Friday, May 31, 2013

Health Care Volunteering in Tanzania - May 31, 2013


“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” –Walt Disney
 
We spent the morning at the clinic with Elton. It was slow at first – not too many patients but then they slowly started coming in. The most memorable patient was a girl of about 15, who had to be carried in. She was obviously in a lot of pain. She was conscious but in a lot of pain. I was worried right away – I thought this could be very serious. Of course my mind goes to the worst possible scenarios – appendicitis, meningitis. She had abdominal pain and the mother said there was a history of headache, falling down, and convulsions. Elton was very calm – he took her history and then quickly prescribed IV fluids, medications, and a few blood tests. I was thinking about the thousands of dollars worth of medical tests that would have been done for the same case in the U.S. About an hour later we went to see her and she was quietly sleeping. Hopefully it is nothing too serious and she continues to improve. After that, it was quiet at the clinic so we went for a quick walk around town. 


After lunch we made some posters on hand washing to hang at the primary school. Then we continued our hand-washing lesson with standard 7. Overall, a good day- now we are looking forward to the weekend!

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