Mambo, vipi?

So time for another blog update.

Yesterday was my day out with Devis, the tour guide. We went to Tengarie national park and it was amazing!!! It was almost a personal safari!! I got so close to an elephant, I could almost touch it!! The view in the park is absolutly magical, it really takes your breath away!! How Devis doesn't get lost around these national parks is beyond me, even off roading he knows where he is!! All in all it was a brilliant day!!

Today I went to surgery with Zu and Anthony. The operation we got to observe was a 5 year old with an open radius and ulna fracture. The anaesthetic that was given to the child was ketermine, so this alone was a strange experience to watch, although the childs vital signs didn't show the he could feel pain, his legs were moving around and you could her him groaning in his sleep. There was no airway management involved, his head was literally just kept tilted at a 45 degree angle. Although the surgeons were using an aseptic technique it certainly was not as strict as it is back home in the Uk. For example the tornique that was used to block of the blood supply was a non sterile glove.

The theatre itself was very basic and small, there were bedsteads for curtains and you literally opened a door into the waiting room. There was a big problem with flies in theatre, there was so many!! Another thing that I noticed was that for consent in Africa they take a thumb print and a signature instead!! Was very strange.

The operation cost the parents 30,000 tsh which equates to around 12 pounds. Doesn't seem like alot to us, but here it is alot of money. We found out a specialist surgeon here gets paid around 600 pounds a month!!! Not alot!!!

The operation itself was a success, the bones were trimmed and realigned and pins were placed to hold everything in place. The fracture was so bad that here is Africa it would have been better to amputate. The arm at the moment is going to become infected without a doubt and the child will never get the full use of his arm back, it will also be considerably shorter than his other arm due to the amount of bone that was required to be removed. When asked why the arm was not amputated a doctor told us that in Tanzanian culture it is better to have a dead arm than no arm. I think this says it all!!

I'm off to Zanzibar this weekend for four days!! Can't wait to see the beach and kendwa and the historical town known as stone town.

Just want to say thankyou to everyone for blogging, it's been nice to come on and read all the nice messages that people are leaving. I really am having a ball here and I can honestly say it's the beat thing I had ever done, without a doubt!!!