May Team 2012

Hey Everyone!

This was a huge week. We had the PMI May team arrive on Saturday night the 5^th and stay through Saturday the 12^th here in and around Masindi. The short term PMI mission trips for those of you who do not know are about 10 days long and have anywhere from 30ish to 60ish people usually from the U.S. come over to Uganda to run outreach clinics. Outreach clinics means that they do not work in the clinic here in Masindi, although they stay in Masindi, but rather they go to different sites in nearby villages to see patients who usually would not be seen otherwise. We drive anywhere between 30 minutes out of town to 2 hours away to set up these clinics in either school houses or churches. We usually see around 300 or so patients a day. The patients are registered in the morning when we arrive and are always already in a long line which they formed early that morning or maybe even the night before. Some camp out and walk long distances to be seen. After they are registered they move through the clinic which flows from Triage, to Providers, to PT/OT, to Glasses, to Dentist, to the Pharmacy. Some patients may not go through all of those steps depending on their needs and who we have on the trip. Some trips there are not any dentists. We had a great team this week of about 60 people which included a lot of OT students, some PT, a dentist, several great providers, some nurses, and various other students and non-medical people. These weeks provide a great opportunity for students from every area because of the variety of cases we see and because of the ability they are given to practice their skills. Some PA or Med students are paired up and able to perform as a provider with the other providers close by, the nursing students get to perform like nurses in triage and other areas, and the pharmacy students get to run the pharmacy.

When the team arrives, we always go  first to the Family Spirit Orphanage which is in town. The kids are always so excited to see us, and they quickly take your hand and show you around everywhere. They are so proud of what they have which is not much at all. Their small tripple stacked bunk beds usually have about 4 children sleeping on each mattress every night. They put on a little show for us with songs and dancing. I found it very amusing when we drove up to see almost every child in a Porter Gaud PE uniform. I guess a previous group must have brought a bunch over from home. I recognized a few of the last names on them and there is a picture below of some of them. One has the name Huey, so I guess it was either Gordon or James Huey's shirt. If anyone reads this and knows them, please tell them that their shirt is being loved.

This week we saw some pretty amazing things as usual at the clinics. There was a young girl about 10 years old at one site who comes every time a PMI teams comes. She was born without a sternum and you can see her heart beating through her chest. It’s pretty amazing, and she gets along pretty well with the way it is. A previous team had made her a shield to wear but she did not have it any more, so the PT/OT group made her a new one. Another girl at the same site came in with a cast on her leg. She is 7 years old and she was having pain in her lower leg. She went to the government hospital 4 months ago and without doing x-rays to confirm the leg was broken, they put a cast on her and told her to come back in 4 months. It turns out her leg was not broken but that she had a bone disease which was causing the pain. The worst part was that she developed a major wound which went all the way to the bone and was extremely infected and gangrenous. It was determined by our team that she would need the leg amputated to save her from becoming septic and perhaps dying. Newman contacted out clinic and some local doctors to find out the cost of the operation. The PT/OT group graciously offered to pay for her operation and treatment. We will be watching this patient and will hopefully be able to fit her for a prosthetic leg in the future.

We finished up the week with a night at the beautiful Para Safari Lodge for one night. We enjoyed the pool and went on a 3 hour safari where we saw giraffes, hippos, water buffalos, wart hogs, antelopes, water bucks, elephants, heartbeast, oribi, and many other deer like animals.

It was a busy week but a great week. We are back home now relaxing and the team is still in flight towards home. Thanks so much to our family who sent us things from home. We just ate some Mac and Cheese for dinner which was a huge treat. Also, a big HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all of the mothers and especially our mothers and grandmothers. We love you all so much and are so blessed to have such amazing mothers in our lives.

Below are a couple pictures from the week. Enjoy!