Just to let you know that we are off school for x-mas holiday for a period of 3 weeks and i have completed my rotation on pediatric ward. it was great taking care of the children. It was also touching when we went for a study tour to an organization called “OURS” in Mbarara which takes care of children with neurological disorders like hydrocephalus, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, severe mental retardation, paralysis resulting from injections, club foot and other neurological deficits. Children that require operations, neural surgeons from CURE mbale take them for the operation and their followed up from OURS. I loved spending time with these children for a whole day but it was also disheartening to see children living with hydrocephalus (very big head) that walking before surgery is almost impossible. Some children with severe nerve damage cannot walk , the bladder has to be emptied by continuous intermittent catheterization and their bowel washed on a daily basis. It is such a huge duty for the parents who are trained to this at home even when the children have been discharged.
it was a great opportunity for me when i was chosen together with other students to take care of the ward for a week (doing the intern doctors work) when the doctors had to go and prepare for their graduation. it was an opportunity for me to learn more because this time i was working close with the consultants. Generally, i enjoyed taking care of the children for the 3 months i have spent on the children’s ward. My next rotation will be psychiatry, then gynecology and obstetrics after which i will do end of year exam in the 3.
With support from Wells mountain foundation, this was my best term ever at medical school. it feels good to be worried and stressed because of books but not with school fees, what to eat the next day or not being sure that you will be able to complete the course. Wells mountain foundation has given me hope for a better tomorrow, put a smile on my face , i will always be thankful.
I will be spending the rest of the holiday at the hospital in my home village were i will be doing voluntary work.
I will send the scholarship semester report, previous results, and voluntary report soon.
Thank you so much and may God richly bless you.
Merry X- mas and a Happy new year.
Felix
Felix–
It is hard to read about these young children suffering so much. It must be so much harder to be right there with them. When I was a young man of 18, still in college, I volunteered weeky in a state mental hospital near my university. I worked for a time in a crib ward where young people born with such severe birth defects that they could not walk talk or care for themselves were placed. It was very hard to be there. I changed the bedding regularly for one young girl who was 11 years old. was told would not live much longer. She was very very small and her limbs and spine all twisted. She was alive only in her eyes. Her beautiful brown eyes would follow me and sometimes shockingly smile at me. I can still see these eyes in my mind and 40 years later it still makes me cry to remember them. I found this all very depressing. I prayed oveer and over to God to tell me why he allowed such suffering as these young people in the crib ward. What was the purpose of this girls life, I wanted to know ? In my sadness he answered me, not right away, but eventually –she was here for me! No teacher, and I have many good ones, has taught me more about how to live my life than this young girl and her smiling eyes.
Be well, and thanks for sharing with us. Tom
I feel and know what it is the experience with the little sick babies you just had. A non- professional might shudder at the sight of those babies, but it is truely gratifying to those who are rather dedicated to the care and welfare of such infants.
I commend your committement and courage towards your chosen profession. During the course of my paediatric neonatal posting at Special Care Baby Unit(SCBU) in November last year, there were a number of hydrocephalus babies in our teaching hospital, and their sight were really pathetic.