20100828 by Tom

We have had a very noisy night. The wild and the other dogs have been howling and barking and kept us awake most part of the night. There was other animals awake too: Maria found their traces in the bread and on the potatoes. It must have been rats or some other form of gnarling animals. Well dr Jan was to leave at 0900 and Maria was thinking of taking the opportunity to go to Ndola. Dennis said it was all right so when I returned from my rount to the children´s ward she was gone.

The round was quiet and “sister” Timoty followed me although he was seemingly very tired.

We sent some patients home one because her mother wished it, and the child was not too sick.

One very seldom see osteo-myelitis in fractures in children, bur we have one with an old fracture of the femur, supposedly healed, that had started to produce suppuration. After two weeks of antibiotics (cloxacillin p.o.) it had almost dried up and there was no more foul smell. He must according to western standards go on eating his pills for at least two months to avoid recurrence, so I pointed out very clearly how important it was that he took his pills as prescribed (meaning not to sell them outside the hospital). If they did not follow prescription he would very soon be back in hospital and back to square one, if not worse. We also sent home some diarrheas without loose stools and other uncomplicated cases tha did not qualify for the ward. A severely burnt hand was redressed by Timoty and I do not think it has any future as the fingers are to severely burnt and the child is olding the wrist in 90 degrees angel to ease the pain. If he gets stiff with the hand in this position he will be unable to use it for any purpose. We try to keep the wrist straight with a bandage with specula as support but some of the personell hav not gotten the idea straigt, so the try to put the speculas aling the fingers instead.

When I got “home” I tried to fix a leaking warm water pipe with silvertape but failed, so it will go on dripping until you change the pipe which could take months. I expect to have lunc when Maria returns from Ndola.

20100827

20100827
Soon has the first day in Mpongwe come to an end.
On my part it has been a very lazy day, trying tocatch up with the lack of sleep the day before.
I have got to know Angela , our maid a little,
She is a delightful ,young lady of 29 years, well dressed and speaks good English.
She cooks, washes and cleans the house and looks after the two gardenboys, who as far as I can see not stress themselves to death.
Mpongwe is a small village with the hospital the church several schools a big market where You can buy, food especially, tiny fishes which are fried and eaten with chima, the traditional maizeporridge.
We were served chima yesterday when we came together with beans.
Maybe not the most thrilling eatingexperience in my life.
This afternoon Angela took me to the local market, I needed eggs, which I got, tomatoes also avaible, but no fruit and no tape.
Till barnbarnen:
Efter en väldigt jobbig resa är vi alla fall på plats och huset är tre ihopbyggda hyddor, runda med traditionellt halmtak. Det är fint inrett och våra sängar har fyra stolpar så moskitnätet hänger på utsidan från dem och det gör att man slipper få moskitnätet i ansiktet på natten.
De här halmtaken håller tydligen inte tätt när det regnar mycket, för vi har jättestora fuktfläckar i taket i vårt sovrum.
När vi kom igår fick vi den traditionella majsgröten med bönor till till middag, gissa om farfar och jag var förvånade, den smakade absolut ingenting, men var väl ingen höjdare direkt.
I kväll ska vi bjuda den svenske läkaren som farfar avlöser nu, på middag och då ska vi äta ordentligt kött och potatis och jag ska göra god sallad till.
Det håller på att bli kväll nu och solen håller på att gå ner, snart är det kolsvart ute och cikadorna spelar, Afrika är coolt, på avstånd hör man trummorna från marknaden och lite röster som pratar ett obegripligt språk.
Puss och kram till från Farmor

20100811

20100811

The last day of training at the bacteriological laboratory at the University Hospital in Linköping.

I can´t say that I in any way feel ready to start any kind of activity related to bacteria yet.

But after a few contacts with Mike Masona at the Mpongwe Mission Hospital, it seems that that some of the staff is welltrained for this task.

Hope that this is true, I will soon find out as we are leaving for Africa and Mpongwe witin ten days.

But back to the last day of training, I was well taken care of , as always, and had the opportunity to rehearse some of the activities I´ve been doing before, like watching when diagnosis based on different cultures, was made and could also discuss some other possible various interprets of the findings, so hard in some cases.

I also discovered that staffylocockus aureus look different when cultivated on different media.

I had a discussion with the former chief, Lotta , about which discs for resistance-decision, could be the most needed to take with me, in the first place.

She and I decided that it would be useful for me to bring , discs for sensitivitydecision, for stafylocockes and streptocockes, and she even supplied me with a few small capsules for each, thank You Lotta.

Peter Johansson, who has been ever so helpful, helped me to get a few samples for autoclavetests with me.

We must be able to do tests as soon as the autoclave is installed.

A very useful day, structures for thinking might even have established themselves in this for med quite unknown land.

A thank you from my heart to all people at the lab who have helped me to get forward, a very special thank you to Lina Nilsson and Elisabeth Palmquist.

I have ordered a big standard microbiology textbook in English, used in Sweden in the training and education of microbiology analysists, to take with me to Mpongwe.

Our budget is now still Ok and there is still room for some more investments, but that will not be done before we have invented the needs at the hospital.

Carl-Fredriks birthdaycollected money was more than welcome, thank You Carl-Fredrik, You are an angel.

I´ll stop here for today,

Tjingeling Maria

Hej alla som tittar på denna blogg.
Nu närmar sig det datum när Maria och Tom skall åka till Mpongwe, den 26/8 bär det av.
Hittils har det hänt att Maria har utbildat sig på Bakt.lab på US och en liten modern autoklac har efter mycket sorger och besvär hamnat på plats i Mpongwe mission hospital (MMH). Den har gjort ett stort hål i kassan men förhoppningsvis kommer den att göra det möjligt för Maria "att få till det".
Mer följer/Tom