some of you may be wondering if we are well and we are well. We have
had a gastrointestinal bug of some sort going around but have
recovered. It is warming up somewhat as it is in the 90's and over
100 a few days only 99 today but it cools down in the 70's at nights.
It seems we have accidents coming in almost every evening lately.
The road through town has been graded so people are going much faster
in their vehicles including their motorcycles and there are always
lots of pedestrians and cows and oxcarts etc on the road so it is
dangerous to go very fast especially after dark. When the "road" was
very bad then there were not so many accidents but we are also having
more that fall out of mango trees now that the mangoes are beginning
to get ripe in some places. Many are just now blooming.
Today we went out in our 4-Runner to try to find this one Fulani
village way out in the bush through some trails that had not seen a
car maybe never before. But we did not find the village; maybe we did not go
far enough but did see some beautiful birds including carmine bee
eater and Abysinian roller, some parrots (not sure what kind), some
swifts (not sure what kind ). The birds were around a grass fire
catching insects as they came up away from the fire. There are some
beautiful yellow flowers coming up in some burned over areas.
Olen has been very busy with administrative issues lately including
replacing the administrator. Olen's parents were here and recently
went back home to DC area.
We now have two doctors visiting for 3 wks here from Germany, a Ob-Gyn
and a hand and foot specialist. They also brought some nice equipment
and instruments with them for us including a fetal monitor and a
electrocautery machine.
During Dec and Jan we logged in about 350 procedures including 202 for
Jan. Did lots of hernias and hydroceles and prostates and incision
and drainage of huge abcesses; also some hysterectomies, ovarian
masses, ectopic pregnancies. We had another ruptured uterus recently
(pt lived but of course baby died). Recently a ruptured spleen but
fortunately we did not have to remove the spleen and patient is doing
well post op. Recently had an HIV positive patient with a rectal fistula
and a hemoglobin of 6, but relatives refused to give blood for him and
in fact just took him home when surgery and blood donation were
suggested. We recently had a not so good result with avesico-vaginal
fistula that involved also the uterus. We had what appeared to be a
great repair then she had a cardiac arrest and we were unable to resuscitate her.
She expired probably an anesthetic death as the blood loss was not much.
That was the second one in 3 yrs. Will be glad when our full time anesthestist
gets here in May or June. We have quite a few cases waiting to be done
as I was not the usual full of energy this past week.
I am going to Moundou to help Scott Gardner do a couple of SIGN cases
on old femur fractures tomorrow. Scott is new in Chad and presently in Moundou.
James Appel is moving to another place (Abeche, Chad) to start some work
there. Every year the surgeries here in Bere have increased considerably
over the previous year. However there is a limit how much can be done in one OR.
It will probably be another year or so before the new buildings will be usable;
then we will have 2 OR's and a few more beds although we will still be short of bed space.
Looking forward to seeing some of you in April and May when we will be
home on annual leave.
Our emails are drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland02@gmail.com
The iphone 235 91453226
Love, Rollin and Dolores Philippians 4:13
had a gastrointestinal bug of some sort going around but have
recovered. It is warming up somewhat as it is in the 90's and over
100 a few days only 99 today but it cools down in the 70's at nights.
It seems we have accidents coming in almost every evening lately.
The road through town has been graded so people are going much faster
in their vehicles including their motorcycles and there are always
lots of pedestrians and cows and oxcarts etc on the road so it is
dangerous to go very fast especially after dark. When the "road" was
very bad then there were not so many accidents but we are also having
more that fall out of mango trees now that the mangoes are beginning
to get ripe in some places. Many are just now blooming.
Today we went out in our 4-Runner to try to find this one Fulani
village way out in the bush through some trails that had not seen a
car maybe never before. But we did not find the village; maybe we did not go
far enough but did see some beautiful birds including carmine bee
eater and Abysinian roller, some parrots (not sure what kind), some
swifts (not sure what kind ). The birds were around a grass fire
catching insects as they came up away from the fire. There are some
beautiful yellow flowers coming up in some burned over areas.
Olen has been very busy with administrative issues lately including
replacing the administrator. Olen's parents were here and recently
went back home to DC area.
We now have two doctors visiting for 3 wks here from Germany, a Ob-Gyn
and a hand and foot specialist. They also brought some nice equipment
and instruments with them for us including a fetal monitor and a
electrocautery machine.
During Dec and Jan we logged in about 350 procedures including 202 for
Jan. Did lots of hernias and hydroceles and prostates and incision
and drainage of huge abcesses; also some hysterectomies, ovarian
masses, ectopic pregnancies. We had another ruptured uterus recently
(pt lived but of course baby died). Recently a ruptured spleen but
fortunately we did not have to remove the spleen and patient is doing
well post op. Recently had an HIV positive patient with a rectal fistula
and a hemoglobin of 6, but relatives refused to give blood for him and
in fact just took him home when surgery and blood donation were
suggested. We recently had a not so good result with avesico-vaginal
fistula that involved also the uterus. We had what appeared to be a
great repair then she had a cardiac arrest and we were unable to resuscitate her.
She expired probably an anesthetic death as the blood loss was not much.
That was the second one in 3 yrs. Will be glad when our full time anesthestist
gets here in May or June. We have quite a few cases waiting to be done
as I was not the usual full of energy this past week.
I am going to Moundou to help Scott Gardner do a couple of SIGN cases
on old femur fractures tomorrow. Scott is new in Chad and presently in Moundou.
James Appel is moving to another place (Abeche, Chad) to start some work
there. Every year the surgeries here in Bere have increased considerably
over the previous year. However there is a limit how much can be done in one OR.
It will probably be another year or so before the new buildings will be usable;
then we will have 2 OR's and a few more beds although we will still be short of bed space.
Looking forward to seeing some of you in April and May when we will be
home on annual leave.
Our emails are drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland02@gmail.com
The iphone 235 91453226
Love, Rollin and Dolores Philippians 4:13
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