Two days at the Ilula Hospital

I just got back from two days in Ilula with the Medical team. Spent one long morning in the Maternal Child Health clinic. It was a well baby clinic during which the baby/toddler is weighed and updated on his/her immunizations. Three women were HIV + and were counseled about “safe sex” and feeding the baby only breast milk for the first 6 months so mom’s antiviral meds are passed to the baby at the full extent. Then we had a woman who needed a tetanus shot b/c at that time I understood that she had been bitten by her spouse. Two women were from Isele and I tried to identify our church’s partnership with Isele and Kisinga, but I don’t think that they understood. I was impressed with the fact that they had come such a distance to the Ilula hospital for their care. The babies did not like having a Mzungu (white person) involved in checking their weights so many times they would cry when they would see me helping their mothers with this task. One woman came in the tiniest triplets!
The Vice President was supposed to come to Ilula for a dedication of the medical center as a district hospital so his secret service was occupying the onsite rooming house so the medical team was staying with Dr. Saga. His home was full to the brim, so I stayed with the nurses in their compound. They have very simple living quarters and I was made to feel like royalty. The nursing director, Grace, made sure I had a warm bucket of water with a smaller plastic pail for my bath/shower in the morning – no running water in the shower. All of her belongings are in her one room and each day she gave me a cup of hot cocoa to drink in her room. I have not used a cell phone to its full capacity ever in my life and tend to be quite technologically challenged as my husband and coworkers back home know. I kept hearing this beep that kept moving around in my room and then in her room. I asked Grace, “What is that noise?” She said, “ It is your cell; it means your battery is low.”
I went on Medical Rounds with Randy Hurley, and Kitsada (a U of M medical student who is from Thailand and is so very gentle with the patients) as well as the Tanzanian doctor, the nursing students, and Dede, an infection nurse from Regions Hospital in St. Paul. Dede is trying to make some suggestions, some of which are listened to and one of which got shot down yesterday. Lots of patients admitted with malaria, TB and HIV. The health care providers are in a position of high authority and they do show authority when necessary. One very emaciated man refused to be tested for HIV and the following day the doctor told him that if he did not agree to be tested, they could not deliver proper care to him and, if so, he may as well be on his way. Cancer is simply considered a disease of death. Saw a woman who had advanced cancer of the cervix and she had been diagnosed two years before. She could not afford to travel to Dar for treatment so never received the radiation therapy that had been recommended. I had asked a few doctor earlier how they screen. They simply don’t. So I would like to check into this further, see whether it is done elsewhere and what kind of interest there is in making any changes. A child had been admitted for what appeared to be either HIV or late stages of malaria. She was very listless and Randy guessed that she would not last long.