20100907 by Tom

It is Tuesday and the night has been very noisy with the dogs howling all night. We got up as usual and ate out frugal breakfast. Maria was going out with the before five team so she washed her hair and made herself ready for the big adventure. She will write about it in her own part of the blog. I went to the morning meeting as usual first to come to the room 800 sharp. Dr Okoko was not present but dr Chipaila led the proceedings. I could not hear what the reporting nurses said, but I know from experience that it will take a few weeks before I do. After the meeting I asked if anybody knew of a map of the region. Nobody did but told me that if anybody did it would the MBA. Then I went for the morning round. The child with central malaria was earlier sent home so there was nobody in the acute ward room. A few small patients with GE (gastroenteritis=bad stomach) were all better with less diarrhoea and no more womitting. Maybee they can go home tomorrow. Two small girls have swollenness in the face: one a proposed submandibular abscess and one a suspected abscess in the salvary gland to the right. I do not think the submandibular abscess is suitable for IAD (incision and draining) even if she has no more fever, and the salivary gland is more like a stone or something in the duct, could even be parotitis. Dr Chipaila Was going to look at the to decide what to do. The swollen finger is also going to be reviewed. Our two tractions was given a plaster instead as it was not possible to have them in traction any more. They were howling steadily. So dr Chipaila gave them a plaster each and sent them home. It suddenly was very quiet in the ward. The boy with the wound in the thumb grip did not like us when we redressed him. His wound is deep and wide enough to make it impossible to stitch even if we should want to. There is until now no infection. A small girl had drunken some diesel, but she was well after 24 hours. She had thrown up four times when she had drunken the stuff ut had no cough, that could mean aspiration. She was somewhat sore in the mouth but had no visible damage to her mucus membranes. She was sent home. The parents were told to keep poisonous things away from the girl. I took a short turn to look after the ward in the afternoon but there was very little to do so I had an interesting discussion with Thimoty the nurse.
I was a short turn to the MBA office by bike to get some money from mr Musaka for the digital camera we had brought. The knew of no map over the vicinity. I took the bike to the Workshop to have my saddle a little higher. They fixed that and the bike was a bit easier to ride.