I MADE IT TO UGANDA!
First of all, thank you to all of you who are keeping up with me along this journey. I could use all the prayers I can get this next month as you will soon hear about some of the things that have been going on. This first update is just to give a general explanation of what the first few days have been like, and I hope to share some clinical stories in another update. There are still some tough things I’m processing but do plan on sharing them soon. If you don’t want to read this whole message right now, skip to the bottom for some prayer requests. So buckle up and let me start from the beginning. (Apologies for no pictures with this email, the WiFi is struggling enough to send this message alone)
It has now been a week since I left the states, and it has been a trip full of stories already. Great news: I found out that I passed Step 1 as I landed in Africa and will be getting to start clinicals on time! Overall, it took me three days to finally get to Masindi, where I am staying at the Masindi Kitara Medical Center. The first day was mostly just unpacking, hanging around, and trying my best to adjust to the time. There was a group of students and faculty from the PT program at MUSC here doing a wheelchair and mobility clinic for people of the community that have mobility problems ranging from amputations, spasms, paralysis, cerebral palsy, etc. Day 1, they welcomed me to come and see what they were doing as they saw I had no clue what I was doing. Watching them work with the patients and hearing their stories from the week was amazing. They were quite the group and were so kind to welcome me with open arms. If you want to hear more about their work in Uganda, I’m sure they could tell the stories much better than I, an outside observer, but it was such a pleasure watching them put smiles on so many faces. Meanwhile, they taught me a lot about physical therapy and allowed me to get a glimpse at just how impactful their work is.
My first day in the clinic was Friday. Each day we begin with a devotion with the team with some hymns and scripture reading which is beautiful. Due to the scheduling of the doctors and all that is going on around the hospital, I didn’t receive an official orientation until Monday, so I didn’t really know what was going on still. I ended up rounding with Dr. John in maternity and general wards, and then ate lunch and rejoined the MUSC PT group again. Rounding was pretty similar to the States, except all the paperwork is literal paper. I also peeked into the vaccination clinic that was going on to smile and shine a flashlight at all the adorable babies to make them stop crying.
Over the weekend, I ended up joining that group for a safari in Murchison National Park, where we camped in these nice tents by the Nile River and got to see SO many animals! I loved seeing the giraffes and elephants, but we got quite lucky and got to see a few lions, baby lions, and even a jaguar. When they gave us the keys to the tents, they came with a whistle attached in case we encountered a hippo at night, we could blow the whistle and help would come to ward it off. I did not realize this was a serious thing until we were walking back to our tents at night and staff came to walk us back with flashlights to ensure safe return.
On Sunday, I was driven back to MKMC and the PT group headed off to the airport. I didn’t get the kind of goodbye I wished for as they were truly an amazing group to spend my first few days with. It has been pretty lonely because it’s just me and another medical student here at the guesthouse, and when there is nothing to do there is truly nothing to do. Sunday was very rainy and not much was going on, so I spent most of the day sleeping and catching up on the time change. Today was probably the first day that I feel like I am adjusted fully.
Monday, I once again rounded with Dr. Peter and the medical team and had planned to have a meeting with Dr. Peter in the afternoon to get a better overview of how everything works. This cleared up so much for me. Generally, the facilities consist of an outpatient clinic with an emergency room where all emergencies between 8am and 5pm come in. After 5pm, emergencies and traumas get sent straight to the inpatient general wards unless they are pregnancy related, to which they get sent to the maternity ward. Each day the medical team rounds on the patients in the maternity and general wards, then after lunch, any labs or tests that were ordered are reviewed and the patients are watched and managed by the nurses. If there are any discharges, they are done in the afternoon after they are cleared during rounds. Labs are done on site which consist of things like blood tests, x-rays, ultrasounds, etc. There isn’t a CT nor MRI scanner, as it is very limited. If any maintenance is needed to be done on any of the machines, it can sometimes take a few days to get someone who can come and fix it. In addition, there are two operating rooms where many obstetric emergencies and general emergencies are managed. Lots of C-sections are done as people like to have large families and get started early. They have a labor suit, antenatal care, and HIV/AIDS clinics. Every Friday, there are immunization clinics where parents can take their babies to get free vaccinations. This hospital has been set up by the overarching organization of OneWorld Health but is fully self-sufficient and operated by a team of only Ugandan employees. There are some other sites that are all a part of OneWorld Health that function under a similar capacity in other regions of Uganda.
We also determined that since I am working on this project on neonatal sepsis with Dr. Chris Daly who is a pediatric emergency medicine fellow at MUSC that arrives on Thursday, we will meet again once he arrives to determine what my typical days will look like as we get our project rolling. I have been given a lot of capacity to help where needed and to learn what I can from the medical team here. They all are extremely knowledgeable and have already been a huge supplement for the transition of my medical training from the basic sciences to clinical medicine. Apart from holding and playing with all the babies, today I also joined the antenatal team who let me do the physical examinations on many of the expecting mothers to feel the position of the baby and listen to make sure the heart sounds good. I also gave some vaccinations to the mothers, plan on helping at the vaccine clinic on Friday, and plan to scrub in on some surgeries/assist with some births when they come.
Overall, things have been good. I have been learning way more than I could explain in a message and have seen both some really happy and really sad things here. I’m looking forward to sharing some of those stories with you to come, but for now, here are some things I would appreciate prayer for:
It has been quite emotionally challenging seeing things that are upsetting or generally frustrating. Mothers losing their babies, suicide attempts, motor vehicle accidents, chronic medical conditions that cause a lot of pain, etc. Pray that I may remember God’s still at work and see his light in it all.
I want to be bolder and more intentional at introducing myself to patients and making them feel seen as I notice that they get talked about a lot as if they aren’t there by the healthcare team standing right in front of them without being addressing them directly. It has been frustrating to me that the patients are sometimes referred to as “this one” or “that one.” I don’t want to fall into taking this opportunity to learn by selfishly forgetting to show love. I want to be bolder in getting to know them and praying for them individually.
Healing for these people. These patients come in with some pretty tough situations both medically and financially. It’s also evident that many claim to know the Lord but don’t really get it. Pray that I can be a witness of the gospel to these people.
It can be kind of lonely once I’m done with work for the day right now. Pray that Chris and the other resident, Sophia, who is a Med-Peds resident have safe travels. Chris is currently on his way right now!
Thank you so much! I’m excited to share more stories and updates soon. If you have any questions or just want to hear more, feel free to respond to this email or text me. I’m happy to talk/Facetime/etc. when I can!
First of all, thank you to all of you who are keeping up with me along this journey. I could use all the prayers I can get this next month as you will soon hear about some of the things that have been going on. This first update is just to give a general explanation of what the first few days have been like, and I hope to share some clinical stories in another update. There are still some tough things I’m processing but do plan on sharing them soon. If you don’t want to read this whole message right now, skip to the bottom for some prayer requests. So buckle up and let me start from the beginning. (Apologies for no pictures with this email, the WiFi is struggling enough to send this message alone)
It has now been a week since I left the states, and it has been a trip full of stories already. Great news: I found out that I passed Step 1 as I landed in Africa and will be getting to start clinicals on time! Overall, it took me three days to finally get to Masindi, where I am staying at the Masindi Kitara Medical Center. The first day was mostly just unpacking, hanging around, and trying my best to adjust to the time. There was a group of students and faculty from the PT program at MUSC here doing a wheelchair and mobility clinic for people of the community that have mobility problems ranging from amputations, spasms, paralysis, cerebral palsy, etc. Day 1, they welcomed me to come and see what they were doing as they saw I had no clue what I was doing. Watching them work with the patients and hearing their stories from the week was amazing. They were quite the group and were so kind to welcome me with open arms. If you want to hear more about their work in Uganda, I’m sure they could tell the stories much better than I, an outside observer, but it was such a pleasure watching them put smiles on so many faces. Meanwhile, they taught me a lot about physical therapy and allowed me to get a glimpse at just how impactful their work is.
My first day in the clinic was Friday. Each day we begin with a devotion with the team with some hymns and scripture reading which is beautiful. Due to the scheduling of the doctors and all that is going on around the hospital, I didn’t receive an official orientation until Monday, so I didn’t really know what was going on still. I ended up rounding with Dr. John in maternity and general wards, and then ate lunch and rejoined the MUSC PT group again. Rounding was pretty similar to the States, except all the paperwork is literal paper. I also peeked into the vaccination clinic that was going on to smile and shine a flashlight at all the adorable babies to make them stop crying.
Over the weekend, I ended up joining that group for a safari in Murchison National Park, where we camped in these nice tents by the Nile River and got to see SO many animals! I loved seeing the giraffes and elephants, but we got quite lucky and got to see a few lions, baby lions, and even a jaguar. When they gave us the keys to the tents, they came with a whistle attached in case we encountered a hippo at night, we could blow the whistle and help would come to ward it off. I did not realize this was a serious thing until we were walking back to our tents at night and staff came to walk us back with flashlights to ensure safe return.
On Sunday, I was driven back to MKMC and the PT group headed off to the airport. I didn’t get the kind of goodbye I wished for as they were truly an amazing group to spend my first few days with. It has been pretty lonely because it’s just me and another medical student here at the guesthouse, and when there is nothing to do there is truly nothing to do. Sunday was very rainy and not much was going on, so I spent most of the day sleeping and catching up on the time change. Today was probably the first day that I feel like I am adjusted fully.
Monday, I once again rounded with Dr. Peter and the medical team and had planned to have a meeting with Dr. Peter in the afternoon to get a better overview of how everything works. This cleared up so much for me. Generally, the facilities consist of an outpatient clinic with an emergency room where all emergencies between 8am and 5pm come in. After 5pm, emergencies and traumas get sent straight to the inpatient general wards unless they are pregnancy related, to which they get sent to the maternity ward. Each day the medical team rounds on the patients in the maternity and general wards, then after lunch, any labs or tests that were ordered are reviewed and the patients are watched and managed by the nurses. If there are any discharges, they are done in the afternoon after they are cleared during rounds. Labs are done on site which consist of things like blood tests, x-rays, ultrasounds, etc. There isn’t a CT nor MRI scanner, as it is very limited. If any maintenance is needed to be done on any of the machines, it can sometimes take a few days to get someone who can come and fix it. In addition, there are two operating rooms where many obstetric emergencies and general emergencies are managed. Lots of C-sections are done as people like to have large families and get started early. They have a labor suit, antenatal care, and HIV/AIDS clinics. Every Friday, there are immunization clinics where parents can take their babies to get free vaccinations. This hospital has been set up by the overarching organization of OneWorld Health but is fully self-sufficient and operated by a team of only Ugandan employees. There are some other sites that are all a part of OneWorld Health that function under a similar capacity in other regions of Uganda.
We also determined that since I am working on this project on neonatal sepsis with Dr. Chris Daly who is a pediatric emergency medicine fellow at MUSC that arrives on Thursday, we will meet again once he arrives to determine what my typical days will look like as we get our project rolling. I have been given a lot of capacity to help where needed and to learn what I can from the medical team here. They all are extremely knowledgeable and have already been a huge supplement for the transition of my medical training from the basic sciences to clinical medicine. Apart from holding and playing with all the babies, today I also joined the antenatal team who let me do the physical examinations on many of the expecting mothers to feel the position of the baby and listen to make sure the heart sounds good. I also gave some vaccinations to the mothers, plan on helping at the vaccine clinic on Friday, and plan to scrub in on some surgeries/assist with some births when they come.
Overall, things have been good. I have been learning way more than I could explain in a message and have seen both some really happy and really sad things here. I’m looking forward to sharing some of those stories with you to come, but for now, here are some things I would appreciate prayer for:
It has been quite emotionally challenging seeing things that are upsetting or generally frustrating. Mothers losing their babies, suicide attempts, motor vehicle accidents, chronic medical conditions that cause a lot of pain, etc. Pray that I may remember God’s still at work and see his light in it all.
I want to be bolder and more intentional at introducing myself to patients and making them feel seen as I notice that they get talked about a lot as if they aren’t there by the healthcare team standing right in front of them without being addressing them directly. It has been frustrating to me that the patients are sometimes referred to as “this one” or “that one.” I don’t want to fall into taking this opportunity to learn by selfishly forgetting to show love. I want to be bolder in getting to know them and praying for them individually.
Healing for these people. These patients come in with some pretty tough situations both medically and financially. It’s also evident that many claim to know the Lord but don’t really get it. Pray that I can be a witness of the gospel to these people.
It can be kind of lonely once I’m done with work for the day right now. Pray that Chris and the other resident, Sophia, who is a Med-Peds resident have safe travels. Chris is currently on his way right now!
Thank you so much! I’m excited to share more stories and updates soon. If you have any questions or just want to hear more, feel free to respond to this email or text me. I’m happy to talk/Facetime/etc. when I can!