I had just driven back from dusty Dedza Friday morning, and arriving at Nkhoma the heavens opened for the whole afternoon and most of the evening. The first rains of the season. It’s still 3-4 weeks earlier than usual. Fantastic to see an entire storm system from my house across the valley, slowly move closer, then engulf the house and village in rain and thunder and lightning; to then move on and leave crystal blue skies and finally quench the parched earth. Very sunny now on Saturday morning as I walk into hospital to see a few patients. Lucky really as it’s busy market day in the village and the sun guarantees good trade.
100km trip
Just a quick note today – I plan to drive up to 100km round trip to find more people who have cataracts but I don’t know yet whether we can give them free surgery that will allow them to see again.
Fingers crossed that the car doesn’t break down again.
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Ward rounds
Today I had a list of 28 patients to see and by 9:30 I was already half way through them. It’s much quieter than yesterday, but I still had 14 cataract operations to perform, and there were also 2 emergency cases of people with injuries to their eyes.
In the afternoon I went on another ward round, visiting 22 patients in preparation for tomorrow’s theatre list of about 35 cataract operations. We screen around 20,000 people each year. It’s absolutely staggering how many people across Africa are needlessly blind, and Malawi is no exception.
By 6pm I’d completed meetings with builders and management, as well as unpacking a huge order of supplies that had just come in from CBM.
It’s 11pm now and I’ve just finished for the day – I’ve been working on our accounts and 3-year plan, as well as catching up with a few emails as and when the internet connection lets me.
Posted in Cataract, Surgery Tagged accounts, builders, emergency, eye, injuries, management, operations, patients, planning, theatre, ward Leave a comment
Busy Monday
This morning I started at 8am. I had 48 new and follow-up patients to see, and the clinical staff saw 54 new patients this morning.
By 4pm I left the operating theatre after performing 27 cataract operations. It’s possible to do one eye in about seven minutes, but where a patient has bilateral cataracts, we’d only do one eye, and then operate on the other at a later date.
This evening I’ve been compiling our 6 month clinical statistics, and sorting our research projects, with no electricity for 3 hours. Fortunately I was still able to listen to music courtesy of a 12v car battery!
The end of the year
Sunset over Lake Malawi
I feel, as I’m sure many of us do just before the end of the year, a bit tired and exhausted! I am looking forward to spending time with my fiance, Jenn and our families. After a few days of rest and relaxation with those dearest to me, I can begin to join in the global festive cheer and goodwill. I am incredibly thankful for what we have, and what we can do.