Had a delightful and much needed weekend of relaxation the last couple of days. Did some odd jobs around town and spent a lot of time basking in the almost 30 degree heat by the hotel pool - its the only hotel in Hoima with a pool! That is until we were driven in by the enormous rain clouds surrounding us from all sides. On Saturday night we went out for dinner with Charlie and heather to have a change from the hotel foo and on Sunday night 6 of us went for dinner at Esau's and 5 of them went back leaving me behind to settle in to my new home.
Esau has a lovely wife, olive, who has been very welcoming and 3 delightful girls - Eileen, 13, Esther, 9, and eve, 4. Eve is definitely the most excited to have me here - every time I look at her she is staring and smiling at me, bless her.
So the weekend was the calm before the storm as I discovered during the whirlwind of today. Had a fairly gentle morning having met the midwives at the clinic and I went round doing heart rate and temp checks on all the little bubbas who are all indescribably cute! Then as we were starting to think about food (although I never stop) a woman came in with extremely raised blood pressure. Spent about the next hour tending to her and trying to get the doctor and eventually had to refer her to Hoima hospital as there is no anaesthetist at azur to give her a c section.
Had my first ever journey in an ambulance down the bumpy Ugandan streets and no sirens (a little disappointing) and arrived at the hospital. The trouble with this lady - as with most of the women out here - was that she had no idea when her last period was so had no idea when her baby was actually due. We worked out she must be about 30 weeks but we also diagnosed her with preeclampsia (like Cybil in downton (which I'm gutted I'm missing)) so the baby needed to be delivered otherwise she would start fitting. Whilst waiting for theatre to be free - there is only one for the whole of Hoima (Basingstoke size) so they have 2 ops going on side by side - I watched another c section and acted as the baby catcher. I was given the baby straight out of the tummy to take and wrap and clean and weigh. It was a pretty amazing feeling holding that brand new life in my hands even if it was covered in disgustingness!
However this extreme high was followed by a low when the other woman in theatre had a still born and again we had to clean it and wrap it up - not so thrilling!
Eventually our preeclamptic (PET) lady got onto the table and I watched Charlie perform her c section which I loved although most people would hate it :P again I acted as baby catcher and was handed the tiny weeny 1.8kg, 30 week baby, who was surprisingly alive and squawking, to sort out and then rushed over to neonatal ward for proper care!
The woman next to our PET lady was also having a c section so I watched the end of that and was handed her baby too. He wasn't in such a good state and needed a fair amount of resuscitation but eventually started screaming at us to stop thumping on his chest! His mother however was bleeding a lot so an emergency hysterectomy (removal of uterus) had to be done which again was really interesting to watch but with copious amounts of blooood!
All 3 of the babies I 'caught' were stable as I left the hospital and here's praying that they continue to improve over the next couple of days.
I'm writing this lying in bed, exhausted, after dinner (predominantly carbs) with the family and a cold shower
Love to all xxx
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