for they shall not be broken. I first heard that phrase back in 1998 while preparing to lead my first team to Africa. And how true it is! Today was an exercise in flexibility. I was scheduled to see patients who screened positive in their preliminary cervical cancer screenings at one of the clinics about 20 minutes drive from our home. The clinic was supposed to run from 9AM until noon or one-ish.
Considering this is Africa and I had to catch a ride, I felt that I was doing pretty good arriving by 9:10AM. As I walked up to the GYN room I passed six ladies sitting on the bench outside waiting for clinic to open. I found the door locked. The first nurse I found told me to go to another building and look for A. Luckily A was the first nurse I ran into in the other building. She told me that the electricity was out so we were going to have to move our clinic to the building that was hooked up to the generator.
Okay, I can be flexible! So I helped her start hauling loads of equipment from one building to the other. I noticed that the number of women had grown to 8. As we began to set up the new room I noted that one of the leg-rests on the exam table was missing. We searched the room and found only a piece of the apparatus. So I went back to the main room and stole a leg-rest from that table. Those of you who know me in real life will be proud that I actually figured out how to attach the leg-rest to the table! By then we were all sweating. I had shed my lab coat and went to wash my hands in the sink. Well it turns out that not only was the sink positioned so that it would poke me in the back as I examine patients, but it also doesn't have running water. As I took a closer look at the setup I realized that all of my supplies would be to my left side (I'm right handed). Not exactly an ideal ergonomic setup. That's okay, I can be flexible. Plus I brought my own hand sanitizer with me.
Now we are ready to start! But of course not. The nurse informs me that the colposcope (giant microscope that I use for doing exams and guiding biopsies) has not arrived yet. I asked her if she had any idea when it was due to arrive. She told me that she just talked to the research assistant and that he told her he thought the vehicle would arrive to pick him and the equipment up shortly. This is where my composure began to crack. You see he was coming from an hour's drive away!
Thankfully I know about life in Africa (FLEXIBILITY) and I had brought a text-book I'm slowly working my way through. I made some good progress on it today! Finally by 11AM we were ready to begin. Nurse A told me that I had 9 patients booked.
About 7 patients in I asked "how many more". The answer was 9. I'm still trying to figure how that math adds up. About 11 patient later we were finally done. At one point someone called for a soda delivery. So I had a lunch of orange fanta between patients while I filled out their charts.
And of course the last four patients had to be the most complicated ones. Thankfully with God's help I was able to handle all of today's cases with the exception of one. I just could not get a satisfactory exam and had to refer her to see a physician in Eldoret. I wound up treating several infections and a case of malaria in addition to what I was actually there for.
By the time I got home I was utterly exhausted. When William asked me how my day went I told him that I was exhausted. He asked why? Well because I saw a gazillion patients (duh!). "That's wonderful!" was his reply. "You really got to help a lot of ladies today." Thanks honey for reminding me that all of that flexibility ultimately does make a difference in this world!
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