I had a wonderful sleep in this morning - I didn't even open my eyes until after 9am! Things like that make me realize just how much I need more sleep here! Anyways, I had a nice slow start to the day... which is good because it sure didn't stay slow.
I was just settling in to listening to a good John Piper sermon on my MP3 player, when Jackie came running out, saying that one of our colleagues visiting with us this week was in some serious pain. And man, he was in some serious pain! We went to his bedside and he was not doing well at all. So then, we had to figure out what to do about it... sounded a bit like it might be kidney stones, but we're not doctors, so what do we know?! Unfortunately, the doctors in the local hospital probably wouldn't know, either - plus, the poor guy couldn't even sit up in his bed, I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to get him into a car and to a clinic, even if there was a clinic to go to.
We do have a friend who used to be a GP in the UK, who we normally call on for such things. But of course, he's in the UK at the moment. So we tried the next best thing - we called an NGO that we know which does a lot of medical work in this country, just to see, if, by any chance, they had any doctors passing through town.
Lo and behold, a Dutch doctor was there... but she didn't have a car there. So I jumped in the truck, drove 20 minutes across town, and fetched the doctor. She examined him, and hasn't really said exactly what it might be. But she did give him an injection of some serious pain killer, which helped a lot. I then drove her back to her place. Then, I had to help someone fix his computer, as it wasn't sending any emails. Then I had to take a crew of visiting consultants to the River for some lunch, which meant driving across town yet again!
By the time I got home, it was time to check on our patient, and by then, the doctor had come back around to check on him, as well. He was, thankfully, doing so much better, I'm sure due to the pain medication that she had given him. Still no good diagnosis of what exactly it is, but at least the pain is under control for now. Tomorrow we'll make some decisions about what to do with him - if there's no change, we'll probably put him on a flight back to Entebbe, as there are no medical facilities here. Of course, in theory, if someone is med-evac-ed on a commercial flight, they need to have a medical person traveling with them. Thankfully, the organization that this doctor works for happens to have quite a lot of nurses around at the moment, and she said that probably one of them would be able to fly with him, if need be. So that might be my job tomorrow - arranging for flights for them tomorrow!
Anyways, he doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger of anything too serious - just pretty uncomfortable. And I'm so thankful to God that this doctor happens to be in town, and that she (and her nurse side-kick, who is also a friend of mine) are so willing and able to use their skills to help out. Funnily enough, as we were coming, the doctor was telling me that her previous experience in the Netherlands was in gynecology and pediatrics - so she's never really worked on adult men much, except for here in this country :) But I guess some of the doctor training crosses over from kids and women to adult men!
If you're reading this tonight, can you please pray for our friend here, that he'll have a good night's rest, and also that we will be able to make good decisions about what to do tomorrow. And please give thanks, too, for doctors who just happen to be around at the right place at the right time to be able to help us out with these sorts of things.
If anyone happens to be a doctor and feels like they want to come and work as a GP here... you're more than welcome! Or maybe I need to come home and go to medical school...
No comments:
Post a Comment