So after leaving Nanyuki and its massive amount of spiders, we finished our journey to the village of Waamba. The Samburu tribe are mostly herdsmen so many of the people live far out in the bush and are nomadic in nature, but there is a "larger village" called Waamba where we stationed ourselves for our surgeries.
We traveled on dirt roads bouncing along for many hours. We were so far out in the bush that we had our own safari. We saw antelopes, dick dicks (puppy size antelopes-suuuuper cute), elephants, and zebras. The city of Waamba has only had electricity for the past 9 months so it is vaguely reliable at best. We set up shop in the church because it had electricity sometimes while the hospital had no electricity ever. It seems like they have their priorities right in God's eyes!
The first night we screened people and picked out the best bilateral cataracts to perform. We did 4 surgeries that night so that by morning they would be able to see and be our best advertisement to the community. We worked until about 10pm. Stefanie, Christina, and I took turns scrubbing in on the surgeries as first assist, screening, circulating, and performing retrobulbar blocks for the surgeries. The retrobulbar blocks were the most terrifying to learn because you have to stick a 1 inch needle about half a centimeter below the eye ball, but thankfully there were no hemorrhages all week on any of the blocks that we performed!
I think by Friday, we saw around 300 patients and performed 60 surgeries. The 2 surgeons were our professor Sam Powdrill and his past pupil David who is a Kenyan clinical officer which is the equivalent of a physician assistant. There was also 3 Kenyan nurses who came from Tenwek who work in the eye ward there. Most of the issues were cataracts, glaucoma, allergy eyes, trachoma infections, and trauma. I cant even count how many times patients stated they were hit in the eye with a stick. Everyone has a walking stick and it seems everyone gets hit in the eye with it at one point.
Waamba had no restaurant so every meal was served by local women cooking together. They were so generous and loving. The Samburu tribe was so grateful and really made us feel welcome. Every morning when we would removed the dressings and the patients were able to test their new eyes out, you could see their excitement. One man started jumping around and yelling. These people never knew that it was possible to be able to see again. Very few physicians ever make it that far out. These people know how to survive, they are loving, generous, and welcoming. I will never forget them!
We brought back a young boy who is 12 years old. He is an orphan that lives at the school in Waamba. He was diagnosed with juvenile bilateral open angle glaucoma. He needed a special surgery that needed to be performed at Tenwek soon or he would lose his vision permanently. He rode with us all the way back to Tenwek. He had never seen black top roads before. He road in the big truck and absolutely loved it!. Obviously Stefanie, Christina, and I all fell in love with him immediately and have basically adopted him here at Tenwek. We visit him everyday and buy him milk. He had his first surgery today and is doing great. They will do his other eye tomorrow!
We arrived at Tenwek on Saturday to a large welcoming committee. There are so many visiting physicians staying at the guesthouse. We are finally settled in. We had to say goodbye to our professor on Sunday. We were so sad to see him leave!!
Stefanie joined the surgical team, while Christina and I started OB/GYN on Monday. We spend our days rounding on patients which takes about 4 hours because we have so many on the service, then spend the afternoons either doing ward duties or in labor and delivery. I assisted in my first delivery today (next one I have to do) and I was able to deliver the placenta! I made friends with a Kenyan nursing professor and he is going to help me with my first delivery!
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