no more hospitals, please!!!

Oddly enough, when I went to the hospital last week, I planned to do a blog about it. Time got away from me. When I drove to Kampala on Monday for a dentist due to an accident, I planned to blog about it. Time got away from me. When I went back to the hospital today, I took a photo for Floyd, but didn't have time to think about blogging. Now, by 4:30 pm, I just wanted to go to bed. Of course, that's way too early and I still had to cook supper and most of my to do list wasn't done yet. But, I was exhausted physically.

If you read my last blog, I mentioned being tired of driving to the clinic. I really don't mind doing it, but it isn't something that anyone wants to do often, unless you work there, I guess.

Two Mondays ago, October 3rd, I had to head to the clinic before I even did my work out or cooked breakfast or anything else. One of our day students was walking to school and a person on a bicycle approached her from behind. They were calling out to her to let her know that they were passing, but apparently she didn't hear. The bicycle ended up crashing into her. I don't really know what happened, but some part of the bicycle struck the back of her head and made a good size slash that was also pretty deep. She made it to school and the head teacher brought her to our house.

I was the one to take her to the hospital. This was the 2nd child I'd had to take for stitches. They did have some local anesthesia, but even injecting that is seriously painful. In this case, they also had to shave part of the scalp. Watching them shave with a razor blade that was way too dull was painful enough, but it only got worse. Fortunately, it was only 3 stitches. I took her back last Saturday to get those stitches removed and she's doing fine.

On Sunday, I went to Kapeeka with a van load of girls. It was independence day and the older girls just wanted to do something different. I had to go to town anyway, so I took them all with me. We had a soda and chapati (flat bread) at a small restaurant where I know the owner. On the way back to school, we stopped at some of their homes so they could say hi to their parents. It was a nice time.

As I got back to school, I found out there had been an accident. Some boys were mopping the "dining room" and they started to play in the water. Somehow, a few of them collided and one went face first into the concrete. He lost one tooth (the one next to the right front tooth), the left front tooth was a bit wiggly, and the right front tooth was jammed almost completely up into the gums. There was a lot of bleeding but he was doing okay. I talked to his mom and she agreed that I could take him to a dentist in the capital on Monday. I assumed a village dentist would just pull it, but it is not a baby tooth. 

On Monday, we got to the city around mid-day. We had lunch before the appointment, which was at 2 pm. He had chips (french fries) and I shared my chicken fried noodles from my favorite Chinese food place (it's like a food court where you can get many things). He really liked the noodles. 

One high light of the day was that he experienced an escalator for the very first time. I had to explain it, then go ahead of him to show how to do it. Tyler waited behind him and he stood there watching a few steps. Then he said, "I step?" and I told him to go ahead. He made it. 

The dentist gave a good report. They didn't need to pull the tooth and it looks like it will slowly move back into place. We'll keep an eye out for any nerve damage. Other than that, we go back in a few months to have it checked again.

Now, today I was on a roll getting a lot done on my checklist. I was at the school talking with teachers when Tyler waved me to come to the house. He met me half way and said that a girl's finger nail got torn off, so she's in the car waiting to go to the clinic. The rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: a finger nail is not a reason to go to the clinic, people lose nails all the time. They grow back.

Tyler: but it's bad. the nail is coming off.

Me: but it's just a finger nail. 

Tyler: but it's bleeding and everything

Me: okay, let me look at it and then I'll decide if we need a clinic.

I'm still thinking it's no big deal because he told me someone bumped her and she fell. So I go in the office to talk to the bursar and head teacher for a minute while Tyler goes to bring the girl for me to look at. I'm at the head teacher's desk when Tyler walks up with the girl.

Literally, she's holding her hand in front of her and blood is dripping excessively. In one glance I realize that Tyler is totally mistaken. Her finger nail is not the problem. I can't clearly see what the problem is, but it's clear that her finger is severed. The head teacher is saying, "oh, God, oh, Jesus" and I tell Tyler, "quickly get me some toilet papers" (that's what they call tissue here). 

I get the tissue and am helping her try to get the blood contained while asking her what happened. She's not answering, so I tell the head teacher to ask her in the local language (she's only 7). She's telling us that it was a stone, but that's not making sense. We send someone to get the other child who was involved and she comes. As soon as she begins to talk, the two girls begin quarreling. I'm sure the one was afraid of getting in trouble since she was being blamed. I get them quiet and explain that no one is in trouble, I just need to be able to tell the doctor what happened. It's hard to teach children that accidents happen and nobody has to be blamed. 

We finally learned that the girls were pumping water at the bore hole (well) and this girls finger ended up getting pinched between the metal parts of the pump. Either someone bumped into her and she reached out as she fell, or she just reached to the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, it looked bad. I put her in the car and we headed to the clinic, with Tyler as my helper. 

When we got there, they didn't even go through their usual procedures. The doctor just pulled us back to the room right away. Once he got it cleaned up, it was WAY worse than I had even realized. Most of her finger tip was hanging off. The skin under the nail was still attached to the nail, but the rest of her finger was completely separate from there. It's hard to explain, but I'll just repeat that it was bad.

The doctors had to do stitches. I recalled last week when I saw the movie, "Queen of Katwe". There is a scene where a boy needs stitches. They tell the mom that they have no pain medicine until at least the next day. The mom has to make a decision, so she tells them to do it. In that moment, I could totally relate because I've experienced that here multiple times already. 

Today, I was so grateful that they actually had some local anesthesia. The injections still hurt horribly, but I held her hand and supported her back as she screamed through the pain. Fortunately, it worked. She got through the first two stitches without feeling it. I was literally praising God for the pain medicine. I think if you try hard, you can imagine holding a child through stitches with no anesthesia. It's awful!!

Unfortunately, it didn't last long. The doctor informed me that he needed to remove the finger nail in order to finish the stitches. He used a razor blade to remove the nail and that area was clearly not numb. She was crying and screaming with her face buried in my chest, me holding her hand with one hand and holding her face and covering her eyes with the other hand. Looking only made it worse. Even Tyler had to turn his face away and close his eyes. It was horrible. 

Now, they did finally get 3 more stitches in but it was so difficult because the skin of the finger is thick and tough. The process took so long that the numbness she did have wore off. During much of the procedure I had tears flowing down my face as I cupped her little face. She is a tough girl and had a lot of bravery. Of course she screamed and cried, but she wasn't physically fighting - I think you can imagine what I mean. 

At one point, I nearly had an emotional break down. I admit that I was just talking to Jesus in my head, asking why it has to be this way. Why is medicine so far behind in these village clinics and hospitals. The doctors I've met do their best and really care about the patients, but they have so little resources to work with. 

When the stitches were all done, we had one more hurdle. During the process, the doctor got poked through his glove and he blood was everywhere. We had to do an HIV test just so that the doctor could know the result. Fortunately, it came back negative, but she definitely did not appreciate the finger prick on her other hand to give blood. 

Anyway, they got her finger stitched up and we were able to head home. We did stop for a chapati (flat bread) and soda because she missed lunch. I had already called the school to make sure they saved a plate for her, but a snack would be good until we got back. Now the soda is just because it's sort of a rule, not officially and it doesn't always happen but usually, if Aunt Tamra takes you to the clinic, you get a soda or juice or whatever you prefer. Mind you, for kids here at our school, soda is a treat. They might get 3-4 in a year, not at school, but even at home. If you just suffered through injections or stitches with no real anesthesia, you deserve whatever treat you want. :)

For the next few hours, I was exhausted - physically and emotionally. I did get a little boost in energy when the oldest girls came to the house. I had out my cookbook to make pizza crust for dinner. They had never seen a cookbook. As they turned the pages and reacted to the photos, I couldn't help but smile and giggle with them. They asked me to teach them to make cake, so I told them we would have to do it on the weekend. They did watch, ask questions, and do some "mingling" for the pizza crust. (mingling is what they call it when you stir ingredients together)