Fellows Blog: Day 27

It’s Saturday and you know what that means! We found out late last night that we would get the chance to sleep in a bit today: 9am wake-ups are truly an underrated luxury. Yesterday, Amber had the idea to freeze our leftover pineapple to have a sort of popsicle later. Except we forgot that the pineapple would freeze together and in the morning we just had a block of frozen pineapple. However, Amber redeemed herself with the idea toand make “pineapple granita” (with no mint… or rum…or lime…or coconut water… or really any other ingredient that comes up when you Google it).

She revealed that her inspiration came A Series of Unfortunate Events, and promptly recalled that in book 10 (The Slippery Slope), Sunny made orange granita using her teeth when stranded atop a mountain with a group of villains (don’t ask, read the books). Haleigh was thoroughly impressed by Amber’s recollection of detail and decided to begin the laborious task of shaving the pineapple. It ended up being more like slicing and dicing, but the concept was there.

Amber took this opportunity to do the dishes, which is a little more complicated here than in the states given we’re trying to keep our distance from tap water. After filtering water into a bag, we then use that to rinse the dishes. This tedious process often results in leaving the dishes dirty a little longer than we probably should…

Our 10:30 pick up time actually ended up being 12:45, so the three of us spent the morning binge eating our suitcase snacks and listening to music. Luckily, instead of the 3 hours we thought we needed to get supplies for our advanced curriculum, it only took 30 minutes. We got medical tape, balloons (to demonstrate a pneumothorax), and pillows (to practice compressions in CPR), as well as a baby doll and maama kits for obstetrics.

Kyrillos tried a rolex for the first time today at Bredo! He said it was “the best meal here. It was incredible.” After our quick lunch, we went to Summer Gardens to meet with a couple midwives. We were surprised to learn that midwives work in hospitals here and don’t do home births. In fact, home deliveries are actually a rarity here in Mukono. We also learned that there are not many pregnancy complications or preterm births, and the few that occasionally happen end up being delivered via c-section. However, the midwives told us there was a severe lack of education regarding pregnancies here, even for moms-to-be. This information helped us inform how we want to execute the training. This information helped us inform how we want to execute the training.

Hannington had a couple patients to see, so we decided to tag along with him before heading home. The first patient had a high fever as well as high blood pressure (172/81, which increased to 199/96). We found out that they had malaria, and that Hannington was called as a consult to advise which medications should be given. Hannington explained to us that we need to look at what could potentially kill the patient faster; in this case, we first should give a drug to stabilize the blood pressure before treating the malaria.

The second patient had gotten their hand caught in a machine a week ago and broke their radius. The patient’s hand was very swollen and previously had cellulitis and a thread pulse. Today, however, it seemed that the arm’s condition was getting progressively worse- when Hannington tried to guide the patient through some hand exercises, it seemed like there was a lack of motor control.

We then went home and got to work on finalizing our advanced curriculum and brainstorming how we’ll measure skill proficiency. This was mainly fueled by seven hours of Amber on aux and her bag of sour punch straws. We each had probably at least 20 and agreed the blue raspberry flavor was the best. Also, Haleigh and Amber have discovered they have nearly identical music taste- it’s uncanny! Kyrillos may not enjoy this nearly as much as Haleigh and Amber do.

Additionally, Amber made a low-cost birthing simulator. Haleigh had the epiphany to use a cervical collar to resemble the cervix, and Amber executed that innovative idea tonight. She even tore and braided a plastic bag to mimic an umbilical cord. Zach told us to name the baby either Obie Batra-Pine-Ayoub (like OB, obstetrics… get it?) or Cornelius. Message us with your vote.

A picture we forgot to include yesterday of the sunset in Mukono! Captured on our walk to the cinema :)

Chef Haleigh vs Frozen Pineapple

In Mukono, women buy these Maama kits when they are seven months pregnant. They take them to the hospital with them when they deliver their baby!

A convenience store in Uganda where Amber chose a baby

“You look smart holding a baby” -Hannington to Amber, although he admitted he thinks Haleigh would make the best parent. Certainly both girls would be better than Kyrillos though… click here for glimpse of him as a dad.

Hannington teaching Kyrillos how to pop a dislocated shoulder back into place. *no shoulders harmed in the making of this picture*

Amber and Haleigh’s low cost birthing simulator so people can practice delivering a baby during the obstetrics curriculum.

We FEASTED tonight on Eunie’s Kitchen delivery! A welcome break from working on the Level 2 training.

Kyrillos flossing after eating 15 of Amber’s mini sour punch straws. Also while contemplating his life as Amber and Haleigh pestered him with nuanced questions about the level 2 curriculum

The scene of the crime