never a dull moment...

Time flies when you are enjoying yourself... and there is so much to pack into every 24 hours it seems sometimes our feet don't touch the ground...


but there are occasional pauses,  in fact, just to prove to those of you who accuse me of never putting my feet up, here is photographic evidence!

yes, that's the waterfall in the background....



Life would of course be much more predictable and more routine if it wasn't for the patients who tend to cause problems at unsociable times...at 6.20 this morning I was called urgently to see a 2 week infant with gram positive bacteria in the cerebro-spinal fluid = meningitis... we tried full resuscitation but having obtained initial stabilisation the baby died a couple of hours later... had all happened very quickly, in this case the parents had not delayed bringing their child to hospital as sometimes happens.  Then we have an 8 month child with a different type of meningitis who had convulsions, but now stabilising.  Opposite, a girl of 10 with rheumatic fever that had caused her to have severe heart failure but now she is improving.  In the next bay a new patient of 4 years with nephritic and nephrotic syndrome [swelling of the body due to protein leaking from the kidneys due to inflammation due to a previous infection due to skin sores untreated promptly due to poverty due to unequal sharing of resources due to...] well, maybe I am going on too long but you get the picture.

Happily, our new interns are settling in really well and are proving a great help.  We try to invest in training and support to encourage them.

Now switch to a completely area to see progress on renovation of our old surgery ward part one... here is the latest view of the ceiling [previous views earlier in the blog for those of you following the unfolding drama!].  Mortar has been applied to the netting on the wooden framework put in place on the original beams.

 Then to administration block where a supply lorry has just arrived from Kampala, about 9 hours or so away for a lorry.  This has brought us medicines and medical supplies like sets for giving intravenous fluids etc.  You will be pleased to know that, unlike our initial time in Kisiizi a couple of decades ago, we no longer have to recycle things like surgical gloves and needles.

Now an enquiry about the new phone system being installed - there are a limited number of extensions available on the system so which houses should or should not have them... not always an easy decision!

yes, that is genuine Kisiizi dust on the phone....ummm....

Next a discussion with colleagues about the optimal way to run our ultrasound service as demand steadily increases.  Brenda Kamwesigye, our senior ultrasonographer, is in fact in Chester at present on a 2 week visit for experience and training.  She will be able to attend Friends of Kisiizi day, less than a week away now, in Reading on Saturday 6th October.

after the service this Sunday

after Staff prayers in the morning

Well, that is a taster of the sort of mix that fills each day, very varied, often interesting, sometimes frustrating, occasionally sad, but we press on, strengthened by our time of prayer each morning as we gather in our little chapel and speak with and listen to the One who made it all.

 And now, as I complete this post, and head off down for my night round, I will pause a while on the way back and marvel at the heavens, at the enormity of it all, at the majesty, at the awesome beauty, and, like David, ask "what is man that you are mindful of him?".