Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

Dear Friends and Supporters: I have not been feeling well for about 2-3 months now and at first they thought it was my gallbladder was infected, but it never settled down in a month of antibiotics and pain. My primary care doc sent me to a surgeon thinking it was still my gallbladder and needed to come out. He ordered a CT scan and then referred me to an Internist. I went to see the specialist on Thursday in Harare and after reviewing my Cat-Scan and a thorough physical exam he has concluded I have Lymphoma (Cancer of the Lymph system). He told me that in Zimbabwe there is no use doing any more investigations because most of the pathologists have left the country and the oncologists are not comfortable treating Lymphoma. She he suggested I go to a specialist in SA or US. I have chosen to go to S.A. to get worked up, have an exploratory lap to take the lymph nodes near my liver out for histology and so they can visualize my spleen. The enlarged lymph nodes near my liver what wa...

We received good news yesterday that Dr. Kellert was given a 2 year work permit to work here with us! We have been waiting for 6 months since she arrived for this. She has completed here three months at Chinhoyi Provincial hospital and has been cleared to work by the Medical council. We have been busy putting her to work. I wonder if they would have approved if they saw this as her passport photo—taken on her recent birthday April 4th!

Counting the Easter egg haul! Easter egg hunt Easter Brunch Sunrise Easter Sunday Sunrise service Easter sunday Blowing out the candles! Dr. Cheryl Kellert --Birthday Girl! Major opening the container Easter is always a 4 day holiday here in Zimbabwe. So Friday-Monday over Easter is holiday time. That means we work like our usual Saturday—go to the hospital by 8 or 9 a.m. do rounds, write discharges, do any procedures and see patients who don’t know it is a holiday and forget Out-patient department is closed, and hopefully get home by 1 p.m. and not go back in the afternoon. Friday we got to the hospital at 8 a.m. as a team was going out for ART outreach clinic and we got them ready to go. Seth went as the driver and helper. Then I saw some patients who “forgot’ it was a holiday and did discharges. Then I went with Major to open the container which arrived the day before. We opened to find so many wonderful and needed things. We only got a couple of barrels and some other t...