This is the apartment where we are staying. There are five apartments in our building. We have two small bedrooms, one bath and a nice kitchen with a dining room/living room area. It feels small at times, especially when it is raining and the kids start to get stir crazy. Tonight, Nathan asked to go naked, so they took off their clothes and jumped from the couch to the chairs and back and forth. They had commented earlier that they were getting bored, so this was the best solution, since it was too dark outside and too early to go to bed. Talk about a workout!The kids are doing very well overall. It's amazing how few toys we have, and how much fun they have with non-toy items. They play outside almost constantly in the mornings when the sun is shining. Nathan has his standard set of matchbox cars and trucks that he takes to bed with him. Julia has been very busy creating pictures to hang on our walls with crayons, markers, paint, glue and glitter, you name it. They have plenty to do at home, plus there are dozens of kids, a few their age, that they play with. Nice weather, lots of kids...they will really miss this when we return home in November to our house with no neighbors.
We went on a long hike this morning. Eric has had few days off, and his coming weeks look to be busier than ever. So this weekend we are taking full advantage of his time with us. We walked straight down to the river, on a ravine type path used to take the cows down for watering. It was muddy and a little treacherous. But the kids hiked all the way down and most of the way up - happy as can be. The sun was shining and the bird songs were amazing. The river runs fast, but we stopped at a bend for a snack and to throw stones/sticks into the water. Eric scouted out a path to return to the top while we watched these strange water bugs dancing on the surface. Our trip back up was even more difficult and the kids had to be pushed/pulled and encouraged. At times, they looked like rock climbers, on all fours. A hike that used to take us forty minutes took us almost two hours today with all the stops and the pauses along the way. But it was great fun and we were proud of our little hikers.
At the end of our hike, we sat on our front porch and enjoyed a bottle of Orange Fanta. The kids are not used to drinking pop and thought it was a little "spicy". But they asked for more. Now they're hooked!
Our daily lives continue to be filled with playing, naps and new adventures around the hospital compound. We visited a small book store (about the size of one of Eric's exam rooms at Walnut Creek, maybe smaller) just outside the hospital, which the kids enjoyed. We felt a little out of place, however, as we were the minority. The kids were impressed by the chicken walking around on the street and the cows that passed followed by a little boy not much older than them(Nathan always says "there's the shepherd!") Our eyes are definitely working overtime here - so many new sights and sounds for the kids to absorb. It will be interesting to see what they remember from this time. We may never know the impact this trip has on their lives, but we hope this will plant the seed in their minds for being involved in missions in some capacity.
Thanks for joining us here at Tenwek. We miss our families and friends, but are enjoying time with our new friends here as well. We look forward to what the coming weeks have in store for us. Time is flying by so quickly!
Jodi
Watching Babies Die
(As suggested by the title, the following entry may be a little disturbing.)
One thing that continues to amaze me here is how late people present to the doctor. I could give examples in any of the departments, but it became so clear to me the other night during OB call.
It was 5 pm and time to start call. So I strolled over to OB to see what was going on. As usual, it was chaos. Women yelling (no anesthesia here), babies crying, and a line of moaning women along the hallway waiting to get into one of the 3 delivery beds.
The nurse told me about bed 1. It was the 4th pregnancy in a row that she was going into labor too early at 27 weeks. In spite of that, she never came in for any prenatal checks. She showed up for this delivery because she was bleeding profusely. So I delivered that little baby that only breathed for a minute before passing away (abruption by the way). After showing the mother, we put the baby on the warmer right behind her head before rushing over to bed 3.
Bed 3 was a lady with twins who didn’t show up for the first time until she was in labor. Perhaps she didn’t know she was having twins. But considering it was her 6th pregnancy, she probably had an idea that this wasn’t like the others. Unlike in the U.S., we deliver most breech babies naturally in Kenya. But this one came out with one foot first (instead of a the preferred butt), so we tried to rush her to the OR for a C-section. But by the time we got her ready, the baby was coming out. So we delivered her breech without trouble. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to get rid of the dead baby in the only warmer right behind bed 1. So we just had to put the new baby right on top of the dead one, sadly all in view of the mother who had just lost her 4th baby.
The lady in bed 2 was an HIV positive lady who was sent to us for a C-section for failure to progress. However, by the time we got all the other things dealt with, she had her baby.
Then came the most frustrating cases. We did 4 C-sections over the course of the night. Everyone had pretty much the same story that we hear all too often. They labored at home for way too long, then went to a local clinic or hospital where they labored way too long, and then finally got sent to Tenwek. By the time they got to us, they may have been pushing for 12 hours or more. Two of them had ruptured their water 4 days prior!
The heads of these babies are wedged so far down in the women’s pelvis, that it was very difficult to get them out. Only one of the 4 babies died, but they were all put at great risk. The one baby was face first, getting pushed for 12 hours. It had a face so ugly that I doubt even the mother could love it. But fortunately, being face first, it was the only baby that didn’t suck in a bunch of meconeum (baby’s BM) into its lungs. So it did better than any of the others.
That was 4 nights ago, and my forearm still hurts from wrenching all those babies out.
Yesterday at the end of my day, a lady came in having ruptured her water days prior. I was not doing OB, but was called to take care of the baby. The baby came out so infected and smelly, that it was all I could do to work on it. After a half an hour of our effort, the baby still had not taken any breaths on its own. We called it quits and wondered, again, why patients wait so long to come in.
The answer, of course, is money. They don’t have it. As a result, they are forced to watch their babies die.
Two days in a row this week I talked with parents of babies with spina bifida. The openings in the children’s backs were leaking, which means they would soon get an infection that would kill them. I discussed with the parents that their only hope would be to send them to another hospital for surgery. They both thought long and hard about it, but the $500 would be too costly. All they could do was take their child home with the knowledge that it would soon get an infection and they would have to watch their beloved baby die over several days.
Money. They don’t have it.
(As suggested by the title, the following entry may be a little disturbing.)
One thing that continues to amaze me here is how late people present to the doctor. I could give examples in any of the departments, but it became so clear to me the other night during OB call.
It was 5 pm and time to start call. So I strolled over to OB to see what was going on. As usual, it was chaos. Women yelling (no anesthesia here), babies crying, and a line of moaning women along the hallway waiting to get into one of the 3 delivery beds.
The nurse told me about bed 1. It was the 4th pregnancy in a row that she was going into labor too early at 27 weeks. In spite of that, she never came in for any prenatal checks. She showed up for this delivery because she was bleeding profusely. So I delivered that little baby that only breathed for a minute before passing away (abruption by the way). After showing the mother, we put the baby on the warmer right behind her head before rushing over to bed 3.
Bed 3 was a lady with twins who didn’t show up for the first time until she was in labor. Perhaps she didn’t know she was having twins. But considering it was her 6th pregnancy, she probably had an idea that this wasn’t like the others. Unlike in the U.S., we deliver most breech babies naturally in Kenya. But this one came out with one foot first (instead of a the preferred butt), so we tried to rush her to the OR for a C-section. But by the time we got her ready, the baby was coming out. So we delivered her breech without trouble. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to get rid of the dead baby in the only warmer right behind bed 1. So we just had to put the new baby right on top of the dead one, sadly all in view of the mother who had just lost her 4th baby.
The lady in bed 2 was an HIV positive lady who was sent to us for a C-section for failure to progress. However, by the time we got all the other things dealt with, she had her baby.
Then came the most frustrating cases. We did 4 C-sections over the course of the night. Everyone had pretty much the same story that we hear all too often. They labored at home for way too long, then went to a local clinic or hospital where they labored way too long, and then finally got sent to Tenwek. By the time they got to us, they may have been pushing for 12 hours or more. Two of them had ruptured their water 4 days prior!
The heads of these babies are wedged so far down in the women’s pelvis, that it was very difficult to get them out. Only one of the 4 babies died, but they were all put at great risk. The one baby was face first, getting pushed for 12 hours. It had a face so ugly that I doubt even the mother could love it. But fortunately, being face first, it was the only baby that didn’t suck in a bunch of meconeum (baby’s BM) into its lungs. So it did better than any of the others.
That was 4 nights ago, and my forearm still hurts from wrenching all those babies out.
Yesterday at the end of my day, a lady came in having ruptured her water days prior. I was not doing OB, but was called to take care of the baby. The baby came out so infected and smelly, that it was all I could do to work on it. After a half an hour of our effort, the baby still had not taken any breaths on its own. We called it quits and wondered, again, why patients wait so long to come in.
The answer, of course, is money. They don’t have it. As a result, they are forced to watch their babies die.
Two days in a row this week I talked with parents of babies with spina bifida. The openings in the children’s backs were leaking, which means they would soon get an infection that would kill them. I discussed with the parents that their only hope would be to send them to another hospital for surgery. They both thought long and hard about it, but the $500 would be too costly. All they could do was take their child home with the knowledge that it would soon get an infection and they would have to watch their beloved baby die over several days.
Money. They don’t have it.
1 comment:
Both of your entries were so moving. Your family times and making memories will most certainly stay with you...even after you're back in the States.
The baby stories, the long labors... and the lack of money...we have so much and often find ourselves complaining because of the smallest discomfort...Lord, have mercy, I pray...
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