It had to happen-first Hospital Visit
I am going to cover two parts of this out of context because I want to bring in the positive items first then we will deal with the less fun activities. The first good activity for me is that my blood sugar was really low this morning-low enough I treated myself to a chocolate bar today. The second is my cough finally started to go away on Saturday and is finally gone completely now. I want to say a big congratulations to the MUMC youth being confirmed as church members, Barnabas and I are really proud of you. Also best wishes to Travis as he preaches his first sermon at LIVE Worship this Sunday, remember to relax and breath.
Now to the rest of the story (my apologies to the late great Paul Harvey). I am going to tell this part in chronological order in hopes not to miss anything. Let me also say this is not a big sympathy call but simply doing what I normally do in this blog-telling the story of life here and what folks deal with on a regular basis and I am only experiencing for a short while.
So after getting over my cold I decided it was time to get back out to site to handle a couple of issues before we have a visitor on site this coming Sunday. One of the requests from the two board members who were here last week was to clean off the fence line and uncover the bushes they had planted so they could be trained to grow up the fence and hopefully one day fill the fence in. Second is we have a wasp and bee problem on site. I have bought all the chemicals I can to deal with it but they just are not enough yet to win the battle, but I am piling up some bee carcasses in the process so I bought a stick broom for cleaning the walls and some bleach product to help disinfect the area. Lastly I needed to count roof panels for one of the board members as well in hopes we can get the roof repaired this year.
Monday came and I packed up for a three night visit to hopefully return on Thursday to final prep for the upcoming visitor and purchase items for the following week's work which was to be screening more of the windows but I want to use the transport for the visitor to get those items out on site. I got to the small bus station in town which is about a 45 minute walk from my hotel while carrying the backpack and supplies I bought for the site and arrive about 10:30 which is when the majority of vans are leaving giving me a better chance to get a nice one. No such luck and I was in a 12 passenger van that did not leave until I lost count of how many people got in because my position was so tightly wedged against the window that I had to wiggle my toes to keep circulation to them. I am positive we equaled my previous record of 30 but not sure we surpassed it. We definitely had larger people and bags present this time.
So we are flying along and had gone to Iguguno (the one area where normally many people get off but then you reload with new folks) so we were about 2 lighter than when we started. The next section is one where they don't stop a lot so they build up some speed. We did and then we hit a speed hump at full speed and everyone went flying. As is the normal when something like this happens-people ball up their hand like a fist and shove it into someone as a way to steady themselves or grab a shoulder. One person missed and went directly into my back pack and put their hand directly on the new broom head inside the back pack. That got shoved directly into my rib cage and I heard them pop and a pain that I am unfortunately familiar with. Was only guessing at this point that I had popped or dislocated a rib but could not be certain. Best case scenario was a subluxation of the rib.
The rest of the ride was as usual just I was not having any fun especially when I had to climb out over three people to get off at my stop. Then the real fun began with an hour and half piki piki ride to the site. Fortunately it was all the way to site and no walking at this point. After that was over I took a couple of moments to try and assess things myself and then asked the doctor to take a look but he could only guess without an xray about dislocated or broken or possible hemothorax. So to work I went. I started with the bees and wasps, spraying the area, cleaning and disinfecting the women's room of the overnight ward building. After that I got the grass cutting tools out of the pharmacy (only key controlled room). I started the process of clearing the front fence line and uncovering the bushes planted by previous mission teams. That night I did not sleep much as I could not roll over in the bed for fear of doing more damage. And sleeping on about 1/2" of foam does not do a dislocated rib much good.
Next day I got up about normal, took my bath from the bucket bath in the latrine on site. Ate a small breakfast of foods I brought with me then went back out to cut some more grass. So let me try to explain the grass cutting experience here-no I don't have a cub cadet riding lawnmower. What I have is something between a machete and a golf putter. It is a thin medal device with the last 3 inches turned at about a 60 degree angle and sharpened on both edges of the short turned part. You swing it at the grass-causing most of it to lie down and then chop at it on the ground. When you get good you swing back and forth repeatedly and get about 75% of the grass. So armed with this device and a machete I went out to clear the fence line. I did get some help from a local about two hours in which was good because I was not having any luck clearing the thorn trees. I could not get a fast swing going and the branches are soft and spongy so it just bounced off. Maybe if I was at full strength but not sure even then without a lot of practice. I miss a set of loopers right now or at least some good pruning shears.
It took 6 1/2 hours to get most of it done, still have one area to work on. My help left at lunch time but I was still very appreciative of what he did. I officially quit after I accidentally got into a hornets nest around one of the trees. 6 stings before I got of the area and one directly on my chin-which amazingly enough never got swollen. Being out of bee and wasp spray already I had nothing to clear out the nest with so my day of cutting grass was done. I then went about tying up the bushes they wanted to train to cover the fence so they would grow up the fence. Something about these bushes-they have those nasty 2 to 3 inch thorns that are as strong as steel. Despite wearing gloves and long sleeves I got a lot of very small puncture wounds over the day. Not to mention some nasty blisters.
Made the decision that night to cut it short and head into town a day early so I could go to the hospital before I had to get ready for the guest. Normally the trip in takes long enough and so much of my energy that I don't do much but unpack and download pictures from the trip for the rest of the day. So I got up at 5:30 to start my journey to the bus station. It was still dark and I actually got to see the largest, brightest moon set over the mountains as I started out. Pretty amazing.
Now to explain how a 100% color blind person sees things in low light to discern where they are walking. Normally most people look for shadows between different levels of items. But when you are 100% color blind every thing is a shade of gray so shadows can be difficult to discern in some areas. So normally I look for differences in moisture which for some reason I can see better. Heavier moisture appears darker to me and normally indicates a lower impression that is shadier. However some loose soil can also retain moisture better than hard soils and throw me off. That happened this particular morning and I stepped into a slight depression of hard soil next to some loose soil with my bad knee instantly bending backwards just enough-got a nice bruise to go with everything else now. I guess the medical term for this is hyperextended but it was pretty light just hurt.
Along the way I got to see the sunrise from the east side of the valley which was also pretty awesome. Arrive just after 7 AM at the bus stop. Fortunately the buses were nearly on time. The first one gave me the hand wave when I asked about Singida which I interpreted to mean next bus. Fortunately again I was right. I think it is funny they want my sentences to be complete with each word having all the prefixes and suffixes but when the guy gets off the bus he just yes "Wapi" which has no notation it is a question, no subject or verb just "Where." The next bus arrived about 15 minutes later and was the one going all the way to Singida and they had a seat-even had some leg room-was feeling lucky. Watched them unload some large bags of onions by one guy getting on top of bus and other getting half way on ladder. They lowered the bag on his two arms holding on to the ladder and he would go down the ladder to the bottom couple of rungs and tilt one arm up to slide the bag (a plastic burlap type bag normally used for sand bags) off his arms. Really felt bad for him on the 8th bag-that had to sting.
Got into town and decided I had gotten there early enough to go ahead and head to Singida's hospital. The wait was not too long but you do have to pay up front. So off to Mpesa station I go. Get back with cash in hand and they take me on back. Pretty certain I got Mzungu (white person) price and treatment (head of the line when I came back with money). We did the xray-no sublaxation, no hemothorax, no broken ribs but I did have two dislocated ribs. So the doctor decides he can pop them back in. After three tries and me nearly hitting him he got one back in. Three tries on the second one and we both called it quits. They will go back in by themselves normally. This just means no chest wrap to keep the other one in place. They did have a cold compress-one of the ones you bust the interior chemical pack and it turns cold.
It actually lasted for a little over an hour. Now here is something I have not told you. My hotel has started carrying Coke Zero, but they don't run their refrigerator all the time to keep them cold. So they put them in the freezer and tell me to come back in an hour. I was able to convince them to keep some in the freezer part until they got icee and I used them as cold packs. They don't last long but I get to enjoy the Coke Zero after it thaws. Win win!
So my mini week of disasters is hopefully over. Had to walk into town and get food today and print my health insurance claim forms-this should be a fun process. That was when I got me a chocolate bar (thank you for a 60 blood sugar reading this morning). I have a visitor from the states coming in this weekend to look at doing some outreach health programs through our clinic. I have not meet him yet. Hope to go back to town tomorrow to purchase some mosquito screening and hardware screening to screen the rest of the windows on site since we will have transport with the visitor. Also need to find some more bee/wasp and now hornet killer.
Other News and prayer requests:
Now to the rest of the story (my apologies to the late great Paul Harvey). I am going to tell this part in chronological order in hopes not to miss anything. Let me also say this is not a big sympathy call but simply doing what I normally do in this blog-telling the story of life here and what folks deal with on a regular basis and I am only experiencing for a short while.
So after getting over my cold I decided it was time to get back out to site to handle a couple of issues before we have a visitor on site this coming Sunday. One of the requests from the two board members who were here last week was to clean off the fence line and uncover the bushes they had planted so they could be trained to grow up the fence and hopefully one day fill the fence in. Second is we have a wasp and bee problem on site. I have bought all the chemicals I can to deal with it but they just are not enough yet to win the battle, but I am piling up some bee carcasses in the process so I bought a stick broom for cleaning the walls and some bleach product to help disinfect the area. Lastly I needed to count roof panels for one of the board members as well in hopes we can get the roof repaired this year.
Monday came and I packed up for a three night visit to hopefully return on Thursday to final prep for the upcoming visitor and purchase items for the following week's work which was to be screening more of the windows but I want to use the transport for the visitor to get those items out on site. I got to the small bus station in town which is about a 45 minute walk from my hotel while carrying the backpack and supplies I bought for the site and arrive about 10:30 which is when the majority of vans are leaving giving me a better chance to get a nice one. No such luck and I was in a 12 passenger van that did not leave until I lost count of how many people got in because my position was so tightly wedged against the window that I had to wiggle my toes to keep circulation to them. I am positive we equaled my previous record of 30 but not sure we surpassed it. We definitely had larger people and bags present this time.
So we are flying along and had gone to Iguguno (the one area where normally many people get off but then you reload with new folks) so we were about 2 lighter than when we started. The next section is one where they don't stop a lot so they build up some speed. We did and then we hit a speed hump at full speed and everyone went flying. As is the normal when something like this happens-people ball up their hand like a fist and shove it into someone as a way to steady themselves or grab a shoulder. One person missed and went directly into my back pack and put their hand directly on the new broom head inside the back pack. That got shoved directly into my rib cage and I heard them pop and a pain that I am unfortunately familiar with. Was only guessing at this point that I had popped or dislocated a rib but could not be certain. Best case scenario was a subluxation of the rib.
The rest of the ride was as usual just I was not having any fun especially when I had to climb out over three people to get off at my stop. Then the real fun began with an hour and half piki piki ride to the site. Fortunately it was all the way to site and no walking at this point. After that was over I took a couple of moments to try and assess things myself and then asked the doctor to take a look but he could only guess without an xray about dislocated or broken or possible hemothorax. So to work I went. I started with the bees and wasps, spraying the area, cleaning and disinfecting the women's room of the overnight ward building. After that I got the grass cutting tools out of the pharmacy (only key controlled room). I started the process of clearing the front fence line and uncovering the bushes planted by previous mission teams. That night I did not sleep much as I could not roll over in the bed for fear of doing more damage. And sleeping on about 1/2" of foam does not do a dislocated rib much good.
 |
| grass cutting device-any golfers want to try? |
 |
| cleared off fence line and newly trained bushes |
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| Trained bush-good picture of the thorns involved |
 |
| blisters |
Now to explain how a 100% color blind person sees things in low light to discern where they are walking. Normally most people look for shadows between different levels of items. But when you are 100% color blind every thing is a shade of gray so shadows can be difficult to discern in some areas. So normally I look for differences in moisture which for some reason I can see better. Heavier moisture appears darker to me and normally indicates a lower impression that is shadier. However some loose soil can also retain moisture better than hard soils and throw me off. That happened this particular morning and I stepped into a slight depression of hard soil next to some loose soil with my bad knee instantly bending backwards just enough-got a nice bruise to go with everything else now. I guess the medical term for this is hyperextended but it was pretty light just hurt.
Got into town and decided I had gotten there early enough to go ahead and head to Singida's hospital. The wait was not too long but you do have to pay up front. So off to Mpesa station I go. Get back with cash in hand and they take me on back. Pretty certain I got Mzungu (white person) price and treatment (head of the line when I came back with money). We did the xray-no sublaxation, no hemothorax, no broken ribs but I did have two dislocated ribs. So the doctor decides he can pop them back in. After three tries and me nearly hitting him he got one back in. Three tries on the second one and we both called it quits. They will go back in by themselves normally. This just means no chest wrap to keep the other one in place. They did have a cold compress-one of the ones you bust the interior chemical pack and it turns cold.
 |
| Frozen Coke Zero as an ice pack |
So my mini week of disasters is hopefully over. Had to walk into town and get food today and print my health insurance claim forms-this should be a fun process. That was when I got me a chocolate bar (thank you for a 60 blood sugar reading this morning). I have a visitor from the states coming in this weekend to look at doing some outreach health programs through our clinic. I have not meet him yet. Hope to go back to town tomorrow to purchase some mosquito screening and hardware screening to screen the rest of the windows on site since we will have transport with the visitor. Also need to find some more bee/wasp and now hornet killer.
Other News and prayer requests:
- I have a skype session planned with the Mauldin UMC Prayer Shawl group on Wednesday just to talk and hopefully discuss our newest program of a Crochet class at the ministry site in Yulansoni-very exciting to teach the woman there how to make necessary items for their families. Would love to talk to more prayer shawl groups about this new and exciting ministry in Tanzania.
- Travel next weekend to Morogoro to spend a weekend with Rev. Umba, head of Methodist church here in Tanzania.
- Prayers for a great visit with Rob from the states as we look at doing more health outreach from our facility
- Prayers I deal with the issue of the rib and it pops back into place sooner rather than later
- Prayers for William and Martha as they are in the states for four weeks for their daughter's graduation from Wofford. Congrats to Upendo.
- Prayers for my sister-in-law,Beth, as her baby girl, my favorite niece, graduates high school and prepares to jump off into College next year. Congratulations Renee-Barnabas and I send our love and well wishes as you complete this part of your life journey and head into the next one.
- Prayers for our Confirmands and their families on Sunday
- Prayers for Travis as he prepares to give the sermon on Sunday, knowing he will do well.
- More videos uploaded to youtube account: Go check them out https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbqfm-SJ53BYu3nC2ccdvsQ
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