Baby Tuesday

WARNING: Gross Doctor Pictures Ahead

I feel like I should explain a few things before I tell you about Baby Tuesday.

1.       I’m the daughter of an ER doc who believes in experiencing things for yourself. He once removed an ingrown toe nail in our kitchen with all of the children present. He taught my organ dissection labs. He has taken us on tours of the Simulation Center and let us mess around on the simulators. Intubating, poisoning, and rescuing the pretend people to our heart’s content. ER docs get some crazy patients, so often at the dinner table he would tell us some truly revolting stories. But I didn’t find them revolting, more like hilarious/ very interesting. I think his efforts to familiarize me with the medical world really helped the past few weeks.

2.       Now let’s talk about scrubs. I know everyone loves them because they’re just like pajamas and super practical and convenient and come in festive patterns. I love them for all of those reasons too. But allow me to add yet another wonderful facet about scrubs. The pants. At Tenwek girls have to wear a longish skirt almost everywhere. This is ok for the most part, but it is highly inconvenient when one is shadowing at the hospital. Mostly because Doctors walk fast and the floors are constantly being cleaned. Wearing a maxi skirt and trying to keep up with doctors and keeping it out of puddles just is not worth it. So when someone lent me a pair of scrubs I was absolutely delighted. Scrubs: feel like pajamas, very handy pockets, come in festive patterns, don’t drag in cleaners or make it hard to keep up with doctors.

3.       At one of our training weeks before we left for Kenya we met the Many family. Mr. Many is a Surgeon and Mrs. Many is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist. They’re from Tennessee and have 2 girls Reese and Mary Taylor. We like the Manys.

4.       Our missions organization has a branch called VIAs. (Yeah, like the instant Starbucks)  They are usually college students who come for a few months to a WGM ministry and help out. Alex is a VIA from Georgia who at language school for a while then she came to Tenwek. She helps out with the kids here and shadows at the hospital. We hang out, workout, rant at the unreasonable attractiveness of actors etc. She’s a huge help to the families here; everybody loves Alex. 

OK, I think we’re ready now.

While we are here at Tenwek I shadow Angela Many on Tuesdays. I love it!  I follow her around during rounds, watch her do surgeries, and hang out in the delivery ward. Great fun! So far I’ve sat in on a C-section (they do a lot of those here), A hysterectomy (removal of a uterus) seen a few babies be delivered, and a few other surgeries. 

The first Tuesday I watched her do a C-section. Tenwek hospital allows students to observe in certain areas of the hospital. So, as long as I keep my mask and surgical cap on and don’t tough anything sterile I can watch the surgeries. Dr. Many is wonderful about explaining what she’s doing and what layer she just cut through and when interesting stuff is about to happen.

The C-section I saw was the patient’s 5^th C-section; all the previous babies were girls which, in Kenya, is disappointing. This lady was praying for a son.

There’s no AC in the hospital so the OR was already a bit warm. They wrapped Dr. Many in a rubber apron, and a warmed gown so she was quite toasty. I was feeling overheated just from the mask I was wearing so I can’t imagine how hot she was.

The whole procedure I found fascinating but won’t describe most of it. First they prayed (The doctors pray when the go on rounds, before they talk to a patient about treatment options, before surgeries or procedures of any kind, etc. I particularly love that about Tenwek.) This baby was a breech baby, so not head down like it should be but feet down instead. So the doctors had a bit of a time getting the head out, but when they did it was amazing. To see internal organs is normal (well normal for me. Come on guys we all took anatomy. We’ve all read the Magic School Bus. Miss Frizzle introduced us to pretty much every organ in existence) but to see among all those normal things a real actual baby! That was amazing. They told her the exciting news that the baby was a boy (!!!! She said she was going to spend the rest of her surgery planning a party), finished sewing her up and then Dr. Many and I went to go check on the baby. His name is Ishmael and he is absolutely precious. The mama is doing fine, baby is fine, daddy is elated J  

Alex and I both shadowed the OB department on Tuesday 2.  We went on rounds, watched a few surgeries, and then sat in the delivery ward and observed.  This observing time yielded some unexpected experiences. Somebody thought I was a doctor and asked me to come help with a lady who had just delivered her baby. I quickly clarified that I have NO medical training whatsoever. (Le scrubs were a bit misleading I guessJ)  One lady’s waters broke and she was so startled that she threw her flip flop at Alex. We watched a lady have her 8^th baby and a lady have her first. All in all a marvelous day.

When we got back to the apartment this exchange kinda defined our frame of mind.

Meredith: Hey guys, guess what’s gross.
Helen: Uh James?
Alex: Afterbirth.

Tuesday number 3 Alex and I both learned about fibroids. Apparently, they are non-cancerous tumors that grow on the uterus muscle. In the states they are usually noticed pretty quickly and dealt with. But in Kenya you don’t go to the hospital unless something is seriously wrong. So when we came into the Operating Room I thought the wrong lady was on the table. She looked 5 months pregnant. But, in reality, she had a massive collection of fibroids that were causing all sorts of problems. So we watched as they removed her uterus (which was gigantic). Unfortunately both Alex and I felt pretty unwell and had to go home after that. But next week, hopefully, we’ll make it the whole day J

(Everybody say eeeeeew and then coooooool)

Shout out to Alex for the pictures and Dr. Many for allowing us to follow her around and ask questions.