Thursday, April 26, 2012

Tenwek

Sorry for not posting earlier, I have been busy here at Tenwek. I was planning on posting when I had heard back from the Kenya Society of Phsyiotherapists (KSP) so that should have been Tuesday but I had forgotten that I am now on Kenya time. I heard back from the KSP on Wednesday. After no news on Tuesday, I had e-mailed them a reminder and was therefore quite sure I would hear back on Wednesday.


On Wednesday I attempted to check my e-mail often, however the entire network was down, not a Tenwek problem but a safraricom problem. In order to get my results I called my sister who checked my e-mail for me – thankfully I was successful in all parts of the examination.  Through an e-mail mix-up by KSP I also know the other student was successful – so professional.

 I am very thankful that this exam was a success.  There is only one problem: I am required to do a four week practicum in Nairobi within in the next six months. The fact that I have to do a practicum is fine but the time constraint is frustrating. I have asked and been denied an extension, my Kenyan Physiotherapist friend, who I just met today, is going to ask for me as well.  I am hoping he will have success but otherwise it looks like I will be doing another trip to Kenya sometime in the fall, before THE TRIP in January (dv). Please pray that I have patience to deal all of this.

In the meantime, I have been busy this last week at Tenwek.  It has been wonderful to see everyone, from the missionaries and their families to the nurses at the hospital. It has been great to reconnect as well as see that many of the procedures I had put in place are still being followed. They are always using HME’s now and from what I can tell suctioning is being done sterile. This made me very glad. The hospital has a new unit called the HDU (High Dependency Unit), this is equivalent to an ICU step down and it is great to have the space. I also have spent some time going to CT, another new thing for Tenwek. After bagging my first patient here and having his SpO2 drop to the 70’s because all the oxygen tanks were empty I quickly set up an oxygen concentrator in the radiology dept.

I spent the week working at the hospital, I relearned how to use the Bear ventilator and reacquainted myself with patients suffering with meningitis, HIV and TB.

Tomorrow (Friday) I head home, I will be spending a week in Calgary and then back to Edmonton. I am sad to leave Tenwek but I am looking forward to not living out of a suitcase anymore.

I will end here with a picture for you of the beauty around Tenwek.

1 comment:

  1. Yay for water in the dam! Nice picture!
    Elly

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