my first blog

Tia has threatened to rename the blog to Tia's blog if I didn't contribute so I will share a little about all that I am experiencing and seeing here at Tenwek. Last night I was on call for both medicine and pediatrics. So last night I was called to the hospital because two of our elderly medicine patients were not doing well and were dying. After explaining the situation to the families(which family members are always present and at the bedside caring for their loved ones) I prayed for the families. Talking with family members as their elderly loved ones die is something that I frequently do in in Greenwood so it is not out of my comfort zone. After I left those families I went to the ER because several young children had just arrived and were sick. One of the children (a three year old boy) was having a seizure as I arrived and had been sent from a nearby hospital because he had become unresponsive after having many seizures. His father reported that two days ago he had stopped talking and would only cry DaDa and then today had been either seizing or unresponsive all day. We worked on the child for the next several hours and finally he stopped seizing and we transferred him to the ICU. It seems the child has Herpes encephalopathy which is a version of meningitis. I fear his prognosis is not very good and this aspect of dealing with children who are so sick is not something that I have had a lot of experience with in the states. Please pray for the parents of this child and the others like him and for more experienced doctors to answer the call to serve in a place where their impact could be so huge for the patients and the young Kenyan doctors so eager to learn from experienced doctors.