Happy Thanksgiving

-

On Wednesday we said good-bye to Dr. Bill and Kaylynn Holloman who left via Victoria Falls and Joberg to return to Tucson.  We had a great time while they were here and they helped us out a lot.  Bill, an internal medicine guy was even turned in a Pediatrician while he was here!


All week our Doctor, Nura was gone to a workshop and so for 7 days and nights the hospital was mine.  I was awaken several times at night, but no major problems, so glad for that.  We got everyone delivered without needed a C/Section--which is 2 hours away by a bad dirt road!


On Friday Dr. Kajese, our doctor, who was with us for almost 3 years, returned to help us  do a bunch of surgeries.  The surgeon from Harare, Mr. Kundiona and Kajese's wife No, an OR nurse, arrived at 7 p.m. and we went straight to start our first case.  We did 2 cases last night and got home at 11:30 p.m. for dinner and then to bed at midnight and up by 5:20 a.m. to start again at 6 a.m. They ended up doing 12 cases and by 3 p.m. they were done and ready to return to Harare.  I had been up since 5 a.m. Friday and working straight from 7 a.m. so I was exhausted!


We decided to celebrate our Thanksgiving with them before they left and so I ran home at noon and Amy and I started cooking.  We prepared a Thanksgiving feast.  We had turkey, chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cornbread stuffing, gravy, pumpkin casserole and 2 pumpkin pies with fresh whipped cream.  Major's family joined us and 11 of us celebrated our Thanksgiving.  Then Major drove the doctors and No to Karoi for them to drive home to Harare tonight.  I went in to watch TV and promptly fell asleep!


Tomorrow morning Thanksgiving decorations come down and we start Christmas decorations--yahoo!


 Dr, Holloman and Perserverence (patient's name)

Surgeons at work


 Thanksgiving Dinner





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unpacking cintainer, interviewing a new doctor

-
Image
It has been busy this week unpacking the container that arrived recently.  We have been unloading it a truck load at a time and bringing it up to the hospital to unload.  Carolyn Mereki has been helping to unload and sort and then she delivers it to the different departments. We are really happy with a lot of good supplies that we are unpacking to use at the hospital. We are putting the barrels and boxes in the hallway outside my office and opening them when we have time.  It is always fun to see what we get! On Friday this week we traveled to Kadoma (1 hour south of Harare), about 4 1/2 hour drive for us.  We met up with Mashoko administration to interview 6 people for jobs at Chidamoyo and Mashoko as doctors.  We have tentatively made decisions, but have another 2 people to interview--so please pray with us that we choose the right doctor. The doctor strike continues since 1 March.  No settlement and government hospitals only doing emergencies so we can't really refer o
Read more
-
Image
 I stopped chemo in mid-February and the oncologist tried a period of Immunotherapy by itself to see if it would work.  In March I started to produce a lot of abdominal fluid (ascities) and had to go to the hospital every 2 weeks and then every week to be tapped to remove the fluid.  They got off up to 8.8 liters a time which gave me a few days relief before it would come back.  It made it hard to breathe without laying on my sides and I couldn't really eat without pain. So, I was in bed a lot of the time. They decided I needed to start Chemo again with the Immunotherapy.  My Oncologist said it was not time to give up yet!  He said the chemo helped before to shrink the tumor a bit so they felt if I could shrink it again I wouldn't have to go for tapping.  I was all for that. He did remind me there is no cure only remission and that I have months not years to live but he felt there were other drugs to try if these don't work.  I am usually not in pain so I am so thankful for
Read more

Happy Boxing Day

-
Image
Our Christmas dinner theme was Hawaiian Retro Christmas--so we had dress 1950's Hawaii. Michael, Major's son decided to add some tummy to his costume to look like his Dad! Enjoy these pictures!
Read more