Monday and Tuesday - Week 3

            Monday was a pretty slow day. We arrived at the hospital around 9 am to start our glucose screening research. We were only approved to do the testing on the AIDs Relief patients so our population isn’t so random. It took us about 4 hours just to collect data on only 8 patients. In the afternoon, we wandered around the hospital looking for doctors or residents we knew to follow, but we really couldn’t find anyone. One of our resident friends in the women’s ward gave us a lecture about malaria, typhoid, and cholera. I had to take notes on what he was saying because I was afraid I would fall asleep right in front of him if I didn’t! We saw a few patients in MCH (maternal and child health) outpatient. One 11 month old baby was so malnourished that he only weighed 0.2 kg over his birth weight, which was 4.1 kg. When we finished up at the hospital, we went to the little market near the hospital and bought a mango, a pineapple, and some orange juice. We had wanted to make pizza for dinner again, but unfortunately our pizza crust already started to mold!

            Today was a much busier day. We began our day with the pediatric team and went on rounds with them. We saw one girl with cryptococcal meningitis. She was admitted on Friday, but the course of treatment for this type of infection will require her to stay in the hospital for at least a week and a half more. Another child was severely hypothermic and had been admitted to the hospital with a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (about 86 F). Since being in the hospital, her temperature has raised and the team will probably be able to discharge her soon. We saw several other patients with interesting histories, but not anything worth sharing. I think it was just interesting because it was something different. After rounds, we took tea with the peds team. We asked the residents if they knew of any surgeons who wouldn’t mind us watching a surgery and I think they will be able to work something out for us. When we finished our tea, we went to the AIDs Relief clinic to see if there were any patients we could do our glucose screening on. It was actually really busy when we arrived there and since the nurses were still off taking tea, Neeli and I took vitals for all the patients waiting and screened those who consented and were over 18. Even with these patients, we have only gathered data for 13 patients total. I’m hoping we are able to get all 30 before we leave on Friday! We left the hospital for lunch around 1:20. When we were on our way back to the hospital after finishing lunch, we ran into Dr. Keiser and Caley. For those who don’t know, Dr. Keiser is an infections disease doctor at UTMB and is responsible for running the Kenya elective. Caley also works for UTMB as the Global Health Director. We chatted with them for a while and gave them a quick tour of our house before walking to the hospital together. We checked the AIDs Relief clinic to see if any new patients had come since we were last there, but there were none. While we were there, Dr. Mireille asked us to walk one of the patients over to casualty because she needed to be admitted to the hospital. She was a little 3 year old who was having difficulty breathing. I felt so bad for her because she started crying hysterically every time the nurse tried to put on the nasal canula. I don’t think I would like it very much either. We saw another patient in casualty with tachypnea and difficutly breathing; we found out later that he probably has pericardial TB. It’s crazy – TB is on the top of almost every differential diagnosis at Kijabe Hospital. After a while we ran into Isaac, one of the Kenyan residents we have made friends with. He told us that we should be able to see a surgery on Thursday or Friday. He also said that he would give us a call tomorrow if there happened to be a c-section. We saw a cardiac ultrasound and a few more patients before leaving the hospital for the day.

            Around 6:15, we left our house to walk over to where Dr. Keiser and Caley were staying to have dinner. We didn’t get very far from our house, however, when Grace stopped us and said that she wanted to leave some of her things at our house for us to look at later. She would come back in the morning to pick them up and we could buy anything we wanted then. I think it’s funny how trusting she is! For dinner, Dr. Keiser made spaghetti and for dessert, we ate the pineapple that Neeli and I had brought over. We had a good time chatting with Dr. Keiser and Caley about our experiences at Kijabe so far. Dr. Keiser told us some stories from when he was in medical school – much crazier than anything we have seen in Kenya!

            Tomorrow is a Kenyan holiday so I’m not exactly sure what we will be doing. I know that the AIDs Relief clinic will be closed, but we may still go to the hospital to see a delivery or c-section. I guess we will see!