Thursday:

Today is suppose to be our busiest and last day with Chidamoyo. We will be joining the nursing staff on their trip to Magororo during their well-baby immunization out reach clinic. We will be scouting for children there, who may benefit from Rehab services, provided by Brighton at Chidamoyo. We followed the same schedule, that we've been doing during our stay here, except we were scheduled to leave soon after Devotions, to head to town. After devotions Kathy stood us up in front of the hospital staff, so as that they could wish us safe travels. It was a very touching gesture, and Sara acted as our spokes person and reciprocated our gratitude for their hospitality and for the opportunity they have provided us.

 

Our departure was a bit delayed ( on time african time) so we decided to join rounds until our cars were ready to go.  We had 3 new patients- none appropriate for rehab. The young girl with osteomyelitis was sent to Harare, after receiving her x-rays which showed that she had a humeral head fracture.  We ran into the man who suffered from epilepsy (who we previously began walking with) with his wife and son, taking a little walk down the length of the wards. He was much more lively than he was the first time we saw him in rounds, but you could tell that he was very  tired at this point- shuffling his feet, so we all gathered around to ensure his safety back to his room.

As we were driving into town we saw a huge crowd surrounding a building, and we braced our selves for the day to come, but then we realized that people were shopping for the holidays and that crowd was not for us.   We arrive to our destination, and Brighton provides a quick announcement to the waiting mothers, as to our reason for being there- so if they had any concerns while they wait for their immunizations, they could queue up to see us. In the end our "busy day" boiled down to only 5 children, seen; 2 children with cerebral palsy- one of which had been undiagnosed till today, a few who had concerns with crawling, and one 4 year old with Erb's palsy. Brighton was especially excited about this particular patient, because of previous conversations we all had in regards to Erb's  palsy and how after 2 years of age, the rate of spontaneous recovery significant slows down.

We decided to help out the nurses with their process, since out load was so small. We divided an conquered, taking height, weight, and arm width measurements. The funniest part was when this 2-3 year old crying boy, was put into our height measuring box of sorts, and takes one look at Melissa, and yells to the tops of his lungs in pure surprise fear.  Once everyone was good and measured, we assisted the nursing staff, take record of everyone that showed up. It began to sprinkle and all the mothers with their children scattered to shelter. I'm still not sure whether they all received immunizations, before the rain began to pour!  We managed to pack up the two cars and hit the road pretty early.

We got back to Chidamoyo much earlier than we anticipated, so we decided to use that time to go over a short movement lab with Brighton.  We then went to check up on our older patients, who suffered from epilepsy, and the man who sustained a stroke, to work on ambulation and sitting at the edge of bed. We said our good byes to Brighton, and gave him our contact information so that he could keep in touch while we are away.  We took one last stroll around the area as a group to enjoy the sights and say our good byes (for now) to Chidamoyo.

Looking back, the time we spent at the hospital was so short, and we highly recommend that the next trip be at least 2-3 full weeks (not including travel time). We did however make good use of our time, and there was never a dull moment.  Tomorrow we head to Kariba for our last 2 days to go on Safari!!!!

Well Baby Immunization Day