and yellow, just like our Golden Arches. We
had a lovely smorgasbord of chicken, fish, and burgers. We didn’t want lunch to
end because we knew we had to go home to take our exam. Our exam was a little
stressful for all of us because it was over lecture material we had heard
several weeks ago. We got through it and then we were all able to relax.
Later in the evening, Vida brought her son Gideon to the
house. Today was his sixteenth birthday so we wanted to give him a surprise.
When they arrived at the house, we all ran upstairs to the balcony. Once he was
right underneath the balcony, we dumped a big bucket of water on him. Gideon
was all smiles even though he was soaking wet. The dumping of water is a Ghanaian
tradition known as “ponding”. Vida
was so excited that we participated in the ponding experience.
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