It’s Sunday so while we were waiting for breakfast on the upstairs deck, we were treated to a chorus of church bells and choirs rejoicing all around us. Our hotel is set up higher than almost everything around us so we have this amazing panoramic view of Accra and the variety and sheer number of church music we hear was truly inspiring. They are so happy and they have so very little and work so very hard- lessons we can all learn from and ones I hope to never forget.
After our “American” breakfast, we headed to the mission where all of the supplies have been stored. It takes about an hour to get anywhere around here (a geographical oddity this place is) and on our various drives we see some of the worst conditions, dirt and filth everywhere, and almost all the women are carrying things on their heads. 
We need to start sorting all of the supplies into general surgery, anesthesia, vascular, orthopedic, drugs, etc… and then sorting out those groups into what goes to which location- Kumasi or Daboase (we don’t bring supp
lies to Korle Bu as that is the main hospital in Ghana and they have the most equipment and drugs- which is still not that much). Here is a picture or two of us sorting stuff out (trust me, the photos on this blog are just samples, I’ve been “picture happy” so far). Many hands make for light work is certainly true as we had all of the items sorted in about 2 hours- which is apparently in record time compared to previous years. Once they were sorted out we had a late lunch (which I will return to in a moment) to have a clinic.
The clinic was simply a large room on the second floor of another building in the area with 2 adjacent smaller rooms for the exams. It is interesting to note that even though it is a surgical clinic, people come from far away just to get aches and minor issues checked out. For people here, routine doctor visits just don’t happen so they were all very excited to see us and the waiting room was always full! We thought that we would see about 30 people, and by the end of clinic we saw 81 patients! We do have some surgeries lined up from that clinic, but as I mentioned before, many people came for ailments that are easily treated back home. Some of the cases we saw included IBS, cataracts, cervical stenosis (surgical case), “female issues”, Umbilical hernias (surgical cases), arthritis, high BP, diabetes (we actually diagnosed the gentleman who was complaining of the classic signs of the disease), lactose and nut intolerances/allergies, eye problems (a LOT of people need glasses), Malaria, and Typhoid (yup, typhoid- sure glad I took those pills now).
A funny story from clinic (WARNING-CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT):
A gentleman comes in and complains of weakness “all over” motioning up and down his body. We are immediately suspect and let him continue describing his symptoms. We ask his age, (71 years old) and other Dx questions and he states “I’m weak all over, but some places are a little weaker than others at times” and makes it REALLY obvious as to what he is talking about (E.D.)!! We are trying not to snicker b/c he keeps trying to tell us discreetly what he is talking about and we just have to tell him that we understand what he is trying to tell us b/c it is very uncomfortable for him to admit to us that he is having issues related to his “manliness” as that is a very big pride thing here (like how many children you have etc…). Then, and this is the kicker, he says meekly: “Yes you see, I have 2 wives and I can’t keep them both happy”. AHHHHHHH!! Talk about needing to bit your lip!
Another gentleman, we found out later by sharing stories, double dipped and went into both rooms! I guess since he traveled so far he wanted 2 opinions! He just had arthritis in his knees!
Yet another young man came in just for a routine check up and as we started the exam, as soon as he pulled up his shirt we saw he was a surgical case- an umbilical hernia, popping out right in front of us! What a find! We showed him what it was and let him put his finger on it and push it back in (therefore reducible and operable). Not a HUGE deal, but since their work is typically manual labor, a hernia can be a very big deal and the likelihood of it getting incarcerated?? strangulation which can lead to a lot of problems, one of which includes necrosis and massive infection (leading to sepsis and death).
Last funny story: One guy came in and said that his eyes water whenever he eats something spicy! Too funny! It is amazing how we, with so much education we take for granted common sense things and forget that simple things mystify people here.
lies to Korle Bu as that is the main hospital in Ghana and they have the most equipment and drugs- which is still not that much). Here is a picture or two of us sorting stuff out (trust me, the photos on this blog are just samples, I’ve been “picture happy” so far). Many hands make for light work is certainly true as we had all of the items sorted in about 2 hours- which is apparently in record time compared to previous years. Once they were sorted out we had a late lunch (which I will return to in a moment) to have a clinic.The clinic was simply a large room on the second floor of another building in the area with 2 adjacent smaller rooms for the exams. It is interesting to note that even though it is a surgical clinic, people come from far away just to get aches and minor issues checked out. For people here, routine doctor visits just don’t happen so they were all very excited to see us and the waiting room was always full! We thought that we would see about 30 people, and by the end of clinic we saw 81 patients! We do have some surgeries lined up from that clinic, but as I mentioned before, many people came for ailments that are easily treated back home. Some of the cases we saw included IBS, cataracts, cervical stenosis (surgical case), “female issues”, Umbilical hernias (surgical cases), arthritis, high BP, diabetes (we actually diagnosed the gentleman who was complaining of the classic signs of the disease), lactose and nut intolerances/allergies, eye problems (a LOT of people need glasses), Malaria, and Typhoid (yup, typhoid- sure glad I took those pills now).
A funny story from clinic (WARNING-CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT):
A gentleman comes in and complains of weakness “all over” motioning up and down his body. We are immediately suspect and let him continue describing his symptoms. We ask his age, (71 years old) and other Dx questions and he states “I’m weak all over, but some places are a little weaker than others at times” and makes it REALLY obvious as to what he is talking about (E.D.)!! We are trying not to snicker b/c he keeps trying to tell us discreetly what he is talking about and we just have to tell him that we understand what he is trying to tell us b/c it is very uncomfortable for him to admit to us that he is having issues related to his “manliness” as that is a very big pride thing here (like how many children you have etc…). Then, and this is the kicker, he says meekly: “Yes you see, I have 2 wives and I can’t keep them both happy”. AHHHHHHH!! Talk about needing to bit your lip!
Another gentleman, we found out later by sharing stories, double dipped and went into both rooms! I guess since he traveled so far he wanted 2 opinions! He just had arthritis in his knees!
Yet another young man came in just for a routine check up and as we started the exam, as soon as he pulled up his shirt we saw he was a surgical case- an umbilical hernia, popping out right in front of us! What a find! We showed him what it was and let him put his finger on it and push it back in (therefore reducible and operable). Not a HUGE deal, but since their work is typically manual labor, a hernia can be a very big deal and the likelihood of it getting incarcerated?? strangulation which can lead to a lot of problems, one of which includes necrosis and massive infection (leading to sepsis and death).
Last funny story: One guy came in and said that his eyes water whenever he eats something spicy! Too funny! It is amazing how we, with so much education we take for granted common sense things and forget that simple things mystify people here.
During our breaks we were getting to know the children who live at the mission, two are Maria, pronounced “Mah-ee-ahh” who is 4 years old and was practicing balancing things on her head and her older sister Nyla pronounced “Ni-lah” who was so shy but wanted to just hang out with us. 
It does get a little weird at times because they look up to us so much it is indeed an awesome responsibility placed on us with this mission. You want to do so much more for the people who came to clinic today, but the technology they have here is minimal and what they can afford to have done is even less. It did get frustrating for so many of us because we are so severely limited by the available resources- it does get discouraging at times and it is very sad to see some of the cases - but every little bit we can do helps so much. They all look to us to be able to fix it all and make them 100% better; it truly is humbling how much blind faith they have in us.
In the evening we went to Dr. Adrisu’s (pronounced Ahh-dree-su) house for dinner. He is the Chief of Neurosurgery at Korle Bu hospital and we were his honored guests for the evening. We had more fufu, a salad (which I ate despite my better judgment- you have to take a little of everything so you don’t offend your host), more fried rice, lasagna (which was awful), more fried chicken, fried plantains again (they were amazing- much better than at lunch), and most interestingly, “guinea fowl”. Guinea fowl is this little “free range” type of chicken (supposedly) – it was a little hairy (I peeled that off) and it was pretty tough too. That was one of my interesting food items for the day.
Lunch- consisted of plantains (so amazing), rice again (regular and fried), fried whole fish (which I DID pass on), chicken, goat again, spicy tomato paste, and this spicy red soup that had cut up fish in it (they were just halved) which they call “light soup” (and they just change the meat in it depending on what they have). The guy tried to serve me the soup with a head and I (almost) freaked out and politely asked for a tail instead (which btw was still bizarre). The soup was actually REALLY good and I even went back for seconds (but only the broth this time).
Lunch- consisted of plantains (so amazing), rice again (regular and fried), fried whole fish (which I DID pass on), chicken, goat again, spicy tomato paste, and this spicy red soup that had cut up fish in it (they were just halved) which they call “light soup” (and they just change the meat in it depending on what they have). The guy tried to serve me the soup with a head and I (almost) freaked out and politely asked for a tail instead (which btw was still bizarre). The soup was actually REALLY good and I even went back for seconds (but only the broth this time).
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