The Wheels on the Chair

go 'round and 'round...

Actually, the rims (no tires, no brakes here) of the wheels on my borrowed wheelchair did go 'round and 'round, but I am still grateful to be out of it. The friends who have been pushing me through the wards and over the rubble are undoubtedly even more grateful. Thank you all for your love and prayers. My knee is finally on the mend: I graduated from the chair to a cane to just-an-ACE-bandage over the weekend.

In the meantime, life and death in Maseno go 'round and 'round, too. We had thought perhaps it might be a light day, but just as we were finishing Sunday morning rounds, an 18-year-old boda-boda driver was brought to our outpatient department by the car that had hit him. He was unresponsive. Our visiting young medical professionals valiantly suctioned and intubated him. An hour later, we had to tell his mama (with the help of a kindly ward attendant who translated) that we had done all we could... The strains of gospel music being broadcast via loudspeaker from a nearby mountain chapel brought little comfort to anyone.

We also lost six-month-old Agnes this week. She came in with a history of 106-F degree fever for several days. She had malaria and was simply too dehydrated for too long. Susan, our newest Ward II admission, will begin TB therapy and PCP pneumonia this evening. Her sputum was positive for TB, her temperature is 105 F -- and she is six weeks pregnant. Susan is so sick, but so willing to be better, that we hope she may yet rally.

Zedekiah and his mama returned to Ward IV today. Remember the (now)- three-year-old who looks six months old? This time his mother, Phoebe Leah, is sick with giardiasis, and both desperately need nourishment. Many other admissions, procedures, deaths and births (only one Barack, though) have taken place this past week at Maseno Mission Hospital. Thank you for sharing and praying through them with us. 'Twas ever thus in Thornton Wilder's, Ed Coogan's and "My Town."

Construction continues on Ft. Jesus, the employee housing units next door that needed extensive renovation, and on the hospital's outpatient and administration buildings, as well. CCC services will soon be incorporated into our outpatient department to "better serve" our population. The move represents a new direction in the approach to treatment of HIV/AIDS. NGO's hope that reclassifying HIV as "just another chronic disease" might help to reduce the stigma. The wheels of the world go 'round and 'round.